Sacrament Talk - Febuary 2008 - Hull 2nd Ward - 'The Blessings of Keeping our Covenants'

The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that:

“[An] everlasting covenant was made between three personages before the organization of this earth, and relates to their dispensation of things to men on the earth; these personages, according to Abraham's record, are called: God the first, the Creator; God the second, the Redeemer; and God the third, the Witness or Testator.” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 190)

This reference to a pre-mortal covenant between our Heavenly Father, the Saviour and the Holy Ghost gives us some indication of the eternal significance of making and keeping covenants, because it is an act which is not just reserved for us and our life on earth. Here we find the Godhead itself making a covenant to each play a key role in bringing about the Plan of Salvation for the benefit of each one of us who would come into mortality. This was in essence, a contract, described as everlasting because it was made by the Godhead and these personages are everlasting in nature. There can be no doubt that they will perform the roles laid down in this covenant or contract because it is in their character to make and keep covenants. We read in the book of Moses:

“For as I, the Lord God, liveth, even so my words cannot return void, for as they go forth out of my mouth they must be fulfilled.” (Moses 4:30)

It is simply against the nature of God and thus the Godhead to not keep their word. This is one reason why we can have faith in them. The first concept we should thus consider is the eternal nature of covenant-making and keeping. I put making and keeping together when mentioning covenants because unless we keep our covenants the promises contained within are nullified, and we have no blessing. We read in the Doctrine & Covenants:

“There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundation of the world, upon which all blessings are predicated-
And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated.” (D & C 103:20-21)

‘Law’ in this scripture can just as easily read covenant, because when we covenant we become subject to the Laws of God. The point to bear in mind though is this – how will keeping our covenants benefit us, or bless us, not just in the here and now, but ultimately?

Before discussing though the blessings that can come from keeping covenants it will help to reflect on what happens when we do not. Unfortunately, one trait of our mortal condition is inconsistency. God will always keep his part of any covenant but we are prone to forgetting the promises we have made from time to time. We are prone to forgetting what the Lord has done for us and what He requires from us in return. This is a constant theme throughout the Book of Mormon; we are admonished as are the people of this book of scripture to remember the promises that we may obtain through faith and obedience. The Book of Mormon would probably read a lot differently if its people had always remembered the covenants they had made at baptism, and in their temples. Here we see the destruction that comes upon individuals and whole civilisations for forgetting the covenants of God and refusing to receive the blessings that He would so freely give if we let Him. Our Heavenly Father does not give us these covenants lightly; the promises associated with covenants may work both ways wherein He promises us certain blessings in return for our obedience but we by no means negotiate terms. These covenants are fixed in what is required for us, we simply choose whether to accept or not. These covenants are of an eternal nature, they give us something of a glimpse of what kind of people we need to be if we wish to associate with God in the eternities and thus often require us to have obtained a degree of spiritual maturity before we can even make them. When we do make a covenant we are “under a strong obligation and responsibility to honour the commitment.” (Bible Dictionary – Covenant) We often take on a covenant in front of witnesses, both on earth and in heaven, and we learn in the temple that breaking such a commitment will bring upon us the judgements of God, for He will not be mocked. One feels that our Heavenly Father is placing an awesome level of trust on us in imparting these most sacred things to us and we must be warned at the same time of the responsibilities that come along with the promised blessings. Joseph Fielding Smith has explained how we should view the covenants we make:

“Every covenant, contract, bond, obligation, and commandment we have received by revelation and coming from the Almighty has the one purpose in view, the exaltation and perfection of the individual who will in full faith and obedience accept it. He that “recieveth a commandment with doubtful heart, and keepeth it with slothfulness, the same is damned.” The Lord has said.” (Doctrines of Salvation, 1-155/6)

Every covenant we can make has the sole purpose of preparing us to enter into Celestial glory and beyond that to Exaltation within that kingdom. As before, God will not be mocked; He will not show us the key to Exaltation, the kind of life He lives and have us treat it lightly. Anyone who rejects a single covenant, a single aspect of the New and Everlasting Covenant will be severely limiting their progression. They will in fact be stopping it completely just as much as if they were not to make these covenants in the first place.

Making covenants are often linked with receiving the ordinances of the gospel. We could all readily name some of the essential ordinances that we must receive whilst in mortality, examples being baptism, confirmation, the sacrament, ordination to the priesthood for worthy males, the temple ordinances and so on, all of which deserve some attention. There are other covenants I could mention, such as Sabbath day observance, tithing, the word of wisdom amongst others, but these can all be found embedded in the covenants we make through these ordinances. Each of these defining points of our church membership is received by covenant and the idea of essential ordinances and covenants are often used together in the scriptures. Essential ordinances are those that everybody who passes through mortality, except for those who die before the age of accountability, must receive in order to inherit eternal life, or exaltation in the Celestial kingdom of God. We have each one of them available to us as never before in any previous dispensation. We are privileged to live in the dispensation of the fullness of times, the key word here being fullness. This refers to the fact that we posses in the church every ordinance and covenant required to bring us back into the presence of God and gain eternal life, becoming joint-heirs with our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We cannot afford to take this blessing lightly. Each one of us here has been reserved, our spirits kept in waiting, for a dispensation of the gospel that would usher in the Millennial reign of Christ and the winding up of God’s purposes for mankind, His own children; and we could not be made ready for such a time without the New and Everlasting Covenant. I have mentioned this term already, and it is important to understand what it means. The New and Everlasting Covenant is the sum total of all gospel covenants and obligations. We read in the Doctrine & Covenants:

“Verily I say unto you, blessed are you for receiving mine everlasting covenant, even the fullness of my gospel, sent forth unto the children of men, that they may be made partakers of the glories which are to be revealed in the last days, as it was written by the prophets and apostles in the days of old.” (D & C 66:2)

This covenant was given to man in the beginning but was lost through apostasy, as it has been many times throughout the history of the world, some examples of which we find in scripture. It has been given, through necessity, in part as men were willing to receive it, an example being the Mosaic Law as given to the children of Israel. When revealed again for us in this dispensation it became to us a new covenant, and is everlasting since its effects upon the individual endure forever. Furthermore we read in Section 132:

“For behold, I reveal unto you a new and an everlasting covenant; and if ye abide not that covenant, then are ye damned; for no one can reject this covenant and be permitted to enter into my glory.
For all who will have a blessing at my hands shall abide the law which was appointed for that blessing, and the conditions thereof, as were instituted from before the foundation of the world.
And as pertaining to the new and everlasting covenant, it was instituted for the fullness of my glory; and he that receiveth a fullness thereof must and shall abide the law, or he shall be damned, saith the Lord God.
And verily I say unto you, that the conditions of this law are these: All covenants, contracts, bonds, obligations, oaths, vows, performances, connections, associations, or expectations, that are not made and entered into and sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise, of him who is anointed, both as well for time and for all eternity, and that too most holy, by revelation and commandment through the medium of mine anointed, whom I have appointed on the earth to hold this power (and I have appointed unto my servant Joseph to hold this power in the last days, and there is never but one on the earth at a time on whom this power and the keys of this priesthood are conferred), are of no efficacy, virtue, or force in and after the resurrection from the dead; for all contracts that are not made unto this end have an end when men are dead.” (D & C 132: 4-7)

Here we have the assurance that the blessings received from the ordinances and covenants of the gospel are to endure forever because of the sealing power that is the very power of God and become of eternal effect because it carries His ratifying seal. These are of course, conditional on our adherence to the laws upon which these blessings are based.

Now what are the ordinances and covenants of the gospel, how do they bless us and to what end to they lead? What is the purpose of making and keeping these covenants?

Baptism is an everlasting covenant, the first we can make with God and the first ordinance which can take us out of this world and set our feet on a path that leads to another far greater world. Jesus Himself taught Nicodemus of its importance as a prerequisite for entering the Celestial kingdom, not to mention the Kingdom of God on the earth:

“Jesus answered and saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?
Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” (John 3:3-6)

Note here that one cannot see, or be part of the kingdom of God on earth without baptism, but the scripture also goes on to stress that baptism and its counterpart ordinance of confirmation are key to our entering the kingdom of God as the place where He resides, otherwise known as the Celestial kingdom. We know that no unclean thing can dwell with Him and baptism, in effect, puts to death our carnal natures and raises us up to a new spiritual life, led by the companionship of the Holy Ghost. In making the covenant of baptism we are sanctified by the reception of the Holy Ghost. This sanctification can be renewed every time we renew our covenant of baptism by taking the sacrament each week. As one looks at the words of the sacramental prayers it is humbling to note that we are in effect covenanting, and remember that to covenant is to place ourselves under a strong obligation and responsibility; we covenant to take upon ourselves the name of Christ. We know through scripture that “…there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) By taking on His name and becoming a type of Christ or Christ-like we can be sanctified by the Spirit in preparation for greater blessing to come, in other words we may progress in our conversion. Parley P. Pratt explained that:

“An intelligent being, in the image of God, posses every organ, attribute, sense, sympathy, affection that is possessed by God himself.
But these are possessed by man, in his rudimental state, in a subordinate sense of the word. Or in other words, these attributes are in embryo, and are to be gradually developed. They resemble a bud, a germ, which gradually develops into bloom, and then, by progress, produces the mature fruit after its own kind.
The gift of the Holy Ghost adapts itself to all these organs and attributes. It quickens all the intellectual faculties, increases, enlarges, expands and purifies all the natural passions and affections, and adapts them, by the gift of wisdom, to their lawful use. It inspires, develops, cultivates and matures all the fine-toned sympathies, joys, tastes, kindred feelings, and affections of our nature. It inspires virtue, kindness, goodness, tenderness, gentleness, and charity…
…Such is the gift of the Holy Ghost, and such are its operations when received through the lawful channel-the divine, eternal priesthood.” (Parley P. Pratt, Key to the Science of Theology, pp. 61-62)

The Holy Ghost plays a vital role in our conversion, to put simply; He helps us to become something greater than we were. Other blessings we receive from having the gift of the Holy Ghost include that of comfort; He can speak peace to our minds in time of anxiety, distress or fear. He can bring us the assurance that we are not cut off forever from the presence of God in this lone and dreary world and because of this we can hope to obtain the things of a better world. He can warn us of danger, both spiritual and physical. He can lead us into all truth and by His promptings can know that the scriptures and the words of the prophets are true and can lead us into life eternal. As we read in the Doctrine & Covenants:

“This is eternal lives-to know the only wise and true God, and Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent…” (D & C 132:24)

This knowledge comes only by the Holy Ghost, until perhaps one day we are worthy to receive the Second Comforter. Another great blessing the Holy Ghost brings is to bestow upon us gifts of the Spirit, which are numerous, but every confirmed member of the church is entitled through the bestowal of the gift of the Holy Ghost to have at least one of these gifts. Through these gifts we are able to bless the lives of those around us and can be an integral part of the church, the body of Christ. We should never feel for a moment that our contribution may be meagre; we all have something significant we can share to bless the lives of our brothers and sisters. These are some of the things we can enjoy with the Holy Ghost as our constant companion, which comes by keeping the covenants of Baptism.

We learn of another everlasting covenant, that of the Priesthood in Doctrine & Covenants Section 84:

“For whoso is faithful unto the obtaining these two priesthoods of which I have spoken, and the magnifying their calling, are sanctified by the Spirit unto the renewing of their bodies.
They become the sons of Moses and of Aaron and the seed of Abraham, and the church and kingdom, and the elect of God.
And also all they who receive this priesthood receive me, saith the Lord;
For he that receiveth my servants receiveth me;
And he that receiveth me receiveth my Father;
And he that receiveth my Father receiveth my Father’s kingdom; therefore all that my Father hath shall be given unto him.
And this is according to the oath and covenant which belongeth to the priesthood.
Therefore, all those who receive the priesthood, receive this oath and covenant of my Father, which he cannot break, neither can it be moved.
But whoso breaketh this covenant after he hath received it, and altogether turneth therefrom, shall not have forgiveness of sins in this world nor in the world to come.” (D & C 84:33-41)

This covenant may appear strongly worded, but only because the attendant responsibilities and blessings are so great. Those of you brethren who have a record of your of your Priesthood line of authority should take note of how the brother who laid his hands upon your head was in the same manner ordained, going backwards through an unbroken chain back to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, whose Priesthood it is. Now look at the words of this covenant; it promises that those who obtain and magnify the Priesthood, and through the marriage covenant which we will touch on in a moment, the sisters also receive this blessing of sanctification, again another step closer to the presence of God. It mentions among other things that we are counted among the children of Abraham and therefore entitled to all of the blessings that come from that, and we can be the elect of God, or in other words, we are firmly set on a course that can lead us to exaltation, even to ultimately receive all that the Father has. It is little wonder then that those who turn away completely after being set on this course are setting a limit on their progression. Note here also that it is beyond question whether the Father will keep His part of the covenant.

We all know how being worthy through keeping the oath and covenant of the Priesthood can bless our lives, the Priesthood brings order to the kingdom of God on the earth, as well as to our homes if we let it, remembering that this cannot be achieved by unrighteous dominion, but “…only by persuasion, by long suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned…” (D & C 121:41) A holder of the Priesthood has the authority to bless the sick and needy, give counsel, fulfil the offices of the church, administer the ordinances and ordain others to Priesthood. The most important thing to note here is that a righteous Priesthood holder would do the same as Jesus Christ Himself would do if He were amongst us in person. Again we see how a covenant blesses us to become more like Christ.

Following on from the receiving the Priesthood comes a place where we are promised a fullness of the Priesthood in return more making further covenants, I speak of course of the temple. The covenants we make there should be the objective of everyone who has passed through the waters of baptism, for without the ordinances of the temple we cannot hope to secure eternal life, the kind of life God lives. Baptism is the gate, the temple - symbolic as it is of coming into the presence of God and receiving of His fullness, should be our destination after passing through that gate.

Of the ordinances of the temple themselves, it would be difficult to treat such a subject adequately in the short time I have. Nonetheless, I personally cannot think of the temple and what it teaches about man’s origins, his present condition and divine destiny without being in awe of the spirit of that place and being forced to admit that it is indeed of God. No man could have conceived of them.

The blessings of temple covenants often seem in the long term, blessing we may have if we endure faithfully and keep our covenants to the end, but the temple offers us many blessings for us for the here and now. We learn from Paul that:

“For now, we see though a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” (1 Corinthians 13:12)

We are invited in the temple to look beyond this ignorant present, where our views are restricted to what merely come between birth and death, and see things in with spiritual eyes, or to see things as they really are. Then we begin to see that world beyond this is the reality, our time in mortality so brief. This knowledge alone can give us strength to endure our mortal probation. But beyond this, the sanctifying effect of living by our temple covenants can give us real power to overcome the world and its many evils. We learn how to eradicate Satan’s influence from ours lives and were to find protection, both spiritual and physical. Our family relationships, as well as being potentially perpetuated forever in the temple, also find much more meaning and greater depths of love through what the ordinances teach. And where does this power come from? It comes from the Saviour Himself, the source of every good thing as he received it from the Father. Through His Atonement, the ordinances and covenants of the temple are made effective and through His sealing power their attendant blessings can endure forever.

When we begin to contemplate the eternal blessings of the temple and the covenants we make therein, it is easier to summarize as what I call the three P’s - Place, Priesthood, and Posterity. These were the same blessings promised to Abraham, often referred to as the Abrahamic Covenant, which blessings we too are entitled to have if we keep the covenants of the temple.

Through observance of the ordinances and covenants of the house of the Lord we are promised a land of inheritance, the ‘Place’ part of the Abrahamic Covenant. For example, those of the lineage of Judah are promised the land of Israel and it surroundings, with Jerusalem at its centre. Those of Ephraim are promised the Americas and the New Jerusalem. These are examples of how the Lord has prepared a place for His covenant people when the Millennium comes, but ultimately we know that this same promise refers to a time when the earth will become the Celestial Kingdom after being rolled back into the presence of God. The earth will not be merely discarded; it too has a divine destiny as being the eternal home of celestial beings, which we may become through observing our covenants. Where as now it blesses us with its abundance and sustains us, it will continue to do so forevermore.

The ‘Priesthood’ part of the Abrahamic Covenant refers to the blessings we can have through the Priesthood, not just in this life as mentioned earlier, but that through the faithful observance of our covenants we may become Kings and Priests, Queens and Priestesses unto God, to rule and reign forever. We find this term used in the book of Revelation, and refers to the blessing of exaltation. To be a king or queen is to have secular authority, to be a priest or priestess is to have spiritual authority, when you combine these two along with the knowledge that such are invited to sit with God in His throne and receive His name on their foreheads, or are effectively labelled as gods, then you begin to get a sense of to what end covenants play.

This is further explained by the third part of the Abrahamic Covenant, that of ‘Posterity’. The act of creating life is a sacred and divine power, given in part to man to see if we can use it righteously. Through that power which is only used rightfully between a man and woman sealed in marriage, we become co-creators with God and receive some of the greatest blessings life has to offer, that of rearing a family. This is a pattern which is by no means new, and through it we may come closer to understanding and being like our own Heavenly Father than by another means. Through the family unit we experience all the things our Heavenly Father experiences with us. The important thing is to learn from it, and see the raising of a family with the joint union of a husband and wife sealed in the temple at its head, as a thing of eternal consequence. This is because in like manner to our receiving a fullness of the Priesthood of God, we may through the faithful observance of our covenants receive a ‘…continuation of the seeds forever…’ (D & C 132:19) We too, like Abraham, can look up at the stars at night and know that our posterity can be more numerous still as we exercise the divine right to bear spirit children in the eternities and have joy in them. Through such blessings we will have eternal life, not life forevermore, but to live as God lives. This is not just life of infinite duration, but life of quality and abundance in ever greater measure.

I would like to summarize by paying tribute to our Saviour Jesus Christ, who thorough His atonement, which He covenanted to perform from the very beginning, opened the way for us all. In His greatest trial, in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross he had the power to save Himself from incomprehensible pain in both body and spirit. The fury of hell in all of its horror engulfed Him as he paid the terrible price of sin. On the cross, even the Spirit of God withdrew so that He could declare that He trod the winepress alone and that by Him only may come freedom from sin and then eternal life. He could have easily laid His mission aside, but we know that He was one with the Father, and that His Father’s will and His was one and the same, motivated by love, committed by covenant. And it is His atonement that makes the ordinances and covenants effective, that give them virtue to help us overcome our fallen state and ascend degree by degree to exaltation and oneness with God. Because of the covenants we may rise up in the resurrection as glorious as the Sun. This will not have happened in an instant, it would be the culmination of a lifetime of making and keeping covenants to the point where the law of God is not just words in scripture or on the pages of a book, but written on our ‘inward parts’ (Jeremiah 31:33), or in other words, we have become the kind of people God wants us to become. Thus we may come forward in confidence in the resurrection to Celestial glory, knowing that the Holy Spirit of promise has sealed us up to eternal life because we have kept the whole law in word and in spirit. We may be joint–heirs with Christ to all that the Father has, because He gives it so freely to those who have kept the covenant, even His new and everlasting covenant. That we may remember the promises we have made in holy places and keep them forever in our hearts is my prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.