I'm Taylor and I'm Tyler this is Book of Mormon centrals come follow me insights today doctrine of Covenant sections 3 4 and 5 has there ever been a time in your life when you have given into what could be called peer pressure when you have done something that you you probably knew you shouldn't do but you did it anyway because of this this outside influence coming that's that's basically what's happening as we open our our lesson today and and get ready to discuss section three of the Doctrine and Covenants now with this particular section there
is a lot of material in the historical side of the the the story line that sets the stage for helping us understand and and Find meaning in section three so let's just go back and very very quickly catch us up to speed on what led to section 3 coming about remember Joseph Smith has married Emma hail then on September 22nd 1827 Emma went with him to the hill kamur and he is able to get the plates out of the Hill finally after multiple years of going on that same date and being tutored and taught and
trained by Moroni he now gets the plates out thus begins this long process of discovery Joseph holds plates they're written in reformed Egyptian he he has no way of being able to translate them when he first gets them out he also gets the Yurman Thum you'll notice that in those early days he's making copies of the characters off of the plates he's even putting pieces of paper and making uh scratchings on to to get the the Engravings to show up on on paper he's exploring them but he's not actively translating them he he doesn't seem
to know how yet and you'll notice Martin Harris a local farmer uh owns quite a bit of land he's very rich he's well respected in the community he is made aware of what's going on and he believes in this work and he wants to see before he believes that it seems to be one of the things that Martin is going to deal with repeatedly in this story is he wants a little more evidence before he's willing to to jump in so we don't know exactly how this happens but Joseph records some uh some of the
characters off of the plate plates onto a piece of paper then he also records what he thinks is a translation so in order to validate or verify this translation process that that Joseph is starting to experiment with and we don't know whether he did it intentionally or whether the Lord just put some English text in the yman Thum as he's written some some of the characters off the plates we don't have all of the details of this but what ends up happening is Martin takes this transcript this piece of paper with some some of the
Egyptian characters along with an English translation and he heads to um heads East to some of the uh experts at some of the The Universities at the so he's going to meet with with the two prominent ones Samuel lean Mitchell and Charles anthon and that's where you get that great story of Charles anthon saying yes this is a a good translation bring the book to me and I'll translate it and Martin says well part of it sealed and he says I can't read a sealed book and then he asks him where Joseph got the book
and he tells him that the angel had had manifested it to him and then he rips up the the certificate that he had written but that was enough for Martin Martin now had that testimony that witness so to speak that hey this is good he goes back home and thus Begins the translation process of the the small plates Emma had done a lot of scribing work for Joseph early on and now Martin Martin picks up there we have 116 pages this is the printers manuscript of the Book of Mormon uh volume one part one so
there are two of them one of two so these are the size of the pages that have been written you have 116 Martin has been down in Harmony Pennsylvania today called Oakland Pennsylvania for enough time that his wife Lucy is concerned that Joseph is swindling her husband out of money wasting his time and is going to destroy his character in the process Martin asks Joseph he he he loves the work that they've been doing and he says can I take these 116 Pages home to show Lucy that that what we've been doing is the work
of God and to share these stories with her and uh and with some of the other family members back home in Palmyra Joseph goes to the Lord and asks that question and most of you are aware of this story that the Lord through the UR Thum says no don't let him take the the manuscript so he comes back and he says to Martin no the answer is no at which point Martin this this gentleman who who is a man of means and wealth and influence he's older than Joseph he says to this young young Prophet
I've got to be able to take them home in order to be able to help finance and to be able to continue this work go and ask the Lord again at which point Joseph did and the answer was the same no don't do it he comes back to Martin and Martin gives him the same same response I have got to be able to take them I've got to be able to have evidence I've got to be able to show them in order for me to be able to continue with this work at which point Joseph
goes back and asks the Lord and the answer was uh basically you're not going to take no for an answer so he can take them if he binds himself with an oath and you bind yourself with an oath that he will only show them to five specific people and and they're they're given by name well Martin takes the manuscript goes home turns out he shows them to other people not just the five he's so excited about it uh and by the way way it's easy to look back in time and and point a finger of
scorn at Martin and and I get it what he did was was not appropriate but at the same time what I want to say is that how often do you and I sometimes get overzealous and and and excited about something to the point where we maybe act inappropriately or not with the greatest of of wisdom in how we proceed with sacred things or revelation s or manifestations that God has given us and maybe we share them A Little Too widely and in the process uh learn some lessons of life well in the meantime back in
harmony Emma has now given birth to their first son they named him Alvin uh after Joseph's older brother who had passed away a few years previously that little baby boy died and Emma wasn't doing well she they almost lost Emma as well a few weeks after the birth Martin still hasn't returned with the manuscript and there's no word from him and Joseph is worried sick Emma is worried and she finally convinces him to leave and go back to Palm and see what happened so Joseph keep in mind he's he's about as poor as they they
come at this phase uh they've just lost their first child he just about lost his wife he's worried sick about the 116 pages of of manuscript the only copy uh that Martin has taken and he doesn't have extra money or extra means to to provide for even the most basic needs of his family and of his life but Emma convinces him to go north and and see what happened so he shows up at uh in Palmyra and word is sent to the Martin Harris Farm to come and see Joseph and Martin doesn't come for breakfast
when he was supposed to be there he delays and this causes more anxiety and pressure for Joseph when Martin finally shows up he's he's not looking well uh and he's he drops his utensil and then here's here's the dialogue that occurs hyam asked are you sick and Martin's reply was I have lost my soul I have lost my soul at which point Joseph jumps up and says Oh Martin have you lost that manuscript have you broken your oath and brought down condemnation upon my head as well as your own yes Martin confessed it is gone
and I know not where after uh Joseph uh expresses some some heartfelt please to God he says All Is Lost what shall I do I have sinned it is I who tempted the wrath of God by asking him for that which I had no right to ask and he wept and groaned and paced the floor he he was he thought he'd lost his soul he and Martin both brothers and sisters this was 116 Pages manuscript pages of scripture and you can picture the the feeling the weight of the reality of what just happened I I've
lost scripture that was translated by the gift and power of God now you'll notice as you open up section three in the Doctrine and Covenants that the location puts us where you're down in Harmony Pennsylvania it gives you the date of July 1828 this is after Joseph has returned home to Emma from Palmyra so he was walking in the woods near the home there when the angel Moroni appeared to him and gave him the yman Thum at which point he looks into the yman Thum and it's here brothers and sisters it's section three it's the
first time where Joseph records the first revelation given to him now we have section one and two but the first one where he he physically writes it himself he's not dictating it to a scribe or anyone else so let's look at this very carefully from a from a 10,000 foot overview of section three because what's happened is Joseph lost scripture and so God is going to need to correct him there's going to be some discipline he he's this this 22-year-old poor farmer who has been called to be a prophet and do the work of God
and yet something went wrong he he gave into peer pressure but isn't it interesting how God takes something that looks like a tragic uh loss and how God with his infinite wisdom can turn it into a glorious learning experience for not only his Prophet but for all of us you'll notice in section three what's going to happen there's this nice pattern where God opens Section 3 with declaring hope for for the work moving forward that that nothing can stop the work from progressing but then he embeds this little rebuke to Jose Joseph and then in
the middle section he's going to give some hope and then he's going to give another rebuke and a warning and then he's going to finish the section with hope and with with a glorious promise brothers and sisters there's a beautiful pattern here for dealing with children for dealing with with people if you're in a leadership position is you you sandwich any rebuke or any correction or any discipline neatly between hope and and and expressions of love and faith and giving uh propping up courage to move forward and not give up and that's what we see
with section three here's the grand irony for me knowing that section three is our first time where Joseph using the Y and Thum is going to record a revelation in the Doctrine and Covenants he's he's opening his story so to speak do any of you find it odd that the prophet would lead out by telling us his worst moment IM mortality where where he felt like he had lost his soul where All Is Lost I'm going to I I had this Great Commission from God this great calling and now I've lost it because I gave
into what we would call today peer pressure or something like that um when you're trying to tell your story and uh maybe convince people that that you've been called of God this is a really odd way to do it unless unless it's just the simple reality unless it's unless he's just simply telling his story the way it unfolded and he's not trying to to trick anyone but he's just saying this is what happened and in the process now you and I can look back in time and say h he lost 116 pages what was on
them what what what did he actually lose and and how is this not terrible well let me let me show you something if you go to the printer's manuscript of the Book of Mormon and you you go to page 117 so we can zoom in here so you can see this on page 117 of the printers manuscript right here at the top you'll notice on line three there it says the book of mosiah chapter and then you'll notice there it's got three Roman numerals I I I but those the second and the third I are
crossed out leaving it as the book of mosiah chapter 1 instead of what it was originally they've they've crossed these out so it leaves it is chapter one one brothers and sisters what you have in the Book of Mormon today starting with the book of mosiah chapter 1 is really the original mosiah chapter 3 from the original manuscript and the printers manuscript reveals this what you now have is if you go to our Book of Mormon and open up to the English page 45 where it says the book of mosiah you'll notice that there's no
book heading it's the only major book in The Book of Mormon multi-chapter book that doesn't have a book intro a book heading all of the other ones have those it's also the only book in The Book of Mormon to begin with a guy whose name isn't at the top of the book this isn't the book of Benjamin and yet the book of mosiah begins with Benjamin in other words the book of mosiah originally would have started with Benjamin's father mosiah the first because what you have is King mosiah whose son is Benjamin whose son is
mosiah II so what we get in the Book of Mormon today starting in page 145 is it picks up the story of King Benjamin most of the way through his reign as a king what we're missing is all of this mosiah the First's writings and the beginning of Benjamin's Ministry and we're missing the book heading to mosiah apparently this is all part of the Lost 116 Pages which starts with the book of Lehi so look at look at what we've lost Mormon has a bridge Mormon went to a lot of work reading if you look
at our at our conceptual uh drawings of Mormon's cave if you look here at this large collection of the plates of Nephi Mormon has read all of the records from Lehi all the way down through mosiah the first and he's Abridged them he's written the record onto the plates of Mormon he went to a lot of effort to get us to this point and we're going to lose Mormon's abridgment of the book of Lehi all the way down to this point now do any of you find it odd that back in second Nephi when Nephi
tells you once they got to the promised land he made plates and he recorded all of the history and then after he had done that the Lord said now make a second record a smaller record only record the things of your soul the spiritual stuff can you picture Nephi saying well that makes no sense I've already recorded all this why should I do it again so God asks him to do a second version but keep it smaller and simpler and more focused on the spiritual things years and years later centuries later when Mormon is going
through these records that you see on the screen again of the large plates of Nephi he tells you that he was searching among the records and he found a small set of plates this little teeny record in comparison to the large collection of plates and he read through it and he said wow these things please me this is the record of the prophets from Nephi including some of the words of Jacob and he said I don't know why this is for a wise purpose unto the Lord I'm going to include this with my record and
so he puts it on with his plates even though he has already Abridged this whole history he finds that small set of plates and he says okay I'm going to include those with my plates as well but they cover the same time period but you'll notice brothers and sisters in first Nephi through Omni the small plates whoops Omni there's no abridgment from Mormon he's not telling you any story in first Nephi through Omni it's all I Nephi I Jacob I jeram I enus so on and so forth all of these prophets are speaking in first
person Mormon didn't a bridge it he just stuck it on with his plates interesting Nephi got to write a whole bunch of scripture that would never go life Mormon got to a bridge and work on reading records and abridging them and it never went live Joseph Smith got to experience translating Scripture A lot of it 116 pages but it's never going to go live and now we lose all of those prophets efforts and God says oh that wise purpose that Mormon didn't know why he was including it and Ne I didn't know why he had
to write a second record I know why because we knew that we were going to lose this and isn't it interesting that it looks like a tragedy but in reality what we get instead is probably a better version of what we would have had in the first place which is Mormon's abridgment of all of these these people but now we get this first person account that covers mostly the same it covers the same time period but we don't get a lot of stories here so we're missing those I guess what I'm saying brothers and sisters
if God goes to that great of effort to make sure that what was lost isn't permanently lost but there's a beautiful replacement for it that's possibly even better than the original if he'll do that with a book I'm convinced that he'll do that with his children with uh with the children of God that he'll bring things into your life he'll prepare you today he'll ask you to do some things this week or this month or this year that make no sense to you you're you're going to say things like Nephi well I've already done that
record or like Mormon but I've already I've already included that those time periods in my abridgment I I don't need to put this on it's it's a duplicate it it's not necessary God knows what he's doing with scriptures over Millennia spanning you know thousands of years God knows what he's doing spanning days months weeks and years in our life and so don't be shocked when he has you doing things the for the present moment make no sense to you it comes down to this idea of do you trust him enough to to obey and move
forward now with with that Foundation Joseph in the woods in in Harmony Pennsylvania with Angel Moroni giving him back the yman Thum gets this Revelation look at the very first thing that comes out of this Revelation knowing the history knowing the the setup to this the works and the designs and the purposes of God cannot be frustrated neither can they come to not for and sisters that is so true for Joseph and for the scriptures coming forth and for the unfolding of the restoration of the Gospel but it's also true in your life if you
allow him to be your God and and you choose to be his his son or his daughter his people and and seek his will notice verse two for God does not walk in crooked paths neither doth he turn to the right hand nor to the left neither do he vary from that which he hath said therefore for his paths are straight and his course is one Eternal round remember remember that it is not the work of God that is frustrated but the work of men so here's this this effort by the adversary to destroy the
the coming forth of the Book of Mormon you'll notice he he tried to destroy Joseph in the first Vision before that happened he's now trying to destroy the efforts to bring forth the plates and once the plates come forth and nobody can take them from him and Joseph figures out how how this translation process works so once we get it translated now Satan tries to destroy the manuscript and it looks like oh he finally succeeded when oh turns out no God saw this 3,000 years in advance and setting everything in order um way way back
in in uh the early 550 BC time period to put things in place so that Satan can't destroy the work and that man can't frustrate the things of God now you'll notice that's the hope that's the foundation for Testimony look at verse four for although a man may have many Revelations and have power to do many mighty Works yet if he boasts in his own strength and sets it not the counsels of God and follows after the dictates of his own will and carnal desires he must fall and incur the Vengeance of a just God
upon him do you notice anything about the the pronouns here God speak here here you have the Savior speaking to Joseph Smith through the the words of the yman Thum speaking in third person about a man he's not looking directly at Joseph saying you you you he's speaking uh indirectly but you can you better believe that Joseph is getting this this message this rebuke loud and clear piercing him to the heart he tells him that you entrusted these things you were entrusted with these things you were given Commandments but verse six behold how of you
have transgressed the Commandments and the laws of God and have gone on in The Persuasions of men brothers and sisters Joseph is going to learn some valuable lessons early on as a prophet through this experience to the point where later on in his life there are going to be people giving him all kinds of pressure to do things you're going to notice that Joseph increasingly pays less attention to what the world would counsel him to do and goes more fully to Lord what what would th have me do that will I do he he learns
some valuable lessons which which might be a lesson for you and me perhaps when you've struggled personally in your own life perhaps it's not quite the the tragic failure that you had before supposed as long as you learn from it if you appropriately repent humble yourself go to God plead for forgiveness and not just forgiveness but to plead for wisdom to learn from those experiences so that you don't have to keep repeating the the same struggles through life we talked about how there's this pattern of Hope rebuke hope rebuke and hope let's read some of
those hope passages God knows us he cares deeply about our growth and progress of becoming like him here's what he says to Joseph Smith and we can apply this to our own lives he tells us particularly verse 10 but remember God is merciful because we can know that look at the next phrase as you remember that God is merciful that should lead you induce you encourage you to do what repent of that which thou Hast done which is contrary to the Commandments which I gave you and now art still Chosen and are again called to
the work all of us have been called to the work of God all of us fail from time to time all of us can think of times where we did not measure up to our our own expectations or that which God had for us let's go back to the beginning of this verse I love this phrase but remember God is merciful and as you think back in your life you can see the many times where God's mercy has been with you and you are still chosen to do the work the only way to lose your
chosenness is to walk away from God to choose to not remember to choose to forget his Mercy it's impossible to lose your chosenness if you remember God and we'll point this out when you partake of the sacrament on a weekly basis what are you declaring that you will always remember God every week you have an opportunity both to declare I seek to remember you and to be taught and reminded his spirit will always be with you and therefore you are chosen to be part of the world work so we encourage you as you look to
these verses to remember in Hope what God will do for you so how often do you hear the word repent or the the command to repent or the word repentance and instantly think of this negative experience this sorrowful experience this painful experience brothers and sisters are are prophets and apostles and leaders of the church church have have reminded us that that repentance is not a sorrowful thing yes it's it it hurts it it there's some Godly sorrow involved but that's the reality of this whole repentance process is it's better to suffer in humility for a
short small moment now than to persist in Pride in in our carnal nature and not repent not go through that painful Soul changing process of turning away from the flesh turning away from the the the Mortal desires appetites and passions that maybe are not uh uh helping to exalt us someday and turning our our focus and our attention to God that's painful the natural man and a natural woman doesn't like doing that but it's better to have that small moment of repentance and and turning now with glorious promise of God's mercy coming as a result
forever rather than the opposite which is Live Without The Godly sorrow now but with major regret and major sorrow for long term notice after propping him back up then another rebuke verse 11 except thou do this Thou shalt be delivered up and become as other men and have no more gift in other words Joseph this gift that was given to you it is a gift and it can be taken away don't don't think it was you who who did this this translation gift it was given by God verse 13 says who has said it not
the councils of God and has broken the most sacred promises which were made before God and has depended upon his own judgment and boasted in his own strength and this is the reason that thou has lost thy privilege for a season now after this next rebuke that or after this rebuke that he just gave you'll notice verse 16 nevertheless in spite of all of that put greater emphasis here my work shall go forth for in as much as the knowledge of a savior has come unto the world through the testimony of the Jews even so
shall the knowledge of a savior come unto my people to provide some context for the ending of section three let's return to the title page of the Book of Mormon written by Moroni where he declares the purpose of the Book of Mormon and we'll tie it in to what God reveals to Joseph Smith through the Y thumb here in section three so we go to the second paragraph of the title page God says the Book of Mormon it was recorded to show unto the remnant of the House of Israel what great things the Lord hath
done for their fathers and this book The Book of Mormon was also written that they may know the covenants of the Lord that they are not cast off forever so we have talked in a variety of lessons about God's covenants there are many covenants but some of the most significant that maybe one of the most significant is the abrahamic Covenant if you go back to Genesis 12 1-3 where God promised to Abraham and his posterity and to all the Earth through the family of Abraham posterity property priesthood and prosperity so let's look at how God
at the end of section three ties us together or reminds people this is his work he has made an eternal Covenant to do these things and has chosen the family of Abraham to make these covenants accessible to all and let's read about this we're going to jump down to verse 19 and for this very purpose are these plates preserved referring to the Book of Mormon which contain these records the records of God's covenantal dealings with the inhabitants of the new world that the promises of the Lord might be fulfilled which he made to his people
God will not break his word therefore he will do his work and no one can stop him from doing it sure there might be hiccups along the way but he has prepared in advance a way that he can always fulfill his eternal covenantal obligations to his children verse 20 and that the lamanites might come to the knowledge of their fathers that they might know the promises of the Lord and that they may believe the gospel and reely upon the merits of Jesus Christ and be glorified through faith in his name and that through their repentance
they might be saved amen one of the reasons The Book of Mormon was preserved was as an act of Charity and as Act of covenantal obligation on the part of God to deliver to the children of Abraham a Remnant being the lamanites the covenantal promises that their forefathers had once had but had rejected but God and His covenantal Mercy had promised that each succeeding generation of Abraham's children would be granted and gifted the opportunity to know of his promises to them and they are freely offered and all we need to do is to repent to
receive them that is one of the key reasons why the book ofor is preserved and why section three was given to remind Joseph Smith God has a purpose of preserving and blessing the house of Israel or the children of Abraham and thereby the entire world and now the Book of Mormon is going out to the whole world which is imp partial fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham all the way back in Genesis 12 verse 1 through3 where God says in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed and so
the coming forth of the Book of Mormon is in part a fulfillment of a promise that was made anciently nearly 4,000 years ago now if you or or somebody that you know has served a mission chances are pretty good that they're they will be very familiar with DNC section 4 uh back when I served my mission every single District meeting every Zone conference every meeting at the MTC always began with everybody standing up and reciting Doctrine Covenant section 4 in its entirety all seven verses from start to finish there's an interesting thing to consider here
we use it and rightly so we use it as a as a missionary scripture because of what it's talking about here but look very carefully at the the intro and the origin of this section look at the date in the heading who's receiving it uh you'll notice the church isn't even established yet and won't be for for more than a year at this point uh in early 1829 like Tyler I came to love the scripture as a missionary and remember struggling as a young missionary to memorize all of this and it's only been recently listening
to uh church history Scholars like Steve Harper we really focus on some of the details surrounding this section it's significant that this is given individually to Joseph Smith Senor yes we can liken this to ourselves we can liken this to the work that we all should be engaged in where the the field is Right white ready to harvest this is given to one man Joseph Smith Senior a farmer sometimes depending on how the weather was going what I love about this is when Jesus was on the earth he called poor simple fishermen in the Galilee
and he asked them to become Fishers of Men and here in our modern day restoration he goes to poor simple Farm fers and to this one particular farmer he tells him to be a farmer of men I love how the god of the universe knows each of us individually and will contextualize his message to suit our circumstances so whether you're a farmer or have any other skill set God invites you to the work and I suppose he could use any kind of metaphor to take your skills and your talents and your dreams and passions in
the service of God's work so you'll notice in section 4 verse1 it says Now Behold a marvelous work is about to come forth among the children of man just as a as a little note here the word marvelous we we often use it to mean oh wonderful the reality is the root of marvelous is Marvel which means it it's it defies logical explanation we Marvel at it h how did that happen and so the very first thing given to Joseph senior is this promise that there's going to be a work come forth that is a
Marvel that can't be always explained by the the wisdom of of human logic and and reason and just for some background with Joseph senior he he's a descendant of Cong congregationalists but he has chosen to stay more aloof of of the religious parties of the day very similar in fact to Joseph Jr and he hasn't joined any of the churches he has had multiple dreams troubling dreams unsettling dreams for many years leading up to this and in all of his dreams it involves him working through through dark and Drury kinds of wildernesses and right as
he gets to the end or an angel in a dream will invite him into a garden or there seems to be some resolution coming then the dream ends and and it's left him feeling like there's something good coming in the midst of all of these struggles and this is a guy who is not a very successful farmer he he has lost a lot of crops either to weather or to a con man on one occasion with with some jining route being shipped and then he being lied to and losing money on that he has lost
lots and lots of of opportunities to earn money as a farmer and he's relocated his family he his the the frame home that he builds on the property he he loses that a foreclosure on his mortgage his life has been hard as he's trying to eek a living out of this Frontier and now can you imagine how it must have felt to him to hear the words a marvelous work is about to come forth among the children of men as Joseph his son is receiving this Revelation for him and for Joseph seinger to realize this
work that's so marvelous is going to be brought forth into the world through my son it had to be kind of a remarkable moment for him verse two therefore oh ye that Embark in the service of God see that you serve him with all your heart might mind and strength you'll notice brothers and sisters that in the work of the Lord that he doesn't just want part of you he wants all of you he wants all aspects of our life to be devoted and dedicated to him the two the two instruments of Revelation are included
here that we're going to be talking about shortly in in a subsequent lesson that our whole heart and our whole mind our might and our strength all of it is devoted to the Lord and given to him notice verse three three if you have desires to serve God you are called to the work did you notice that desires he didn't say if you have abilities if you have degrees if you have a certain pedigree if you're a descendant of certain people he didn't say any of that he said if you have desires then you're called
to the work that's what that's what is going to get you the call then verse uh four for behold the field is white already to harvest and he that thrust in his sickle with his might the same L up in store that he perisheth not but bringeth Salvation to his soul as Taylor was saying earlier what a beautiful verse to communicate very clearly with a farmer about what God intends him to do in this metaphorical sense of thrust in your sickle to harvest this field that God that the sun has ripened over time then notice
verse five and faith hope charity and love with an eye single to the glory of God qualify him for the work did you notice desires to serve God you're called well what qualifies you that's what calls you but what qualifies you there's this this long list in verse five of things that qualify you to be able to be a sharp instrument in the hands of the Lord in harvesting The Souls of men in in participating in this Gathering effort faith hope charity and and love with an ie single to the glory of God president Russell
and Nelson many years ago when he was uh an apostle at the time in the Corum of the 12 gave a great talk about what it means to have your ey single to the glory of God and he used it as the example or the analogy of binoculars that out of one eye you see one thing and out of another eye you see something else but to make your eye single means that you bring those two images together and now what God God and what God intends for me and what I want for me now
become the same thing and it becomes three-dimensional not a two-dimensional um image beautiful as I swallow up my will in God's will then I can see things more clearly the way he wants me to see them and my eye become single to his glory I'm not doing it for me I'm now doing it for him and then he says in verse 6 remember so so we've been called we've now been qualified for the work through these things and now the things to remember as we Embark in this work remember Faith virtue knowledge Temperance by the
way the word Temperance in in an 1829 context has to do with abstaining from alcohol Joseph senior um he he acknowledged and admitted the fact that he had given himself to Too Much use of alcohol up to this time and so it's interesting that for him Temperance is a big deal and coming from God through his son he's reminded of that so Faith virtue knowledge Temperance patience brotherly kindness godliness charity humility diligence and he's told that if he'll ask he'll receive and if he knocks it will be opened under to him what a beautiful message
to the prophet's father who is struggling to figure out what God would have him do in order to help build up the kingdom in in the latter days okay now we finish with Section Five for this week in this one you have Martin Harris who uh the previous year we've lost those 116 pages and feels feels very bad about that he comes down to Harmony uh and at the request of Martin Joseph asks the Lord for some guidance and Direction here this is a very unique section section five because what you have here is a
man Martin who came to Joseph to ask this question Joseph asks the Lord and in response the Lord speaks to both of them so it's not Joseph talking to Martin for the lord it's Joseph recording the Revelation and the first part of the Revelation is all directed at Joseph and the last part is going to be mostly focused on Martin now here's the struggle Martin's facing we've we've mentioned this before Martin likes evidence he wants to see things and then it's this idea of now I can believe uh I I want proof I I want
to be able to show I want to be able to explain in ways that people say oh okay I've seen I get it that's a big deal for Martin uh so he comes to Joseph asking for a bigger Revelation before he's willing to to put out more money and more of his good name and his time and energy in in helping with this translation process as it moves forward so can you show me something bigger so that I can feel more confident in in my my supporting you in this effort Joseph is kind of the
the underlying story that brings on Section Five so in addition to the common understanding of the word belief sometimes we say faith in a past lesson I talked about the atmology or the root of the word believe and actually comes from two words and the first word is be and you get the leave and be when you put in front of a word means holy completely or 100% leave actually is a variant of a word that we all know the word love I just love the fact that a word that we use so often in
religious context when we're talking about God the believe is actually all about loving him and loving truth but not just partly but 100% so let's think about Martin Harris God is telling Martin I want you to fully love me 100% all the way when you fully love me you will see me let's think back the brother of Jared he believed 100% he had full love and therefore he saw and so in our own lives how far are we willing to go to show that we love God are we going to wait to see him or
to see evidence of him before we choose to love him or are we going to choose to love him and then see the evidence and actually if you look at how the scriptures have been revealed God has already shown us again and again what he's done for us that we can choose with actually quite full evidence to love him 100% John 3:16 for God so loved the world that He Sent His only begotten and son and Jesus is the greatest example of what we can see of why we should fully love so when you think
about believing choose to love 100% so to follow up on that you'll notice that in the Book of Mormon in the book of ether it teaches us that we shouldn't dispute because we don't see so it says dispute not because you see not for you receive no witness until after the trial of your faith you have to try your faith prove your faith then you get the witness so in matters of science this is a great formula but in matters of seeking Heavenly truth and eternal direction we start with belief we start with faith and
then after the trial of that Faith then we see the evidence then it flows and that is the lesson that the Lord is going to to teach Martin Harris here in Section 5 you'll notice some of the the details here look at verse 7 behold if they will not believe my words they would not believe you my servant Joseph if it were possible that you should show them all these things which I have committed unto you even the plates there are people who say well if you just show me the Golden Plates then I would
believe the Book of Mormon is true in joose Smith history he tells us that once the translation process was complete he returned the plates to the angel Moroni who has them in his possession to this day according to that that text it's as if God is saying no I'm not going to put these things which you have have been committed to you Joseph I'm not going to put them in a museum on display for everybody because there's this element of faith that God is trying he's testing can you believe look at the look at the
fruits of what come off of those plates don't look at the roots that that brought forth those words the plates themselves as the the means whereby we base Our Testimony verse 8 oh this unbelieving and stiff neck generation mine anger is kindled against them there's a God of the universe saying they won't trust me they're they're looking at this world that they live on and all these incredible Miracles that happen every day and we don't see them as Miracles and we don't believe in God and we want proof show me and then I'll believe uh
look at verse 10 but this generation shall have my word through you they're going to have to trust that God on high is going to do his work through a poor and at the time seemingly insignificant farm boy who becomes this incredible instrument in the hands of the Lord to bring forth all of these words as the restoration unfolds over time it's beautiful and then he he promises him in addition in verse 11 in addition to your testimony the testimony of three of my servants whom I shall call and ordain unto whom I will show
these things and they shall go forth with my words that are given through you yay they shall know of assurity these things are true that's interesting knowing that Martin Harris is one of the three Witnesses uh in the future he is going to see things and know of assurity and it's fascinating when he has his experience as one of the three Witnesses he he declares I have seen mine eyes have seen I I've seen now now he can bear testimony with certainty uh it's beautiful verse 14 To None else will I grant this power to
receive this same testimony among this generation in this the beginning of the rising up and the coming forth of my church out of the Wilderness clear as the moon and fair as the sun and terrible as an army with banners it was uh my colleague Dana Pike who pointed this out to me that uh The Song of Solomon is quoted a couple of times a few times actually in the Doctrine and Covenants this is one of them in verse 14 this segment about the uh the clear as the moon Fair as the sun and terrible
as an army with banners just for fun notice verse 16 behold whosoever believeth on my words them will I visit with the manifestation of my spirit and they shall be born of me even of water and of the spirit brothers and sisters belief really is a choice faith in the Lord really is a choice that we need to make it's not something that happens to us it's a decision we make it's conscious where we say I don't know everything but Elder Anderson would teach us but I know enough to be able to move forward in
faith to exercise that belief and that Faith by moving forward in in the Covenant path of the Lord and then I will see the evidence and the promises here again look at verse 24 behold I say unto him now this is speaking directly to Martin through Joseph behold I say unto him he exalts himself and does not humble himself sufficiently before me but if he will bow down before me and humble himself in Mighty prayer and faith in the sincerity of his heart then will I grant unto him a view of the things which he
desires to see which is to be one of those three Witnesses uh just on a personal note Martin Harris is buried in the cemetery in Clarkston Utah when I was growing up every year there was the Martin Harris pageant out there in Clarkston in Northern Cash Valley and I have dozens of my ancestors of the Griffin line are buried in that same Cemetery out there in Clarkston I've been to Martin Harris's grave multiple times I remember my grandma and grandpa talking about the stories the the that little town of Clarkston just loved for years where
right as up to his dying day Martin Harris would share his testimony as one of the witnesses of the book Mormon with anyone and everyone who would listen he was faithful to the very end to that testimony that this book is true and even his very last words um were in reference to to his experience as a witness and to reestablish the truthful of the Book of Mormon as the word of God uh in closing today brothers and sisters I love the fact that you're watching the unfolding of the restoration coming out of these humble
beginnings it's it's as it's coming out of the Dust like a farmer would plant seeds that would then come out of the dust and then it takes time and it has to go through a long process before you can finally Harvest the crops at the end of the year or at the end of the season so it is with the dispensation of the fullness of times brothers and sisters if we're patient with God if we trust him and we know that the works of God cannot be frustrated neither can they come to not that will
allow us to thrust our sickle in with all of our might and help in this great harvesting effort called the Gathering of Israel God Lives he's he stands at the head of this work and he loves you and I leave that with you in the name of Jesus Christ amen [Music]
