Sermon: Redeeming Zion

Let me first say that we the church are grateful beyond any measure for the very excellent work being done in the Church by everyone. We extend our high commendation to those who serve in this church. We feel that a foundation has been laid for great progress and development in the days, weeks and months to come. We foresee a day when the Church will be an ever present influence in the world. I would like to make my first address of 2015 one of great importance and one that follows with it great gravitas, for I wish to speak of the building of Zion in these last days. As we also know the Lord God is now in the process of gathering in the lost sheep of and laying upon them the obligation to build up his Latter Day Zion. This is something that the Lord has spoken to us about ever since he parted the veil again and helped to establish his kingdom again in glory upon the earth, it is not something that is just being spoken of or that has just this instant sprang to mind, it is something that we have been proclaiming now for sometime. By the mouth of an ancient prophet who lived 3,000 years ago, the Lord sent a message to us. The holy prophet spoke as he was moved upon by the Holy Ghost and he spoke these words: “This shall be written for the generation to come” it is sent to “the people which shall be gathered” to a people who “shall praise the Lord.” (Ps. 102:18.) We are that people, a people who once again receive revelation, a people to whom God has given a gain the fullness of his gospel. The message which has come to us is that the Lord will “have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come.” The message is that “when the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory.” (Ps. 102:13- 16.)

Zion has been established many times among men. From the days of Adam to the present time, whenever the Lord has had a people of his choosing, whenever there have been those who have hearkened unto his voice and kept his commandments, whenever his people have served him with full purpose of heart, there has been a Zion always and forever, for he has placed them in his protective care in a city that is for him and him alone to be worshiped. The Latter Day Church of Jesus Christ is in the process of a period of change and realignment where one of the basic doctrines of the Restoration is concerned. We were directed in the days of Joseph Smith to do one thing, a thing of such importance the prophet tried and tried again and again to do it, and that was the building up of Zion. Today we are counselled again and again in the revelations of the Lord to once again establish Zion and to turn away from the world entirely. Since the glories days of our beloved first Prophet Joseph Smith the keys of the building up of Zion and of the gathering of the ten lost tribes from the land of the north, we the church of God have been using what little means and strength we have to recover the remnant of that once favoured blessing, to establish once again Zion upon the earth. Some success has attended our labours; we have brought forth the Book of Jeraneck, we have established scriptures to be used in Gods kingdom, we have also established laws by which Zion shall be governed. Our message has gone to unto all the nations and many seeking the truth have come unto us for baptism and membership, we have sent word inviting them to come “to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths" fulfilling the words “out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord” (Isa. 2:3.)

Now the Latter Day Church of Jesus Christ and its membership need to know now that we are sent to redeem Zion, that is our work, this is what we have been asked of God to do so let us play the part assigned us in the Lord’s eternal drama concerning his people, we ought not to struggle trying to determine, as did the New Testament saints in what part we should play in the building up of Zion for the building of Zion and the establishment of Zion in this latter day is set before us we know what it is we have been asked to do. We should all be aware that we are now living in the days before second coming of God, we know that we are living in the tribulation and that we are here not just to proclaim truth but to establish it in a tangible edifice and that edifice is Zion, Zion is to be touched, it is to be walked upon and to be seen now in our lives, not in some distance far of tomorrow but now and our work lies ahead of us. The Lord has spoken again and again on this subject and I have been reminded to proclaim again that If we do not rightly follow the word of God, we will face confusion and uncertainty and we will keep wondering if and when and how. But If on the other hand we correctly envision our proper role and know what should be done today, then we shall then be able to use our time, talents, and means to the best advantage in building up Zion and preparing the people for the second coming of the Son of Man.

 

My brothers and sisters let us not forget that we live in the age of restoration. Peter called it “the times of restitution,” meaning the period or time in the earth’s history when that which once was shall be restored in all its original glory and perfection, what better example of this do we need than this church and the fruits that it brings forth. have we not been shown that the church fell because of unrighteousness amongst the saints, have we not been shown that the Lord has had his hand in restoring what was once left abandoned to the wolves in sheep's clothing? Let us not forget that the things to be restored include “all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.” (Acts 3:21.) And there are few things of which the prophets have spoken with more fervour and zeal than the building of Zion and the gathering of the Lords  favoured people. Many things have already been restored, and many things are yet to be restored. The Lords people have been gathered in some small part, but the greatest part of the gathering is ahead. The foundations of Zion have been laid in our hearts, but the promised City has yet to be built. We have done some of the things destined to be accomplished in this dispensation; we are now engaged in doing the very things reserved for our time; and there are many things ahead to be done not by our children and grandchildren but by us for we have been chosen as the ones who shall build Zion, we and we alone have been charged with this act, we can not keep kicking the can on down the street, the time has come when the Lord has put an end to this prevarication and asked us to sacrifice all, everything we have to establish Zion, I ask once again are we building the foundations of Zion are we living the principles of God? are we proclaiming that which God has asked or are we like those that dwell in the western desert and doing as we see fit for ourselves and only ourselves. This church has been asked to call everyone to establish and build Zion, and so we must and in doing so we must give all we have not just spiritually but also temporally as well holding nothing back, so that we may be redeemed as well as Zion. Amen

 

Prophet Matthew P Gill