Sermon: Everlasting to Everlasting

It is a pleasure to be able to speak to you today and for us to be here again on this Sabbath set aside for us by the Lord to worship. As members of The latter Day Church of Jesus Christ and followers of Christ we are always striving to live the gospel within our capacity to live it. As we walk along this path we call life we become aware that there are standards that our Father in heaven and Jesus Christ live by and so we in turn are expected, and required to live up to these standards, not just for a little but for all our time upon our journey. These standards given unto us by our Father in Heaven and through the Saviour Jesus Christ are based upon preciseness, and exactness to eternal principles, which do not, and will not change because our father is everlasting to everlasting and unchangeable and in turn his son who serves him and is of him is also the same. In this wonderful period of the revealed gospel, and with the rise in technological devices we are blessed in need for all these advances assist us in our work towards godhood.

 

A closer perspective is really at a micro level. Take for example the unit of length.(meter). Building a ship over 100 meter long. One meter error would not make a much of a difference. But it would if building the ships engines. The French originated the meter in the 1790s as one/ten-millionth of the distance from the equator to the north pole along a meridian through Paris.  It is realistically represented by the distance between two marks on an iron bar kept in Paris.  The International Bureau of Weights and Measures, created in 1875, upgraded the bar to one made of 90 percent platinum/10 percent iridium alloy. In 1960 the meter was redefined as 1,650,763.73 wavelengths of orange-red light, in a vacuum, produced by burning the element krypton (Kr-86).  More recently (1984), the Geneva Conference on Weights and Measures has defined the meter as the distance light travels, in a vacuum, in 1/299,792,458 seconds with time measured by a cesium-133 atomic clock which emits pulses of radiation at very rapid, regular intervals. None of the definitions changed the length of the meter, but merely allowed this length to be duplicated more precisely. Our English foot has not been so constant.  The U. S. Congress legalized the use of the metric system in 1866 on the basis that one meter is exactly equal to 39.37 inches.  In 1959 a number of English-speaking countries agreed that an inch is exactly equal to 2.54 centimetres so that the International foot is exactly equal to 0.3048 meters.  The United States retained the old 1866 equivalency and called it the U. S. Survey foot so that 1 U. S. Survey foot equals 1.000002 International feet.

 

So as we consider therefore the principles of the gospel. We will see that they do not change in any way. They are exact. God does not change, he is everlasting to everlasting. So is his church everlasting to everlasting doing all in his name. 

 

We read in the Book of Mormon the following:-

 

1  NOW it came to pass that after the end of Korihor, Alma having received tidings that the Zoramites were perverting the ways of the Lord, and that Zoram, who was their leader, was leading the hearts of the people to bow down to dumb idols, his heart again began to sicken because of the iniquity of the people.

 

2  For it was the cause of great sorrow to Alma to know of iniquity among his people; therefore his heart was exceedingly sorrowful because of the separation of the Zoramites from the Nephites.

 

3 Now the Zoramites had gathered themselves together in a land which they called Antionum, which was east of the land of Zarahemla, which lay nearly bordering upon the seashore, which was south of the land of Jershon, which also bordered upon the wilderness south, which wilderness was full of the Lamanites.

 

4 Now the Nephites greatly feared that the Zoramites would enter into a correspondence with the Lamanites, and that it would be the means of great loss on the part of the Nephites.

 

5 And now, as the preaching of the word had a great tendency to lead the people to do that which was just? yea, it had had more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword, or anything else, which had happened unto them? therefore Alma thought it was expedient that they should try the virtue of the word of God.

 

6 Therefore he took Ammon, and Aaron, and Omner; and Himni he did leave in the church in Zarahemla; but the former three he took with him, and also Amulek and Zeezrom, who were at Melek; and he also took two of his sons.

7  Now the eldest of his sons he took not with him, and his name was Helaman; but the names of those whom he took with him were Shiblon and Corianton; and these are the names of those who went with him among the Zoramites, to preach unto them the word.

 

8 Now the Zoramites were dissenters from the Nephites; therefore they had had the word of God preached unto them.

 

9 But they had fallen into great errors, for they would not observe to keep the commandments of God, and his statutes, according to the law of Moses.

 

10 Neither would they observe the performances of the church, to continue in prayer and supplication to God daily, that they might not enter into temptation.

 

11 Yea, in fine, they did pervert the ways of the Lord in very many instances; therefore, for this cause, Alma and his brethren went into the land to preach the word unto them.

 

12 Now, when they had come into the land, behold, to their astonishment they found that the Zoramites had built synagogues, and that they did gather themselves together on one day of the week, which day they did call the day of the Lord; and they did worship after a manner which Alma and his brethren had never beheld; For they had a place built up in the centre of their synagogue, a place for standing, which was high above the head; and the top thereof would only admit one person.

 

13 Therefore, whosoever desired to worship must go forth and stand upon the top thereof, and stretch forth his hands towards heaven, and cry with a loud voice, saying: Holy, holy God; we believe that thou art God, and we believe that thou art holy, and that thou wast a spirit, and that thou art a spirit, and that thou wilt be a spirit forever. Holy God, we believe that thou hast separated us from our brethren; and we do not believe in the tradition of our brethren, which was handed down to them by the childishness of their fathers; but we believe that thou hast elected us to be thy holy children; and also thou hast made it known unto us that there shall be no Christ.

 

14 But thou art the same yesterday, today, and forever; and thou hast elected us that we shall be saved, whilst all around us are elected to be cast by thy wrath down to hell; for the which holiness, O God, we thank thee; and we also thank thee that thou hast elected us, that we may not be led away after the foolish traditions of our brethren, which doth bind them down to a belief of Christ, which doth lead their hearts to wander far from thee, our God.

 

(Book of Mormon)

 

We In The Latter Day Church of Jesus Christ are blessed above measure to have as the head of the Lord's church a living prophet Matthew Gill. He is sustained by our Father in heaven to lead us in the light, and truth being led always by the Lord who is unchangeable and so is his church. As we continue upon our journey in Christ and look at the things God asks of us we need to remember that what God asks us to live now he has asked of very generation and so I appeal to us al to live by the Lords command and to do what has asked. I leave you with these words and my testimony. Amen

 

Apostle Elder Peter C. Barber