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SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, DECEMBER 9,
1973,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
I am grateful, my brothers and sisters, for the privilege
of being here this afternoon and hearing what I have heard. I
trust that the Lord will put in my mouth the words I should say,
because I am greatly concerned about the salvation of this body
of people. This is a wonderful audience here today.
Someone spoke this morning about this body of Priesthood
being young men. The Lord has said, "I will take the young and
the middle-aged and redeem Zion." I wonder how many of us stop
long enough to think what that means to us. You young boys and
young girls, would you like to be partakers in that body of
young people that the Lord calls upon to redeem His work? The
Lord has plainly told us that He doesn't look upon sin with the
least degree of allowance. You young women, you know very well
when you are doing wrong--when you are tempting the Lord to
strike you down. Some say, "I don't believe what the Lord has
said regarding these sins, so I will step out and do a little
investigating myself." Everytime you do it, you tempt the Lord.
Alma, a young man that was going about tempting the Lord
and committing all kinds of sin, went just a little too far, and
the Lord struck him down. If it hadn't been that he had a
wonderful father who pled with the Lord for the life of this
son, the Lord would have taken his life. But there aren't very
many fathers, I am sorry to say, among our people who have
wayward boys and girls, that have enough weight with the Lord to
cause this thing to happen in our day. Anyway, I would hate to
tempt the Lord that far. I would hate to see one of my boys or
my girls tempt the Lord that far. I would hate to see any of our
boys or any of our girls step out and tempt the Lord.
He says, "Try me, and see if I won't pour out blessings
upon your head that you can't contain." If you will just try
Him, you will find that this is the case; and, He can pour out
damnation upon you as fast as He can blessings, if you are
determined in your minds to go your own way.
The Lord cast Satan out of Heaven and all the host that was
connected with him, and they are still wishing that they had the
privilege of having bodies. You have a wonderful opportunity
here.
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The Lord has granted you the privilege of coming here and taking
these bodies and purifying them. Yet we have men with large
families, I am sorry to say, in our midst that delight in doing
a little evil in the sight of their sons and their daughters.
They think that they are doing themselves a favor and their sons
a favor because they can step out and have a little fun--then
straighten up afterwards, but some of the sons won't straighten
up. Then the fathers will be held responsible for the acts they
have committed.
We had better commence quickly to get down on our knees and
pray night and day for deliverance and get the Lord to smile
upon us, and let Him know that we are not afraid to do the
things that He has asked us to do and get rid of all ungodliness
among us; because, we are talking to a people who have accepted
God as their guide. When you do wrong, you become ungodly
because you don't do the things He asks you to do.
We are living in a day when great stress covers the earth.
The Lord is kind to us to give us an example, once in a while,
of what He can do. We are entirely dependent upon gasoline,
oil, electricity, and look at our condition today. If we have
been reading the paper and keeping close to the news, we can see
what the Lord meant when He told the Nephite people that He
would allow the remnant of Jacob to walk through the Gentiles
and tread them down; and, He would go through and destroy their
chariots, destroy their cities, and this remnant of Jacob would
walk through as a young lion among the sheep--tread them down
and tear them in pieces and none can deliver.
If this truck strike had kept on another 24 hours, you
would have seen some of this going on, because we had the
chariots and their strongholds throttled. But the Lord was kind
enough to let us see this thing in time to repent--if we will
repent. But we have to do now just what the Lord said we would
have to do. We have got to get down on our knees and cry night
and day for deliverance, that we might be able to do what
Brother Hammon read to us--be able to stand and be counted
worthy of the protection of our Father in Heaven. He said, "I
will protect my saints." He is talking about men and women who
have cleaned up their lives, cleaned up their
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minds, and think good thoughts and been able to overcome the
thinking of bad thoughts one towards another or towards their
neighbors. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
might, mind, and strength is the first great commandment; and,
the second is like unto it; thou shalt love thy neighbor as
thyself.
We have young men in our midst that are arriving now at the
time when they would like to be added upon and have a lady set
by the side of them, but they have been determined to have their
own way. They have gone against the counsels of the Priesthood;
they have given our peace officer a hard time instead of giving
him their support and letting him help them. They have given
him a hard time, and yet, they want the Priesthood to bless them
with one of our young ladies. This Priesthood thinks alot of
these young ladies; they are tired of throwing them away,
placing them in homes where they will be destroyed. Young men
have got a responsibility as well as young women. They have to
come up to the line and let the Lord know that they are worthy
of being added upon. So you boys better straighten up so that
the Lord can bless you. There have been alot of boys that have
caused this Priesthood alot of anxiety. We have tried to
rehabilitate them by adding to them, but we have found it an
uphill business. They don't only destroy themselves, but they
destroy the woman that is set by the side of them.
There is a responsibility upon the fathers and mothers of
this community. The Lord requires that we teach our children
correct principles, then let them govern themselves. That is
the way He does. When Joseph Smith was asked how he governed his
people, he said, "I teach them correct principles and they
govern themselves." The Lord has been kind enough to us to give
us our agency. He puts us in the earth, then puts apostles and
prophets here to teach the people correct principles, then all
they can do is allow the people to govern themselves. I can't
live your life for you. Brother Hammon can't.
One man, one time, told me that he would rather be a
Catholic than a Mormon. He was supposed to be a good Latter-day
Saint. He said, "Mormons make you work for your salvation, but
as a Catholic you can do all manner of sin; it doesn't make any
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difference what it is, then you can go to church and give the
priest $50, and he will forgive you of all your sins." If that
is the kind of salvation you want, you had better go where you
can get it. Brother Hammon has told you today that the tithing
doesn't buy your salvation. You have got something else to do.
You have got to be faithful and true in all things. The Lord
says: Whatsoever I have commanded you to do, you have got to be
faithful and true in keeping my commandments; then I can bless
you. So, let us go down the road, overcome our weaknesses and
imperfections, and allow the Lord to bless us.
The Lord won't let us preach any other doctrine--only
repentance. He said, Preach nothing but repentance to this
generation. Why? Because this is a generation of Gentiles.
Before the great battle, this Gospel will leave the Gentiles and
go to the rest of the House of Israel, then to the Jews. The
Jews are going to have to wait until about the last in order to
pay the debt that they owe for shedding the blood of our Savior.
You won't see very many Jews converted to the Gospel of Jesus
Christ until what Brother Hammon read to you comes to pass; and,
they see Him come in the clouds of Heaven, and they gather
around to see who He is, and He reveals Himself to them, then
they will accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Until then, we are
going to have to administer the blessings to the rest of the
House of Israel.
Now, I pray that God will bless us with wisdom, knowledge,
and understanding, and help us to correct our lives to a point
where we can control, not only our children, but the elements,
that we might be able to sustain ourselves upon the land which
we possess; because, we are going to have to do it. May God
bless you, I humbly pray, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
796
A SERMON GIVEN BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, DECEMBER 16, 1973,
SUNDAY, IN SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
I can't find the words to express my feelings when men
speak as Brother Musser has spoken this afternoon. For I know
that he has spoken under the inspiration of our Father in
Heaven. He never gets up to speak without invoking the Spirit of
God upon himself. These other brethren are the same. I never
get up to speak unless I ask the Lord to put words in my mouth
that He would have me say to the people.
I would like to go on just a little more along the line
that President Musser has spoken. We have a body of young
people in this room today. We have young men who are still
under the direction of their fathers. Their fathers have heard
these principles taught to them for many many years, and they
should be trained along these very lines, that when the father
speaks, children should take notice, and without reservation in
their minds, do the things that they have been asked to do.
This is the reason that the Prophet Joseph made this remark upon
one occasion and maybe many other occasions that we have
recorded. He made the statement, "When the Lord speaks, I move."
This is what is meant by what President Musser has asked us to
do this afternoon.
No child should stop and question what he is asked to do in
the home. No man should stop to question what he is asked to do
by the Priesthood governing power. I have learned this, that if
I have a job to do, if the Lord has given me a job to do, I have
no business to question the inspiration He gives me to
accomplish the job, because the minute I do, I have lost. I
have found this out through experience.
My mind goes back to the Lectures on Faith. What a
wonderful set of rules to promote the faith of people. Why it
was taken out of the Doctrine & Covenants, I cannot understand.
I have been asked to do things by the Priesthood that ruled
over me. Had I not been willing to drop everything and go and
do the thing, I would not have succeeded; but I did. I have
heard men say that their faith in this order of the Priesthood
started after they got acquainted with President Barlow or
President
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Musser or any of the other Presidents of Priesthood; then they
began to know and understand the principle of faith. But I want
to go back a little farther than that. I never met up with this
order of the Priesthood until 1926. I had heard that it was in
operation, but I didn't know who nor where it was. In 1928, I
met John W. Woolley and spent a few moments with him.
In 1900, we moved from southern Utah to Big Horn County,
Wyoming. The Church was at that time conducting a colonization
program. Father fell in with the idea of finding a place where,
when he left this probation, he could leave his children in
better circumstances than he thought he could in Southern Utah.
So, he migrated to Wyoming. My mother and her sister-wife,
before this, lived at Lee's Ferry, Arizona. They raised their
families there. They waited on one another when their children
were born. My mother was a natural midwife, and she was a very
successful woman. When we moved to Wyoming, she was the only
lady in Big Horn County that had had experience in this line.
So, she was called out here and there to go and wait on women.
One time she was called out to a coal mine. The coal mine
was thirty-five miles into the mountains. We called it the
Silver Tip Mine. She had been up there for some time. It was
in the latter part of February, and in Wyoming, in those days,
that was the most dangerous time for blizzards and cold weather.
I got a letter from my mother telling me to hook up the
team, bring the wagon and come get her. She had finished her
mission. She had to take coal for her work, so I was to bring
the wagon and take back a load of coal. I was only about
sixteen years old. I worked hard all day getting the place
ready so I could be gone a day or two and my sisters wouldn't
have to cut their own wood. I chopped up a pile of wood, got my
wagon ready, put some hay in the wagon box, and got it all ready
to leave the next morning.
At nine o'clock that night, a knock came on the door. I
went to the door, and it was the President of the Stake,
President Byron Sessions. He didn't come in the house. I
opened the door, and he said, "Roy, what are you going to do
tomorrow?" I said,
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"I am going to the Silver Tip Mine for Mother." He said, "I felt
there was something like that going on. How are you going?" By
the way, I had a traveling team. It was one of the best there
was in the country and I had a white-topped buggy. Brother
Sessions had a fine buggy and team, too. He said, "No, you're
not going to take your wagon." He pulled his watch out of his
pocket, and said, "At exactly four o'clock in the morning I want
you at my place without fail. I want you to bring your team to
hook onto my buggy. My buggy can be tied down a little tighter
than yours. It will be better to ride in. Now, I don't want you
to fail me. I want you to be there at four o'clock to hook on my
buggy and go get that woman and bring her home." I said, "All
right, Brother Sessions. If that's what you want me to do,
that's what I'll do." He said, "Now, without fail, I want you
there at four o'clock." Then he left. The next morning at four
o'clock, I drove up to his buggy. He pulled out his watch. He
had a lantern. He looked at his watch and said, "You are on
time. Now, I want you to be just as much on time the rest of
your life as you are at this time. I never want you to fail, and
the Lord will bless you."
He had hay and oats in the buggy. He said, "Now, you won't
have to go home, but go right down the road and don't let the
grass grow under your feet." I looked up at the stars. It
looked like it was going to be real good weather so far as we
could see. He said, "I don't want you to look back or delay. I
want you to go get that woman, and get back here." So I left.
At noon, I drove into the Silver Tip Mine--thirty-five
miles. My mother saw me driving in. As I drove up to the
house, she said, "I thought I told you to bring the wagon." I
said, "You did." "Then why did you bring the buggy?" I said,
"President Sessions told me to." "President Sessions?" "Yes."
She said, "Okay." That was enough for her. She looked up at the
sky, and said, "It doesn't look to me like a storm. Let the
horses eat a few moments, then we will be gone. If President
Sessions was so worked up in his anxiety that he wanted me to go
home in this kind of a buggy, we must get moving." So, she
encouraged me. We left the mine at one o'clock. After about a
half hour's drive,
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I looked up in the northwest and said, "Mother, we are going to
have a blizzard. It's coming onto us." She said, "Well give the
horses the lines then, and let them go."
The blizzard soon caught up with us. It was one of the
worst that I ever witnessed in Wyoming. It was so heavy that I
had to just give the horses the reins and let them go. We came
face to face with another outfit. They had stopped. I said,
"We are up against something. I will have to see what it is."
So, I got out of the buggy, went around, and we were face to
face with another team. So, I led my team around them, got back
into the road again. I went back to the wagon we had just gone
around. There were two men laying in their bed in the wagon
waiting for the storm to blow over. One of them said, "Roy,
what are you doing here?" I said, "I have my mother in the
buggy, and I am on my way home." He said, "Good luck to you." I
thanked him, went and got into my buggy and drove on. We didn't
lose very much time because the horses never left the road. I
gave them the privilege of going, and they kept up their gait.
Just after dark, I drove into home. I drove up to our
place. President Sessions had gathered three or four men around
him and was standing at our gate. When I drove up, he pulled
out his watch. He said, "I just got through telling these men
that I would give you five more minutes to get here. If you
didn't come, we were going to send a posse after you."
"Well, " I said, "I did just what you told me to do." So,
he gave me a blessing. He said, "This will stay with you
throughout your life. This is an example of obedience.
Whatever your lot might be, always be ready to do the thing that
the president or bishop tells you to do." That is what I have
tried to do.
When President John W. Woolley told me of the eight-hour
meeting and what transpired, it did something to this old man's
mind. I couldn't get rid of it--didn't want to in the first
place, for I knew it was true. Then when I heard President
Barlow and President Musser bear testimony of the truthfulness
of this work, that was it, as far as I was concerned; not
because I had been
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disobedient to the Church or was insubordinate to the Church,
for I did everything that was asked of me by the Church
authorities. That is where I got my training. But I did have
presence of mind enough to say "no" when I knew people were
trying to get me to do things that were not right.
My advice to you boys and girls is that you commence to
train yourselves right now, if you haven't already, to overcome
that feeling within you when somebody asks you to do
something--that feeling of resentment, because it is nothing
more nor less than President Musser has told you, the spirit of
the devil whispering to you not to do right.
The Spirit of God is the spirit of peace, and the spirit of
evil is the spirit of unrest. Let us draw in the wanderings of
our minds. Let us try to practice overcoming these feelings of
resentment when we are asked to do something to train us to get
the Spirit of God and keep it. May God bless you, amen.
801
A SERMON BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, DECEMBER 23, 1973,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
I am grateful for this opportunity again to stand before
you in health and strength. I am grateful for the privilege I
have of living in this day. I am grateful for the testimony
that the Lord has given me of the truthfulness of the Gospel of
Jesus Christ and for the privilege I have had of being born
under the new and everlasting covenant, and especially for the
training I have had under the servants of God. I greatly feel
my weaknesses and my inability to talk to you without the
assistance of my Father in Heaven. And I ask that He will put
into my mouth the words that I should say to this audience
today.
My soul has been greatly grieved over the actions of some
of our members. I don't know whether it is because we haven't
hammered hard enough or why it is, unless this is a generation
of unbelieving spirits. President Timpson brought to my mind
some of the words of the Lord to Jared and his brother when He
led them to this goodly land. He said something like this--"I
will lead you to a land flowing with milk and honey; a land that
is choice above all other lands. And the people that inhabit
the land shall serve the God of the land or when they are
ripened in iniquity I will destroy them." When I read the
history and know what happened to these two great men and their
colonies and their descendants, it makes my blood run cold in
knowing that we live under that condemnation that was placed
upon those who would not keep the commandments of God.
I read a patriarchal blessing one time of a good lady, a
neighbor of ours. She had only one or two children but she was
worried about them, so she went to the patriarch for a blessing.
In that blessing, he told her that it wasn't her privilege to
become the mother of any more children at this time, but that
her heart would be satisfied with the number of children that
she would have, and they would be raised in a day when there was
no sin. I wonder if the spirits that have come to the earth in
this day were so anxious to get here and take their bodies that
they would come under any conditions. I wonder how many of the
supporters of this
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Order of the Priesthood are close enough to the Lord to instill
into the hearts of their children these principles of salvation.
We are living in a day when the Lord has said that He would
prepare the earth for the redemption of Zion. And Zion, He
says, cannot be redeemed only upon the principles of the
Celestial Kingdom. We think of all these promises and blessings
and cursings that the Lord has placed upon people. When we
begin to sum them all up I wonder if we really realize the day
in which we live at the present time. I have concluded in my
thinking that unless I do something about the building up and
establishing of the Kingdom of God and prepare myself to take
part in that work, there is no use for me to try to persuade
somebody else to do it. The Savior came here and set the pattern
for the living of a life that is necessary for the principles of
the Celestial Kingdom.
There are too many of our people, our men, that take
lightly the counsels that they receive. They make light of
them--possibly some of them don't think that there is any harm
in making light of the principles of salvation. But the Lord is
pretty specific in His words. He says His word is sharper than
a two-edged sword to the dividing asunder of both joint and
marrow. Again, He says, "My words shall be obeyed." I wonder if
we treat lightly these words. I am afraid we too often treat
lightly the words that we read in these books, these
revelations.
When I hear what I hear and see what I see, I am wondering
how long it is going to take to raise up a people that God can
use in the redemption of His work. I wonder how many of us stop
to think what is meant by the principles of the Celestial
Kingdom. I wonder if we have lingered along so long and
partaken of the elements of destruction until our minds are so
crammed with the things of this world that we cannot find a
place in there for the principles of the Celestial Kingdom, or
how to become like God. It is the only knowledge that we can
take with us when we go that will be of any use to us. If we
cram our thinking powers with the frivolous things of this earth
and go back to our Father, what is He going to do when He opens
up the tape and plays it again? Did
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you ever think about it? It would be nice, I imagine, to come
up and stand before a glorified being and listen to the tape of
our lives. Is it worth doing something about?
You young people, it is your place to start in now to do
something about your salvation, and to quit thinking such
thoughts as these--"Won't it be wonderful when we are permitted
to do the things that we want to do rather than the things we
have to do." We have two of our boys today who wouldn't listen,
so they are in a bad way, not only with the Lord and the
communities, but with the law. They came out of this people, but
they wanted to do the things they wanted to do instead of the
things they were instructed to do by the Priesthood. They say,
"Oh, bologna, I have got rights; I am going to go and do the
things I want to do." I have heard this from a lot of boys.
They come to me for counsel; I give them counsel. "Well, I
don't want to do that; I want a horse; I want a car. I want to
do the things I want to do, not the things that I am told to
do."
I wonder--I wonder, how many of us are going to be able to
stand when the time comes that was prophesied of by Heber C.
Kimball, "A test, a test, a test is coming, and who is going to
be able to stand the test?" It is here upon us, my brothers and
sisters, the test is here. And how many of you are going to
come out of it with flying colors and with the Spirit of God
upon you? If I read the words of the prophets right, we who have
a knowledge of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and then delve into
the degrading principles of life as has been explained to us by
the prophets--I wonder how many of us have stopped long enough
to think of what we are doing? The Lord is not pleased with a
lot of our actions, that is true. But there is one thing that
the Lord has given us. He has given us our agency. We can have
eternal life if we want it. But we are going to have to want it
before He will reveal to us the things that we need to do to
perfect our eternal salvation. If we are not careful, we will
find our lives a mockery before God. And He tells us very
plainly that He is not going to be mocked, for the mocker will
lose his salvation, so says the Prophet.
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So let us be careful what we do. We have borne testimony to
ourselves, to our families; we call the elders up and they bear
testimony over the pulpit that they know the Gospel is true; and
to go against that testimony is a mockery before the Lord.
This Gospel is true, my brothers and sisters. It is the
only way of salvation, both temporally and spiritually. If we
are going to be able to weather the storm that is now brewing
over this nation, and all other nations, as far as that goes--if
we are going to be able to weather this storm and be found
worthy of the protection of our Father in Heaven, we have got to
repent of our sins. The Lord says, "Preach nothing but
repentance to this generation." So let us repent and be baptized
for the remission of our sins, those of us who need to. And if
you young people don't want the Lord to spew you out of His
mouth, as He said He will, you had better start looking deeply
into your lives and see to it that you have no evil habits that
are going to destroy your minds.
The Lord is very kind to us to warn us, to put men here
with His Spirit upon them to warn us of the dangers that lurk in
our pathways, that we might be able to create that wonderful
desire for salvation, because salvation does not come to
everyone. It only comes to those who will prepare themselves.
And, putting it in the words of our Savior, "He that saith he
loveth Me and keepeth not my commandments is a liar and the
truth is not in him." And, "If you don't keep my commandments I
will destroy you, " says the Father.
I am grateful for this day of preparation. I am grateful
for the wonderful opportunity that the Lord has left us, of
doing something about our salvation. I hope we can clean up our
minds as we have been instructed to do, get out of our minds the
filth that is crammed in there and give the Spirit of God a
chance to work, that we might be prepared when He pours out His
judgments upon the wicked around us.
I pray for wisdom, knowledge and understanding, and I ask
my Father in Heaven to let His Spirit walk with me day and
night.
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that I might be protected from the evils of this time; and that
is what every other man and woman should do. We should not cease
to have a prayer in our hearts that we can discern good from
evil when we see it.
Now, I pray for this people; I pray that we will begin to
humble ourselves more, and get a determined atmosphere, not only
within ourselves but that it might radiate to our families and
homes, that the spirit of evil cannot get in, and that we might
live in peace and enjoy the blessings of heaven while the Lord
pours out His judgments upon the wicked. This is the desire of
my heart and I hope it is yours. May God bless you, I humbly
pray in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
806
SERMON GIVEN BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, JANUARY 6, 1974
SUNDAY, COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
I am grateful for the privilege of being here again this
beautiful day and for this beautiful new year that we have. It
has started off fine, and I hope it continues fine throughout
the year.
I am grateful for the testimony of Jesus Christ, for the
testimony of Joseph the Prophet, Brigham Young, Heber C.
Kimball, John Taylor, those that followed after them. I am
grateful for all the work our Father has commenced in the earth
and for the privileges He has given us. I am grateful for the
life and labors of my father. I am grateful for the privilege of
asking my Father in Heaven to bless me upon this occasion that
His will might be done while I speak to you.
We are truly living in a day of great tribulation
throughout the world. The last few weeks we have heard many
rumors of dangers, not only in our government, but among the
peoples of the earth. We are going to be tried and tested in
every way that the Lord can allow people to be tried. This
people is being tried at this particular hour with the
responsibility of changing over from the ways of the world to
the ways of our Father. He has told us that His ways are not
man's ways, and if we expect to get back into His presence, we
must and shall obey the law. What law? The law that pertains
to the station we wish to attain to in the Celestial Kingdom of
our Father. We are told that within the Celestial Kingdom there
are three heavens or degrees.
Brother J. Golden Kimball made this statement on one
occasion: "I'm not afraid of getting into the Celestial Kingdom
of our Father in Heaven, but what worries me is the station I
attain to when I get there." That is what should worry every
Latter-day Saint. Every Latter-day Saint should be worried about
what station he attains to when he gets into the Celestial
Kingdom. Wives may take you into the Celestial Kingdom, but are
you training those wives so they will be in harmony with you and
take you on into the highest degree of the Celestial Glory and
give you eternal increase? Or are you going to be allowed to
just get through the vail then have
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to go through the ordeal of being separated and find yourself
without a family? What are you going to do?
These women are going to demand great things of their
husbands--some of them at least. You might have one wife and
have many others sealed to you, and you cling to the one wife
and make slaves out of the others. What do you think they are
going to do with you when you get over there? Are they going to
rise up and condemn you because you were unfair to them? Is the
Lord going to be so generous to you that He will exalt your
first wife and destroy the others because they were what you
called disobedient? I am afraid we are going to have to make an
account for the things that we do in this life. If I understand
the principles of righteousness, we are going to have to be
righteous ourselves in order to obtain a righteous judgment.
Women cannot be rebellious then say that they didn't have a
chance to train themselves or be trained and still cling on to
the exaltation that they desire to attain to. They have got to
do something about their salvation. I heard the story told that
a lady came to Brigham Young and told him that she wanted to be
sealed to a certain man. He said, "Do you love him?" She said,
"No, I can't say that I love him, but I do love the principles
that he is trying to live. I want my exaltation through him."
Can you women do that? When you are married, can you live with a
man for the sake of the principles that he is trying to live and
make yourselves do the things that he wants you to do and still
stay true and faithful to him in trying to show to him that
there is a way to exaltation and that you want your salvation
through him enough that he will be forced to love you for the
Gospel's sake and not for the sake of the world? The love that
is spoken of in a worldly way is not the love that is spoken of
by our Father in Heaven, for it is the principles of salvation
that we should love rather than the person. Of course, if we
know that the man is doing all in his power to overcome his
weaknesses and imperfections, we should love him. This goes for
men and women also. Men should love their wives whether they are
obedient or whether they are not. They should be patient and
learn
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to teach them to love the principles of salvation, and not to be
lovers of just the lusts of this world. We have got a job to
do, and let's do it. We live in a day when God is pouring out
His judgments upon the wicked.
We have been cautioned and cautioned again to prepare
ourselves for a bad winter. We have had so many good winters
that we have felt like there wouldn't be a bad one. We have a
storm on today. We don't know what the extent of it will be,
but we can listen to the news and find out that destruction is
going on in this great storm we are enveloped in. The Lord has
said that He would send storms, pestilence, famine and other
conditions upon the earth to destroy the wicked until this land
is wasted of its inhabitants, and only the righteous would be
permitted to remain upon the land. How many righteous are there
among us? How many people can say, "Father, I have done the
best I could, " and have Him believe what we say? Our words
won't save us. It is our actions that will save us--our actions
and our determination to serve God and keep His commandments.
The Lord is not very far away. I find that He answers our
prayers very quickly, sometimes. He said, "Seek me early that I
might be found in your days of trial and tribulation. If you
don't seek me early then I can't be found when you need me."
So, these are the conditions that exist among our people
today. I have seen heavy snow in this country. In the fall of
1935-36, we had a nice fall, really warm and comfortable up to
Christmas day. On Christmas day, it started to snow. We held a
Christmas party here in the old school house. After the party
was over, we had a few inches of snow on the ground. New Year's
day we had three feet of snow on the level. The wind didn't
blow like it did night before last. The snow just came down,
kept coming, and then it turned cold, and the snow laid on the
ground for some time. We had deep snow. The year 1931-32 was
another year that we had deep snow. There were other years in
which we had severe weather. We don't know what is ahead of us.
The winter isn't over. We are only into the middle of our winter
months. What is going
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to happen? We don't know. Let us get the Spirit of God upon us
that when we ask for blessings we can receive them. Let us not
let the destroying angel come in and destroy our people.
The Lord has plainly told us that that is what will happen.
In the days of the Nephites when Christ appeared upon this
continent, it shook the earth. The record tells us that great
tribulation was over the earth for the space of about three
hours. It said that only the more righteous and those that
could be converted were left. So it doesn't take the Lord very
long to clean up. I would like to see every person in this room
today on the side of the Lord and cleaning up their lives.
Every individual has got to do something about it. I can't do
your work for you, or you can't do the work for me. We have got
to do our own work and do it well so that the Lord will be
pleased with us. Now, let us go to and keep the commandments of
God, live our lives, perform our work so that we can call down
the blessings of Heaven upon us in our days of trial.
May God bless you, amen.
810
A SERMON GIVEN BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, JANUARY 13, 1974,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
Again, I want to express my gratitude to the Lord for the
preservation@þMq@þ of my health and strength, and for the
privilege I have of being here this afternoon. I am grateful
for the presence of all those who are here this afternoon, which
ought to be a revelation to anyone to see this wonderful
audience here to receive the instructions that our Father in
Heaven has for us. I hope that we will be able to take what we
have heard and put it into our lives and become a better people.
I trust the few moments I speak that the Lord will put
words in my mouth that we might be instructed, edified, and
built up in our determination to overcome our weaknesses and
imperfections and to become that people that the Lord is trying
to prepare. He has plainly told us that this is a day of
preparation and not a day of many words, a day to prepare
ourselves and to cease to mock Him and His work. I hope we can,
when we read the scriptures, read them with a determination to
have the Spirit of God upon us that we might understand what we
read.
The Lord is very kind to this people. He has labored with
us for many many years to try to teach us the way of eternal
life, and yet, we find along the way that evil creeps into our
minds and our associations one towards another. It is no wonder
that the Lord has said to His servants, "Preach nothing but
repentance to this generation." I find that the more the Lord
gives to us, the greater the responsibility of this charge--to
preach nothing but repentance. I am speaking to a body of
people who all their lives have been taught the most saving
principles of the Gospel that the Lord gave for our exaltation
and eternal life. We are the only people who are being taught
today, those true principles that were given to the Prophet
Joseph Smith; and he was commanded, by the angel, to obey the
principles or be destroyed together with his people, who would
be destroyed if they did not obey. So, we are under this
condemnation. But still we need to be told from Sunday to
Sunday, from month to month, and year to year, to repent of our
sins and learn how to get the Spirit of God and keep it.
People come to me everyday and want instructions on how
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to conduct their lives, and I find that the spirit of contention
is still in the hearts of our people. We contend one against
another. Man and wife contend one against the other. They
throw out great threats one against the other, One won't give
and the other won't give. This is not the spirit of the
Celestial Kingdom. Zion cannot be redeemed only upon the
principles of the Celestial Kingdom. This is going to continue
to be the case until we get educators that will teach the same
principles in our schools that we teach from the stand. When we
have educators who will send our children to the bowels of hell
to get answers to the questions they give them in the school, it
is no wonder we have trials with our young men and women when
they arrive at the age of accountability when they are going out
for themselves. Think it over. They go out with a doubt in
their minds because they have been sent to the wrong source to
get the answers to the questions they have been asked in their
school.
You fathers and mothers should watch how you conduct your
lives around your children and what you teach them. You are
going to have to do it sometime. You just as well start in
while you are young, while you are starting to raise a family.
Commence with the children when they are little and teach them
obedience, teach them how to honor their father and their
mother. One of the ten commandments is: Honor thy father and
thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the
Lord thy God giveth thee.
We have got to have teachers that will do the same thing.
Our teachers have to be educated by the Gentiles; and as they
come to teach our children they have got to give up the Gentile
methods and change over to the method of righteousness, that our
children might continue to be taught and brought up in
righteousness, that they might be prepared against the day of
visitation.
We have plenty of history without going to the Gentiles and
those who hate the Priesthood and Mormonism to find the answers.
We have plenty of history that is true, as far as it can be.
Then why go to apostates to get the answers to our questions,
when we can get a truthful answer from the right source and
build up a
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people that God can use? Let us hang on to the faith that was
once delivered to the saints. I pray that the Lord will bless
us with wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. When we read the
scriptures, let us read them with a determination to know what
we are reading and what we are reading about.
(D.& C. Section 12)
"A great and marvelous work is about to come forth among
the children of men.
Behold, I am God; give heed to my word, which is quick and
powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword, to the dividing
asunder of both joints and marrow; therefore, give heed
unto my words."
I wonder how many of us take lightly these words. The Lord says
in another place, "My word shall be obeyed or you shall be
destroyed."
"Behold, the field is white already to harvest; therefore,
whoso desireth to reap let him thrust in his sickle with
his might, and reap while the day lasts, that he may
treasure up for his soul everlasting salvation in the
kingdom of God."
This doesn't say that all who desire to preach the Gospel
to our neighbors should go out to preach the Gospel to our
neighbors. This means that we should seek to save this soul
that is reading the scriptures. That is what it means.
"Yea, whosoever will thrust in his sickle and reap, the
same is called of God. "
Do we get it? What is he called of God for? He is called of
God to repent of his sins and prepare himself for a glorious
resurrection.
"Therefore, if you will ask of me you shall receive; if you
will knock it shall be opened unto you.
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Now, as you have asked, behold, I say unto you, keep my
commandments, and seek to bring forth and establish the
cause of Zion."
Can you get the picture?
"Behold, I speak unto you, and also to all those who have
desires to bring forth and establish this work;
And no one can assist in this work except he shall be
humble and full of love, having faith, hope, and charity,
being temperate in all things, whatsoever shall be
entrusted to his care.
Behold, I am the light and the life of the world, that
speak these words, therefore, give heed with your might,
then you are called. Amen."
We are told again that this Gospel is unto all men. It
makes no difference what their color or creed is or where they
live. If they will repent of their sins and keep the
commandments of God, the Lord will bless them. It doesn't make
any difference whether we live upon the isles of the sea,
whether we live on one end of the earth or the other, all men
have a right to work out their salvation in fear and trembling
before our God.
It is true that we have got to be gathered. When the
Spirit of God rests upon a man, if he lives on the isles of the
sea, sooner or later he will get the spirit of gathering, and he
will gather with the saints. He will travel the world over
until he finds them. Many people have been brought into the
Gospel of Jesus Christ and had administered to them the
ordinance of baptism. Afterward, they have been moved upon by
the Spirit of God to gather with the saints. I wouldn't be here
if this weren't the case. My father was a loner. He left his
father's house and came west to get well, because he had a
disease that the doctors told him would take his life. Where
did the Lord lead him? He led him to the home of Brigham Young.
He got his teachings from Brigham Young.
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Then his father disowned him. He told him when he went back to
see him that he could come as a stranger, but not as his son.
Why? Because he had joined the Mormons. Why was he gathered?
The Spirit of God worked upon him. He might not have known it
then, but he bore testimony of it afterwards. And he lived the
fullness of the Gospel.
The Gospel is true. God means what He says when He says,
"Repent and be baptized and receive the gifts of the Holy
Ghost." Let us do it! Let us repent and receive the gifts of
the Holy Ghost that have been promised to us through being
baptized by immersion for the remission of sins. Let us round
out our lives and see to it that we serve God and keep His
commandments continually. Let us teach our children that there
is no other way. There is no other way to salvation only
through the ordinances of the Holy Priesthood as they are given
to them from time to time by the servants of God.
Let all men beware how they take the name of the Lord in
their lips. For He has said that all those who take His name in
their lips in vain are under condemnation and will lose their
salvation. Remember this, I humbly pray, in the name of Jesus
Christ, amen.
815
A SERMON GIVEN BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, JANUARY 20, 1974,
SUNDAY, IN SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
I am grateful, my brothers and sisters, for this wonderful
opportunity again of standing before you in health and strength.
I am grateful for the way the Lord has preserved this people and
brought you together in order to hear the word of God again.
The only desire of this Council is to keep before the Latter-day
Saints the truths of the everlasting Gospel as they have been
given to us by our former leaders. We are grateful for the
opportunity that God has given us to be able to convey to you
the principles of salvation, for you will find it nowhere else
in the earth today, only among this Priesthood circle.
I am grateful for the testimonies that God has given us of
the truthfulness of the mission of our great Prophet, Joseph
Smith, and for the lives and labors of those who followed after
him in the Priesthood line. I am grateful for their lives and
labors and for the testimonies that they bore, for the
prophecies that they uttered, and for the privilege we have as
Latter-day Saints to live in a day when we have seen them
fulfilled literally under our eyes. For we are living in a day
of fulfillment of prophecy. Some of those prophecies have been
called to our attention this afternoon. There are many that
haven't been. We are living in a day of fulfillment of prophecy
as well as entering into a day that all the prophets of God
throughout the ages of time have wished to live and see. When
Christ visited the people on this continent after His
crucifixion, great destruction came upon this land. Many
thousands of people lost their lives. They were swept away
because of wickedness. The record tells us that only those who
were more righteous among them were saved. This experience
lasted in the memories of the people for two hundred years
before they began to fall away again from the original Gospel of
Jesus Christ.
This time, the prophets have told us, and the Lord has told
us through the mouths of the prophets, conditions will come upon
the earth that we will remember for a thousand years, and we
will have a thousand years of peace to give God a chance to
accomplish His work. This is the continent upon which He has
designated the
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fulfillment of this prophecy. We are entering into the time
right now, so says the Prophet Joseph Smith, for a greater
destruction than has ever been seen upon this land before. Are
we going to believe him? Are we going to sit by and say, "Oh,
this is nothing. I have heard this all my life, and it hasn't
come yet."
I have lived about as long as the rest of you, and I have
heard it all my life; but I still believe it will be
accomplished in our day. Maybe we think that it can't be. The
record tells us that this continent was prepared to receive
Christ in the space of about three hours. Again, the record
tells us that it took some two hundred years of continual
fighting to accomplish the words of the prophets. So, what man
can say that these things will happen quickly? Can you even
imagine how long it might take to prepare this continent of ours
for the rise of Zion, for the return of the ten tribes of
Israel, for the redemption of Zion, for the setting up of the
Kingdom of God in its glory, and the accomplishment of the
things that we have been told here this afternoon?
When these men were speaking this afternoon, my mind went
back to the time of that man, Moroni, that glorious angel that
brought forth the record that we have of the ancient Nephites
and Jaredites, and where they came from and how they got here.
And yet, the world is trying to prove that these records are not
true. This is what the old prophet said: (Moroni 10:1-5)
"Now I, Moroni, write somewhat as seemeth me good; and I
write unto my brethren, the Lamanites; and I would that
they should know that more than four hundred and twenty
years have passed away since the sign was given of the
coming of Christ."
So, here is the length of time that it took. The record tells
us that when two hundred years had passed away, the people began
to build up churches unto themselves and to be divided into
clans and tribes. When the Prophet Mormon went before the Lord
and asked Him if he could go out and preach repentance, He told
him, "No, they won't believe me, and they won't believe you."
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"And I seal up these records, after I have spoken a few
words by the way of exhortation unto you.
Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these
things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them,
that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto
the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down
unto the time that ye shall receive these things, and
ponder it in your hearts.
And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you
that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of
Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask
with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in
Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the
power of the Holy Ghost.
And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of
all things."
When these men were speaking this afternoon, I thought of
these words. How wonderful it would be if this audience would
go home and ponder upon the things that they have heard this
afternoon; and if you have a doubt, get down on your knees and
ask God, having faith to know for yourself whether they be true
or not. He will manifest it unto you if you are sincere in your
determination to do something about your salvation.
Now, I pray that God will bless us with wisdom, knowledge,
and understanding, that we might be built up in our faith, and
in our determination to do something about our salvation, that
we might rid our minds of all the trash that might be in there
and put into our minds the revelations of God as they are
contained in these books, so that we can bring them forth
unadulterated, that we might all come to a knowledge of the
truth and have a firm understanding of what we read. May God
bless you, I humbly pray, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
818
SERMON GIVEN BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, FEBRUARY 10, 1974,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
I assure you, my brothers and sisters, that I greatly feel
my inability to fill the position I stand in. Being a mortal
being, I am still under the same fight that other men and women
are. My spirit still fights this body of mine to overcome it to
the point where it can be acceptable to the Lord. I trust that
the few moments I speak I will be led by the Spirit of God, that
He will put words in my mouth that I might speak the right
thing.
The more I study and the longer I live, the greater the
responsibility of perfecting this life rests upon me. When I go
over the scriptures, I am brought to realize more fully the
importance of the Lord speaking to us as He does, has in the
past, and will in the future, to try to impress upon our minds
that there is only one way to perfect our lives and bring us
back into His presence. That is to continue this fight between
the spirit and the body.
Our spirits are eternal, and they have no end. Our bodies
are mortal, and they can be taken away from us, or we can obtain
them throughout the generations of the eternities. So this is
the great responsibility that impresses itself upon my
mind--whether I am going to be able to satisfy the Lord in the
way I live upon this earth and prepare myself for an eternal
salvation.
We have a great responsibility upon our shoulders, my dear
brothers and sisters, each and everyone. Some are impressed
when they are young, in their tender years. They try in a weak
way to do the things that they are asked to do to prepare
themselves for a glorious resurrection. Others are full of life
and vigor and want to have a good time while they live. They
seem to care nothing about what transpires after we leave this
earth. Some defy the counsel of their fathers, the Priesthood
fathers as well as their earthly fathers, when they are
cautioned to do right and shun evil thinking that possibly
sometime the Lord will be gracious to them and overlook their
faults and failings, and they can make up for lost time.
Someone who spoke today told us that in the Celestial
Kingdom there are three heavens and degrees and in each heaven
or
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degree there are many mansions. The Lord tells us that we might
be able to get into the Celestial Kingdom, but unless we obey
the law that gives us the right to go into the highest degree of
glory, we will get the lesser and that is as far as we can go.
We are called upon then to be servants to men who do go, who do
live lives of eternal salvation. Sometime those who don't make
the grade will have to give up the bodies they have, which is
called the second death. The Lord says that only those who are
partakers of this second death know the agony and the misery and
the anxiety that they have to go through in order for their
bodies to be taken away from them. So, the thing that we want
is to attain to a glory where we will be safe from these great
agonies and miseries. We can get it if we want it. If we want
it bad enough, we can get it. If we just want a Celestial glory
no matter where it might be, we can get that, too.
I heard J. Golden Kimball speaking upon this subject one
time. He said, "I am not worried about getting into the
Celestial Kingdom, but what worries me is the station I will
attain to after I get there." I believe he meant what he said.
He was worried. It should worry every man and woman and child.
They should worry about where they are going enough to do
something about it. I don't think they should lay and worry all
the time and not do something about it.
We have many obstacles to meet in this life. When we are
growing up, we have our playmates to deal with. If we are
taught right, we might be able to come through it in a way that
we can go on and fill our missions in the earth. But if we have
to give way to the enticings of evil and partake of it and our
parents are not careful with us, then we lose the way. We have
to do some other way.
I find in my daily work that it is a constant labor to know
just what to do to help our boys and girls to find the way. I
find that in many instances the parents are willing to
co-operate and give what assistance they can to direct their
children aright. Others rebel. If you correct a child, parents
are riled in their
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feelings. That couldn't happen to their children. So, in these
cases it is hard to know what to do. It is the constant
responsibility of every man and woman that is raising a family
to do everything that they can do to guide and direct their
children in the right way and get them to shun evil, because
after they begin to arrive at the age of accountability, if they
haven't had the support of their fathers and mothers, then it is
a double, shall I say, responsibility on the Priesthood to try
to direct them aright. Once in a while we can get a boy to
repent, but there are a lot more. After they arrive at the age
of eighteen and twenty, there are a lot more who continue to go
down the road and demand their own free agency, they call it.
All we can do is teach and train and try to direct aright, but
we can't force them. As has been stated here today, we cannot
force anyone to accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Christ told the Prophet Joseph to go and bear this
testimony to the world, and all who would believe and obey His
commandments would be saved, and those who would not believe
would be damned. So it is just that easy to be sloughed off.
If a person will take the right course and bind Satan quickly in
their lives, early in their lives, then the road is easy. It is
not hard to follow the dictations of the Spirit of God if we
know how to get it and keep it. The Lord has been trying to
train us for many years. Ever since I have been acquainted with
this work, it has been impressed upon my mind more vividly than
any other time in my life, that if I would do the things that
would bring the Spirit of God into my life and keep it and keep
myself in a position to keep it, I could travel the roads
without too much opposition. I might have the opposition, but I
know when it comes, so I know how to fight it. That is what
every other individual can do, if they want it; but they have
got to want it before they can get it.
I can tell it quicker than I can find it and read it.
Moroni says if you will read this book with a mind to understand
it and ask God in faith to reveal to you whether it is true or
not, He will reveal it to you. He will reveal the truthfulness
of it
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to you. That is the way you have got to get the Spirit of
God--ask for it in faith. The Prophet Joseph Smith said when he
went into the woods to pray that he knelt down feeling sure that
the Lord would answer his prayer. So, he received a wonderful
revelation for it. That story was left to us to help us
understand how to get the Spirit of God and keep it. We can go
back as far as James and read the same scripture that the
Prophet Joseph read. "He that lacketh wisdom let him ask of God.
Let him ask in faith nothing wavering, and it shall be given
him."
We might say we are going to take a trip to Salt Lake City.
We are not used to praying every day with our family, but we are
going on this trip and we want the Lord to bless us. So, we
call our family around, kneel down, and ask the Lord to bless us
on our trip. First thing we know, if we are not careful, we
allow this thought to come in our minds--now I don't know what
will happen on this trip, whether the Lord will bless us or not.
Just that moment you have lost the protection of the blessing,
because you have told the Lord you don't know whether He will do
it or not. We have got to be firm in our determination to
obtain the blessing.
We can read these scriptures and the Lord promises us many
many blessings if we will do right. But in all the blessings
that He has given men as an example for us to know and
understand, we find that He requires the preparation before He
gives the blessing. He does not bestow the blessing upon them
and then figure that they will prepare themselves later. Go
through the scriptures and see if that isn't true. So, if I
want a blessing from the Lord, I have to prepare myself to
receive it. When I look back over my life and see what has
happened in it, I can't think of a blessing that I asked the
Lord for and I received it but what He put me to a test before I
got the blessing. You can go through your life and find the
same thing. He has tested me out many times, and I find this to
be the truth. I have heard other men bear testimony to the same
thing.
When the old Patriarch laid his hands upon my head and
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gave me a blessing, he said, "You received a wonderful blessing,
my boy; remember this, you have got to live for it. You have
got to prepare yourself to receive it before the Lord can bestow
it upon you." Now I look back over my blessing and I see it has
been almost completely fulfilled. There is a little more to
come. I don't see how I can receive it unless I can prepare
myself to receive it, because I didn't receive a blessing that
was given me in that Patriarchal blessing but what I had to work
for it. I had to prepare myself to receive it, and the Lord put
some pretty severe testing upon me.
That is what this life is. We are going through a testing
everyday. We get up in the morning, and we ask the Lord to
bless us through the day. At night, if you just stop long
enough to look back over the day and see what has transpired in
your life, you can see how the Lord protected you.
Driving down the street in Phoenix one time, I saw three or
four boys walking along the sidewalk. I had Uncle Bill with me
in the car. The boys were down the road as far as from here to
the end of this building ahead of us. I said, "Uncle Bill,
watch those boys." The Spirit of the Lord told me to keep that
car under control. We drove down the road and when we got as
close as from here to these children on the front row, the
outside boy hit the others and knocked two of them right out in
front of my car. If I hadn't had my foot on the brake and
stopped--it stopped within inches--it would have hit one of
them. Uncle Bill said, "How did you know what those boys were
going to do?" I said, "I know when the Lord speaks." Many of you
have had the same experience. Sometimes you have heeded the
experience, and sometimes you haven't. That is when you have
had the trouble.
These are the things that the Priesthood are trying to get
before the minds of the people to get us to realize that we have
got something to do. The Lord has placed a great responsibility
upon the Priesthood Council in this day. That responsibility is
to prepare a people to be used by the One Mighty and Strong when
he comes to set the House of God in order. He asked
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for five hundred once, but He needs a lot more than that. He is
going to have to have them. That is one reason that the
Priesthood is continually harping and harping upon repentance.
Now, I pray that the Lord will bless us with wisdom,
knowledge, and understanding, because that is what we have got
to have. We have got to have knowledge enough to know when God
is whispering to us, and when Satan is whispering to us. We
have got to know what to teach our children and what not to
teach them. We have got to put before every boy and girl a
desire in their infancy to serve God and keep His commandments
and instill it there, and see to it that when they do wrong we
don't sympathize with them, but help them out of their troubles,
and help them to see the mistakes that they have made.
Now, I pray God to bless us that we might go on and fulfill
the measure of our creation in righteousness, I humbly pray in
the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
824
A SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, FEBRUARY 17,
1974,
SUNDAY, IN SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
I am grateful for the privilege of being here today, my
brothers and sisters, I am grateful for the testimonies that
have been borne. Brother Timpson was inspired this afternoon to
hit upon the key for the sermons of this meeting. I am grateful
for the privilege of seeing so many people at this time who are
seeking for their salvation; for I don't think there is a man or
woman in the room who isn't very greatly concerned for their
salvation and how they are going to prepare themselves for it.
I know that this has concerned me for many years, and I am
grateful for the Lord leading me to the feet of the Priesthood
when He did.
When I study the scriptures and see what the Lord has said
about righteous living and seeking after righteousness, I think
it is a most wonderful opportunity He has left His children here
in the earth. He certainly did leave with the Prophet Joseph
Smith His word concerning His children in the latter days. They
wouldn't listen to Him in former days; they wouldn't listen to
Him in the meridian of time; but now, we are right at the end of
time. We are living in the Saturday afternoon of the earth's
probation. So we are living in a time when the Lord is going to
accomplish His work. He is going to bring to an end man's will
in the earth, and establish His own will for the purpose of
perfecting His work throughout the generations of time. All the
faithful, so He says, from the beginning to the end will be
rewarded for their faithfulness. All the faithful will be
gathered together and receive their reward.
We think that the Lord is far away, but He isn't so far
away but what He can hear you. He can hear you when you pray,
or else why did He answer the Prophet Joseph so quickly when he
went into the woods to pray? Did you ever think upon it? He
has asked us to pray continually that we might have His Spirit
with us, that we might get it and keep it. We have had this
sermon given to us throughout the history of this work. Not in
the same words maybe, but they have been there. He said, pray
night and day that my Spirit might continue with you. This has
been given to us throughout the history of time.
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Now, we say, Get the Spirit of God and keep it. All we
have to do is to search the scriptures, and we will find the
same thing has been offered to us throughout our lives, but we
have been dilatory in putting them into practice, that's all.
The time has come now when we have got to do something about it
or be sloughed off, as has been said here this afternoon.
I am greatly pleased, my brothers and sisters, with the
effort that is being put forth to arrange our lives so that we
can be used in the establishment of righteousness in the earth.
I am glad it is beginning to take hold of the minds of the
youth, for I am speaking to an audience of young men and young
women. We don't have very many old among us. There are not any
as old as they were in Enoch's time, that Brother Guy has been
telling us about. I want to tell you, your life depends upon the
degree of righteousness you develop in your youth.
In the early stages of this work, men lived for many
hundreds of years. Now we think if we live to be a hundred
years old, we are old. We are not capable of going on any
farther. This can be overcome through righteous living. If you
young men and women will commence now in your youth to serve the
God of Heaven and keep His commandments and throw off the ways
of the world and commence to live like God wants us to live, you
will find your lives will begin to lengthen out.
The Lord has said that during the Millennial Reign, babes
will be born, and they will live to the age of a tree. Why?
Because they will learn how to serve the God of Heaven instead
of serving the god of Baal.
We have been sent here to obtain mortal bodies and to learn
how to purify them and take them back into the presence of our
Father in a purified condition, which means that the spirit must
subdue the body and not allow the body to subdue the spirit. So
if we can do that, then our bodies will stay with us throughout
the generations of time, throughout the eternities. We cannot
be added upon and go on throughout the eternities of time
without a body. We have to have it, and we can't obtain an
impure body. We have to have a
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purified body. That is the purpose of life. So let us search
the scriptures; let us dig deep into them and apply to our lives
the saving principles that God has left us in this day. Let us
go on and obtain a Celestial Glory in the kingdoms of our
Father.
I pray for wisdom, knowledge, and understanding to settle
upon the saints, each and every one, old and young, that they
might be added upon, that they might be able to save themselves
and those around them; and let the Spirit of God so shine upon
us that the outside world might wonder what is taking place,
that the honest in heart might be touched throughout the world,
and that they might seek after the Gospel that the Lord has
offered to us for our eternal salvation. May God bless us, I
humbly pray in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
827
SERMON GIVEN BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, FEBRUARY 24, 1974
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
Again, I am glad to be here and hear what I have heard
today. I am glad to have a knowledge of the truthfulness of the
Gospel of Jesus Christ and how He worked and what He did in the
earth. This world has been in operation now for almost six
thousand years, and we are just about to enter into the
commencement of the seventh thousand years in the generations of
time according to man's reckoning. The Lord has promised us
that He would make the seventh thousand years a period of peace
upon the earth. He said that babes would be born and live to
the age of a tree during this period of time. That is something
similar to the first period of time that we have any history of.
We understand that Adam lived nine hundred and thirty years
before he was taken away. Other men lived to a great old age.
The Lord has tried to prepare a people many times to bring
about His purposes in the earth. When a people have been
established in the Gospel and then begin to dwindle away in
unbelief, right then the Lord begins to lay a foundation whereby
His work might be continued in the earth. We find that this has
been the case since Christ made His appearance upon this
continent. Many generations before Christ's time, the Lord told
His prophets and the people that this was a choice land above
all other lands, and the people that lived here would be a
God-fearing people and serve the God of the land, or when they
were ripened in iniquity, He would have to destroy them. The
history tells us of two great nations that rose up on this
continent. One was completely destroyed; but right then the
Lord began to lay the foundation for the fulfillment of the
prophecies, of the covenants that He made with our old father
Abraham--namely that through him and his seed all the nations of
the earth would be blessed. The Lord had a wonderful way of
scattering the blood of this great man throughout the nations of
the earth.
All we need to do is go to the Book of Mormon and commence
to read; we will find out what the lineage of our father Lehi
was and those who came over with him to this great land, and how
He preserved the lineage of Abraham. We come down to the great
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patriarch, Isaac; and the Lord reiterated the covenant with him.
He did it to Isaac's son, Jacob. This people that occupied this
country when Christ was here was a remnant of Jacob. While
Christ was here, He told that people what their mission would
be. He told them that they would dwindle in unbelief if they
disobeyed His counsel, and that the Gentiles would move in upon
this land and they would scatter those people, a remnant of
Jacob.
We have had many sermons preached to us and many warnings,
not only by the immediate Council of the Priesthood, but by our
prophet, Joseph Smith, and those who followed after him in the
Priesthood. They have told us of the great destructions that
would come upon this land except they repented and accepted the
Gospel of Jesus Christ. Today we find ourselves in a very
precarious situation. Christ told the Nephites that the time
would come when a remnant of Jacob would be permitted to go
through the Gentiles and tread them down and tear them in
pieces, and none can deliver.
If I can paint just a little picture here, I would like you
to go back to the commencement of the Gentiles coming in upon
this nation and see what has been done by them to subdue the
people that they found upon this goodly land. Finally, they had
to make peace with them--some way. But before the Lamanite
people knew what had taken place, the Gentiles were established
on the continent. The Gentiles couldn't spread out until they
made concessions with the Lamanites. This ended in killing and
putting the Lamanites on reservations. They held them there.
We read about the bondage of the children of Israel, but we have
been slow to recognize the bondage of the remnant of Jacob upon
our own land. The Lord's work was not frustrated. What is
taking place today is because of the wisdom of men. It isn't
that the wisdom of God has diminished, but when this conflict is
over, we will find that it is the wisdom of men that has failed.
I would like you people to look at this picture now and see what
you can get out of it.
A couple of years ago a man led some Lamanites into a
library in Washington, took the records out, destroyed the
inside of the building, and nothing was done about it. There
might have been a few people arrested, but that is as far as we
have heard
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anything about it. We had an incident at Wounded Knee. These
things were all feelers to see what could be done. Now it has
continued to extend until the whole United States and also
Canada will be affected. And I suppose these other nations in
the south, also. I am interested right now in these two great
nations--United States and Canada. I want you to get your maps
and find out where the oil wells are. Who owns them? Who owns
the land upon which the oil wells are located? Most of the oil
fields are located on Indian property. Who has been receiving
the benefits from those oil wells? The Indians have been given
this land by treaty. Then the government has construed the
treaty to suit their own fancy, and this is where the trouble
is. These boys, some of them, have been educated.
Sometime during 1954 when we were before the courts of the
state of Arizona, the Lord opened the way for our deliverance.
He instructed His servant to remind the lawyers that there was a
clause on their books that would keep them from adopting out our
children. They found it. Up until this time, every child that
was born on the Navajo reservation was taken away from its
mother and adopted out--scattered here and there throughout the
land. I don't know how far back this practice had been indulged
in, but that was the case when our people were taken in. But
when the Lord brought this thing to light, this traffic in
Navajo babies was stopped. Since that time, the Navajos have
increased rapidly.
The government has educated many of our Lamanite people. We
will find that the Lamanite blood, (if you want to go that far)
you will find that it dominates our Congresses in both
countries. These boys are not dumb. Just read your Book of
Mormon. The Lord has promised there that He would throw down
their strongholds, destroy their chariots, destroy their cities
and so forth, and the remnant of Jacob would walk through and
tread them down and none could deliver.
I understand that we have a new law in Canada at the
present time. I haven't heard of it before. One of our boys in
Creston went to build a house on a piece of our property. A
fellow stepped up and said, "What are you going to do?" "I am
going to build a
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house here. This piece of ground belongs to me, and I am going
to build a house." He said, "No, you can't build a house." So
one of our men went down to the courthouse to get a copy of the
law to see what was up. He called me on the phone and read the
law to me. No man can subdivide his property for the purpose of
someone else building a home upon it. If he has a residence
upon the property, that is all that can be built there. Then
you take a look at the oil situation in our own land. This
extends into Canada, too. For all the oil wells in Canada are
on Indian property by treaty. You will find that to be the case
in the United States.
If you can get the picture, you can see what is in the
making in our nation at the present time. Now, this is a decree
of God, that He would prepare this goodly land for the
Millennial Reign. And He is protecting it. We think that the
Gospel has been preached to all people, but this is what the
Savior said to the Nephite people: (Third Nephi, 21:20-26)
"For it shall come to pass, saith the Father, that at
that day whosoever will not repent and come unto my Beloved
Son, them will I cut off from among my people, O house of
Israel;
And I will execute vengeance and fury upon them, even
as upon the heathen, such as they have not heard.
But if they will repent and hearken unto my words, and
harden not their hearts, I will establish my church among
them, and they shall come in unto the covenant and be
numbered among this the remnant of Jacob, unto whom I have
given this land for their inheritance;
And they shall assist my people, the remnant of Jacob,
and also as many of the house of Israel as shall come, that
they may build a city, which shall be called the New
Jerusalem.
And then shall they assist my people that they may be
gathered in, who are scattered upon all the face of the
land, in unto the New Jerusalem.
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And then shall the power of heaven come down among
them; and I also will be in the midst.
And then shall the work of the Father commence at that
day, even when this gospel shall be preached among the
remnant of this people. Verily I say unto you, at that day
shall the work of the Father commence among all the
dispersed of my people, yea, even the tribes which have
been lost, which the Father hath led away out of
Jerusalem."
Anyhow, if the picture I see is not right, then the Lord has
another way. And if He does, so be it. But I can see in this
thing the winding up of the reign of the Gentile people upon
this goodly country of ours. The Lord has preserved the remnant
of Jacob. There are some of them that cannot be controlled, but
the only reason that they cannot be controlled is because they
are determined in their minds not to be controlled. So, they
have secluded themselves into various parts of the earth, and
they are waiting--patiently waiting--and teaching their children
to wait patiently, because they know that they have been
promised a day of vengeance upon their captive kings. The Lord
has allowed His people to be driven. He has allowed them to be
scourged to try them out to see what they would do with what He
has brought upon them.
I want to warn our people against condemning that which is
taking place upon the earth today. Remember that this is God's
work, and He has offered you and me an opportunity to serve Him
and keep His commandments. He has placed the Priesthood here to
guide you and direct you. You have no business to interfere
with the work of the Gentiles, or the Lord's work and what He is
trying to do.
We don't think much of this little gas scare we got. You
might not today, but what do you think next week will bring?
next month? This thing may linger out for several years. It
took two hundred years after the Nephites began to war one
against the other before the Nephites were all destroyed. It
took about that long
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to destroy the Jaredite people when they were fighting one
against the other. So, we know not how long we are going to
have to wait for our deliverance. We are still in bondage, my
brothers and sisters, and we will remain there until we repent
and remember the new covenant--the Book of Mormon and the other
commandments and learn how to apply them to our lives.
Our time is far spent. I pray that God will bless us with
wisdom and knowledge and understanding. And I hope that you can
get in your hearts the reason for the servants of God bearing
down against the evil in this place. It has got to be stamped
out if we want to obtain the blessings of our Father in heaven
upon us. Now, let us look to it in the light of truth and
righteousness.
May God bless you, amen.
833
A SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, MARCH 3, 1974,
SUNDAY, IN SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
I am grateful, my brothers and sisters, for the privilege
of being here today and hearing what I have heard. I am
grateful for the testimonies that have been borne. I am
grateful for the testimonies of these young ladies that I have
known ever since I have been acquainted with this work. I am
grateful for the testimonies of these young men and for the
testimony of President Hammon. I feel greatly humble this
afternoon in trying to edify you further, and I ask the Lord to
put words in my mouth that I might say something that will be
edifying to you as well as building up my own faith.
When I reflect back over the years that I have been
acquainted with this work and have watched the growth in numbers
that have gathered around the Priesthood, it fills my heart with
joy to know there is someone thinking about their salvation; for
truly we are living in a day when we need to do something about
getting close to the Lord and getting His Spirit and keeping it.
When I look upon this wonderful congregation here today and
think of the one in Colorado City which would be almost as large
as this one, also the gathering in Canada and the saints in
Mexico, then I think upon the many people who are scattered to
and fro in the earth that are interested in their salvation and
are trying to find a way to get the Lord to smile upon them and
lead them to the feet of the Priesthood, I can't help but marvel
at how the Lord has worked around to bring so many people to
hear the words of the servants of God.
I have here a copy of the TRUTH Magazine. These Magazines
together with the Journals of Discourses have been published and
scattered in all the libraries of the United States. I don't
know but what they have been sent to foreign nations and placed
in the libraries of the nations of the earth where people can
get them and read them. There is no doubt in my mind that many
people are thinking about what they have read from these books.
The Lord has worked a wonder in the earth.
In 1954 when we began to think about getting the Journals
of Discourses reprinted, the Lord provided a way to accomplish
this great work. When I think upon how these books were
scattered, I
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marvel again. When we began to think about getting the Journals
reprinted, we went to the printers of this great state of ours
and tried to get them to reprint them for us. But we met with
reverses. "We don't want those books reprinted." So we had to go
to the Gentiles to get them reprinted. We had to go to Los
Angeles to a printing firm there who was waited upon by our
Latter-day Saint leaders and advised not to print them. One of
the men was touched in his heart by the Spirit of God, and he
refused to comply with the request that was made of him. When
we approached him again, he was in the frame of mind of going
through with it regardless of what opposition he had. So, we
found a friend to help us to get these books before the world.
The Lord opened the way. He opened the way to obtain the
money to get them on their way to reprint. But He did leave a
great portion of that expense upon the people who had gathered
around the Priesthood. Thanks to our Heavenly Father and to the
people who came to the aid of the Priesthood in doing this great
work, for it is the greatest missionary work that has been
accomplished since the days of the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Someday we will see the results of it, for there are many honest
in heart throughout the world who when they are convinced of the
truthfulness of these sermons will repent of their sins and be
protected in this great conflict that is right ahead of us.
In my study of the history of Christ's work among the
Nephite people, and when I see the great destruction that took
place at His coming and the many millions of people that were
killed, many great cities that were destroyed, I can't help but
believe that the Lord is doing what He said He would do. He
said He would do a mighty work and a wonder in the latter days
among the people to convince them of the truthfulness of the
Gospel of Jesus Christ. I believe this is in process at the
present time.
When I read the words of Christ to the Nephites and I find
that these benighted Indians that we see roaming the earth are a
remnant of the House of Jacob, I marvel at what is taking place
today. If I could just arouse your thinking to get the picture
of what is taking place right under our eyes. I have seen this
picture for
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some time; I have spoken upon it. When I picked up this
morning's paper and began to look through it, I found that the
evidence is coming forth of the truthfulness of what I have
seen.
I will tell you just a little of what I have been told. I
have been told that in Canada, they have made a law that all the
land is considered agricultural. The ecology groups of people
have been successful in getting legislation through the Congress
setting aside all public and private lands in Canada. It is
against the law at the present time to attach a house to the
land in Canada. What I mean by this is, that you can't put a
foundation on the ground and build a house on it. You can't
build a basement and put a house over it. They will allow you
to put a house on wheels, pull it on to a piece of ground, and
live on it. For what reason, I don't know. But I saw in this
morning's paper that they are trying to set aside as wilderness
territory some three million acres of public lands in the State
of Utah. BLM land, any other government land, and private owned
land, is being set apart for wilderness territory. Can we see
what is going on? The next step will be to forbid us building a
house or putting it on a foundation. It has already happened to
our neighbors. Can we stop it? We haven't been able to stop
them from setting aside certain portions of the country as
wilderness.
Down in Colorado City, we tried to petition Congress to
keep the wilderness boys from obtaining our mountain land right
around our town and setting it aside as a wilderness area. Do
you know what the Congress told us? "You are fighting a losing
fight. It has been decided by Congress that this particular
area should be declared a wilderness area. Therefore, your
petition has been turned down." Now, this comes out in the
paper. If you don't have a Tribune, you ought to buy one of
this date and read it. There is a lot of good information in
there to tell you what is going on in the United States as well
as in the world. It might open the minds of some of you people,
and it might help to convince you that what the servants of God
have been trying to get before you are not idle words.
We are living in a time when great stress covers the earth,
and great tribulation is just ahead for our people. (Sec. 131)
"In the celestial glory there are three heavens or
degrees; and in order to obtain the highest, a man must
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enter into this order of the Priesthood, meaning the new
and everlasting covenant of marriage;
And if he does not, he cannot obtain it.
He may enter into the other but that is the end of his
kingdom; he cannot have an increase. "
My brothers and sisters, this Gospel is true. The work of God
is necessary for our salvation. We cannot go through life and
think that after a while we can repent. The Lord has left us
many many examples in the Doctrine & Covenants of what He
expects of His people. Every man that receives the Priesthood is
put under a great responsibility of working out his own
salvation. Time and time again the Lord has said these words:
"A great and marvelous work is about to come forth
among the children of men.
Behold, I am God; give heed to my word, which is quick
and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword, to the
dividing asunder of both joints and marrow; therefore give
heed unto my word."
Now, He was speaking to Hyrum Smith, brother of the Prophet.
Then He goes on to tell him to thrust in his sickle and reap
while the day lasts.
"Yea, whosoever will thrust in his sickle and reap,
the same is called of God."
He is speaking to nobody but Hyrum Smith. But He is not calling
Hyrum Smith to go out and preach to somebody else. He is trying
to get him to save his own soul. He said the same thing to
Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, Martin Harris, and others. Many
people have read these words and have taken license of their own
calling and gone out to preach to other people, trying to
convert other people before they have saved their own soul.
This is what the revelation means: If we labor all our lives and
save save it be one soul, how great will be our reward in
Heaven.
Let us not try to save somebody else until we can save
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our own soul, until we know that we have been called to do so,
and that, by the authority that the Lord has provided in the
earth to call a man to preach. He even tells us that no man has
the right to preach the Gospel to another man unless he has been
called by the proper authority to do so.
Let's read again a little: (Sec. 63)
"For this is a day of warning, and not a day of many
words. For I, the Lord, am not to be mocked in the last
days.
Behold, I am from above, and my power lieth beneath.
I am over all, and in all, and through all, and search all
things, and the day cometh that all things shall be subject
unto me.
Behold, I am Alpha and Omega, even Jesus Christ.
Wherefore, let all men beware how they take my name in
their lips-For behold, verily I say, that many there be who are
under this condemnation, who use the name of the Lord, and
use it in vain, having not authority.
Wherefore, let the church repent of their sins, and I,
the Lord, will own them; otherwise they shall be cut off.
Remember that that which cometh from above is sacred
and must be spoken with care, and by constraint of the
spirit; and in this there is no condemnation, and ye
receive the Spirit through prayer; wherefore, without this
there remaineth condemnation."
So, the Lord is very strict, my brothers and sisters, in giving
His word, and how many of us are there that can say that we do
not take the name of the Lord in vain. This is one of the great
sins among our people. We gather together in our Sunday Schools
and different places and partake of the Sacrament and witness
before the Lord that we will not sin any more, but that we will
seek to keep His
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commandments that His Spirit might always be with us; then we go
out and speak evil one against another. We allow our feelings
to be riled up and hurt and we voice our feelings. Do we take
the name of the Lord in vain?
There are many ways that we can displease the Lord; and
once the Spirit of the Lord leaves us, it is hard to get it
again. So let us strive daily. Let us strive to rid ourselves
of the habits we have that keep us from loving our neighbor as
ourselves. Let us remember that this great commandment is the
second great commandment. The first is to love the Lord, thy
God with all thy heart, might, mind and strength; the second is
like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Upon
these two commandments hang all the law and the Gospel. Here is
food enough for thought for a good long time if we will think
upon it and try to apply to our lives its teachings. It will
help us to go down the road and prepare ourselves against the
day of visitation when God is accomplishing His great work in
the earth; for this land must be cleansed and purified for a day
of peace called the Millennial Reign for a thousand years. We
are now about to enter into this period of time.
Let us look to our knitting. Let us go before the Lord
night and day and ask Him to forgive us that we might get His
Spirit and keep it with us, that when the day of tribulation
comes we might lay claim upon His great protection, and that we
might be prepared to receive the blessings of salvation.
Now, I pray that God will bless us with wisdom, knowledge,
and understanding, and help us to see the errors of our ways and
apply to our lives righteousness that we might be prepared for a
Celestial Glory. May God bless you, I humbly pray in the name
of Jesus Christ, amen.
839
REMARKS GIVEN BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, MARCH 10, 1974,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
I am certainly grateful, my brothers and sisters, for the
opportunity to be here with you this afternoon. I couldn't help
but let my mind go back over some of the things that we have
heard in the past, since Brother Hammon has called our attention
to some of the things that we have asked the people to do. And
I believe they did it.
We went to Old Mexico on several trips and old Brother
Baptista was the presiding elder down there. He had some little
boys, little fellows; they weren't as big as these boys here.
He put a willow in each one of their hands, just a little short
willow, "Now, you go down the isle and up the isle and if
anybody goes to sleep, you just reach over and --- (laughter).
So that was the way they kept them awake, kept peace in the
audience. Well, I didn't see anyone going up and down the isles
here, but I saw a calm over the audience, and you know it is the
Spirit of God here a little. These boys, and girls, too, were
relatively quiet today. If we can learn obedience that will be
one strike in our favor. So, let us go to and pay attention to
what is told us over the pulpit and practice in our lives the
first principles of the Gospel: Faith, Repentance, and Baptism.
We have been together a good long time today, and this
evening we will gather again in this room and be entertained by
a program. Our closing song will be by the choir.
*
*
*
*
840
REMARKS GIVEN BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, MARCH 17, 1974,
SUNDAY, IN SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
This has been a great day, my brothers and sisters. We
have had a lot of doctrine given to us. I don't know what more
the Lord can do to us than to send us home and let us reflect
upon the things of eternal life. We are truly living in a day
when the Lord is preparing a people for the redemption of His
great and glorious work--the redemption of Zion.
When I was a young man growing up, I heard men testify in
their speeches that they hoped they could live to see the
redemption of Zion. Today we are in the midst of it. We have
been in the midst of the redemption of Zion for a good many
years. The day the Lord showed Himself to the Prophet Joseph
Smith was the commencement of that work, the preparation of a
people who could be governed and given the reins of government
for the redemption of the House of Israel. Today we are one
hundred years or more nearer that time. Today we are in the
throes of one of the greatest days that the Lord has caused His
people to pass through, and that is the preparation of this land
for the ten tribes of Israel, not only the ten tribes of Israel
but other bodies that have been separated from the earth, to
come back and take their place, that the earth might be renewed
and receive its paradisiacal glory. So we are in the midst of
eternity right today, and if we want to be partakers of the
blessings of eternal life, we must prepare ourselves to receive
them.
The revelations of God are here and have been written and
given to us in book form. We have no excuse. The Lord has said
that as man is God once was, and as God is man may become. If
this is the case, every man who has come into the earth has had
the opportunity to prepare himself to take part in the
redemption of God's great work in the earth. If you don't
believe it, go to the scriptures and read. If you will read
with the Spirit of God upon you, you will know that we tell the
truth.
Every man has got to be accountable to God for his own
acts. Nobody can ride into the Kingdom of God on my coat tail
or President Hammon's, or President Musser's, or anybody elses.
They have got to go in on a knowledge of their own. They have
got to know that their course is right. They have got to know
when they have the Spirit of God upon them and when they
haven't. How do you
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get that knowledge? Out of the revelations of God to the
generation in which we live. Study them. These are not the
only places.
The Lord inspired His servants many years ago to get before
the people again the revelations that were given to the early
leaders of the Church, known as the Journals of Discourses.
There have been many thousands of them reprinted and put out and
scattered over the earth. So the people are left without
excuse. No one can say that they didn't have a chance to know
or understand that there was a saving Priesthood upon the earth,
and it didn't exist; because it has been here. Ever since the
day that the Lord showed Himself to the Prophet Joseph Smith,
the testimony of Joseph has been before the world. Christ said,
"Go bear this testimony to the world and all who will believe
will be saved, and those who will believe not will be damned."
This has been the cry of the servants of God ever since the days
of the Prophet Joseph until now.
The Lord is God and beside Him there is no Savior. My
brothers and sisters, we have a work to do. Our work is to save
this soul that we possess. I might talk from daylight till dark
and say many things that you could put into your life to save
your soul, but unless you made the application, what good does
it do? Many men have come, borne testimony all the days of their
lives, and others have come, borne testimony all the days of
their lives, but who is going to save my soul? This little
rascal right here (touching his heart) and no one else.
I want to tell you, my brothers and sisters, this is a day
of preparation--the day in which you live. Whether you are
small or are old, whether you are middle-aged or what it is, you
have got to be looking at your knitting and watching your
actions before your associations, your children, your husbands,
your wives, your sons and daughters and your Maker. All of
these people are monitors in your life and my life. They are
watching us. So let us get down to work. Let us be more
determined when we leave this meeting today that we are going to
do something about our salvation and go to work and do it.
Let us get the Spirit of God and keep it; because when we
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have the Spirit of God upon us, we know that our course is
right. The Spirit of God is the spirit of peace; and the spirit
of evil is the spirit of unrest and uneasiness. Now, let us get
the Spirit of God and keep it in our homes, in our work,
wherever we are. Let us serve God and keep His commandments, I
humbly pray in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
843
A DISCOURSE DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, MARCH 24,
1974,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
I am grateful, my brothers and sisters, for the privilege
of being here today. I am grateful for the testimony God has
given me of this great work. I am grateful for the people that
have gathered around the Priesthood and are willing from Sunday
to Sunday to come out and listen to what the servants of God
have to say.
We are living in a day when the Lord is trying to prepare
the world for a better day. I find that it is quite a chore to
prepare a people that the Lord can use in His work. My
attention has been drawn to the conditions of some of our young
people who, it seems, are determined to cause us distress. I
would like to dwell upon this just a few moments to refresh the
minds of our people upon the responsibilities that the Lord has
placed upon the people of this community.
Some years ago, the Spirit of the Lord worked upon the
minds of three or four men, and they got together and wrote a
letter to the Priesthood offering their property as a starting
place for the gathering of the Saints. After some deliberation
and consideration of other offers that had come in, the
Priesthood accepted our offering. They made a trip to this
place and talked with us. The Lord was kind enough to us to
have this place dedicated for the gathering of the saints in
this time. A meeting was held, and great promises were offered
by the Lord upon this goodly land. Prophecies were pronounced
upon the land that this was choice above all other spots of
ground in the surrounding country. In fact, the statement was
made that the time would come when one acre of this ground would
produce more than ten acres of the best soil in Salt Lake
Valley. Now, this is quite an offer to our people.
Later on when one of the members of our community saw
President Joseph Musser, he said, "Joseph, when will we realize
the blessings that the Lord placed upon this place?" Brother
Joseph said, "When you are united." So, when we become united,
then we can begin to reap the blessings that God has placed upon
this goodly land. The reason I am telling this story is to try
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to show you what is taking place in this community. This place
was dedicated and set apart for the gathering of the saints,
just as much as Joseph Smith was called to be the leader of
God's work in the earth and to establish His Church and Kingdom
upon the earth.
What I am about to say goes for all who live here--both
young and old and middle-aged. Whenever you do anything wrong
in this community, you are not only breaking the laws of the
land, but you are breaking the laws of God; for this place was
blessed and established, the people were blessed and established
here under the direction of the servants of God. You are not
fighting me. You are not fighting Sam Barlow. You are throwing
a challenge out to God--whether you know it or not--this is what
you are doing.
For many years we were under the direction or the
management of outsiders. We had to be governed by the laws of
the State of Arizona--the same as we are today. We had to take
what the county commissioners dealt out to us as peace officers,
until the Lord opened up an opportunity to us to get a peace
officer of our own. We accepted the offer and put it into
process.
We have had a certain clique of boys here ever since the
blessing was given upon this place--we have had a certain body
of young men that have been determined in their minds to run the
place their way and not be governed by our peace officer;
because he has tried to hold them down and correct them in
their--I won't call them evils--but in their minds they are
being held down because we have a peace officer. "He will not
allow us to run up and down the streets as we would like to and
have a great time on the streets." Our peace officer has
greater responsibilities. Not only is he under the obligation
of keeping peace in this place, he is under the obligation of
protecting the lives of people.
There have been many accidents in this place that have
almost taken the lives of our children and some of our older
people, simply because people wanted to have their own way and
not be held down by a peace officer. Now, I hope some of these
boys are here today. I want to call your attention to the fact
that you are not altogether displeasing me or Sam Barlow, but
you are throwing out a challenge to God to see whether He will
do what He said He
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would do--punish the wicked or the disobedient. There are many
disobedient among us, I am sorry to say, in the middle-aged
class; for the moment you try to stop a teenager from doing
wrong, some smart aleck middle-aged man steps up and says, "You
have got no business stopping this." Is this correct? In your
minds, is it correct? Are we going to continue to make a
community here that is acceptable to our Father, or are we going
to let it run into the ground and let it become a Sodom and
Gomorrah--one of the wicked places of the world?
The eyes of the whole world are upon this little place,
whether you know it or not. Are we going to let God down and
tell the devil that he has full reign here? Are we going to do
it? Or are we going to repent of our evil ways, and each one of
us assist in trying to bring about the blessings that have been
placed upon this community? We have every avenue of false and
delusive spirits working from one end of this community to the
other. If they don't inspire men to do one thing, they will
inspire them to do another that is contrary to the will of God,
and it is being carried out.
We have a job to do, my brothers and sisters. Let us see
to it that we don't mock God; because every time we do wrong in
this place, we are mocking Him. He gave us the opportunity of
bringing His servants into this place and pronouncing great
blessings upon the land--if we would keep the commandments of
God.
I wonder if we are under this condemnation. We are under
one condemnation of treating lightly the things we have
received, and we will remain under that condemnation until we
repent. But it seems as though we haven't repented; we haven't
felt to repent, because we have been prospered. The Lord has
blessed us with plenty the last few years. He has blessed us
that we might believe a lie and be damned. That is just what we
are doing. Listen to this: (Section 63 - D.& C.)
"And again, verily I say unto you, those who desire in
their hearts, in meekness, to warn sinners to repentance,
let them be ordained unto this power.
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For this is a day of warning, and not a day of many
words. For I, the Lord, am not to be mocked in the last
days.
Behold, I am from above, and my power lieth beneath. I
am over all, and in all, and through all, and search all
things, and the day cometh that all things shall be subject
unto me.
Behold, I am Alpha and Omega, even Jesus Christ."
Every time that we do wrong in this place, we mock
God--young or old. Every time we say something that is against
the servants of God, we are mocking Him; we are taking His name
in vain.
"Wherefore, let all men beware how they take my name
in their lips."
I am bringing these things to your minds, because this
place has had great blessings pronounced upon it by God Himself
through the mouths of His servants. Long before I came into the
Council, these things were given.
"For behold, verily I say, that many there be who are
under this condemnation, who use the name of the Lord, and
use it in vain, having not authority."
Now, this is the word of the Lord to the people. It is
especially the word of the Lord unto this people, because you
are under greater condemnation than any other people. The Lord
has brought you out of the world, out of the Church, and
established you here and placed the Priesthood of God over you.
And every time you do wrong, you take the name of the Lord in
vain. Now, remember this. Remember, this is a day of warning,
the Lord says, and not a day of many words. So let us repent;
let us repent of our sins!
The Lord has been merciful to this people. A few years
ago, we were all yanked out of here! Our wives and our children
were taken into custody by the state, but we have forgotten it.
We have forgotten what transpired.
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Are we going to be under the same condemnation that the
Nephites were when that little boy--fifteen years old--went to
the Lord and asked Him if he shouldn't go among the people and
ask them to repent and turn unto the Lord again? The Lord said,
"No. This people has willingly rejected me." Are we going to
willingly reject the Lord and bring down the condemnation of
Heaven upon us? Or are we going to fulfill the mission that the
Lord expects us to fulfill here?
You young men can go a long way in bringing to pass the
blessings that the Lord has placed upon this place by ceasing to
antagonize the man that the Priesthood has set as a peace
officer in this place. He is not out there to antagonize you or
to cause you trouble. He is out there to help you, and he will
help you if you will let him.
Now, I pray that God will bless us with wisdom, knowledge,
and understanding, and with a determination to serve Him and
keep His commandments and bring ourselves out from under the
condemnation that has been placed upon us, I humbly pray in the
name of Jesus Christ, amen.
848
A SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, APRIL 6, 1974,
-CONFERENCESATURDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
I am grateful again for this wonderful opportunity of
looking into your faces and hearing the word of the Lord, for I
know we are in great need of it. We are living in a day when
the Lord is preparing the earth for a new generation of time, a
new dispensation of time. He is getting ready to perform a
great work and a wonder among the nations of the earth and among
the people of the earth.
When we realize that we came here for the purpose of
purifying bodies for the eternities to come--bodies that we can
take with us, and at the bar of justice we can say we have done
the best we can to purify and to sanctify these bodies we have,
it will be a glorious day. But there are those of us who come
here and fool away our time and play hookey from school, go out
and do our work on the Sabbath day then think that the Lord will
do what President Musser said, stripe us with a few stripes, and
say, go and sit on my right hand. I have had enough experience,
my brothers and sisters, in this little time the Lord has
allotted me in the earth, to know that there is more to this
life than just to seek after the pleasures of life, or to go
down the road and seek for entertainment rather than to seek for
the Spirit of God and keep it.
We have been told time and again--Joseph Smith told us,
Brigham Young told us, John Taylor and all the other presidents
of Priesthood have tried to get us to get the Spirit of God and
keep it, that we might sanctify the ground that we walk upon;
that we might be able at the bar of justice to say, "I have done
the best I can Sometime in our lives, we will find that the day
of excuses is past.
For example, I will tell you a little story that happened
in my life to teach me the importance of being on time, and not
only being on time, but to be sure that we don't fool away our
time on the road. In days gone by, we didn't have the
facilities of transportation that we have today. The Lord has
been very kind to us to see to it that we have transportation
that is equal
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to none, you might say. We can leave here and go to Mexico City
and back in ten days and spend a day or two on the way giving
the word of the Lord to the people. In my younger days in this
work, it would take all day to go to Salt Lake City. If we left
early in the morning, it would be late at night when we got up
there. Why? Because we were delayed on the road. We would
have a flat tire between here and Hurricane, or the fan belt
would give way and ruin the radiator. We would have to go put
another one in or put a gunney-sack in the hole and carry a five
gallon can of water. These were the conditions we had to travel
under when I first got acquainted with this work.
When I first got acquainted with this work, we were under
fire. President Barlow had not been in town very long till the
officers came in and arrested him. Why? Because he had too
many women in his car when he came in. We had a court case to
fight. Some of our men had to go to prison, and all this. These
conditions are in our lives. Now to get back to my story.
I was taking Brother Barlow to Salt Lake under these
conditions. Not only did we have trouble on the road, but we
were trying to get there to an appointment that he had made. I
thought we had plenty of time. So, on the way, I wanted to stop
and see a friend. I took a little time with the friend and we
went on. We got to Salt Lake, cleaned up and went down to the
meeting. We got to the meeting, and they were singing a song.
Brother Barlow said, "Drive on, Brother Johnson. I don't like
to go anywhere late. We will go back to the house where we have
been staying." So, I drove him back to the house. But I spent
days petitioning the Lord for forgiveness for making His servant
late.
I wonder how many of us are going to be late at the Golden
Gate, as the sign said. I am afraid a lot of us are going to
have an excuse for being late. Brother Barlow went on to say,
"Roy, sometime you will go to the meeting and the door will be
locked. It will not only be closed, it will be locked!" Somehow
those words have ground into my bosom ever since. I will not
say
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I have never been late since, because I have been late. But I
don't want to be late when I should be there. I don't want to
have to make an excuse when I am brought forth from the grave in
the resurrection. I want to be prepared to answer the
questions.
I wonder how many of us have stopped long enough to think
of the day of our graduation when the Lord says, "Come forth and
give an account of your probation in the earth and let us see
what you have done towards purifying those bodies I gave you and
purifying those minds that I placed in your heads that you might
be prepared to answer the questions at this gate."
We feel awful bad when we hear of our boys, our girls,
playing hookey from school, running off to the neighboring
towns. But I want to tell you that there is going to be another
time we are going to have to report on our playing hookey during
this little stay of probation that we are in. Before we are
ready for a Celestial Glory, we are going to have to purify this
part of our body (touching forehead) because we have got to have
it after we get over there. Our Father cannot handle a filthy
and wicked brain. He will have to destroy it. He has told us
time and time again that if we don't prepare ourselves for a
Celestial Glory, He will have to destroy us. I believe He means
what He says. So I would like to impress upon the minds of this
people that we have something else to do besides run after the
dollar while we can get it. We should be thinking about laying
up a little treasure in the hands of our Father.
I pray that God will bless us, and that we will come out
tomorrow and hear some more. Let us be faithful in drawing our
children and our friends around us, not by our ability to preach
to them, but to live so they will like to be around us. Let us
live our religion. Let us let our neighbors know that we mean
what we say when we say that we believe that Joseph Smith was a
prophet of God. Now, I pray that God will bless us with His
Spirit, that He will continue this good weather while we meet
and that we can enjoy ourselves on the morrow. I hope that we
can be built up in our determination to serve God and keep His
commandments. God bless you. Amen.
851
REMARKS GIVEN BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, APRIL 7, 1974,
CONFERENCE HELD IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
MORNING SESSION
I feel very humble this morning, my brothers and sisters,
and I feel very thrilled to see this wonderful audience of
people in this little place. I am grateful to the Lord for the
many blessings that He has placed upon you people as well as the
servants of God to preserve them--to preserve their lives that
they might be here this morning on this wonderful occasion.
We want to welcome you here, each and everyone. We want to
welcome you here, and we hope that you will put forth every
effort possible to gather in the wanderings of your minds, that
you might be instructed by an outpouring of the Spirit of God
upon us. For we want nothing but peace and enjoyment in this
meeting today and the other meetings that we anticipate having.
We are grateful for the privilege of living in this particular
dispensation of the Lord's work in the earth and for the part
that we are playing in the preparation of a people that can be
used in the redemption of the House of Israel. For His great
work has got to be done, and it just as well be this people as
to wait for the Lord to raise up another. He has offered it to
us. Why not grasp the opportunity and prepare ourselves for
that great and glorious work!
I pray that the Spirit of God will settle upon us, and that
we will recognize that this is an opportunity for us to begin to
prepare ourselves against the day of visitation when the Lord
pours out His judgments upon the wicked to prepare the earth for
the Millennial Reign. This is our opportunity, and we should
take hold of it and do all that we can in our lives to prepare
ourselves while the day lasts. Let us not wait till the close of
the day to try to get our lessons and catch up with the rest of
the class. Let us prepare while we have the opportunity.
I pray that the Spirit of God will be here today. I want
you to know that I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God,
and that he came and did the work of our Father in Heaven in
restoring the everlasting Gospel, the Gospel of Jesus Christ,
for the last time in the earth to prepare it for its Millennial
Reign.
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I want you to know that I regard Brigham Young as a servant of
God who took the reins of government for the Lord in the earth
when Joseph Smith was martyred.
I am grateful for this day, for the privilege of living in
this time, for the privilege I have of bearing testimony to, not
only the people of this audience, but the people of the world,
that God lives and that He is willing to dictate to any man or
woman that will prepare themselves to receive the dictations of
the Holy Spirit. This can be done by clean living, by cleaning
up our minds, by getting rid of the evils that beset us, and by
applying to our lives the principles of the everlasting Gospel.
Now, I don't wish to speak anymore at this time, but I pray
God's blessings upon you all, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
853
SERMON GIVEN BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, APRIL 7, 1974,
CONFERENCE HELD IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
AFTERNOON SESSION
This has certainly been a feast to my soul to see this
great audience of people come out to be instructed. We call it
great because it is a handful of people that the Lord has had
compassion upon to bring us together to commence a great and
glorious work in the earth--the preparation of a body of
Priesthood that He can use. In 1836, He told the Prophet Joseph
that if he could gather together five hundred faithful elders,
He would redeem Zion at that time. But they couldn't be found.
We have a golden opportunity before us, my dear brothers
and sisters, to prepare ourselves for a great and glorious work.
This is why I say I am grateful for this wonderful body of
Latter-day Saints. If you will heed the teachings that you have
received in the last two days from this stand, there will be
many elders prepared for the work of the One Mighty and Strong
when He comes to set in order the House of God, or the
Redemption of Zion.
I believe it was Brother Zitting one time in one of his
speeches said, "We are not waiting for the commencement of the
Millennium, for it has already started." This, I believe. I
believed him then, and I believe him now. We had better believe
him, or we will be sloughed off and our identity will be
forgotten.
Governor Pyle said over the radio to the whole world that
that is what he would do to the people of this little community
in 1953. Said he, "We will take the men and put them in prison.
We will take their wives and put them in detention homes, and we
will take their children and adopt them out and scatter them
throughout the world. After two years, we will destroy the
records and their identity will be forgotten." This audience
today is evidence to me that God loves this Priesthood, for the
revelations that were given by the leaders of this work at that
time are being fulfilled today.
I remember when I first came to this place in 1926. Isaac
Carling wanted me to meet a man in Rockville. I don't remember
his front name, but his last name was Gifford. He was an old
man,
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and he was well acquainted with the Prophet Brigham Young. He
took part in the development and colonization of this part of
the State of Utah. He said, "I am going to tell you boys
something that I want you to remember. I had President Brigham
Young and George Q. Cannon in my buggy. We were traveling from
St. George to Kanab." By the way, the road they took was from
St. George to the old hill down here that they call Temple Hill,
Temple Road. That is the route they took. They stopped over
here on Cedar Ridge, this side of Pipe Springs. He said, "When
we got to that Cedar Ridge, Brigham Young said, 'Brother
Gifford, stop.' So, I stopped. He stood up in the carriage, and
he held his hands out this way and said, 'This will someday be
the head and not the tail of the Church. This will be the
granaries of the Saints. This land will produce in abundance
sufficient wheat to feed the people."
When I saw this audience yesterday, I couldn't help but
think of what Brother Gifford said. This afternoon when they
handed me the count, again I thrilled, because of the prophecies
that have been uttered upon this great land that we live upon.
Not only Brigham Young and others of the leaders, but I heard
Joseph Musser prophesy right over in this rock house where Lee
Bistline lives that one acre of this land would produce as much
as ten acres in the heart of Salt Lake Valley. When he was
asked, "When will this be?" He said, "When we are united." In
unity there is strength, but in disunity, we are divided.
I hope and pray that the Lord will bless us with wisdom,
knowledge, and understanding on what has been told us from this
stand yesterday and today, and that it will sink deep into our
hearts; and that we will not cease to pray night and day for
deliverance from the powers of evil. Let us pray the evil
spirits out of this place. Let us not let them thrive upon the
minds of our people. Let us be determined, this once, that we
will produce sufficient elders of Israel that the One Mighty and
Strong might soon come. He is only waiting for us. We are not
waiting for him to come. He is waiting for us to be prepared to
receive him. I would like to impress this upon the minds of our
people.
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I hope that the Lord will bless us with wisdom and
knowledge and understanding that we might go home and build upon
what we have heard. And that a year from now it will take a
building twice as big as this to hold us, and the Lord will be
forced to recognize that His work has not failed. He told the
Prophet Joseph Smith that this Gospel of the Kingdom was given
never again to be taken away or given to another people. And it
is not out of the hands of the people He gave it to. It is in
their hands and let's let it grow. Let us see to it that it
will grow. We have the opportunity, now let's push it to the
fore.
The success of this order of things depends upon me. Every
man and every woman should say that to themselves. The success
of this order of things depends upon what I do. If we would
take it to heart and purify our minds and our bodies, there is
no reason in the world why the One Mighty and Strong couldn't
come, because we had over five hundred bearers of the Priesthood
in our meeting last night.
I don't feel to say any more, only God bless you, everyone,
until we meet again, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
856
REMARKS GIVEN BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, APRIL 11, 1974
FUNERAL SERVICES FOR HAZEL DUTSON
HELD IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
I, too, feel greatly honored, my brothers and sisters, to
have this opportunity to say a few words at the funeral services
of Sister Hazel. I have had the opportunity many times to talk
with her. I have heard her pour out her heart regarding her
faith in the New and Everlasting Covenant. In the 133 Section
of the Doctrine & Covenants, the Lord says, "Come out of her, O
ye, my people, and be not partakers of her sins." Brother
Dutson, in his travels and carrying on the work he had to do to
make a livelihood, gathered up a body of women that were willing
to obey that commandment. And this good lady, Sister Hazel, has
expressed many times (as well as the other Dutson ladies) that
she knew the Gospel was true when she heard it. And they were
willing to obey the commandment to come out of the world.
Sister Hazel didn't come out just for the sake of marriage,
but she came out with a determination to serve God and keep His
commandments. She was sent back into the world to make a
livelihood to help her husband, as has been said here today.
She did it and kept the faith. After her husband died, she
gathered with the Priesthood. He had a testimony of the
Priesthood of God, and she realized that this is where her
blessings lay.
There are many good people in the world. If they had an
opportunity to find the way, they would be gathered out. But
the door has been closed to proselyting to this order of the
Priesthood. And only here and there we find the people who have
had the privilege of hearing the truth. We don't need to worry
over the condition of Sister Hazel. She has gone home now, and
she will be taken care of. It is those that are living that we
need to concern ourselves about. You boys and girls who are
grandsons and granddaughters of this good lady, you ought to
take notice of her example and apply it to your lives and see to
it that you are not persuaded to go here and there and seek
other avenues of salvation. For this is the only source of your
salvation, to follow the example of this good lady.
Now, I don't wish to say anymore, but I ask the blessings
of God upon this family--the other wives of Brother Merlin
Dutson--as well as all his posterity. For he has a numerous
posterity at the present time. I only want to say God bless you
and help you
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to round out your salvation in fear and trembling before Him. I
want you to know that your interest is my interest. I am
interested in you, and if I can be of any help while I am here,
that is what I am here for. I am a servant of God as well as
the rest of the Council that the Lord has placed around me. I
wanted to say this much, and I ask God's blessings upon you, in
the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
858
A SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, APRIL 21,
1974,
SUNDAY, IN SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
I am grateful, my brothers and sisters, for the privilege
of being here today. I am grateful to see this wonderful
audience who have gathered to hear the word of God. I am
grateful for the testimony that God has given me of the
truthfulness of the Priesthood work. I trust that the few
moments that I speak that the Lord will direct my remarks, for I
want to do nothing that will mar the spirit of this meeting or
the peace and happiness of this great audience here today.
I was greatly pleased with the turnout to our recent
Conference, for it showed that our people are interested in
learning more about what to do about their salvation. During
that Conference my mind went back to the record given to us in
the Book of Mormon of what transpired just before the appearance
of the Savior upon this continent. I tried to compare it with
the time in which we live.
It has been stated in some of the revelations that the
people of this nation will be broken up in little bands who
would go through the land destroying property, destroying lives,
and causing all kinds of trouble among the people, and
eventually destroying the government of our country. Just prior
to the appearance of the Savior, I find that the people were
tired of waiting for the sign to come of the appearance of
Christ. So, in order to appease their minds and satisfy their
desires, they went forth and martyred the saints, stoned the
prophets, and finally they broke up in little bands here and
there. They were desirous of putting a king over the land. So
they decided upon a man to lead them, and elected him as a king.
They went through the land destroying the people, destroying the
saints, committing all kinds of evil. Then the voice was heard.
First a great destruction took place upon the land. And the
record tells us that only the more righteous were preserved, and
then a voice was heard. Then the Savior made His appearance.
I want to call your attention to what is taking place
today. We have all heard something about the revelation that was
given to
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the Prophet Joseph wherein he saw the great destruction that the
Lord brought upon this generation in order to prepare the land
for the redemption of Zion; so great were the destructive
elements, the bloodshed, wickedness, that the Prophet importuned
the Lord to close the vision because it was more than he could
stand. Now, this has been treated lightly among our people and
among the people of the world. Why? Because we have not
hastened to do what has been told to us today--to get the Spirit
of God and keep it. The Lord placed us under condemnation
because we treated lightly the things we had received. And this
condemnation rested upon the children of Zion--all of the
children of Zion, and they would remain under this condemnation
until they repented.
The operation of the Priesthood has tried to get a people
to get the Spirit of God and keep it, that they might be
prepared against the day of visitation when God is pouring out
His judgments upon the wicked. Today we find this country being
broken up into bands of people going about murdering, committing
all kinds of mischief and sin, and it is almost impossible, as
we have been told here today, to go out on the streets and be
safe. Are we coming near to the time when the Lord is going to
repeat His history? It has been told to us in some of the
revelations that this government would fail. Are we prepared
for that day?
These are some of the questions that went through my mind
while the brethren were talking to us in our recent Conference.
These are some of the reflections that went through my mind
today. We have a man at the head of our government today who is
bold and out-spoken, and he is a determined man--more
determined, I guess, than any other president we have had,
George Washington was a man who wanted to see a government
established that would endure--which it has, for quite a while.
But now we have a man that desires to be a dictator to the
people. If he doesn't make it, he hopes some-one else will, but
he is laying the groundwork. He is trying to make peace with
other nations. According to the headlines in the papers, we
find that he is the great peacemaker of this day, trying to
bring peace to all nations. But what did the Lord say? He
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said, "They will cry peace, peace, but there will be no peace.
You will hear of wars and rumors of wars in foreign lands, but
little do you realize the hearts of men in your own land."
So, the destiny of this nation is in great danger at the
present time. The rise of the Kingdom of God is just over the
horizon, but a great lot of work has got to be done. A great
deal of work has got to be done among this people in order for
them to prepare themselves to a point where the Lord will smile
upon us and be able to own and bless us in the day of visitation
when He is pouring out His judgments upon the wicked. Some of
you may wonder why we talk this way, but we are concerned over
the preparation of a people who can be used by the One Mighty
and Strong when he comes to set in order the House of God. And
this must be done, because the Lord told the Prophet Joseph that
this Gospel of the Kingdom would never be taken away or given to
another people until the sons of Levi do offer again an offering
unto the Lord in righteousness.
So we are concerned. The Lord won't let us alone. He puts
these words into our mouths to give to you that you might be
able to prepare yourselves against that day, that we might be
prepared for a Celestial Glory when we are called home.
Now, I pray that God will bless us with wisdom, knowledge,
and understanding, and with a more firm determination to go
forward and seek to overcome the weaknesses of the flesh, our
criticism one against another, our talebearing. Let us learn to
keep our counsels. When we hear a thing, let's keep it. We
don't have to tell it over. The Lord cannot bless a people who
are all the time telling tales--telling what our neighbors are
doing--telling what we heard. It is all right to tell them to
repent. That was His charge to the Prophet Joseph, to the
elders of Israel, "Teach nothing but repentance to this
generation." And this is the kind of people that He is looking
for. Women have got to prepare themselves the same as men. When
they hear a bit of news, they have got to be able to keep it.
They have got it, why not keep it? The Lord's instruction to His
servants is this, "When I reveal my
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mind and will to you, you are not to give it to others unless
you are commanded."
This is a day of preparation, my brothers and sisters. This
is a day when we are preparing ourselves for a Celestial Glory,
and preparing ourselves for a position in the establishment of
God's Kingdom in the earth. Now I pray that God will bless us
with wisdom, knowledge, and understanding, and with a
determination to serve Him and keep His commandments, I pray in
the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
862
A SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, MAY 5, 1974,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
I am thankful for this opportunity to stand before you
again in health and strength. This is an inspiring sight to
look upon this audience here today. I am grateful for the way
the Lord has preserved our people. I am grateful for the
testimonies that have been borne today and for the many
opportunities that are afforded us in preparing ourselves for
that which is to come.
The subject that has been announced today, the subject of
preparation, is not a new one. It didn't originate in this
generation of people. It has been the cry throughout the
generations of time for people to prepare themselves for an
eternal salvation. That is all that we need to do. As far back
as I can remember in my own life, I have heard these same words
spoken from the stand. I have heard my father discuss them with
other men. I remember on different occasions how he would get
worked up in his feelings because of the conditions in the lives
of men that he knew and had been acquainted with for many many
years, and then hear them criticize the authorities. His
instructions to his family were to cease to criticize. He was
bedfast at the time that I can remember him most. I remember
him before that, but I remember him most then, because I was by
his side a lot of the time. His boys had to be close to him to
take care of his needs.
Men would come in to visit him, and they would get started
on the subjects of the Gospel. I have heard him pour out his
heart to them. The same cry that we are giving today was the
greatest thing in his mind when he was in this condition. Many,
many times when I was touched by the things that he had been
passing through, and I tried, in my youthful way to sympathize
with him, he said: "My boy, there is one thing I want you to
remember. It doesn't make any difference what condition your
body gets in, how much pain you have to go through or what the
Lord requires that you pass through. Be careful that you don't
complain of the condition you find yourself in." I don't think
that anyone that had anything to do with my father in his
condition, could say that they heard him complain of the
situation that he was in. He was a very active
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man during his lifetime. He was a nimble man. He was converted
to the Gospel completely, and he showed it by his example and by
his actions.
President Young called him on a mission. Somewhere in our
possession we have his call where he was called to go to Lee's
Ferry as a missionary to the Navajo Indians. He was determined
to fill the mission if it took his lifetime to do so. He spent
twenty-two years on that mission. Finally, Brother Wilford
Woodruff came along and said, "Brother Johnson, you have been
here long enough." He verbally released him from his mission.
We haven't been able to find any release in writing yet, while
he may have received one. He was in the process of moving off
from his mission when he met with his accident.
This is the kind of faith that it is going to take to
prepare a people. That is what Enoch sought for; and it took
him, the scriptures say, three hundred and twenty years to
perfect a people that the Lord would be satisfied with and
willing to reward with the privilege of being taken away where
they could continue in righteousness. So well was the work
accomplished at that time, that the Lord promised Enoch that he
could come back and take part in the redemption of this great
work, when Zion from above comes down and Zion from beneath goes
up, and they meet, so the scriptures say. So, this has got to
be the condition of people. Zion cannot be redeemed only upon
the principles of the Celestial Kingdom, and in the Celestial
Kingdom there is no sin. God says He does not look upon sin
with the least degree of allowance, and this is what He means.
He doesn't vary in His words. He doesn't vary in His
administration of the principles of righteousness.
This boy, Joseph Smith, saw God and His Son, Jesus Christ.
He said, "Join none of them. And if you will keep the
commandments of the Lord, I will make you My instrument in
bringing forth My Gospel to the earth and setting up My
Kingdom." This is what the Lord told the Prophet Joseph Smith.
You don't have to buy the new Bible, one of these printed by the
masterminds of the world, and study it before you can accept
what the Lord has given to us
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already. We don't have to have that kind of stuff. We have got
the principles of salvation within this book, the Book of
Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price, even
without the Bible. But the Lord says that the Bible is for our
use insofar as it is translated correctly. It is a history of
God's work from the beginning of time until now. That is the
only thing He is interested in. All this other work is the work
of the devil to try to refute the purpose of our Father in
Heaven, which purpose is to perfect a people that can be used in
the Redemption of Zion.
The scriptures tell us that Daniel saw a great valley of
bones, and he saw them rise up and become a great army. The
scriptures tell us that all the righteous who have lived upon
the earth and perfected their lives will come and take part in
their day and time in the Redemption of Zion, in order to bring
to pass the purposes of our Father--the connecting up and the
sealing man to man and women to men and so forth. This work
will be done during the Millennium, or the Millennial Reign of a
thousand years when there will be no sin. Sin will be stamped
out. This is the condition that we are trying to bring about
among our people. There isn't anything in the world that would
please the Lord more than to see this people slough off all evil
and make it impossible for the outside world to come into our
midst. It can be done, and it will be done. It will be done in
a way that we are trying to get the people to do today--by
living righteous lives and refusing to delve into the bibles,
the writings and history of Satanicism. This is what Enoch had
to do in order to perfect his people.
I went into a motel the other day. There was a new bible
on the table, written especially by the professors of
Satanicism. It was a bible about the width and length of our
book, but about twice as thick--the Satanic Bible. If you don't
think that the scriptures are being fulfilled and that Satan is
being given a full length of rope, you are mistaken, because
that is just what is taking place today. He is trying his best
to destroy this people. He is trying his best to destroy all
faith in God or in Jesus Christ. When you hear people say that
they have got to know something about
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the bad before they can get the good, then they don't believe
the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They just simply don't believe it.
That is all. Because Christ said this, "He that saith he loveth
Me and keepeth not My commandments is a liar and the truth is
not in him."
Great blessings have been placed upon this particular spot
of ground. It was donated by men who believed in the Priesthood
of God. Great blessings were pronounced upon it by our Prophet
Joseph W. Musser. When he was asked, "When shall this time come
that we will receive these blessings?" He said, "When you are
united." They said, "What do you mean by united?" He said:
"United in keeping the commandments of God. This ground belongs
to God, it doesn't belong to anyone else. It belongs to Him.
Those who dwell upon it are going to be a God-fearing people, or
the ground is cursed for their sake." I believe what he said.
If we are going to accomplish the work that has been placed
upon the servants of God and perfect the lives of the people in
this place, we are going to have to do some things. Some people
say we don't have to do all the things the servants of God tell
us to do. But there are some things that we are going to have
to do, or else the Lord is going to have to wait a little longer
to find a people that will. We just as well be that people. We
have the opportunity. He has granted it to us. His servants
are here teaching us the path of truth and righteousness. And
why can't we do it? Because of unbelief. We might be ever so
versed in the Bible, Doctrine & Covenants, the Book of Mormon.
We might know it, be able to quote it from cover to cover, but
unless we have the Spirit of God upon us, what good will it do
us?
Read The Coming Crisis and How To Meet It, and let us not
cease to read this book, the Book of Mormon, Doctrine &
Covenants, Pearl of Great Price; for in it we think we have
eternal life. This is what the Lord says--to study it until we
know we have eternal life, until we have been sealed up and had
our calling and election made sure. Then we will be pleasing to
God who gave us life, who created these spirits that are in this
room today and
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made it possible for us to receive these bodies, that we might
purify them and take them back, that they might become useful to
us throughout the eternities of time.
These are the things we have to do. We have to take on the
full armor of Christ and be not moved or swayed by the
persuasions of men or the persuasions of Satan. He is still
going to and fro in the earth trying to destroy the souls of
men, and if we will give him a chance, he will do it. If we
give him a toe-hold in the door, he will wiggle the door open
and come in, unless you have the Spirit of God upon you enough
to cast him out. The only way that you can get peace in your
homes--peace among one another, among your wives and children,
is to not allow Satan to come inside the door or bring his
gospel in, for he has got many many representatives in the world
today.
I pray, my brothers and sisters, that we will hasten to
clean up our lives, our minds and our hearts, and see to it that
we cast out all evil. We can't do it as a group; we are going
to have to do it individually--group together afterwards.
We talk about the United Order, how many of us could live
it if it were set up. In unity there is strength, but
repentance comes first. The Lord says, "Repent and be baptized
for the remission of your sins and all these other blessings
will be added to." But the first thing He has asked us to do is
repent. This goes for the little child; this goes for the old
man or the old lady; this goes for the middle-aged. This is the
person I have got to save. I have to know my course is right,
and I have to know that I know it is right. You have to do the
same thing. Then, when we get a body of people that have
accomplished that great feat, we can gather a body of people
together and unite them in the United Order. But there is a lot
of repenting to do before that can be done. Joseph tried it;
Brigham Young tried it; John Taylor tried it; John Y. Barlow
tried it, and we are still preaching repentance to our people.
We still believe more in what the world can do for us than what
the Lord can do for us. Still, we have to earn a living by the
sweat of our brow and by hard work.
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I pray that God will bless us with wisdom and knowledge and
understanding, and with a determination to do something about
our eternal salvation, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
868
REMARKS GIVEN BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, MAY 12, 1974
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
We have had an out-pouring of the Spirit of God this
afternoon, and I don't feel to add more to the instructions that
have been given, only to encourage our people to be on the alert
for the firey darts of the adversary, because he has been turned
loose and given the full length of rope to destroy the work of
God. So it behooves every Latter-day Saint that has been into
the waters of baptism to be on their guard and to guard against
the evils that come among us. Let us strive from hour to hour
to serve God and keep His commandments.
God bless you, amen.
869
SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, MAY 19, 1974,
SUNDAY, IN SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
I, for one, think we have been well fed this afternoon. My
prayers have been answered. We have had an outpouring of the
Spirit of God. I am grateful, my brothers and sisters, for the
privilege of being here today, for the health and strength I
enjoy, and especially for this wonderful audience of people who
have come out to hear the word of God. There is no other place
in the world that you can go today and hear what you have heard
today. You have heard the revelations of God revealed to you.
You have heard how they have been handed down from generation to
generation. We should be the most grateful and happy people
upon the earth for being so privileged to have the Lord reveal
to us what has been revealed to us today.
The Lord said through the mouth of the Prophet that He
would, in the latter days, give Satan a full length of rope to
try his power to destroy the faith of the people, and this is
being done today. There has never been a time in the history of
this work that a greater effort has been made to destroy the
faith of the people than today. There has never been a greater
outpouring of the Spirit of God over parts of the earth. The
Lord has said He had withdrawn His Spirit from the leaders of
the nations of the earth. And you have heard today that He
said, too, that the decree has gone forth when He will make a
full end of all nations. And this is true. The way is being
prepared for that great day to come.
I am grateful for the day in which we live, grateful for
the testimony God has given me of this great and wonderful work.
I pray that He will pour out His Spirit upon this people under
the sound of my voice today to that extent that we will clean up
our minds, clean up our bodies, and prepare ourselves against
the day of visitation. The day of visitation is when God is
visiting destruction upon all people, for He has plainly said
that He will make a full end to all nations. We live in a great
day and I am glad for it. I am truly thankful for the privilege
the Lord has given me of being here and partaking of His
blessings and the leadership of His great work. I hope that we
can draw in the
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wanderings of our minds and center them upon the job at hand, to
prepare ourselves that we might be found worthy of the
protecting hand of our Father when great distress comes to our
door. Now, may God bless you, I humbly pray in the name of
Jesus Christ, amen.
871
SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, MAY 26, 1974,
AT COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
The word of the Lord is unto all men, kindred, tongues and
people. It certainly is true whether we believe it or not, for
this is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel of Jesus Christ
is true, for He has said it. He told the Prophet Joseph, as he
told the Nephite people in their day, go bear this testimony to
the world, and all who will obey it will be saved, and those who
obey it not shall be damned.
The Lord was kind to us today to have President Timpson
bring this wonderful subject up to us again, because we need it.
This people need it. Although they hear the same thing from
Sunday to Sunday, from month to month, and from year to year,
yet there are those among us who are determined in their minds
to have their own way.
If you will bear with me, I will just read you a few lines
to bear out what has been said here today. (Moses 6:55)
"And the Lord spake unto Adam, saying: (see how far
back we go) Inasmuch as thy children are conceived in sin,
even so when they begin to grow up, sin conceiveth in their
hearts, and they taste the bitter, that they may know to
prize the good.
And it is given unto them to know good from evil, "
Here the Lord is telling Adam that his children know enough
to know good from evil--that far back. So, we are not teaching
false doctrine. It has come to my ears many times that we teach
false doctrine, because we teach that children are born with
enough of the Spirit of God upon them to know the difference
between good and evil. These little children that we have in
the home, they know before they can speak when they are doing
things that are not right. So, the time to commence to teach
our children is before they are born. If the parents will
straighten up their lives, then the children will be easier to
handle. Try it and see.
"And it is given unto them to know good from evil,
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wherefore they are agents unto themselves, and I have given
unto you another law and commandment.
Wherefore teach it unto your children, that all men,
everywhere, must repent, or they can in nowise inherit the
kingdom of God, for no unclean thing can dwell there, or
dwell in his presence; for, in the language of Adam, Man of
Holiness is his name, and the name of his Only Begotten is
the Son of Man, even Jesus Christ, a righteous Judge, who
shall come in the meridian of time.
Therefore I give unto you a commandment, to teach
these things freely unto your children, saying:
That by reason of transgression cometh the fall, which
fall bringeth death..."
I will leave you there, because it connects up with what
President Timpson tried to tell us. Now, let us see what the
Lord told the Prophet Joseph. D. & C. Section 1, verses 1-3)
"Hearken, O ye people of my church, saith the voice of
him who dwells on high, and whose eyes are upon all men;
yea, verily I say: Hearken ye people from afar; and ye that
are upon the islands of the sea, listen together.
For verily the voice of the Lord is unto all men, and
there is none to escape; and there is no eye that shall not
see, neither ear that shall not hear, neither heart that
shall not be penetrated.
And the rebellious shall be pierced with much sorrow;
for their iniquities shall be spoken upon the housetops,
and their secret acts shall be revealed..."
(D.& C. Section 82, verse 3)
"For of him unto whom much is given much is required;
and he who sins against the greater light shall receive the
greater condemnation."
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I am speaking to people today who have received more light
than any other people upon the earth; therefore, the Lord
requires more of this people than any other people upon the
earth. He requires that we hasten to listen to His words and to
incorporate them into our lives.
When the Prophet Joseph went into the woods to pray and
wanted to know who of the many sects of the world was the one
that he should join, what was the answer given him? Christ said,
"Join none of them, for they are all wrong. They teach for
doctrine the commandments of men." Then He went on to tell him
that if he would be a faithful boy and do what He told him to
do, he would become an instrument in His hands in bringing to
the world the true and everlasting Gospel, which he did. This is
the Gospel that we teach today. It is the Gospel of Jesus
Christ. It is the Gospel of Salvation, and unless we do the
things that we have been instructed to do today, we have no
promise, as the Lord plainly tells us.
The world is in a sad condition. We have been told today
that they have martyred the prophets. They have persecuted the
saints, and they have done everything to do away with the
Celestial Law, or the law that pertains to the exaltation and
eternal life of man. Talk about a great day in which we live!
In another place here, the Lord tells us that He will protect
His saints if needs be that He sends fire from heaven to do so.
Why don't we try Him out? He says in another place. Try me,
and see if I won't open the windows of Heaven and pour out
blessings that you cannot contain."
Every person in this room is being tried daily to see what
they will do under certain conditions. The Lord sends His
servants among us, and He gives us projects and tries to get us
to show by our works that we are ready and willing to perform
the commandments that He gives to His children. This has been
the case all down through the history of time from the time of
Adam until now. There have been many times, so the scriptures
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tell us, when the Lord has had to destroy people, because they
became so wicked that He could not endure it any longer. So, in
order to save, perhaps some among them, He had to destroy them.
He is about to do it again. How do I know? Because, He
has said it. Jesus Christ, Himself, said that the time would
come when He would have to destroy the people in order to
provide the way whereby His people could be redeemed, or that
the Celestial Law could be lived upon the earth. He says again
that Zion cannot be redeemed only upon the principles of the
Celestial Kingdom. In the Celestial Kingdom there is no sin.
The scriptures tell us that in the Celestial Kingdom there
are three heavens or degrees. We may enter into the first, but
in order to obtain the highest degree of glory in the Celestial
Kingdom, we must enter into the Celestial Law and live and obey
it. We may enter into the other, but that is the end of our
kingdom. We cannot have an increase. How many of us want to go
into a kingdom where we cannot have an increase, where we must
dwell until we have paid the debt for our sins, and then be
destroyed? To put it into the words of Heber C. Kimball, it may
be a long, long while before we have another
chance.
So, let us get down to business. Let us repent of our sins
and keep sin out of our midst. Let us quit inviting into our
community mesmerizism, or giving our neighboring people a chance
to teach us their doctrine. They come into our home, leave
their literature. Some of us keep it. Some of us read it, and
some of us do not. They want to come in and talk to you. Some
invite them in, and some do not. We have no business monkeying
with another religion; we should study only the religion of
eternal salvation. That goes for old and young, middle-aged, or
whoever they may be. If you want to fool around with it, fool
around with it. Sooner or later, we will reap the reward that
the Lord has said we would reap. We will have to be sloughed off
and our exaltation will be damnation, whether we
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have got one wife or a dozen wives. It doesn't make any
difference.
This is the Gospel of salvation, my brothers and sisters.
The Lord is anxious that a people be prepared to receive it. We
have a golden opportunity to purify our lives and commence the
Millennial Reign if we will just get down to business and make
up our minds that we are not going to do anything else or listen
to anyone else, only build up and establish the Kingdom of God.
The Lord has been trying to do this ever since Joseph Smith
organized the Church. He tried it. Brigham Young tried it
after him. John Taylor tried it. Wilford Woodruff tried it.
John W. Woolley tried it and those who followed after him. We
have tried it ourselves, and we have found that we have got a
hard thing.
We have got a hard nut to crack--that nut called unbelief.
We say we believe, but we don't. We have a doubt in our minds.
When there is a doubt, we do not believe. Christ said, "He that
saith he believeth me and keepeth not my commandments is a liar
and the truth is not in him, " and I believe Him. I believe
that is the truth.
I would like to see this people prepare themselves against
the day of visitation. For, the Lord is swiftly bringing to
pass His words of destruction upon the wicked. Who are the
righteous? And who are the wicked? Every man and every woman
will say, "It is not I. It is not I, because I am doing
everything that I know to satisfy the word of God."
So, let us go down the road, purify our lives, get in the
harness, and do all we can to save our families and save our
children; because they are precious in the sight of the Lord. We
should be taught from our infancy up to serve God and keep His
commandments. I pray the blessings of God to settle upon us and
give us strength to overcome all evil that we might obtain an
exaltation in the Celestial Kingdom, I humbly pray in the name
of Jesus Christ, amen.
876
SERMON GIVEN BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON JUNE 9, 1974,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
Once again, my brothers and sisters, I want to express my
gratitude for the health and strength that we enjoy. I say "we"
because I feel that the Lord has blessed this community with
great blessings in being able to obtain the health and strength
that our people enjoy at this time. I am grateful for the
testimonies He has given us of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and
for the privilege we have of working out our salvation in fear
and trembling before Him, because this is the commandment that
He gave us. This Gospel of the Kingdom is unto all men whether
they belong to the Church or whether they do not. The Lord says
that there is no eye that will not see, nor heart that will not
be penetrated, nor ear that shall not hear. For this Gospel of
the Kingdom is unto all men, women, and children. The time will
come when every knee will bow and every tongue confess that
Jesus is the Christ. I have found that this is the testing
place for the saints of God. I believe that the Lord meant me
as well as Oliver Cowdery when He told him that He had listened
to his words when he presented himself to the Prophet Joseph for
an assistant in accomplishing His work. I believe when He sent
me here without anything that I listened to His voice because I
had to.
You will find that our people are all alike, both old and
young. We all want our own experiences. We don't want to
profit by the experiences of others. We have to have our own
experiences. Like a lot of other people, I mortgaged the home I
lived in in Kanab. I had a little plot of ground, about ten or
twelve acres right on the edge of town. I wanted to get rich
quick or make a living quick. I thought I saw an opportunity.
By borrowing a few thousand dollars, I could buy a tractor, a
set of plows, and a harrow. I thought I could make a lot of
money. I figured it out on paper, and I could make a lot of
money plowing and preparing the ground for other people's big
farms that they had taken up.
The government allowed us to file on six hundred and
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forty acres of government land. By utilizing the land, we could
get the deed to it. A lot of people did it. I went around over
the country soliciting work. I went to the bank with my list of
people that I could work for and laid the proposition before
them. They surprised me with the wonderful opportunity of
lending me the money to buy the machinery. I made a little
money. I got my new outfit, one of the first to come into Kane
County. I went to work. I went down to the bank one day, made
a little deposit of about six hundred dollars which was a nice
little evidence to the bank that I was doing good. A few days
later, I went to the bank to make another small deposit. There
was a note on the door: This institution is closed.
I was owing them about fifteen hundred dollars. In those
days, that was quite a bit of money for a guy that didn't have
any. As I was leaving, I met a man coming up. He said, "Are you
in the same condition I am?" I said, "What's your condition?" He
said, "I have two thousand dollars in the bank there, and I
can't get it." I said, "I am owing them fifteen hundred." He
said, "I'll get you off the hook, if you will let me off-set
your account with the bank with my deposit here." So, like a lot
of other people, I snapped it up. I said, "That's a good
thing." But he had to have a mortgage on my home, my little
piece of ground. He said, "I won't crowd you on it. I'll give
you plenty of time to pay it off."
It went on for a year, and I got a little money and made a
payment on the place. I got him to extend my time another year.
He went out in town and met a cattleman. The man said, "Roy
Johnson owes you some money, doesn't he?" "Yes." "Well, you know
that boy has money up to his ears, but he doesn't want people to
know it. If you push him a little, he will give you your money.
With what you already have and what you can get out of Roy, you
can buy my cattle."
I happened to be walking up in town when I met the man. He
said, "I've changed my mind, Roy. By day after tomorrow, I
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want my money." I said, "I can't raise that much money in that
short time." He said, "Well, I have to have it. I have a
chance to buy a herd of cattle, and I need the money." So, I
went home and thought it over and wondered what I could do. It
was hard for me to raise a ten dollar bill that day. It went on
for a little while, and every day this man needled me for his
money. He finally told me that I should not horde money like I
was, but cut it loose and let it work a little. I said, "I
don't know what you mean, but I will tell you what I will do.
Tomorrow morning, I will take my wife up to the courthouse and
we will make out a deed to my property and turn it over to you.
Then maybe you can raise the money." "No, " he said, "I don't
want you to do that, I need the cash."
So, the next day, I took my wife and went over to the
courthouse, made out the new deeds in favor of this gentleman
and left them at the courthouse. A little later, he happened
into the courthouse, and the county clerk told him what I had
done. He said, "I didn't want to push him that hard. I don't
want his home." The clerk said, "Well, you've got it." He
said, "I'll go down and see him." But by the time he got down
to my home, I had loaded my belongings, what I could, on the
mail truck, and we were sitting here in Short Creek. We got
this far and unloaded my belongings down here in the street by
that little old building that Brother Hammon has made a harness
shop out of now. It was sitting there without anything in it,
so we put our belongings in it. By crowding, we could get them
inside out of the weather. And I lived in Aunt Lizzie's house.
So, that is the way I landed in this place. I didn't have any
money to go on to Hurricane with. I had a sister living here
and a nephew, Brother Isaac Carling. He said, "We need your
help, so let's just hold you here."
So, I went to work to build me a home. I built this little
lean-to right down here, across from where Orval lives. That
was my first home here. I borrowed a team from Brother Carling
to go out to Kaibab to get scrap lumber that we might gather up.
That is what I built that house out of. So, this
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place has gathered the saints. Many more of the people have
come here under the same conditions and tell like stories.
Anyway, I came with my debts paid. I told somebody about
it, and the devil heard me. He said, "We will see about it."
The first thing he did after I got in this little lean-to house
was to bring my wife to her bed with rheumatism. She laid there
and suffered for weeks, months. One day one of the followers of
Amy MacPhearson came along. We had advertised for a school
teacher, and she answered the advertisement, so we hired her.
We didn't know at the time that she was a follower of Amy
MacPhearson. We soon found it out after she got here. She came
to my place and talked to Aunt Josephine. She said, "Mrs.
Johnson, I can heal you if you will let me. You have no
business laying in this bed, I can heal you, and you can be out
of here tomorrow if you will let me."
Aunt Josephine had been in so much pain and was in such a
condition that it was very difficult for us to even turn her
over without her screaming. She hadn't been out of bed for
several months. But when this lady said that to her, she raised
right up in her bed. She said, "Mrs, Kent, you cannot heal me,
because I won't let you! I know how I can be healed, and I will
be healed, but it won't be by you. I want you to turn right
around and go out that door and stay out! I am not going to lay
down again until you do." So, Mrs. Kent went out, and when she
left, she said, "Die, damn you. You won't let me heal you."
When I came in a little later, I found my lady sitting up
in bed. That was the turning point. She began to get better
from that moment on. That is the kind of faith you are going to
have to exhibit in this place--every man, woman, and child, if
we survive the great onslaught that is just ahead of us, I am
afraid it is closer than some of us think it is. This nation of
ours is fast falling apart. The first thing we know, we are
going to have to do just what the Lord said: Pray night, and day
for deliverance. We are going to have to come to a point where
we are serving the God of the land, or go down with the flood of
wickedness, because this earth is a great deal more wicked today
than it has ever been.
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Men's lives are not worth the snap of your fingers. Young women
are being grabbed up, hastened off, given drugs and taken over
by the wicked and abominable kidnappers.
In England the other day, a man and woman were leaving the
theater. They had been there to enjoy themselves. As they went
out the door, they met a gang of armed men. They were hustled
off. I noticed in yesterday's paper that it looked like they
had been destroyed, because they have heard nothing more of
them.
We don't know what tomorrow will bring. The Lord has tried
us, tested us in many ways. Some have stood the test, and
others have not. Some have thought: Well, when the trouble
begins to come, we will repent and turn. Until then, I am going
to have a good time.
I am afraid that a good many of us are going to still
continue to have a good time, I have said before, and I will say
again, that there isn't a person in this room that I wouldn't
want to be with me if I passed the test and was able to lead
this people into the Millennium. But I don't know what I will
do, yet. The Lord is not through testing me.
The Lord put Christ through a supreme test to see whether
He would fall under the weight of oppression or not. He put the
Prophet Joseph under the supreme test to see whether he would
fall or not. They both sealed their testimony with their blood.
Other men have done the same. They may not have spilled their
blood, some have, and some have not, but they have asked the
Lord to take them before they denied the Christ.
I was only a boy about thirteen years old when Abram O.
Woodruff passed away. I heard him talking to my father. He
said, "I hope the Lord will take me home before I do anything
that will deprive me of my salvation, " This was in Wyoming. He
went back to Salt Lake, was asked to go down and preside over
the Mexican Mission. He went down and established himself
there. His wife soon took small pox and died. A week later, he
died with the small pox. So, the Lord takes us at our word.
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I have seen people healed instantly when they have called
in the elders to administer to them, when they were consigned to
their death bed by the doctors. "I know if you will give me a
blessing, I can be healed, " some have said, and they were
healed. We had the testimony of one of Brother Zitting's boys
here today. I happened to be in President Musser's office one
day when President Zitting came in. He said, "Is there anyone
here with a car who can take me out to Brother Clayton's?" I
said, "I have one here, and I would be glad to drive you out."
"Come on, let's go, " he said. So we went out. We got out to
Brother Clayton's place. He happened to be the sheriff of Salt
Lake County. We went into his home, Brother Zitting walked over
to his bed and spoke to him. He opened his eyes, and he was
glad to see Brother Zitting.
He said, "Brother Zitting, I asked for you to come because
they have told me I am going to die. I can't live only a few
more hours, I want to do all I can to make amends." He was the
man who arrested Brother Zitting, hauled him into court for
plural marriage. He said, "I know that I did wrong. I want to
ask your forgiveness before I leave, I want to do all I can to
make amends." Brother Zitting said, "Brother Clayton, your
controversy is with the Lord, not with me. As far as I am
concerned, I will freely forgive you for anything you did. But
I want to tell you this, Brother Clayton, you are not going to
die right now. We are going to give you a blessing, and you are
going to get well." We administered to him. The result was
that in a little over a month's time, Brother Clayton was back
on his job. He stayed on his job for two more years; then he
passed away.
This is the kind of faith that it takes. The Lord is kind
to us, and He has offered us a chance, my brothers and sisters,
to prepare ourselves against the day of visitation, as He calls
it, when He is preparing the earth for a Millennial Reign.
This is the day in which we live. All the holy prophets
have looked forward to this time, and now we are living in it.
Why shouldn't we put forth a greater effort than any other
people to prepare ourselves against that day when the earth is
being
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prepared? For the Lord has said that where there is much given,
there is much required. No other people have had so much given
to them as this body of people that I am speaking to. No other
people will be under greater condemnation than this people
unless we are prepared. So, let us get down to work while the
day lasts, for the closing hours of the day are fast drawing
near. Unless we are prepared, we are in a bad way. Now, I pray
that God will bless us and help us to see the errors of our
ways, and help us to prepare ourselves against the day when He
is pouring out His judgments upon the wicked. May God bless
you. Amen.
883
SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, JUNE 16, 1974,
SUNDAY, IN SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
This has certainly been a spiritual feast, my brothers and
sisters, to sit and listen to what I have heard this afternoon.
I am again grateful for the health and strength the Lord has
blessed me with, that I am permitted to be here and mingle my
voice with my brethren to encourage you to keep on striving.
When President Jeffs was speaking, my mind went back to the
45th Section of the Doctrine & Covenants when Joseph was giving
instructions to the Apostles what to do, and that wonderful
revelation was given. It gives us something, my brothers and
sisters, to think upon--the great preparation that has to be
made in order to satisfy our Father in Heaven.
In the 13lst Section of the Doctrine & Covenants, we are
told that in the Celestial Kingdom there are three heavens or
degrees, and in order to get to the highest, we must enter into
this order of the Priesthood known as the new and everlasting
covenant. We may enter into the others, but that would be the
end of our increase. So we are shooting for nothing less than
the highest degree of glory in the Celestial Kingdom. And if
this be the case, then there is a great lot of work to be
done--a great lot of work to be done--in order to prepare
ourselves for that glorious resurrection.
The Lord has told us many times that He doesn't look upon
sin with the least degree of allowance. These same sermons have
been spoken throughout the ages of time. When Enoch was
preparing his people, he went to Father Adam and asked him what
he should teach his people. What was the answer our Father gave
to him? He said, "Preach nothing but repentance to this
generation." We find that throughout the history of time
repentance has been the great cry to all people. Now we can see
why the Lord gave us the first Section of the Doctrine &
Covenants. He said that this Gospel of the Kingdom is unto all
men, unto all people whether they be upon the isles of the sea
or wherever they be, it is the same. There will be no eye that
will not see, no ear that will not hear, nor heart that will not
be penetrated; for all must hear the Gospel of
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repentance. Repent ye, repent ye, has been the cry throughout
the generations of time, and it is still the cry. Repent and
prepare yourself against the day of visitation is the cry today.
So there is a lot of work to be done.
We were studying the Doctrine & Covenants, one time, and a
man was sitting in hearing distance of me. Another man saw he
didn't have a book, so he handed him a book. He said, "I don't
need that. I know that book from cover to cover. " I am afraid
there are too many of our people who trust in the fact that
because they have read the book, possibly studied it, they think
they know all there is in it. But they come under the
condemnation that the Lord placed upon the different religions
of the earth when He answered the prayer of the Prophet Joseph.
"They worship me with their mouths, but their hearts are far
from me. They teach for doctrine the commandments of men."
This is a day of preparation for all who are living upon
the earth whether they be in this building or wherever they are.
The cry is the same. Repent ye, repent ye, for the Kingdom of
God is at hand. The Lord has plainly told us before this great
day was over, which is just in front of us, we will be glad to
cry night and day for deliverance. Let us not wait until the
battle is here. Let us consider it here today. Let us consider
that we are in the midst of the battle and commence to do just
that thing--have a prayer continually in our hearts that the
Lord might forgive us of our sins and short-comings, that we
might be prepared against that day, so that the Lord will be
justified in protecting His saints if He has to send fire from
heaven to do so. Let us be prepared against that day. It is not
impossible for every person that is within the sound of my voice
today to do just that thing--be prepared against the day of
visitation when God is pouring out His judgments upon the wicked
preparing the earth for a Millennial Reign. He says that Zion
cannot be redeemed only upon the principles of righteousness or
the principles of the Celestial Kingdom, and in the Celestial
Kingdom there is no sin.
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Stand ye in holy places, says the Lord, and watch the arm
of the Lord made manifest. This time is just ahead of us, my
brothers and sisters. We might say that was the cry in the days
of the Prophet Joseph, and that is over a hundred years ago.
That is true. Every man that stood upon the earth at that time
and heard the voice of the Prophet Joseph declare these words to
them came under the same condemnation that we come under. If
they did not prepare themselves as they were told by the Prophet
Joseph, they have no claim upon the protection of our Father in
Heaven at the judgment day.
Everyone of us is going to have to answer the same call
that our dear brother Clarence Wayman has gone to answer today.
I am not afraid of the position that he will attain to, because
I believe he was a man who set an example before those he lived
with and among, and they cannot find any fault with him. He is
one man that has tried to prepare himself against the day of
visitation. I hope every person that is in this building today
is doing the same thing.
Nevertheless, these principles have got to be kept alive.
They have to be kept alive in the minds of the people that dwell
upon the earth. For, after all, all that a man or a woman can
do is to purify his or her life and be prepared to answer the
call. There is nothing else they can do, but that will prepare
them for an eternal increase or an eternal advancement. And
that is what we are after. The Lord is seeking for the hearts
of men and women. Let us remember that when we say that we
believe that Jesus is the Christ and we keep not His
commandments, then there is something wrong. So let us get down
to business, my brothers and sisters, and listen to the voice of
our Father and listen to the instructions given to us from
Sunday to Sunday, from month to month; and let us do something
about our salvation.
Now, I pray the Spirit of God will rest upon us that we
will hasten to prepare ourselves that we might be counted worthy
of eternal life. May God bless you, I humbly pray in the name
of Jesus Christ, amen.
886
SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, JUNE 17, 1974,
AT THE FUNERAL SERVICES OF ELDER CLARENCE WAYMAN,
HELD AT THE LARKIN MORTUARY
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
My dear brothers and sisters, I, too, feel greatly honored
in occupying this position at this time. I trust that the few
words that I speak will be dictated by the Spirit of God that we
might be built up and encouraged to keep on striving to work out
our salvation in fear and trembling before Him.
I have known Brother Clarence since 1934-35. In 1938 in
the month of June, we held a funeral for one of our brethren in
Short Creek, now Colorado City. This little incident happened
at that funeral. The funeral was for Elder Isaac W. Carling,
one of our great and noble warriors for the Celestial Law. We
were gathering at the schoolhouse to hold the services. A young
man came up giving way to his feelings. He didn't seem to be a
bit backward in giving way to his feelings. He had his
handkerchief out wiping his eyes, crying quite heavily. One of
the brethren said, "Clarence, can I do something for you? Is
there something wrong?" He stopped and looked at us. He said,
"Well, I think you would cry too if you had lost your best
friend." This story came to me when Brother Draper was telling
his little story at the commencement of these services.
This boy, Clarence, has been a friend to this Priesthood
ever since I can remember. He has been faithful to every call
that has been made of him that I know anything about. I have
had many trips with him throughout the country. We have taken
him on several of our trips to Canada and other places in the
welfare of the work of the Priesthood. I have found him always
to be the same. He was a faithful up-holder of the principles
that he believed that he needed to apply to his life in order to
round out his salvation. He has gone home now to enjoy a
greater portion of the Spirit of God, I am not so concerned
about Clarence's position. J. Golden Kimball, in one of his
sermons in St. George, Utah, said this: "I am not afraid of
getting into the Celestial Kingdom, but what worries me is the
position I attain to when I get there. "
That is what should concern every person in this building
today. Every person should be concerned about the position they
attain to when they answer the call that Brother Clarence has
answered.
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I am grateful for the testimony that the Lord has given us of
this great and glorious work and for the privilege we have of
laboring in this wonderful day when He is preparing the earth
for a Millennial Reign.
I am grateful for the opportunity to prepare myself against
that day for which this great preparation is being made. The
Lord has plainly told us that He would have to cleanse the
earth, that the way must be prepared for the return of the ten
tribes of Israel and the redemption of Zion. This is what we
are working for.
Clarence has spoken upon this subject many times in my
hearing, and he has tried to prepare himself and his family for
that great and glorious time. Everyone of us should be so
concerned about the position that we attain to when we are
called home, that we would give it serious consideration while
we live.
I am grateful for the privilege that the Lord has given us
of living in this great and wonderful day and for the many
testimonies that have been left to us of the great preparation
that will have to be made before the redemption of Zion. The
Lord told the Prophet Joseph Smith in 1836 that He would redeem
Zion if He had enough faithful men. He called for five hundred,
but Joseph could not find them. So, He finally settled on what
he could find. He came down to two hundred, but he couldn't
find two hundred faithful.
I wonder how many He could find today that could answer the
call that was needed at that time. Could I answer it? Would I
be faithful and true to all things? Would I be able to endure
the trials and tribulations that the Lord might cause to come
upon us without murmuring? I wonder how many people are
prepared. He is going to call for them one of these days, call
for some help to manage the Kingdom of God because it is going
to come. You all know it, everyone of you--and I know it, I
believe that Clarence is ready to answer. I believe there are a
lot of others that are ready to answer. I think we all should
be determined to do something about our preparation.
The great commandment of the Lord was to preach repentance
to this generation, and nothing but repentance. He said, "Teach
nothing but repentance to this generation." So it is an
individual
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affair for every man to repent of his sins and be prepared for
the call when it comes.
Now, I want to admonish the family of Brother Clarence to
be faithful and true to the things that he has taught them. I
would like to see his boys follow in the footsteps of their
father, follow his counsel and prepare themselves against the
day of visitation when the Lord is pouring out His judgments
upon the wicked.
I envoke the blessings of God upon Sister Wayman and her
family. I hope that He will cause that she will be amply
provided for and that she will be comforted in her heart and in
her mind in this day and hour of bereavement. I ask the
blessings of God to rest upon all of you who are here today, and
let us think deeply upon the things that pertain to our eternal
salvation that when we are called home, we will be able to
answer the questions that are asked us in our examination. May
God bless you, I humbly pray in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
889
A SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, JULY 14, 1974,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
I am certainly grateful, my brothers and sisters, for the
blessings that the Lord has granted unto us up until this
moment, and for the opportunity that He has afforded us to clean
up our houses and our minds and prepare ourselves against the
day of visitation. I have been greatly pleased over the last
month for the young men coming to express a desire to clean up
their minds. I had a young man come to see me this morning. He
said: "I have a television in my home that I have been greatly
attached to. I thought it was necessary that I sit and listen
to it. Since I have heard you tell the people that these are
some of the causes of our minds being contaminated, and that the
Lord can't use a mind that is contaminated with the wickedness
of the world, I have come here to ask you one thing. Shall I
get rid of this television or shall I just leave it there and
listen only to the things that would be elevating to us?"
I have lived quite a long time, been through many
experiences in the earth, and I have seen men who have been
addicted to tobacco and foul language. They have expressed a
desire to do different. But I have noticed that these people
who have been addicted to these habits have a hard time to break
off if they try to do it a little at a time.
You have a television in your home. A man may want to get
rid of it, but he has a wife and daughter or son who wants to
watch television. It is going to be a hard thing to get rid of
the television and keep peace in the family unless you can teach
them the evils that are continually laid before them and the
requirements the Lord makes of us to clean up our minds and get
out of our lives these existing evils. It is going to be hard
unless we can do it.
This is truly a day, my brothers and sisters, of
preparation--preparing ourselves against the day when the Lord
is pouring out His judgments upon the wicked. Joseph Smith gave
us that wonderful revelation of his--just a short one--but it
gives us a picture of what is ahead of us. We are told that he
asked the
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Lord to close the vision when the Lord was showing him what
would happen to this generation in which we live. If what he
saw was true, then what he said in this revelation he gives in
his teachings, we are going to have to do just that thing. He
says, "Not many years shall pass away until this nation shall
exhibit such a scene of bloodshed that has never had a parallel
in the history of our nation." Then he goes on to tell us that
pestilence, hails, and windstorms, disease and famine will cover
the land to wipe out the inhabitants thereof to prepare for the
return of the ten tribes of Israel. I don't believe these are
idle words. I think the Lord meant them. I think Heber C.
Kimball meant what he said when he said there would be a
terrible famine in the land. He was asking the people to store
wheat. What are you going to do when people pour into these
mountains by the millions? He didn't say by the thousands or
hundreds. He said "by the millions." What are you going to feed
them when they come?
We had just a little demonstration of pests last evening. I
suppose most everyone in town had the same experience we did.
These little flying animals came right through the screens on
the doors and on the windows. We thought the screens were fine
enough to keep out the smallest of pests. These are not so
small when they are half an inch long. They might be small in
diameter, but they don't feel too good crawling over your body
or flying around your face, or crawling into the bed clothes,
and so forth. This is only a beginning. This is something that
the Lord has allowed to let us know that there is something to
the revelations that He has given that He will send pests to
tantalize the people. He has many armies. These little
innocent ants that we see crawling in the ground are an army of
the Lord.
The army worm is another pest. I have seen them in
Wyoming, I suppose Elmer remembers them, when they were so thick
on the ground it looked like the ground was moving. Driving
down the road with a wagon, our wheels would be wet from running
over these pests that the Lord sent through. They destroyed the
crops. Some crops they would not touch. Others, they would
destroy, take
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everything, cut them off. They looked just like a large tomato
worm with a horn on one end of their bodies, but all the colors
in the rainbow. Some were striped with many colors. Some were
plain colors. It was a sight to see. So, there are two armies
that the Lord can bring upon the earth, and He can bring them in
just a little while. This particular incident that I mention
here of the worms was about a mile wide and I don't know how
long. We followed the worms for more than a mile, and it was
just that way. It was just like a wave of the ground going in
waves, going in one direction. Some of them might be going
cross-ways to see to it that the others were all in line and
going, but they were all moving the same way.
After this, I was riding through the land looking for some
cows that we had lost, and I ran onto another scene of the army
worms--just going through the land cutting the grass down. They
had to eat to keep alive just like a tomato worm has to eat to
keep alive. He will destroy a tomato plant in a little while,
these are armies of the Lord.
I was working for one man who had about one hundred acres
of potatoes. I went over to irrigate his potatoes for him one
day, and I noticed a little beetle on some of the potato vines.
When I went in, I called his attention to the fact that there
were some bugs working on the potato vines. "Oh, " he says, "I
have seen that a lot of times. They will soon go, and
everything will be all right." It was only about three days
till all he had were just stumps of the potato vines sticking
up. The rest of it was chewed off, and the ground was covered
with potato beetles--another army of the Lord.
Uncle John called my attention to another one. He said,
"We see these little innocent birds flying around. They are
innocent. But you wait until the Lord wants to thrash the
people, then see what the birds can do." He says, "It is one of
the greatest armies that the Lord has." All these will be
brought into action to accomplish the Lord's work. Pestilence
was one of the first things that the Prophet mentioned. It is
only a short
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piece I am going to read. I have read it two or three times
lately. (Teaching's of the Prophet Joseph Smith)
"And now I am prepared to say by the authority of
Jesus Christ that not many years shall pass away before the
United States shall present such a scene of bloodshed as
has not a parallel in the history of our nation.
Pestilence, hail, famine, and earth quakes will sweep the
wicked of this generation from off the face of the land to
open and prepare the way for the return of the ten tribes
of Israel--lost tribes of Israel--from the North country.
People of the land--who have complied with the
requirements of the New Covenant have already commenced to
gather to Zion which is in the state of Missouri.
Therefore, I declare unto you the warning which the Lord
has commanded me to declare unto this generation
remembering that the eyes of my Maker are upon me, and that
to Him I am accountable for every word I say, wishing
nothing worse to my fellow men than their eternal
salvation. Therefore, fear God and give glory to Him for
the hour of His judgment is come.
Repent ye! Repent ye! and embrace the everlasting
covenant and flee to Zion before the over-flowing scourge
overtake you, for there are those now living upon the earth
whose eyes shall not be closed in death until they shall
see all these things I have told you fulfilled. Remember
these things; call upon the Lord while He is near; seek Him
while He may be found is the exhortation of your humble
servant, Joseph Smith."
We can kid ourselves, "Oh well, I will go along and when the
time comes, I will repent." But you want to remember that the
Lord has said He would take the remnant of Jacob and walk
through the Gentiles or the wicked and tread them down and none
could deliver.
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Those who think that they can get by, by waiting until the last
hour, may have to take this road and be among those who are
tread down with the wicked. If they have to take that road,
they will have to pay for their dilatory efforts. So, I would
rather be on the side of the Lord. I would rather be prepared
to be among those who He would be justified in sending fire from
heaven to protect if need be.
There may be a lot of people upon the earth who have
prepared themselves against the day of visitation that I know
nothing about. The Lord has a way of preserving them, and the
blessing has been offered to this people. Where much is given,
much is required. If we want the blessing we can get it; but,
if we don't want it, all we need to do is say, "Oh bosh, we have
heard these things before and we are not afraid of them."
We have a whole Church here with a membership of several
million people who are fighting the Celestial Law. How merciful
is the Lord going to be to them when these judgments come? We
might console ourselves in these words. He says, "Although they
speak all manner of evil and so forth, yet I will own them when
I make up my jewels." So, He leaves us with another parable to
figure out whether we can do as we want to do and then be
recognized in the end as worthy citizens of the Celestial
Kingdom.
Now, we have been together a good long time. I wish
nothing else but the blessings of the good Lord upon all our
people. I hope that we can go to and prepare ourselves for the
day that is ahead of us when great destruction comes upon this
goodly land of ours. For it has got to be prepared for just
what I read to you. It has got to be prepared for the return of
these lost tribes of Israel.
Now, may God bless you, my brothers and sisters, and help
you to realize the responsibilities that we have and help us to
prepare ourselves for that which is to come. May God bless you,
amen.
894
SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, JULY 21, 1974,
SUNDAY, IN SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
I am grateful, my brothers and sisters, for this wonderful
privilege of being here. I am grateful for this wonderful
audience that we have this afternoon. I am grateful above all
for the Spirit of God that has been upon us this afternoon and
for the testimonies we have heard and the instructions we have
received. I trust that the Lord will put words into my mouth
that we might be continually fed this afternoon and encouraged
in our efforts to prepare ourselves against the day when great
tribulation covers the earth.
While the brethren were speaking I was reminded of the
first and great commandment: Thou shalt Love the Lord thy God
with all thy Heart, Might, Mind, and Strength; and the second is
like unto it, Thou shalt Love thy Neighbor as thyself; and upon
these two commandments hang all the law and the Gospel. The
Lord gave us, in a nutshell, what we should do to round out our
salvation. We should first seek to love Him, because He does
not look upon sin with the least degree of allowance. He has
also said that every person that is born into the world has
enough of the Spirit of God upon them to know good from evil.
And if they were taken and taught the difference between good
and evil, we would be a better people. The world would not be
in the condition that it is today. But it is easier to follow
the lines of least resistance. Temptation is a great thing.
But the Lord has said that if we will keep His commandments and
follow Him, He will give us salvation and crown us with
exaltation in His kingdom. If we go the other road, we reap
damnation or destruction.
Let us strive to get the Spirit of God and keep it with us
as we have been instructed here today--be patient. The Lord
says: "Be patient and long-suffering, and keep yourselves in a
dedicated condition, so that when I want to call you, you will
be prepared." Many men get weary in long waiting. But the Lord
says for us to keep ourselves in a dedicated condition. We are
here and growing up. We have heard these things preached to
us--most of this people have heard it all their lives. Most of
us have
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heard nothing else but these same principles taught from Sunday
to Sunday, week to week, and year to year. I have lived about
as long as anyone in the building, and this is what I have heard
all my life, the same principles that we have been taught here
this afternoon. But we are still waiting for the redemption of
Zion.
The Lord would like to see a body of men prepared to carry
off the Kingdom. But He has also said He would spew us out of
His mouth if we didn't repent and seek Him in faith and
humility, that our calling and election might be made sure.
When Christ visited the Nephite people and was about to
leave them, He said, "I must go now, I have other sheep to visit
who are not of this fold or of the fold of Jerusalem." So, who
did He go to visit? And what did He teach them, and what did He
do among them? The Nephite people spent two hundred years, so
the record says, in perfect harmony. They had perfect
confidence in one another for that length of time. Men lived
and died, grew to a good old age and died. Did they die in
vain? No. They prepared themselves against the day of
visitation when God poured out His judgments upon the wicked.
The Lord plainly tells us that if we die full of faith, we are
saved and exalted in the Celestial Kingdom of our Father. But
if we die in our sins, we will be destroyed. That same promise
is given to us today. The Lord is anxiously waiting for a body
of men to come up who can man the Kingdom of our God upon the
earth. This continent has got to be prepared for the rise of
the Kingdom of God, for the ushering in of the Millennial Reign,
the thousand years of peace, so the scriptures tell us,
according to the words of the prophets.
So, the Lord has offered to this generation of men and
women this wonderful opportunity--to be prepared to carry off
the Kingdom. It belongs to us. It belongs to every man and
woman that will repent of their sins and apply to their lives
the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For we are of the House of Joseph
whose right it is to administer the blessings to the rest of the
Tribes of Israel. What a wonderful opportunity we have! What a
glorious opportunity we have!
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I dare say that almost every person in this room who has
had a Patriarchal Blessing has been promised that they were of
the House of Joseph and belong to the House of Israel. The Lord
has said that He would protect His saints in the latter days.
And when the earth is being cleansed of wickedness and prepared
for the rise of the Kingdom of God, He would protect His saints
if He had to send fire from Heaven to do so. But a great
preparation has got to be made in the lives of our men and
women. We have got to overcome and learn the two great
commandments--to love the Lord our God with all our heart,
might, mind, and strength, and then to love our neighbor as
ourselves. Cease to criticize, cease to find fault, and let us
have love in our hearts towards everyone. Let us have perfect
confidence in one another that we might be able to be counted
worthy of exaltation.
Now, I know we have been together a long while this
afternoon. I pray that the Lord will bless us with wisdom,
knowledge, and understanding, and that He will bless us with a
firm determination to become like Him in every way possible. I
hope that we can overcome our weaknesses and imperfections to
that point where we can control the elements, and when we need
rain, ask the Lord for rain and it will rain. This can be done;
it has been done in the past, and it can be done again. Ask,
seek the Lord for any blessing that we need and He will give it
to us, because He has said He would. He says, "Try me and see
if I won't open the windows of Heaven and pour out blessings you
can't contain." And He can do it. Now, may God bless you, I
humbly pray, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
897
SERMON GIVEN BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, JULY 28, 1974,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
I am grateful to my Father in Heaven for the blessings that
He has poured out upon our people. I am grateful for the
privilege of being here under such favorable circumstances. I
hope that the Lord will put words in my mouth that I might speak
according to His will and wisdom.
I don't know where you can go in all the world and find so
many people gathered together who believe in the fulness of the
Gospel of Jesus Christ as we have here today. We might find a
few scattered here and there throughout the world. We might go
into Salt Lake and gather together another audience as large as
this one, but outside of these two places, where can we find a
body of people who in their hearts want to do something about
their salvation? I am going to read just a little from Section
One of the Doctrine & Covenants. The Lord says this:
"Hearken, O ye people of my church, saith the voice of
him who dwells on high, and whose eyes are upon all men;
yea, verily I say: Hearken ye people from afar; and ye that
are upon the islands of the sea, listen together.
For verily the voice of the Lord is unto all men, and
there is none to escape; and there is no eye that shall not
see, neither ear that shall not hear, neither heart that
shall not be penetrated."
These words have been where the people of the world can get at
them for over a hundred years. And yet, we can't find anywhere
where there is an audience larger than this one among the
Latter-day Saints, or anywhere else, who can be taught the
fulness of the everlasting Gospel.
When the brethren were speaking, my mind went back to an
incident that happened in this place twenty-one years ago. It
was twenty-one years ago yesterday when the army came in, took
us under their wing, confiscated our store, pretended to feed
our people--our starving people--and tried to destroy the faith
that I see here today. I don't think that we have lost all our
faith, but we need
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a little chastising from time to time. We need to be appraised
of our dilatory actions in order to bring us up. I have nothing
to say against what has been said, because I think we need it.
The Lord says in several places in revelation that not all are
under this condemnation, but as a whole, the church was under
it; and they would remain there until they repented.
If what you have heard today fits your situation, you
better take it and repent of your sins. If you are not guilty,
you don't need to take it, but you need to keep in the line of
your duty and do all things whatsoever the Lord has commanded us
to do in order to round out our salvation.
How many of our people are ready for another raid--to carry
away our children? This is the size of children that they took
away, right here on these front benches, right near the pulpit.
Those were trying days when their fathers were hauled off to
prison. While they were in prison, they loaded these little
fellows on buses with their mothers, some of them with their
mothers, some of them didn't have their mothers, but they took
them all away.
Not long after the raid, I happened into El Paso, Texas. I
went to a motel and asked for a room. The manager of the motel
took a look at me and said, "Wait a minute. I've got it; you
are one of those boys that was taken in the Short Creek raid." I
said, "Yes, I'm one of them." He said, "I saw your picture. And
as soon as I saw you, it rang a bell. But I had to wait a
minute to think where it came from. Yes, I have a room. Any of
your people who need a room while passing through this place, I
want you to tell them where I live. I will have a room for
them." He said, "I never thought that that damned thing could
have happened in the United States of America, but it did. I
never thought about Mormonism until after that raid happened."
I don't know what ever became of him. I went back a time
or two after that when I was passing through the town and stayed
at his motel. One time, his wife was at the desk. She said,
"I'm sorry, I don't have a room left." This man happened to come
in. He said, "Yes, we have, Mother. We have always got a room
for this
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man or any of his people. I'll arrange it in about ten
minutes." In about ten minutes, he had a room for me.
This Gospel of the Kingdom is unto all men, no matter where
they live or who they are. And the Lord is willing to forgive
sins. We have been told today what some of our weaknesses and
imperfections are. Let us repent of them. Let us come up to
the mark. Let us go from this meeting with a more firm
determination that we are going to serve God and keep His
commandments. If we will all do that, the things we have
started can be finished, and the things we are working for can
be attained. Why? Because the Lord says, "Try me. See if I
won't open the windows of Heaven and pour out blessings that you
can't contain." I know He can do it. But the first thing we
have got to do is clean up ourselves and let Him know that we
believe what He says. Let us pay our debts. Let us pay our
tithes and offerings and let the Lord bless us. He will do the
rest.
Now we have been together a good long time. We have heard
many good things this afternoon. I invoke the blessings of God
upon you and ask Him to pour out His blessings upon us that we
might come out from under the condemnation that is upon us. God
bless you, amen.
900
A SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, AUGUST 4,
1974,
SUNDAY, SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
I feel, my brothers and sisters, that the Lord has been
good to us today to feed us these words of eternal life.
President Musser, in his speech, brought to my mind the words of
the Lord wherein He said, "I will make a full end to all
nations." There is one nation that will exist upon the earth
which will rule and reign and take under its wing all people.
All people may not belong to the Church or to the nation, but
they will be protected and given the right to live according to
the dictates of their consciences. One of the Articles of Faith
that Joseph Smith gave us was: "We believe in worshipping God
according to the dictates of our own conscience and allow all
men the same privilege. Let them worship where or who they
may." This is one of the articles of our faith. This is one of
the articles that will rule and reign when God sets up His
Kingdom in the earth.
We understand that when the Kingdom of God has been set in
order and His work is going forth, there will be honorable men
of the earth included in the council of the Kingdom. What are
they there for? They are there to see that all people are
governed according to the dictates of their own consciences.
This is the kind of doctrine that President Musser has been
trying to put over here this afternoon.
The Lord has plainly told us that this land upon which we
live is a sacred land. It belongs to the heritage of one of His
High Priests--Joseph. And those who dwell upon it shall serve
the God of the land or when they are ripened in iniquity, He
will have to destroy them. So this is the reason for the
preparation the Lord has commanded us to make--to prepare a
people to serve the God of the land and to be prepared to assist
in the governing of it.
Brigham Young, I believe it was, made a statement something
like this, that we could live in despair of ever seeing all
wickedness cease in the earth. This is true, but wickedness
will be controlled--controlled and governed by a righteous
kingdom. In our day wickedness is rampant. It is in the hearts
of all men. There are only a few in the earth today who are not
governed by wicked
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rulers. Only those who have fortified themselves against
wickedness by serving God and keeping His commandments and
applying to their lives the principles of the Celestial Kingdom
are free from sin.
The Lord has plainly told us that He only can read the
hearts of men or the minds of men. So let us prepare our minds.
Let us clean out of our minds all wickedness, evil thinking,
evil designs, and let us serve God and keep His commandments
that His Spirit might continue with us throughout the
generations of time, and that we might be prepared when the One
Mighty and Strong calls for men to man the Kingdom of God. This
will be at the termination of this great distress we see
throughtout the length and breadth of our country which is
sacred to the Lord our God.
If we believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and we believe
that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that he did receive
the golden plates and translated them by the gift and power of
God, then we believe in what they tell us. In those records, we
are told that at least one great nation was completely destroyed
upon this land because of great wickedness and their inability
to serve the Lord of the land and to bring about a period of
righteousness. So they were all destroyed. Then came another
nation, and through disobedience the righteous were all killed
off, and only those who would go over to the evil marauders of
the country were saved. And we see the effects of it throughout
our nation today. So, we are in the throes, my brothers and
sisters, of another cleaning day, when the Lord is cleaning the
earth and preparing it for a Millennial Reign, remembering that
the Lord has said that not one word of the prophets shall fall
to the ground unheeded, but all shall be fulfilled. And this
has been the prediction throughout the generations of time.
This is what we have been looking forward to.
Our nation today is in the throes of decay. Where can they
find a righteous man to rule? Where can they find a people that
would elect a righteous man to the presidency of this great
nation of ours? This thing is real, my brothers and sisters.
The spirit of decay has taken over the minds of the people of
this great nation.
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Now the Lord is trying to salvage out of it enough faithful men
and women to start a new reign--a Millennial Reign--a reign of a
thousand years of peace. This will come about, because the Lord
has spoken it.
I bear testimony to you, my brothers and sisters, that
Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, and he left the commandments
of God where we could get them and apply them to our lives, that
there might be a righteous people come up and take their place
in the redemption of the House of Israel. That is why this
Priesthood Council is hammering so diligently to prepare a
people or have a people prepare themselves. Every individual
has got to prepare himself. The Council can not prepare you
anymore than to urge you to prepare yourself. You have the same
revelations that we have to study and to read and to apply to
our lives that we might be prepared for that great day of the
Lord that is spoken of.
Now, I pray that the Spirit of God will rest upon us, and
that we will go from this meeting with a firm determination to
serve God and keep His commandments that we might be prepared
against the day of visitation which is at our door, I humbly
pray in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
903
SERMON GIVEN BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, AUGUST 11, 1974,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
I am very grateful, my brothers and sisters, for this
privilege of being here and beholding this great audience of
people. I have to rely upon the Spirit of God for my blessings
when I stand before you and try to speak. I am not an educated
orator, as far as the world is concerned. I am not a learned
man in the ways of the world, so I have to rely upon the Spirit
of God to direct me in my remarks.
At this moment I am moved upon to continue a little the
remarks of President Hammon regarding our young men. We
ordained quite a number this morning, advanced them in the
Priesthood. We advanced priests to elders, teachers to priests,
deacons to teachers. This work is growing. I am going to
direct my remarks to the parents, because the parents are
responsible for the actions of these young men. There ought to
be a curfew in the home of every Priesthood head to see that his
boys are in the home at night, and I don't mean after midnight.
When dark comes, the boys should be in the home. They shouldn't
be permitted to leave and go to the neighbors and meet with
their pals, as they call them.
Here a few years ago, I was called upon to talk to four or
five boys that had been out disturbing the peace. We brought
them into my office. There was one older boy in the bunch. The
others were a good deal younger than he was. I talked to these
boys and told them the dangers of being out of their own homes
and going about making fun in the streets in the evenings.
After I had talked to them for a while and told them the dangers
and what they were headed for if they didn't do better, this
older boy said, "I have heard enough of this kind of talk
towards these young men. These are my pals."
I said, "Young man, you are worse than I thought you were.
You ought not to do this thing. The Lord is trying to make
saints out of these boys, and here you are trying to deprive
them of the privilege of becoming saints." He wanted to leave.
I was able to quiet him down and had him in tears before he left
my office. I think the reason that we are having so much
trouble with our boys is because the parents allow them to leave
the home in the evening
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and go from one place to another to spend the evening.
When I was a young man growing up, we had a nine o'clock
curfew in the town. When that bell rang, everybody--every boy
went toward his own home. He knew that that was the order, and
that is what he did. There were a few that rebelled and
congregated together and caused the community trials. The
majority of the parents in the town of Kanab where I lived, if
the boys didn't get in immediately after the bell rang, they
were out hunting their boys and they were taken home if they
were out.
I don't think any boy has any right to be out of his home
in the evening unless he is sent out on an errand. They should
be home doing their work. If it is during school time, they
should be getting their lessons. I found, the last year that I
went to school, that I did not have time to go out and seek
entertainment. Every moment of my time was taken up. Even then,
the day did not last long enough.
I want to tell you parents, that you are going to be held
responsible for the actions of these young men. God has said
that He would take the young and middle-aged and redeem Zion.
And that is what He will take. One of the prophets said we
would have to raise a body of men to carry off this kingdom.
That is what we will have to do. If you don't take ahold of it,
you will find the Lord pushing you to one side. He will put it
into the hearts of enough of these young men to be men enough to
manage their families where they will raise up a body of men
that can carry off the Kingdom. What does the Lord say about
those that are pushed aside? He says, "I will have to destroy
them." He has given you a chance to repent. Now, what does
repentance mean? It means to leave off sin of whatever name or
nature it might be, for the Lord has said that He cannot look
upon sin with the least degree of allowance.
Now, if you think He is going to be lenient with you, try
Him and see. He says: "Try me. Try me, and see what I will do
for you. If you do my will, I will open the windows of heaven
and pour out blessings you can't contain, but if you do not do
what I say, I will destroy you."
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Now, those are a few things that confront us, my brothers
and sisters. These young men that have come here under the new
and everlasting covenant were not sent here to be destroyed. If
you allow them to be destroyed, you are in a hard way, and there
is no redemption for you. You had better watch these boys and
see that they are not out carrying on where they shouldn't be
and making it hard for the peace officer.
We are living in a day when God is preparing the earth for
a Millennial Reign. He is preparing it faster than you or I can
imagine. He has said that it would come upon us like a
whirlwind in the night. He has said again it would come like a
thief in the night. He said again, no man knows, not even the
angels in heaven. So, let us look to our knitting. Let us
straighten up our lives while it is yet today, for tomorrow it
will be too late. God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to
perform. He plants His footsteps in the sea and rides upon the
storm. All we need to do is read the scriptures.
I have heard testimonies of young people who have been
trying to put themselves in order. They come and ask a few
questions on what to do. I have tried to tell them. Then they
go and pick up a Journal and open it up. If you don't think the
Lord will help you, try it a few times. They would open it up
and read what President Young, or President Heber C. Kimball or
some other leader said on that subject. I have been working in
the field, and a question comes to my mind, Well, go look in the
book and see. I go and get the book and open it up and read
what the Lord said about it. That is the way part of my
education has come, some things have astounded me! I have tried
to do what the Lord has asked me to do and the servants of God
have asked me to do. There is not a person in this room that
cannot gain his knowledge or her knowledge the same way if they
are determined to do something about their salvation.
The Lord is very jealous of the workmanship of His hands
and especially the human family. He doesn't like to destroy
them. He stretches out His hand of mercy from generation to
generation
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and tries to save one generation after another by the
experiences of the generation before them by holding them up as
an example; but it is human nature to have to go through the
experiences themselves. So, we are not willing to take the
scriptures for our guide. We want to know for ourselves whether
this is true or whether it is not. We are not willing to accept
the testimonies of Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, Heber C.
Kimball, John Taylor, and others. We want to have it
documented. We want to put their words against other scriptures
to see whether they are true or not. We do not have perfect
confidence in one another. This is what we have got to come to
before we are even ready for the United Order. We have got to
become perfectly united in our thoughts and actions, and when
the Lord asks us to do a thing, go and do it, and see to it that
it is done before we stop. When we get to that point, then we
can begin to accomplish the things that God wants us to do,
This old world of ours is in a terrific turmoil at the
present time. We don't have a responsible head of our
government today--so the words of Lorin C. Woolley have come to
pass. This man has not been elected by the people. He is an
appointed president. The vice-president will be an appointed
vice-president, and all the rest of the cabinet. He has two and
a half years yet to fill. Will he last two and a half years in
a country like the United States where jealousy runs so high?
It is nothing but jealousy that has caused this condition to
come. Go back over it, think it out, look it square in the
face, look the facts square in the face and this is what it
amounts to.
My brothers and sisters, this Gospel is true. Joseph Smith
was a prophet of God, and he was sent here to set up the Gospel
of Jesus Christ and to set it in motion. He was told by the
Angel that it would not be taken away or given to another
people. So, let us believe the words of the prophets and apply
to our lives the principles of salvation. And let us do all we
can to preserve the lives and the integrity of the minds of
these young men. This room was filled with men this morning,
almost as full as it is now. It was filled from the front here
clear to the back with men and
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boys. I don't know how so many people got in this afternoon. If
the men were all here, there would not be any room for the
women.
Let us do what we have been admonished to do today. Let us
get the Spirit of God and keep it. Let us apply to our lives
the principles of salvation, and let us prepare ourselves
against the day of visitation when God is pouring out His
judgments upon the wicked, I humbly pray in the name of Jesus
Christ, amen.
908
REMARKS GIVEN BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, AUGUST 18, 1974,
SUNDAY, IN SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
Once more, I am greatly pleased to be here with you and to
hear what I have heard this afternoon. I am grateful for this
wonderful audience that has assembled this afternoon to be added
upon, for whenever we are gathered together under such
circumstances and we hear the Lord speak to us through the
mouths of His Servants, we are added upon. We are encouraged to
keep ourselves in a condition where we can advance in the
knowledge of our Father and how to become like Him. I trust, my
brothers and sisters, that the Lord will put words into my mouth
that I might speak the words that He would like you to hear.
The Lord has been kind to us. He has caused the conditions
around us to be such that we can meet together in peace--a
wonderful blessing in this day.
My mind goes back to the commencement of this work in the
latter days when that boy-prophet was given charge of the work
of the Lord and how he had to maneuver in order to advance the
work, and how the evil powers tried to over-power him and
destroy him and destroy the work that he was trying to bring
forth under the direction of our Father in Heaven. Then I
follow the work down to our day, and I see the great hardships
that had to be endured by our progenitors, our fathers and
mothers, our grandfathers and grandmothers, and how diligently
they worked to make it possible for us to live here today under
the conditions that this world exists in at the present time.
We had a little taste of the hardships that this Church and
Kingdom was organized under, just a little touch of it; but we
saw the hand of God made manifest in our behalf. We have been
delivered out of the hands of our enemies time and time again.
You fathers and mothers should think more deeply upon the
incidents that transpire from day to day and realize more keenly
the hand of God in your lives and the lives of your family, your
homes.
It hasn't been very many years since this people was a poor
people. It was hard for us to get back and forth from Colorado
City to Salt Lake City. I saw the time when it took me two days
with a "jitney." What is a "jitney"? It was one of these here
automobiles that we see today in its infancy. It took us two
days to come up
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from Colorado City to Salt Lake City. We had to load the back
of the car with tires so we could make it. We didn't have a
place where we could buy a new tire everyday, nor did we have
the money to buy it with. So we had to pick out the best of the
old tires we had and put them in the car.
I remember, one time, I was called upon to transport Aunt
Mattie and her family--Aunt Mattie Barlow--to keep her away from
the officers. We were doing the best we could, and the Lord
protected us in it. I loaded her and her family up one Thursday
morning in Short Creek. I had Brother Barlow with me, too, and
we came to Salt Lake City. We got here about midnight, drove
out to Uncle Rich's place and unloaded Aunt Mattie. We thought
we had her hid up, for a little while at least. Saturday about
noon, Brother Barlow came where I was staying. He said, "We
will have to move Aunt Mattie again. They have found out where
she is, and she isn't safe." So, I took my pick-up, went over
and loaded up Aunt Mattie again, and we started off in the
evening.
At daylight, the next morning, we were going out of Sigurd,
and we blew out a tire. I stopped and put on my spare--the only
spare I had. I drove about a mile, and I thought I had better
look at my tire. I got out, and it was almost flat. So I got
my hand pump, and pumped it up as much as I could. We drove
half a mile, looked at it again, and had to put more air in. It
was that way until I got to Richfield. We drove into Richfield
about eight o'clock in the morning. I pulled over to the curb.
Brother Barlow said, "What are you going to do?" I said, "I have
to have another tire. We can't make it this way. It would be
impossible to make it if I have to pump it up every half-mile."
He said, "What are you going to get it with?" "I don't know. I
suppose maybe the Lord will open the way."
So, I walked down the street into a restaurant. I saw a
man coming up the street, and we met at the door of the
restaurant. The fellow said, "Good morning, Brother Johnson,
what can I do for you this morning?" I said, "Good morning to
you. I am sure glad to see you. Are you living here now?"
"Yes, " he said, "I have a business here." I said, "Well, maybe
you can help me then. I have
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a load of people up here on a pick-up, and I need some tires."
He said, "Step inside here while I get a cup of coffee, and I
will see what I can do to help you."
So, I stepped inside and waited a few moments, He got his
cup of coffee, and we walked up the street to the OK Rubber
Company and went in. He said, "This man has tire trouble. Wish
you would take care of him. Fix him up good so he can travel."
He said, "Let him sign a note, then bring it over to my place,
and I will sign it with him." They said, "All right." It was
right across the street from where I had stopped. So, he sent a
man over there with a jack and jacked up the car, took the tire
off, went over it, but he couldn't find anything wrong with' it,
He took the tube out, but couldn't find a thing wrong. I said,
"There must be something wrong somewhere, because it just keeps
going down and that's all there is to it." He said, "I'll tell
you what I'll do, I will put a brand new tire on the rim, a new
tube, put it on your car and send you off with it. You can keep
this other one for a spare, because it is okay." So, we pumped
the tire up to proper pressure and started out.
I was quite brave; we got halfway to the next little town
below Richfield--Elsinore--before I got out to look how the tire
was. When I got out, this new tire was down. It was so low that
I almost shook in my boots, because I didn't know what was wrong
with it. I pumped it up. However, I couldn't get more than
twenty-six pounds of air in it. I would go half a mile or a
mile, and I would have to pump that tire up again. It was that
way all day.
We got down about a mile and a half from Panguitch at
twelve o'clock at night. I said, "Brother Barlow, I am tired of
pumping. (Laughter) Let's throw some of these mattresses down on
the ground and let the children go to bed and wait until
morning, then maybe we can get by." He said, "All right." So, we
made camp by the side of the road.
Next morning, I got up early, pulled the wheel off the car
and started rolling it down the road. Brother Barlow said,
"Where you going?" I said, "I'm going to see if I can fix this
tire so
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that we can get along with it." I went down the road possibly
fifty yards. All at once, I turned around. The Lord said,
There isn't anything wrong with this tire, go back and put it on
the car. Brother Barlow saw me coming back. He said, "My
goodness, you made a quick trip to a service station." I said,
"I know it, but the Lord told me to come back, so I came." I
put the tire back on the car and put air in it. I thought the
best way to get air in it was to pump it up while it was off the
ground. So I did. I pumped a while on it, let the car down,
and the tire was still up. It was standing right up. I guess
if I had had a gauge, I would have had more air in it than I
ought to have had.
We got in the car, drove through town (every little ways,
however, I got out to see how we were getting along) and got
Aunt Mattie to a place up in the mountains where nobody knew
where she was only the ones that were with her. I drove that
pick-up a couple of years after that, and I never had any bother
with that tire, but I wore out several others.
About a week later, I happened into Panguitch. The city
marshall there used to be an old friend of mine. I stopped to
the restaurant to get a bite to eat. The marshall came in and
sat down by me. He said, "You are the luckiest man that I ever
knew." I said, "Is that so?" He said, "Yeah. You know a week or
so ago when you had that family of little kids and that big fat
man on your pick-up?" I said, "Yes?" "You know what happened the
day before you came through town early in the morning?" I said,
"No. What happened?" He said, "About six o'clock in the
morning, two F.B.I. men came into town. Actually there were
four of them--two in each car. They parked on each side of the
street. Every once in a while we would come in here for a
coffee break. Those men sat here until twelve o'clock at night,
then we met in here for coffee. One of them said, 'Well,
George, we just as well go to Cedar. Those people must have
gone down 91, because they didn't come this way.' They sat here
and watched for you all day. Now, why you didn't come through
in the daytime, I don't know, " "No, " I said, "Nor you never
will know. That's a day I want to forget, because it caused me
too much trouble." These are some of the conditions we had to
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work under in our day. But look at us today. Go out and look
on this parking lot.
It is certainly a revelation, my brothers and sisters, to
see as much faith as we have to come here and get scolded like
we do from day to day, week after week, and month after month,
and still come out and want to be instructed by the servants of
the Lord. There must be some faith somewhere, to be blessed
like we are and to endure these things. So let us keep going.
Let us increase our faith. Let us increase our determination to
do the will of the Lord and to keep His commandments and to be
prepared for these great things that the Lord has said He is
going to bring to pass at the redemption of His people. For I
firmly believe, my brothers and sisters, that we are entering
into the commencement of the Millennial Reign. This is the time
that the Lord has set. He has set this time for this day, and
we had better be prepared.
When I read the scriptures, I see how firm the word of the
Lord is to us to overcome our weaknesses and imperfections, to
seek diligently to keep the commandments of the Lord that He
might be forced to keep His word with us. He says, "Try me, and
see if I won't keep my word with you and pour out blessings that
you can't contain." He is not letting us down, but we are
letting Him down when we don't do the things that He has asked
us to do. So let us see to it every minute of our time that we
have a thought of what He can do for us and what we can do for
Him.
Let us clean up our minds. Let us replace the bad with
good, and let us be prepared, that when the One Mighty and
Strong comes forth to set in order the House of God, we will be
prepared to take part in that great day. There will be a place
for you. There will be a place for every person to do something
about giving the blessings to the rest of the tribes of Israel.
Let us go home from this meeting and thank the Lord for the
blessings that we have received. Let us ask Him to give us
strength to stand under the pressure that is upon us from the
outside, and to protect us from the evils of this day,
continuing His hedge around us that we might be able to
accomplish the labors that are upon our shoulders, that we might
set an example before the
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rest of the world, that God's work might grow and increase in
the
earth.
I pray for wisdom, knowledge, and understanding upon the
minds of each one of you that we might become that people that
the Lord has been diligently waiting for. There is just a
little house filled with people here, when there ought to be
thousands of them listening to just such sermons as you have
listened to today. But there are not very many in the world,
not very many houses filled with people who have the blessings
that you and I have today.
Let us recognize the blessings of God upon us from hour to
hour and day to day, that we might be prepared against the day
of visitation, as we have been told this afternoon that the Lord
is going to have to bring upon these continents that we live
upon in order to prepare them for the Redemption of Zion. May
God bless you, I humbly pray in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
914
SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, AUGUST 25, 1974,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
I am grateful, my brothers and sisters, for the wonderful
opportunity of being here this afternoon and beholding this
wonderful audience. I am grateful for the testimonies that have
been borne this afternoon, for I feel that we have been well fed
through the Spirit of the Lord.
I am not a fat man. I guess the Lord was good to me. I
don't know but what sometimes I eat more than the ordinary man,
but I don't seem to be able to put on any weight like some other
people. I remember, one time, I thought I was getting pretty
heavy. I went to get measured for a suit of clothes. The pants
I had on were marked thirty-one inches around the waist. The
tailor said, "You'll have to have a little larger suit. This
one isn't big enough for you." So he gave me a thirty-three
inch. He fixed it up for me, and it fit me pretty good; but in
a little while, I had to have a thirty-six. Finally, I went in
for a suit of clothes; and the tailor said, "My goodness, I
don't know how you have stayed inside those pants. You are
going to have to have a thirty-eight. So, I thought, "Oh, oh,
first thing I know, I'll be as big as Brother Barlow." Ever
since I was twenty-two years old, I had weighed a hundred and
forty-seven pounds. But, when I got a thirty-eight inch waist,
I weighed a hundred and fifty-four pounds. I thought I was
getting fat, but since then, I have been getting littler. I have
heard people talk about their second childhood; maybe that is
where I am headed.
Nevertheless, we have heard some good sermons this
afternoon, and I hope we can profit by them. I have had things
come to my mind lately that have set me to thinking. I don't
know what is in the making at the present time, but we are
living in perilous times.
In going back over my father's experience in this
work-President Young in calling men to go to different parts of
the country to do their work, called Father to go to St. Thomas,
That was down there by Overton. There used to be a city down
there named St. Thomas; however, a lake now covers the spot
where the city was. President Young called a colony down there,
and they
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lived their religion for quite a while. Finally the State of
Nevada got curious in their feelings and thought they would have
to get rid of the Mormons or they would run them out. They
began to spread up and down the river there making homes. The
only way they thought they could get them out was taxation.
Father said they endured the taxes until finally a notice came
that said for every dollar of valuation of their property, they
had to pay fifty cents. That was prohibitive, So the people of
St. Thomas moved out and went other places. Father came out to
Glendale, settled there.
The other day, Brother Alvin called me and said, "You know
what the tax is going to be this year?" I said, "No, I don't
know, but I know that they have been outrageous on us before.
Our tax has been almost prohibitive." "Well, " he said, "listen
to this. The valuation of our district has jumped this year
$500,000. Figuring the rate the county is putting on the
district, that will mean that if we can get it reduced, we can't
get it reduced to a point where our taxes will be less than
$27,000 this year. And if they don't reduce it, it will cost us
about $54,000." Are you going to stand for it? How many of us
can raise that much money to pay for the land upon which we
live?
We have been told that we didn't expect the government to
come in and pick us up bodily and take us out again. But they
have other ways of moving us. We have a way of escape, my
brothers and sisters, if we will take it. The Lord has said
plainly that He would fight the battles of His saints, preserve
them, if needs be that He send fire from Heaven to do so. But I
want to tell you something, before the Lord is justified in
this, this place has got to be free from sin. Whoredom and
adultery are rampant in this community. What does the Lord say
about it.
(Section One - D. & C.)
"For I the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least
degree of allowance;
Nevertheless, he that repents and does the commandments
of the Lord shall be forgiven;
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And he that repents not, from him shall be taken even
the light which he has received; for my Spirit shall not
always strive with man, saith the Lord of Hosts.
And again, verily I say unto you, O inhabitants of the
earth: I the Lord am willing to make these things known
unto all flesh."
This is what the Lord said to the brother of Jared when He
sent him to this land:
(Ether - Chapter 2)
"And now, we can behold the decrees of God concerning
this land, that it is a land of promise; and whatsoever
nation shall possess it shall serve God, or they shall be
swept off when the fulness of his wrath shall come upon
them. And the fulness of his wrath cometh upon them when
they are ripened in iniquity.
For behold, this is a land which is choice above all
other lands; wherefore he that doth possess it shall serve
God or shall be swept off; for it is the everlasting decree
of God, And it is not until the fulness of iniquity among
the children of the land, that they are swept off."
We have heard quite a lot today of going back to Jackson County,
I am going to tell you something about Zion. Zion is the pure
in heart. It is not Jackson County alone, because Jackson
County is going to be fed by the people around it. It is going
to be the center stake of Zion. But every stake in Zion is
going to be the pure in heart, whether it be in Salt Lake City,
Colorado City, Los Angeles, Mexico City, or in Brazil, or
wherever it is upon these two continents if the people are
living the Celestial Law, which they will have to do, because
this is the land of Joseph. This land was given to Joseph
because of his faithfulness, and all other nations will look to
it and say, "Let us not go up to battle against Zion, because
the armies of Zion are terrible."
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The Savior told the Nephite nation that if the Gentiles
didn't repent after they had received the light of the Gospel,
He would destroy them. "My people, " He said, "who are a
remnant of the House of Jacob shall go through as a lion among a
flock of sheep--a young lion from the forest--who when he goeth
through both treadeth down and teareth in pieces and none can
deliver."
Now, I just read to you what the Lord said about this land.
It is a choice land above all others. And when people are
ripened in iniquity, He will have to destroy them. How much
riper in iniquity will a people have to get? Just go out in
these cities and around and see what is going on among the
saints. This wickedness in the cities of the saints is as bad
as it is among the Gentiles. And it is rampant in this place.
I want to tell you one thing--that Zion will never be redeemed
until a people will clean up their minds, their houses, their
families, their children, and live the law of Zion, Now, this is
the only way that Zion can be redeemed. And if this people will
repent of their sins, there has been no sin committed in this
place that cannot be repented of; but you have got to repent,
because God has said it, Or else what? He will send the
destroying angel among us and pick you out, and you won't be
here. He has said, "I will protect my saints--those who will
serve me and keep my commandments. I will be merciful to them,
but the wicked will have to go their way. My people shall be a
tried people, " saith the Lord God of Israel.
I only wish to say, repent yet repent ye! You boys who are
determined to run up and down these roads in your automobiles,
and on your motorcycles, defying the peace-officer, God has
blessed you so far, but if you keep this going, one of these
days you are going to commit some sin in this place that won't
be very easy for you to bear, You had better slow down! You had
better be peace-officers instead of peace-harassers, for that is
what you are doing. You are defying the man that we have placed
here to keep peace in this place. The Lord won't allow it to go
on forever.
There is no place on earth where people are putting forth
as much effort as they are in Colorado City to perfect their
lives.
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This I know. If you people don't want to believe what I have
told you today, just try the Lord. He has said, "Just try me
and see." If you want to go out and try Him, go ahead. But I
want to tell you every man, woman, and child that lives in this
place and expects the Lord to bless and protect them and make
them prepared to go back to Jackson County are going to have to
come to these terms--keep all the commandments of God. That
means the peace of the land. God loves us, my brothers and
sisters, or He wouldn't tell us these things. The Spirit of God
is here in this meeting. We have heard it today.
Now, let us go home and prepare our houses and clean up our
minds and our people. Let us be prepared against the day of
visitation when God pours out His judgments upon the wicked, I
humbly pray in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
919
A SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, SEPTEMBER 1,
1974,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
I am grateful, again, for the health and strength that I
enjoy, for the privilege of being here and partaking of the
blessings of this meeting. I feel that our time is well spent
and far spent, and that we have been amply fed for being here.
I pray that God will bless me with wisdom, knowledge, and
understanding, that the few moments I speak I might please Him.
I am grateful for the day in which we live. I am grateful for
the testimonies of our former presidents and apostles and
prophets. I am grateful for my parentage, my father and mother,
and for the things they taught us in our childhood. There is no
doubt in my mind but what we have been led and guided by the
Spirit of God.
Let us listen to the whisperings of the Spirit that we
might walk in fear and trembling before Him. We are here today
to hear the reasons for our existence and the purpose for our
lives. We are here to work out our salvation in fear and
trembling before the Lord--fearing to offend Him and trembling
because of the great responsibility that He has placed upon us
of overcoming the world and bowing to the requirements of the
Celestial Kingdom. We talk about the Celestial Kingdom because
that is the kingdom in which we want to dwell when we leave this
stage of existence. So, if we are going to be exalted in the
Celestial Kingdom of our Father, we need to be reminded of our
responsibilities from time to time.
The Lord is very kind to us to bring us along in this day
and age when He is preparing the earth for a Millennial Reign.
These things are uppermost in our minds, and that is the reason
we talk upon them. We might read the scriptures and think,
"Well, I am going to speak upon this subject today, " but when
we get up to speak, we have to speak according to the
whisperings of the Spirit of God. We have to be encouraged as
well as chastised. It is necessary that we be chastised from
time to time.
We have many young people in our midst who have presented
themselves for advancement, and some have gone out immediately
and began to trample upon the instructions that they receive
from this stand. The Lord has been displeased with them, and He
has been slow to answer their prayers, answer their
requirements. Both men and
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women stand in this category. We have young men that are
determined to have their own way. They are slow to listen to
counsel, and yet, they want to know why they are not added upon.
The Lord doesn't work in this way. You heard Brother Hammon say
today that after the trial comes the blessing. You young girls
and you young men, when you come to the age of accountability
and want to be added upon, you are put on your own; you are put
on trial. The Lord is trying you to see what you will do with
the blessings He has heaped upon you. Many young men have been
added upon, and because they didn't understand or don't
understand the responsibilities that are upon their shoulders,
they come after a while and want to know what they can do. So,
it isn't because the Priesthood is slow. It is because we won't
prepare ourselves to receive the blessings we desire. So, let
us come to our senses. Let us get down to business; and if we
desire a blessing, let us get down on our knees and petition the
Lord for it.
Many of our boys have been led by the enticings of young
women. Many young women have been enticed by the enticings of
young men. Through this the Lord is displeased, because He has
said that this law cannot be trampled underfoot. It cannot be
dishonored in the minds of men or women. It is a Celestial Law.
Zion cannot be redeemed only upon the principles of the
Celestial Kingdom. And the Lord says that He cannot look upon
sin with the least degree of allowance.
When a young man will take the advantage of a young woman,
he severs himself from the presence of God, for God has said it.
Unless he repents, he has no chance for exaltation. The Spirit
of God leaves him, and he cannot see anything but the ways of
evil. This goes for the young lady, too. If she steps out of
the way and seeks for companionship before it is her right to do
so, the Spirit of God leaves her, and she is left on her own.
She has no power to combat the evil that comes in her way.
The old prophet said that it would be a vexation to hear
the report. It is a vexation to the Spirit of God to hear the
report that is coming from this body of people. We have had to
invite men out of town because they wouldn't leave our girls
alone.
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We have had to invite women out of town because they would not
leave men alone. This is a vexation in the sight of God, and it
is a vexation to the Priesthood. It isn't because the
Priesthood wants to wield a mighty hand, but it is because the
Lord does not look upon sin with the least degree of allowance
and neither do His servants. So, if you want to clean up your
minds, you have got to get these things out of your minds. I am
speaking to the married as well as the single, because we find
it among our married people. We have these very same conditions
existing, and it is a vexation in the sight of God. It is a
vexation in the ears of the servants of God, and it is a
vexation to hear the report.
Now, I hope that we can clean up our lives, clean up our
minds, and bring about a condition in this place so the Spirit
of God can work, and that God's work can progress as fast as He
would like to have it. This has got to take place before we can
ever be called back to Jackson County. If you are going back to
Jackson County, you are going to be called by revelation out of
the midst of the saints; and there will not be anyone go back
there that has it in their hearts to disobey the law of God.
Now, I pray that God will bless us with wisdom, knowledge,
and understanding, and that we will prepare ourselves against
the day of visitation, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
922
A SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, SEPTEMBER 15,
1974,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
I want to express my gratitude, my brothers and sisters,
for the privilege of being here again. I am grateful for the
testimonies of the brethren and for the words of eternal life we
have heard this afternoon. They are true and faithful. The
Lord has spoken it, and we are here to be instructed. We are
here to prepare ourselves for the things that we have been told
about today.
I am grateful for the testimony that God has given me of
the truthfulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am grateful
for the people that have gathered around us, and I hope that we
can prepare ourselves for that which the Lord has promised the
faithful, remembering that this Gospel of the Kingdom is unto
all men. There are none to escape, and those who can prepare
themselves will be saved, and those who cannot will be sloughed
off. I would like to be among those who the Lord can smile upon
and can use in the furtherance of His work.
We have a great number of young people in this place. I
yearn over them because I know the great trials and tribulations
that they are thrown among. The Lord has said that He is
jealous of the workmanship of His hands, and we are all the
workmanship of His hands. There have been many many billions of
people who have come to the earth and lost their way. There
will only be a few, compared to the great number of souls born
in the world, who will come up in the morning of the
resurrection in honor before the Lord.
It seems almost impossible for us to put into our lives the
principles that have been explained to us today without being
swayed by the opposition. That is what confronts us. Many men
and many women are outwardly showing an attitude of Godliness,
but their hearts are far from the work of God. Men are being
tried daily. Women are being tried daily. It doesn't take very
much to cause us to incur the displeasure of the Lord upon us.
So it is a constant labor with every individual to keep himself
in a condition so that the Lord can smile upon us.
I attended the funeral yesterday of one of my relatives. I
couldn't help but think of the opportunity that these people
have had. Possibly, the Lord will be kind to them--some of
them. But as far as the Celestial Kingdom is concerned, they
have fallen short of doing what
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the Lord has asked them to do. I have had many years of
experience in the company of this lady that we laid away. We
know that if she had had the opportunity to live the Celestial
Law, she would have done it. There are many among us that would
do the same thing, but men have to be tutored and trained to
know how to manage the little kingdom that gathers around them.
One of the great obstacles that beset our people is the
inability we have of getting and keeping the Spirit of God. We
all make mistakes. The Lord has to take under consideration the
conditions under which we live. But yet, the responsibility is
upon the individual. When I read the history of the early
leaders of the Church--the early leaders of the Priesthood--I
see how Joseph and Hyrum conducted their lives, how Brigham and
Heber conducted their lives, and John Taylor and those men, then
I look at the lives of other men and compare them. It is an
individual responsibility to live and to prepare ourselves
against the day of visitation when the Lord is pouring out His
judgments upon the wicked; because the wicked are doomed unto an
eternal damnation, so the Lord says. He gives us the privilege
of coming here in this stage of preparation. We have been left
without excuse. We have had the servants of God, who have had
the privilege of mingling with heavenly beings. When we look
back over the history, we find even some of those have fallen
after they have been instructed by the angels of Heaven.
So men are being tried. Women are being tried. The Lord
says we are to forgive all men, and let Him forgive whom He
will. It is His work. He knows what has to be done. He is the
only one that can read the hearts of men and know what they are
doing, what their lives have been, and how well they have
prepared themselves against that day. And I hope, my brothers
and sisters, that we can draw in the wanderings of our minds and
look around us and see the evils that beset us and beset our
young people, and that we can be able to teach these young
people correct principles. Let us guard and direct them. When
we see them doing wrong, let us correct them in their early
life; because if we allow them to go their way when they are
young, it is hard to reach them when they get older. This has
been demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt. If we are going
to hold onto these boys and girls and give them a start that
will be an honor to their name and to the names of
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their fathers and mothers, we are going to have labor with them
while they are little; because when they grow a little older
they will go their way and want their own way, and there is
nothing that we can do about it. But who is going to be
responsible for them? The Lord told the Prophet Joseph Smith,
one time, that he was nigh unto cursing because he had failed to
teach his children correct principles. So let us look seriously
at the opportunity that we have, and let us prepare ourselves
for a glorious resurrection.
Now, I don't wish to keep you any longer, but I trust that
God will bless us with wisdom, knowledge, and understanding, and
that we can do something while it is yet today. God bless you,
amen.
925
SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, SEPTEMBER 22,
1974,
SUNDAY, IN SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
I am grateful for the testimonies borne this afternoon, I
am grateful for the privilege of being here and hearing them. I
am grateful for the people that have gathered around the
Priesthood that are interested enough to come out and listen to
the word of God from Sunday to Sunday.
In all my experiences in life, I find that the testimonies
of the elders are the same. They are always bringing to our
minds the principles of righteous living and the words of our
Savior to repent of our sins, to overcome our weaknesses and
imperfections. All these are the words that fall from the mouths
of those the Lord has called to lead and guide this people.
I trust that the Lord will put words in my mouth that we
might be edified while I speak this afternoon, for I know that I
am only a mortal being and without that Spirit to guide my
thoughts and words, I just as well sit down. I remember, one
time, several years before I knew anything about this order of
the Priesthood, we were holding quarterly Conference in Kanab.
We were going to morning meeting. I happened to be walking just
behind the President of the Stake and one of his counselors. As
we passed by one of the stores, there were two or three men
sitting on the store-step, whittling and talking. Brother Ivins
happened to be one of the representatives from the general
authorities, and he was accompanying these other men. He said,
"Brother Findly, let's go to meeting." "Oh, go on Brother Ivins,
I have heard that stuff all my life; I am just about ready for
the grave now, I have heard it and know it from A to Z. So
there is no use in going over there. I will stay out here and
preach to those who don't want to go to meeting, and you go in
there and preach to the rest of the people."
I thought that was quite a remark to make. I have thought
it over and over. So many of our people feel like they have
been fed this old stuff so long and for so many years, so what's
the use, the servants of God are only tickling our ears and
telling us the same thing over and over, perhaps one of these
days, some of them might make a slip and give us something new.
By the way, this is part of the sermon of Brother Ivins
that
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day. He held up this book and said: "I have read this book, I
don't know how many times, and I thought that I knew it all; but
you know, everytime I read it, I find something new, something I
never saw before. That is what we will find in the sermons of
the servants of God." He said, "We might feel like we have
heard this stuff over and over again until we are fed up on it,
like these men did; but I will tell you something, if those men
were in this meeting today, we could tell them something that
they have never heard before. Or if they have heard it, they
have forgotten it. Bring it to their minds, and they have
something to think about."
That is what we are here for. We are here to be reminded,
my brothers and sisters, of the Gospel of eternal salvation. It
doesn't make any difference how much we read, how many times we
go to meeting, there is always said or we read something that is
just a little different than the way we understood it before.
We should never pick up this book and read it without first
asking the Lord to inspire our minds that we might get out of it
His will concerning us.
We find that this is the charge that was given to the old
Prophet Moroni: Let me leave this testimony to those who might
have an opportunity to read this history, that if you will read
it with a prayerful heart and the determination to know and
understand the things that are written here, the Lord will
reveal it to you.
I can bear testimony to you that this is true. When I read
this book, and I ask the Lord to explain it to me as I read it,
then I am interested in it and understand. When I was a boy, it
took me a long while to get interested in the Book of Mormon.
But my father, being a teacher, would get his children around
him and read it and explain it to them. Some of us would pay
attention. Some of us would be thinking of something else, but
he kept working with us. As far back as I can remember, the
same teachings that I hear today from this stand have been
taught over the pulpit.
I have never been at a point yet when I did not want to go
to meeting, to Sunday School. Or if I had a chance to go to
Priesthood meeting, I have never been to a point where I wanted
to stay away from it. But I have been in a condition where I
wished that I
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could have the opportunity of going to these meetings and
hearing what the elders had to say. I dare say that, today, we
have been instructed along lines that will be beneficial to
every person here, somewhere along the line. It takes all this
effort that the Lord puts forth to get before His children the
principles of eternal life in order to save them.
Brother Hammon, every once in awhile, brings up a horse for
an example. I have had this experience with horses, I once had
an animal that I thought was very choice. I turned it loose on
the open range. Well, it got with some wild horses. When I
went out, it took two or three years before I could get hold of
it again. Finally, one day, I was out looking for my animals, a
rider came along and he said, "The rustlers are up to (a place
we called) Franny." The cattle men had some corrals there where
they rounded up their cattle and horses. These men were
gathering up all the horses in the country. They were just
after horses. They weren't after cattle. This man said, "I
rode by the corral, and I saw your animal that you have been
looking for for so long in the corral." I said, "Good, I will
go right up there." I had to go about twelve miles to get to
Franny. He said, "You won't get there before they leave. My
advise to you is to not go. Those boys are mean." He left. He
went towards home, and I took out for Franny. I got to the road
up to the corrals, I was just a boy, about fifteen or sixteen
years old. I rode up to the corral, got off my horse, crawled
up on the gate pole, looked in the corral and spotted my horse.
One of the men came up and said, "Sonny, what are you after?" I
said, "I am after that animal right there; that bay mare with
the colt sucking her."
"Oho!" he laughed, "I have a reward for that animal over in
Billings. You are not taking that animal out." I did not argue
with him. I got down, took my rope off the saddle, crawled over
the fence, walked in among the animals, called her by name, and
she looked at me and started off. I kept talking to her.
Pretty soon she stopped, and I walked up to her and put the rope
around her neck and started to lead her out. One of the fellows
stepped up to me and said, "Young man, you are a pretty brave
boy, but you are not brave enough to take that animal out of
this corral." I said, "Well, maybe not, but I am going to." I
stepped out around him and kept on going
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towards the gate. A couple of men stood in front of the gate.
One said, "Kid, you have a lot of nerve, but we cannot let you
have that horse. That horse belongs to a man over in Montana.
We are taking it over to him." I said, "Well, this particular
animal belongs to me. I haven't seen it for two years. Somebody
saw it a year ago and said it had a colt with it. That ought to
satisfy you fellows so you won't want to take this horse away
from me." At that, these two fellows moved over. I walked over
to the gate, opened it, led my animal out; the colt followed it.
I got on my horse and rode off. One of the men said, "Did you
ever see such nerve in all your life?" I rode off with my
animal, and I got her home. I thought I was smart. In no time,
I put my saddle on her and got on her. She almost threw me off.
I had to pull leather for a little while, not very long. She
tried to throw me off.
That is the way we get in this work. We get a little of
it, then we get away from it for awhile, then we don't know
whether what we are being told is the truth or not. We get cold
shoulders, and we have to buck a little in order to get back in
the harness again.
My brothers and sisters, this is the Gospel of Jesus Christ
that we have been listening to this afternoon. It is the Gospel
that will lead us back into the presence of our Father in
Heaven. The Lord has said, "As for you, you are to forgive all
men, but leave judgment to me. I will forgive whom I will."
Again He has said that He is the only one that can read the
minds of men. Nobody else is allowed to read them. The devil
knows what we are thinking and what we have in mind by the words
we speak. Until we let him know by word of mouth, he can have
no power over us. He can go by our actions, but until we reveal
our actions, he has no power over us. You can take the littlest
child when it is creeping upon the floor, and it soon learns
what you are talking about.
I had this experience one time. I had a little child just
learning to creep that was near the door. I said, "I wish
somebody would shut the door. " The first thing I knew, the
child was pushing the door shut. I had heard before that little
children know what you are talking about long before they can
talk. This was an example to me.
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Our little children learn quickly the attitudes of their fathers
and mothers, and brothers and sisters. Long before they can
talk, they can learn. They know what you say. That is the
reason we admonish our people to start when their children are
young to teach and train them in the lines of truth and
righteousness. Never commit an evil act where they can see you,
because they will mimic you. Never speak harshly or criticize
or complain, or you will have that kind of a child growing up.
I am grateful for the privilege of living in this day, for
the knowledge that I have of the teachings of our Savior to the
Nephite people; for I can see His words being fulfilled right
under our eyes. The way is being fast prepared for all of His
words to be fulfilled among the Gentile people. The Gospel of
Jesus Christ, in our day, came to the Gentiles. It was taken
from the House of Israel and brought to the Gentiles. What for?
To gather out the blood of Jacob from the midst of the Gentile
people. And it has been an uphill business to bring together a
body of people who could bring themselves to a point where they
could do what we have been instructed to do today--to have
implicit confidence in the words of the servants of God. Only
those who will do what Christ told the Prophet Joseph, only
those who hear the testimony of the Prophet Joseph and apply to
their lives the Gospel of Jesus Christ as it was given to him,
will be saved, and those who will not apply to their lives these
principles will be damned. Only those that will be saved will
be gathered in with the House of Israel.
There are many people in the world today who have not had
the opportunity of being taught and trained as you and I have
been. These people will have an opportunity to hear the Gospel
and have it taught to them, in the own due time of the Lord. Ye
who can hear from day to day, from week to week, month to month,
year in and year out the testimonies of the elders of Israel and
still will not conform your lives with the Gospel of Jesus
Christ, I am afraid you are going to be in a condition like I
heard David A. Smith say. I heard him speak in Conference in
Hurricane, Utah, one time. He said, "I am afraid, my brothers
and sisters, that you who have heard the testimonies of the
elders of Israel, the servants of God, and will
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not repent here, after you leave this life, I am afraid you will
be a long long while dead before you have another opportunity."
I am afraid that that is the case with a lot of our people. If
we don't hasten to prepare ourselves so that we know that we are
in tune with the Spirit of God, I am afraid that it will be a
long while before we have another chance. So let us hasten to
tune ourselves in with the Spirit of God and invoke that Spirit
upon us that we might be brought in under the new and
everlasting covenant and be numbered with the saints of God when
He comes to make up jewels.
Now, I pray God's blessings upon us that we might be
permitted to enjoy the privileges that have been offered to us
today. Let us go down the road and work out our salvation in
fear and trembling before the Lord, I ask in the name of Jesus
Christ, amen.
931
A SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, OCTOBER 6,
1974,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
I feel well paid for being here today, my brothers and
sisters, for the testimonies of these young men as well as the
wonderful instruction that we have received. I feel greatly
encouraged in my feelings about the welfare of our people. We
have in our society choice spirits of heaven, and among them are
many who will be called to be leaders in the redemption of God's
work. But a great deal of preparation has yet to be made. I
have heard the elders of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, as well as the Priesthood members, bear
testimony that this is a preparatory work, This is a place to
prepare ourselves for a Celestial Glory. There is no doubt in
my mind that we had the opportunity to be tried and tested
before we came here. We had the Gospel explained to us. We had
the plan of salvation laid out before us, and we understood what
it meant. But we had to go through this preparatory state. We
had to come here and take bodies and prepare them for a
Celestial existence. This should have been instilled into the
mind of every young child--that he had no right to deviate from
the preparatory training that he should have received in his
father's and mother's home. We have to come to this order of
things.
You young mothers and fathers should begin right now while
your children are yet at a tender age to tutor and train them to
shun all evil--even the appearance of evil. They should be
taken into your confidence when they are little and trained to
shun everything that is of an evil nature; for the Lord has
said, "I do not look upon sin with the least degree of
allowance. " And this is a pretty broad statement.
We have to come to the understanding that even the smallest
babe has a grown-up spirit. So, let us commence to teach it and
train it from birth. Some might say, "We don't have time now. "
When I look back over the history of this continent upon which
we live (and we have a pretty good history of it). I find it
took many years for the Lord to bring about His purposes in
bringing righteousness upon the earth--upon this continent. He
had five hundred years from the time Lehi entered upon this
continent before
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the Christ came. There had been many wars, and many days of the
servants of God trying to train the people that they had to
prepare themselves against the time when the Savior would come.
When the Christ came, it didn't take very long for Him to
destroy the wicked. The record tells us that only the more
righteous were saved, but among the more righteous there were
unbelievers. The record tells us that it took twenty years
before they were all converted to the fact that it was Jesus who
came.
Now, Christ came again in our day, in the generation in
which we live. There wasn't a great destruction of people; but
a Church was set up, and great blessings were pronounced upon it
if they would keep the commandments of God. The same edict
hangs over the nation today that was given to the brother of
Jared long before the days of the camps of Israel. The Lord
told him that He would lead him to a land flowing with milk and
honey, a land choice above all other lands. The people who
dwelt upon the land would be a God-fearing people and serve the
God of the land, or when they were ripened in iniquity, they
would be swept off the earth. Now, when the time comes, we
don't know how swift this thing will be. But according to the
reckoning of men, it took several hundred years after the people
began to fight among themselves. After Christ came, for two
hundred years, they lived in peace; then they began to war one
against another. They were divided again. So it took another
two hundred years to destroy the righteous from among the
wicked.
Now, we are living in another time, and the Lord has said
that if the people didn't accept the Gospel, He would have to
destroy them; or if they rejected the Gospel, He would have to
destroy them. For those to whom the Gospel was given, the
ordinances of salvation were administered. So the Lord sent a
prophet among the people declaring to them that the opportunity
is still here for those who would prepare themselves for an
eternal salvation. The principles of salvation are here before
us. We are left without excuse. Whether it takes one hundred
years, or whether it can be done now in a few months, or a few
years, it makes no difference.
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As long as life exists in us, we have the power of
repentance, and the privilege to repent and to teach and train
these youngsters that are coming up. The promise has been that
God would protect His saints against the great tribulations that
would precede the redemption of Zion. So I say, we have an
opportunity if we will grasp it at the present time.
You young men and young women, who are just entering into
fatherhood and motherhood, it is your duty, not only your
privilege, but your duty, to teach and train these children that
they will be God-fearing citizens of the Kingdom of God. So let
us hasten--let us hasten to take advantage of the opportunity
while it lasts. The Doctrine & Covenants is full of promises to
those who will keep the commandments of God; and this is one of
the commandments of God, that we teach and train the children
that come into our home and do all we can to save them and make
them honorable citizens of the Kingdom of God.
Zion cannot be redeemed only upon the principles of the
Celestial Kingdom, and in the Celestial Kingdom there is no sin.
It is a kingdom of peace and happiness, a kingdom where every
person should do everything they can to obtain an existence
there. So, let us do what the Lord has asked us to do--repent of
our sins and prepare ourselves against the day of visitation,
that we might go down in history as becoming saviors upon Mount
Zion. The opportunity is here. Let us grasp it. Let us take
advantage of it. Let us apply to our lives the principles of
eternal salvation. Let us try to bring up a generation of
people--a generation of young men and women that can carry off
the Kingdom according to the will of God.
I pray that God will bless us with wisdom, knowledge, and
understanding, that we might be able to prepare ourselves to
take part; because we have the opportunity, if we will take
advantage of it. May God bless us, I humbly pray, and help us
to overcome our weaknesses and imperfections, that we might be
prepared against the day when God is pouring out His judgments
upon those who do not have the power to repent. God bless you,
amen.
934
A SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, OCTOBER 20,
1974,
SUNDAY, IN SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
I am grateful again, my brothers and sisters, to be here
and hear the testimonies that have been borne and will be borne
this afternoon. I am grateful for the privilege we have of
gathering together once in awhile and hearing what the Lord has
for us. I pray that the few moments I speak I will be dictated
by the Spirit of God, that some good might come of it. I am
grateful for the testimony that God has given us of the
truthfulness of the everlasting Gospel. I am grateful to live
in this day when God is preparing the earth for the Redemption
of Zion. When we analyze this word, it is far-reaching. Zion
is the pure in heart. When we go back over the scriptures and
see what the Lord has said to those who have been prepared in
their minds and taken away with the promise that when He
accomplishes His work and redeems His people that they would
have the privilege of coming back and partaking of the great
work in that day, it makes me feel that there is a great
concourse of people who will be prepared to take part in the
redeeming work.
We read in the Pearl of Great Price the promise of the Lord
to that great prophet, Enoch, when He promised him that he and
his people would come back and take part in the Redemption of
Zion; and that Zion upon the earth would mingle with Zion from
above. It means a lot. Zion is the pure in heart--those who
have prepared their hearts and done what the Lord has asked them
to do--rid their lives of the evils that possess the minds of
men in this great day, and have fought for the Spirit of God,
applied it to their lives and brought themselves to a condition
where they can call upon God in faith and will receive the
blessings that He has offered to the honest in heart. There are
many honest in heart throughout the world, many men who have
fought for righteousness and have done the best they could
whether they have heard the Gospel or whether they haven't. They
have done the best that they knew how in order to prepare
themselves for an eternal salvation.
This Gospel is as old as the world. It is as old as any
record of the Priesthood that we have. Although there have been
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many generations of time when the Priesthood has been dormant,
there has never been but once when the Priesthood was taken from
the earth since the days of Adam. The nearest that I can cite
you to where this took place was in the great destruction that
took place upon this continent when Christ visited the Nephite
nation. When the great destruction took place, great upheavel
of the earth, volcanoes, the sinking of cities, and all this
shows to us that the power of the Priesthood was raised off the
earth for the space of three hours. If it hadn't been for the
fact that Christ made His appearance when He did, the whole
continent would have been destroyed. But, when the wicked had
been destroyed, then He made His appearance.
The record tells us that only the more righteous were left
to see Him and to behold Him. When we search the scriptures and
find these truths, it makes us wonder what is going to take
place in our day. We live in a day of great wickedness. The
Lord is not pleased. He told us that His Spirit had ceased to
mingle with the leaders of our nation, because of the great
falling away from the principles of righteousness after Christ
came and did the work that He did.
When Brother Jeffs was speaking, he was telling us of the
things that Joseph said. My mind went back to the Book of
Mormon when Christ told the people that great were the words of
Isaiah. He admonished the people to read Isaiah. Isaiah was
one of the greatest prophets that ever came to the earth; for he
was shown the generations of time from the beginning to the end.
He saw what would take place, and he told about it. If we were
to study his words, we could get a full knowledge of the Gospel
of Jesus Christ and then have it verified in the generations
that have passed since his time.
Today we live in a time when the Lord is preparing the
earth for another dispensation--the dispensation of the
Millennial Reign--when there will be no wickedness, but men and
women will do the work that has to be done in accomplishing the
great work of redemption. We know little about the redemption
of Zion. And we will never know until we have taken part in
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the great and glorious work. But I would like to know. I, for
one, would like to know what takes place in that great and
glorious work. And, if there is any way that I can pay the debt
of disobedience in my life and prepare myself and be prepared to
take part in that great work, I would like to do so. I would
like to see this people to whom I am speaking prepare
themselves; for I would like to see them there--everyone.
Isaiah would like to have been able to see the people who
he was speaking to take part in the same great and glorious
work. All the righteous from the beginning of time until now
will be gathered together and will do their part in the
redemption of their generation throughout the generations of
time.
When I walk upon the streets in these great cities that the
Lord has permitted to be built upon this great continent, my
mind goes back to the record of this book--the Book of Mormon.
And when I read what took place and the great destruction of
that time, it makes my heart sorrow because of the great
wickedness I see and the way the hearts of men have gone when
such a glorious vision was given to the boy-prophet, the Prophet
Joseph Smith, and the testimony that he bore to this nation and
the way they have rejected his work and trampled it under foot.
Even those who were close to him--worked close to him--fell away
after he died or were taken away. It makes one's heart bleed to
see these things when we know we have got to obey the word of
God or be destroyed. It is a terrible thing. Remember, the
Lord has said that only those who are partakers of the second
death know the misery and sorrow that they have to go through,
but those who are partakers of eternal life have nothing but joy
and happiness in the efforts that they have made to clean up
their bodies and prepare themselves for a glorious resurrection.
I say, my brothers and sisters, this is a great day. This
is a day that has been looked forward to by all the holy
prophets, and they wished to live in this day and partake of
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the blessings of it. Why shouldn't we be a grateful people--so
grateful that we wouldn't look upon sin with the least degree of
allowance as the Lord has said; and that we would stamp it out
of our homes, out of our community, and let the cloud hang over
us by day and a pillar of fire by night, that the world might
see our good works and want to come and join us.
I am grateful for the testimony that God has given us, the
privilege that God has given us to apply to our lives the
testimony of Jesus Christ as it was borne to us by the Prophet
Joseph Smith. I am grateful for the people that have gathered
around the servants of God at this time. I am grateful to live
in this day and to partake of the blessings of hearing the
Gospel of Jesus Christ from Sunday to Sunday and from month to
month as we have it given to us in this day and age.
We should never go to bed until we have satisfied ourselves
that we have done all the Lord has asked us to do from morning
till night. We should prepare ourselves for the pouring out of
the blessings of Heaven upon us, that we will be protected in
this great hour of stress that is just before us and that we are
entering into at the present time. I can see from hour to hour
how fast the judgments of God are spreading forth upon the land
upon which we live, knowing that the Lord has said that those
who dwell upon the land shall serve the God of the land or be
destroyed. I believe these words. I believe that you believe
them, or you wouldn't be here.
So let us go forward, my brothers and sisters, and prepare
ourselves against the day of visitation when God is pouring out
His judgments upon the wicked who do not have the power to
repent because of the enticings of the false and delusive
spirits that are loose upon the earth at the present time. Now,
let us rid ourselves of all evil, all evil thoughts, and clean
up our minds and our bodies so that we might be permitted to
retain them again and go on through the eternities together, I
humbly pray in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
938
SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, OCTOBER 27,
1974,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
I am grateful again for the privilege of being here and
enjoying health and strength, and I trust that the few moments I
speak I will be directed by the Spirit of God, that we might be
built up in our determination to get close to Him and keep His
commandments. The Lord has been kind to us to bring us out of
the world and place us in a place where we can gather together
in peace without molestation from evil-doers.
I know that what the Lord has said He said for the benefit
of those who would listen to His commandments. Brother Hammon
mentioned the word of the Lord wherein He says, "My word is
powerful. It is sharper than a two-edged sword. It will divide
asunder both marrow and joint." And when we think upon these
words, they mean a great deal to us, or they should, because
they denote the greatness of His charge to His children.
The Lord has always been kind to His children. He has
always warned them of the condition of their lives. He has
placed great blessings upon their heads if they would do right.
He has also placed great cursings upon their heads for
wrongdoing. When He was preparing Jared and his brother for the
journey across the waters, He told them to get their families up
and He would lead them to a land that was flowing with milk and
honey--a choice land above all other lands. And if they would
keep the commandments of God, they would prosper and become a
mighty people. And those who possessed the land would be a
God-fearing people and would keep the commandments of the God of
the land or when they were ripened in iniquity, He would have to
destroy them. This record was left where the Nephite people
found it, and they read these same words. And the servants of
God reiterated them to the Nephite people and told them that if
they didn't keep the commandments of God while they possessed
this land when they were ripened in iniquity, He would destroy
them. It went on from time to time, and during the wars between
the Nephites and Lamanites, the Lord sent prophets among them
and they taught repentance. And from time to time they would
repent for a while and the Lord would bless them and prosper
them in the land until
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they became a mighty people upon the land. They were taught
from the beginning that there would be a Redeemer born into the
world--that Christ would come to redeem His people. But they
were looking for some great man to come with a mighty army and
deliver the saints of God from the unbelievers. When they became
prosperous and the Lord blessed them with plenty, they would
fall away and forget the Lord and the enemy would come in and
molest them. The story is here where everyone can read it and
know for themselves that the word of the Lord to the Brother of
Jared was realized upon this continent. When the Jaredites
became wicked and there was no evidence of them returning to the
commandments of God and purifying their lives and preparing
themselves for an eternal salvation, the Lord allowed them to
war among themselves until they were completely destroyed.
Then came the Nephite people. They, too, were instructed
to keep the commandments of God or they would be destroyed. We
have the record before us; you can read it. It tells us how the
Nephite people were destroyed twice--once was at the coming of
the Savior upon this continent. It says that only the more
righteous were permitted to live. What became of those who were
left of the Nephite nation? They were left without leadership.
They were left to roam to and fro upon the land and to fight
among themselves. We don't have any record of what transpired
from the time of Moroni until Columbus discovered America. But
we do have the record of this land for many thousands of years
down until the Nephite nation was destroyed. And when Moroni
sealed up the record, he said he had sealed it up according to
the commandments of God. And when it did come forth it would
come forth unto the Gentiles; and we have the record today. The
record was given to the Prophet Joseph Smith with the same
charge that was given to the Brother of Jared--that those that
possessed the land shall be a God-fearing people and serve the
God of the land or be destroyed when the cup of their iniquity
is full.
God lives, my brothers and sisters. He lives and He is
going to accomplish His work. There are those among us who do
not believe the words that we speak. There are those among us
that
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are skeptical as to whether God delays His coming or not. But
the time will soon come when men will wish that they had
listened to the words of the prophets of God and done more to
prepare themselves against the day of visitation when God is
pouring out His judgments upon the wicked. Joseph the Prophet
desired that the Lord show him what would take place upon this
land, and the Lord showed it to him; and before he went very
far, he asked the Lord to close the vision, that it was too hard
to look upon. Are we going to wait until we are forced to do
right, as President Hammon has said this afternoon? Or are we
going to prepare ourselves while it is yet day? The Lord has
offered great blessings to those who will prepare themselves.
In our day we are dealing, or rather, the Lord is dealing
with a Gentile people, people who have been trained for many
many generations in Gentile language, and only you who will
accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ and apply it to your lives
will be able to withstand the great test that is ahead of you.
Heber C. Kimball said, "There will be a test, a test, a test,
and who will be able to stand the test?" I would like to see
this body of people--every man, woman, and child--begin to wake
up and apply to their lives the blessings of eternal life.
Learn to be obedient to those over you. Children, obey your
fathers and mothers. Wives, obey your husbands. Fathers, obey
the Priesthood, the counsel of the Priesthood. And let the
servants of God draw from the heavens the instructions necessary
for our advancement. We cannot advance faster than we are
prepared to advance.
Some may think we have got to learn all the learning of the
wise men of the world in order to be prepared to meet the
requirements of our Father in Heaven, but only those who have
prepared themselves through constant study of who God is and how
to become like Him will make the grade. I don't care how much
worldly learning we get--we may go through all the colleges in
the world, but if we do not take God into our confidence and let
Him guide our footsteps and show us how to separate Godly
learning from scientific learning, it will do us no good. We
have got to learn how to discern the difference between
Godliness and ungodliness. The Lord has told us plainly that
there are many ungodly
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among us. And who are the ungodly? They are those who have
been baptized and acknowledged the Prophet Joseph and Jesus
Christ, and then they have applied to their lives the learning
of the world, and they don't know whether they are being led
right or not.
I heard a man bear testimony to President Barlow and
President Musser that he knew that they held the keys of the
Priesthood, and he also bore testimony to them that it didn't
make any difference what the Lord required him to go through,
that he wouldn't deny that testimony. But nine months later, he
changed his mind--he didn't know whether those men held the
Priesthood or not. He said, "I am going to go to the Lord for
another testimony." Right here is where he made his mistake. He
went to God once for a testimony as to where the keys of the
Priesthood were, and the Lord bore testimony to him and
satisfied his mind, and he went along and allowed them to teach
him. But then, he told the Lord he wasn't satisfied with the
first testimony He gave him and wanted another one. This was
many years ago, and he is still wondering where the keys of the
Priesthood are. So, there are ungodly people among us. Let us
become Godly; let us get our thinking straight and think that if
we disobey the commandments of God that we are doomed for
destruction, for this is what we are up against, my brothers and
sisters. We are up against the proposition that unless we do
what we have been asked to do today--repent of our sins and
learn how to get the Spirit of God and keep it, we are going to
go down with those who are counted as unbelievers.
For unless we believe that Jesus is the Christ, that Joseph
Smith is a Prophet of God and that the testimonies they left
must and shall be obeyed, we will go down with the wicked and be
destroyed, for the Lord has said it. He has said that those who
possess this goodly land which we live upon, unless they keep
the commandments of God, when they are fully ripened in
iniquity, they will have to be destroyed. All we have to do is
pick up the news paper and read what is transpiring in our
nation and other nations and we will find nothing but chaos, and
the people of the nation are fast ripening in iniquity.
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And sooner or later the words of Christ to the Nephite
people will be fulfilled and come to pass, when the remnant of
Jacob will come forth and go through the Gentiles and tread them
down and none can deliver them. What for? To make room for the
redemption of Zion, the very thing that has been promised for
many many generations of time--that there would come a time when
Zion would be redeemed. We are living right on the verge of
this day and age. And how many of us are prepared? How many of
us can say, "I have made the grade. God is bound to save me and
to protect me in the hour of His judgment." There are many
things that we have to overcome in our lives that are not
pleasing in the sight of God. Many of our people do not know how
to cease to criticize, to find fault, or cease to blaspheme the
servants of God for the things they are trying to do to bring
about a better condition among the people.
This is a day of preparation. It is the day to prepare
ourselves against the day when the Lord is pouring out His
judgments upon the wicked, that we might be able to be counted
worthy of His protecting hand. He said He would protect His
saints if He had to send fire from heaven to do so.
This is a great day in which we live, and as long as we
have peace we have an opportunity to prepare ourselves against
the day of visitation. I am grateful for the testimonies that I
have heard this morning and this afternoon. I am grateful for
the testimony of this people by coming out to listen to what the
servants of the Lord have to tell us. This is an evidence that
we are trying. And I say that the Lord is kind to us to have
men stand up and reiterate to us from day to day the things that
we should do to prepare ourselves against the day of visitation.
These things must be incorporated into our lives. And those who
will not prepare themselves, but criticize the servants of God
for the effort they put forth, will find it hard going. They
will find that this is not a pleasant place to live--the place
the servants of God have blessed. He has said through the
mouths of His prophets that those who live here will keep the
commandments of God. If they didn't, they will get dissatisfied
and move out.
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I have desired for many years to live and see this place
grow and become a place where the Spirit of God can be had from
daylight till dark, and I would like to see it. The Lord
allowed me to come here without anything. I have lived here
without compensation. I am still here; I am enjoying health and
strength, and God being my helper, I expect to stay here a good
deal longer in trying to prepare a people that will keep the
commandments of God. He has offered us opportunities, and we
have turned Him down. He pours out many blessings upon us, and
we have been slow to receive them, and where else can we go?
Where else in the world is there a place where God has blessed
the people as He has blessed this people? We are enjoying a
period of prosperity. Are we going to allow the Lord to force
us back into poverty, or are we going to come out of our
delusion and get close to the Lord that He might bless this land
that it might produce in abundance? It will if we will let it.
There is no better fertile soil in the United States than right
here, and with the blessings of God upon it, it can produce.
But the Lord is not going to bless a people that will serve Him
on Sunday and curse Him the rest of the week.
Now, I pray God will bless us with wisdom, knowledge, and
understanding, that we might be able to discern good from evil.
Many of us say that we don't know when we are doing evil. But
the Lord says He has blessed us with enough of the Spirit of God
to discern good from evil. We can do it if we want to; He will
give us just what we want. I want to be prepared against this
particular phase of His judgment, so that when the devastating
sickness covers the land, it will pass us by. I have witnessed
the great epidemic of flu in 19l8, when so many people were
taken away. It was no respecter of families, it took them here
and there and several out of one family and they held funerals
every day. We could say again, and say it truthfully, that only
the more righteous were left. I thought a lot of those that
passed away were righteous people, and I believe they were.
Let us prepare ourselves, my brothers and sisters, against
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the day of visitation, for the Lord has plainly said that He has
given charge to the destroying angel to go forth upon the land
to reap down the wicked. Let us get the Spirit of God and keep
it, I humbly pray in the name of Jesus Christ. amen.
945
REMARKS GIVEN BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, NOVEMBER 3, 1974,
SUNDAY, IN SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
I want to express again my gratitude for the privilege of
being here to this meeting this afternoon. I want to bear
testimony that these words we have heard are true and faithful,
spoken from the heart. I only want to say, God bless the words
these brethren have spoken to us. We are all here to be tutored
and trained under the direction of Heaven in this great day and
hour that the Lord has granted us the privilege of living in.
Each and everyone of us should be grateful for this great
blessing--the blessing that the ancient saints have desired to
live and see. The great prophet Enoch desired to be numbered
among the saints of the day in which we live, for this is the
day of redemption. It is a day of preparation--to prepare
ourselves for the great redeeming work of our Father. We are
all working and doing all that we can to put forth the work of
our Father, that we might be partakers of the glorious day of
redemption.
I don't wish to hold you any longer because we have been
fed the great word that our Father has had for us today, and our
prayers have been answered. I only want to say, God bless you
people for coming out and listening to what God has for us in
this day and hour.
I pray that God will bless us with wisdom, knowledge, and
understanding, and that He will continue to bless us until we
are called up and pronounced worthy of eternal life, May God
bless you, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
946
SERMON GIVEN BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, NOVEMBER 10, 1974,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
I am grateful for the privilege of seeing this audience of
brothers and sisters here today. I am grateful for the
testimony God has given me of His Gospel and for the experiences
I go through each day in order to bring me along and prepare me
for the work I am doing at the present time. I realize I am a
human being like all men. I am no great spirit that is unknown
among the children of men. I was born and raised like other men
in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. My father came out of the world
and he lived and obeyed the Gospel. I have been permitted to
ramble to and fro among the children of men and be tested and
tried. I hope I have been true and faithful in some things. I
am here today to bear testimony of the truthfulness of the
Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I have listened today to the testimonies of the elders; I
have studied the story of the Prophet Joseph Smith; I have read
the book of Mormon; and I find that through doing this, I have
been able to conduct my life in a way that today I hope I am
doing a little bit of good in the earth.
I am convinced, my brothers and sisters, that the words of
the Lord are true when He says, "My people shall be a tried
people." We are being tried every day; there are no people on
the earth that are past being tried. It does not mean good
times just to have horses, farms, homes, cattle; this is not
what saves a man. The Lord has so designed that we should enjoy
the comforts of life, and He has set up the pattern whereby we
can enjoy the comforts of life and set up His Kingdom. It has
been the case all through the history of time that when the Lord
has sent the blessings, after a while the people become mighty
in themselves and forget the Lord and the way He has blessed
them. This is how we are today. We find ourselves in a
precarious position--more precarious than any of us realize.
Some realize it more than others.
How many of us know how to get and keep the Spirit of God
sufficient to have Him put a hedge around us so we might be
protected from the evils of the time in which we live? This
audience is evidence that we believe there is something for us
to do, or we wouldn't be here. There are not very many
audiences like this in the world who can listen to such
testimonies as we have heard today.
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We have a work to do! When the Lord tells me I must keep
His commandments without reservations or lose my salvation, it
means alot to me. And it should mean alot to any Latter-day
Saint that has gone into the waters of baptism. We can go on
from this first ordinance of baptism and prepare ourselves for a
crown in the Celestial Kingdom; but if we can't be faithful to
this first covenant, then we are very apt to not obey the
others. The Lord says, "I will be obeyed in all things." When
He tells me that in the Celestial Kingdom there is no sin, I
must believe Him and believe there is something for me to do to
keep from partaking of the evils of the world in which we live.
We have been told here today that there are evil spirits trying
to tempt the children of men.
The Lord has told us that in the end there will be only two
judgments on the morning of the resurrection, one to eternal
life and one to eternal damnation. There is where the great
test is going to be. Those who think they can use up the first
part of their life having fun, making merry in the spirit of the
world, and then think that when the times begin to tighten we
will serve the Lord, I think that that time of repentance will
be greater than we think. The thing for us to do is to keep the
commandments of God that we promise to do when we are baptized
and have hands laid upon us for the gift of the Holy Ghost,
which is given to us for a comfort if we will do right. But
when we say that we want to partake of the pleasures of the
world, then we will come back to the influence of the Holy
Ghost; one of these times we will find we can't get ahold of
Him. If we will live right, we can have His help on a moment's
notice. But we must seek Him early in our lives; then when we
need Him, He will be easy to find. But if we wait, He will not
be found.
Think of Enoch and his people and the portion of the earth
that was taken away with him, and then think of our audience
today. I wish we had an audience of people as prepared as the
City of Enoch when they were taken away. This is not
impossible. The records tell us that after Christ came to visit
the Nephites on this continent, they were righteous and lived in
perfect confidence in one another for 200 years. Then
wickedness began to creep in among the children of men, they had
different ideas and kinds of gods, and the people were broken
up. Finally, they became bloodthirsty and began
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to fight among themselves. And those who did believe in Jesus
Christ had to either deny that testimony or be slain.
After many generations, the Lord allowed the people to seek
for another land, and they came here and found a low and
degraded people. These people still roam in the land; but for
many generations they have been held down. What will be the
record of our nation today? We already have the record of two
great nations, the Jaredites and the Nephites, and the Lord has
said that the people of the land shall be a God-fearing people
and serve the God of the land, or they would be destroyed. He
kept His promise. Not all who possessed this land were
destroyed, because many of them, while they possessed the land,
prepared for the glorious resurrection. The Lord kept His word.
He told the same thing to Lehi--if he would keep the
commandments of God, He would lead him to a land choice above
all other lands. He led him there, and they knew the word of
the Lord was to keep His commandments or when they were ripened
in iniquity they would be destroyed; and they were. They were
left to fight among themselves.
We are living under that same commandment today. We must
repent and keep His commandments. When we think upon these
principies of God and Jesus Christ that have been handed down
from generation to generation, and how we have had the word of
God daily, and we know that the word of God is sharper than a
two-edged sword to the dividing asunder of both joint and
marrow, how can we set the example to our children that tells
them that it is possible--that there is an easier way to the
salvation of our souls than through obedience to the
commandments of God?
In my growing-up years, I ran across a book called the
Darwin Theory. I only read a small part of it, but I read
enough to tell me that if I read anymore I wouldn't be a Mormon.
What's the story?--that we started as a little shell animal on
the sea shore, and these shells were washed up on the shore;
this is called the Stone Age. There are those among us here
today that believe this and believe it is necessary for your
children and mine to know it. All Latter-day Saints should know
what the Lord told the Prophet Joseph Smith, that they were all
wrong and he should join none of them. And I believe He was
right. I believe they were
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all wrong. He told this boy-prophet if he would be true he
would be an instrument in the hand of God to establish the truth
upon the earth.
If it is so important to the Lord that the people be a
God-fearing people, why do we want to teach our children that
the Stone Age is important to gain an education? I want to tell
you, my brothers and sisters, we took a big bite out of the
apple when we chose to join up with the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints. When we went into the waters of baptism,
we told the Lord we would come out of the world and be no more
partakers of her sins. The Stone Age is a lie and we know it!
We did not come from a stone or a shell on the sea shore that
took root and started to grow. We can begin to teach our
children even before they are born to fear God and keep His
commandments; this is the only way for parents to teach their
children to fear God and keep His commandments. If we will do
this, the children will grow up and fear God.
We have a mighty big job to do. Unless we will go to and
prepare against the day of visitation, there will be alot of us
that won't be able to stand the test. "A test, a test, and who
will be able to stand?" These are the words of Brother Kimball;
and the test is the same today as it was in his day. How many
of you will be able to stand? The test is upon us, and unless
we prepare against the adversary of right, I am afraid we will
be found wanting. We will want the protection of our Father in
Heaven, but will not be able to get it. At the last day, we
will pray to God to save us; will He do it? Or will we start
now? In our schools, in our homes, we must begin to prepare
against the day when God pours out His judgment upon those who
will not have the power to repent.
I beseech you to seek diligently to get the Spirit of God
and keep it with you. God bless you, amen.
950
A SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, NOVEMBER 14,
1974,
AT THE FUNERAL SERVICES FOR CARL WILLIAM JOHNSON
AND HIS SON, DOUGLAS RAY JOHNSON,
HELD IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
My dear brothers and sisters, I trust that the few words I
speak will be dictated by our Heavenly Father. I deeply feel
the loss that this community will feel from the passing of this
dear brother. Carl has been very close to me for many, many
years. He came to my office about two weeks ago, and we talked
for an hour or more. He expressed to me his gratitude for the
testimony that the Lord had given him of the fulness of the
everlasting Gospel. He said, I have learned this, Uncle Roy,
that I had to go somewhere where I could live as I wanted to
live. I have always wanted to live among the saints. I said,
Carl, you have always lived among the Saints. You were born
under the New and Everlasting Covenant. You were also permitted
to live among a people who had also been born and raised under
the New and Everlasting Covenant. What greater blessing could
you expect? He said, I feel, Uncle Roy, that I have tried so
hard during my lifetime to overcome my weaknesses and
imperfections and to prepare myself to enter into the United
Order and whatever other requirements the Lord might make of me.
I feel now that I am in a position where I can offer myself to
the Lord to be used in any work that He desires to call me into.
I said to Carl, One time I was way off in Old Mexico. I
had a work to do, and I had a body that was subject to the
ailments of this mortal tabernacle. I was like lots of other
men, I suffered from migraine headaches, body pains. One
morning I woke up not feeling too well, but I had a lot of work
to do, so I went to work. I hadn't been working but a little
while until cramps took ahold of me. Cramps would go in my feet
and almost knock me down. They would work up my body to my arms
and go out my arms. Then it would go over again. I suffered
this way for many hours. Finally, they had to take me to the
house, and it seemed as though I was going to lose. But the
Lord saw fit that I did not go at that time. He caused these
cramps to leave me, and I don't know of anytime in my memory
that I was more weak than I was at that time.
It was during this period of time that I said to the Lord,
"Take away my appetite for the things that are causing me these
body troubles, that I might be able to accomplish the labors
that you have
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for me to accomplish. I can't go on and suffer like I have been
suffering, and you have said, 'Ask and you shall receive.'" For
two or three days I didn't know if I was going to starve to
death or not, but alot of the things that I was eating I
couldn't eat anymore. I lost my appetite for pie and cake,
icecream. You hardly ever see me eat this kind of food now. I
lost my appetite for fish. I lost my appetite for much meat. I
can eat a little, but if I have steak, I leave on my platter
more than I eat. I can eat a little and it satisfies me. But
immediately I lost my headaches. I lost my body pains. I go
about my labors. I can do a little work. I don't work hard
like I used to when I was 40 or 50 years old. Neither do I
suffer with body pains. I am as well as I look. I tell this
story to show to you how close the Lord is to us if we want to
seek Him.
When Carl told me that he was ready for any call that the
Lord might make of him, for some reason or other, a shiver went
down my spine, and I wondered why. The morning of his death, I
woke up at 4:00 in the morning and I couldn't rest. Brother
Newel Steed came to see me about 7:00 and while I was
interviewing him, the news came to me. Up until this time, I
wasn't able to control my anxious feelings. I immediately went
to see what I could do.
Carl is a man that prepared himself for the work that he
has been called to do. There is no doubt in my mind but what
the Lord took him at his word. Carl let Him know that he was
ready to be used. The Lord has work for him to do and called
him. I don't care who tries to persuade me that it is
different, that is what I will always believe because I know how
close the Lord is to us. I have asked Kim for blessings, and He
has answered them before morning. I have asked Kim how to fix my
vehicles, and He has come and shown me, or sent someone to show
me, how to fix them. I would get up and fix them and have the
outfit going before morning.
I am a believer in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I believe
the testimony that Christ bore to the Prophet Joseph Smith is
true. I believe He meant what He said when He said, "Go bear
this testimony to the world, and all who will believe will be
saved, and those who will not believe will be damned."
The Lord tells us in many of the revelations that He has
left us in this book, the Doctrine & Covenants, that His word is
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sharper than a two-edged sword, to the dividing asunder of both
joint and marrow. And I believe He meant that. I believe that
He meant it when He said: Go and be baptized for the remission
of your sins and have hands laid upon you for the gifts of the
Holy Ghost. How many of us have stopped long enough to think
what this means, "Ask and you shall receive." You asked for
baptism-and the Lord granted you the privilege of having hands
laid upon you for the gifts of the Holy Ghost. He says: Try me
and see if I won't pour out blessings that you can't contain.
Put these together and see what you get out of them. Do
you believe as I do, or as someone else? I have been accused of
apostatizing from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints. But there isn't a principle of the Gospel of Jesus
Christ that the Latter-day Saints embrace that I don't embrace.
So, am I different from the Latter-day Saints? I am still a
Latter-day Saint and I will always be, unless I lose the Spirit
of God. If I lose the Spirit of God, then I will curse the
work. Whether you believe as Carl believed or whether you
don't, you are going to find when you get over there that you
are going to have to answer the same questions that he will have
to answer. Have you kept the covenants you made at the water's
edge when you allowed yourself to be baptized and had hands laid
upon you for the gifts of the Holy Ghost? Have you kept all the
covenants you made at that time? Have you kept the covenant you
made over the alter when you had your wife sealed to you, or
your children sealed to you?
These are questions that will have to be answered sometime.
Another thing that Carl made mention. He said: I have come to
learn that the Lord meant what He said when He said man should
not be alone in the world. And I don't think a man should be
alone out of the
world.
God alone knows the human body and how to heal it--how to
heal the minds of men. If we will do what He has asked us to
do, we will have nothing to fear, nothing to worry about.
Brother Carl came to me about a year or so ago and he said,
"Uncle Roy, I am discouraged." I said, "Carl, I want you to come
out of it. Discouragement is not a part of the Gospel of Jesus
Christ. A firm
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determination to keep the commandments of God whether we have
opposition or whether we don't is the kind of a spirit to
exhibit." And I believe Carl tried to take the counsel.
As far as this little boy is concerned, when I looked upon
him in the mortuary, my mind went back to Alvin Smith, brother
of our great Prophet. When in the vision Joseph saw him sitting
on the right hand of God, Joseph asked Him how that could be,
because this boy had never been baptized nor accepted the
Gospel. The Lord said,
"Fear not about this boy. Had he lived, he would have lived the
Gospel in its fulness."
The Lord says that I am to forgive all men. But, as for
Him, He will forgive whom He will, and leave judgment to Him. I
have a right to counsel men regarding their eternal salvation,
but I have no right to pass judgment on a man. Why? Because
the Lord plainly tells us that He alone, knows the hearts of
men. He is the only one that can read our thoughts. Knowing
this, I know that He is right. He is the only one that can
judge. If I see a man and talk to him, I might pass an opinion,
of myself, whether he is righteous or not, but the voice of
judgment against him, or for him, I have no right to do it.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is true, and we can't get around
it. Every man, woman, and child, that has gone into the waters
of baptism makes solemn covenants before the Lord that they will
sin no more. So, let's walk down the road and quit turning to
the right and to the left, but go along and keep the
commandments of God. For God has said, "He that is guilty of
breaking the least of these commandments is guilty of the
whole."
Carl was a clean man, and he taught his children to be
clean. There is no doubt in my mind but what he got the wish of
his heart, that he was ready to be used by the Lord, and the
Lord has called him. I have no right to question the calling.
It doesn't make any difference how he was taken. There wasn't
anything injured only the body, and the body lies here before
us. His spirit is over there. This little boy, the Lord called
him to be a companion to his father. And they are over there
together, working together, just like they were working here.
And that is the way I want to look at it.
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Sister Johnson, the Lord loves you, and He loves this
family. And He will take care of it. Don't worry a minute over
your condition. I am not telling you not to mourn for the loss
of your father and this boy. You have a right to mourn, but the
Lord doesn't require us to mourn more than is necessary. We can
go about our labors as if nothing was wrong and do our work.
If every Latter-day Saint will look at the Gospel as
something that must be lived, then we will be prepared for this
blessing that the Lord has offered. I am speaking of when He is
preparing the earth for the Millennial Reign. He says He will
protect His saints if needs be that He send fire from heaven to
do so. I don't want you to forget, my brothers and sisters,
that the Lord has said that this land upon which we live is a
choice land above all other lands; and those who possess it must
serve the God of the land or they will be destroyed when they
are ripened in iniquity. This great continent of ours, as well
as the rest of the world, is ripe for destruction at the present
time. Only those who believe in the testimony of Joseph Smith,
the testimony of Jesus Christ, have any claim upon the
protection of our Father in Heaven. We had better think twice
before we single out one principle of the salvation of souls in
the Celestial Kingdom and say we have no need for it.
God loves you, my brothers and sisters, or you wouldn't be
here. This room is well-filled with people today. One of the
miracles of the age--to see this many people out to a funeral
service in such a small community.
Now, I pray that God will bless us with wisdom, knowledge,
and understanding, and that He will plant in our hearts, each
and every individual here, a determination to get down to
business and feel out, What must I do to save my soul?
God bless you, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
955
SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, NOVEMBER 17,
1974,
SUNDAY, IN SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
I certainly am grateful for this day, my brothers and
sisters, and I pray that the few moments I stand before you that
the Lord will bless me with words that we might continue to be
fed the things of eternal life, After hearing the testimonies
that have been borne this afternoon, I wonder what more can be
said to build up the faith of this people. Yet, I realize that
what we have heard this afternoon will raise many questions in
the minds of some--maybe a great many.
President Musser's sermon was one of great importance to
us. In thinking upon what he had to say this afternoon, I began
to wonder where he got his information. I opened the book and
read a chapter where he most likely got inspired from sometime
during his day of education. I do not think he got it all in one
day. I think he got it over the years. Then I began to ponder
upon what some of the questions might be that would come into
the minds of some of our people. I am going to try to read a
little (Sec. 3 D&C)
"The works, and the designs, and the purposes of God cannot
be frustrated, neither can they come to naught.
For God doth not walk in crooked paths, neither doth he
turn to the right hand nor to the left, neither doth he
vary from that which he hath said, therefore 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 works of men;
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 at naught 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. "
Now, a question might arise, How come the words of Brother
Musser are true seeing that God took away from us our memory of
what took place in the eternal worlds? It has been my
understanding ever
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since I was old enough to be a member of the Priesthood, after I
was ordained a deacon and commenced to be taught the orders of
Priesthood, I was taught that there was a council in heaven and
in that council in heaven the hosts of heaven were gathered
together and a plan was laid before them--the Plan of Salvation
from beginning to end. Now just when this took place no one
knows except the Gods. But it was my understanding that we
voted. All who came to this earth and obtained a body had an
opportunity to vote for the plan. They desired to come here and
be tried and tested, and the Lord has told us plainly that He
has provided a way whereby men may come back into His presence.
And this we understood. He has also told us that every person
that is born into the world is born with enough of the Spirit of
God to know the difference between good and evil. So, the words
of Brother Musser must be true. I just read here that God is a
God of Truth, and it is not His work that is frustrated, but the
works of men. We all had an equal chance. We were born here
with that much of the Spirit of God upon us.
I want to tell you something else. The Lord says, "Try Me,
and see if I won't pour out blessings upon your head that you
cannot contain." In that Plan that was instituted, the Lord set
patriarchs throughout the length and breadth of His work. We
can hear about them clear back to the beginning of time. They
were set here to bless the people--those who desired a
blessing--who would prepare themselves to receive that which was
necessary for their eternal salvation. Every person that
receives the hands of the patriarch laid upon them will receive
every blessing that is pronounced upon their heads if they will
prepare themselves as the Lord has required. The old Angel
Moroni gave us the key. (Book of Moroni, 4th and 5th Verses) I
think I will read the key. It is the best way to get the truth
before us.
"And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you
that ye would ask God the Eternal Father, in the name of
Jesus Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall
ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in
Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the
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power of the Holy Ghost.
And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of
all things."
Now, I would exhort you, my brothers and sisters, to take the
sermon that was given you by President Musser today and turn to
these words and read them and see what you get out of it. May
God bless you, I humbly pray in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
958
SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, NOVEMBER 24,
1974,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
Again, I am grateful, my brothers and sisters, to be here
this afternoon and hear what I have heard, and to bear my
testimony to the truthfulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I
am grateful for the privilege of being here because I know that
it is through the efforts that we make to clean up our lives and
prepare ourselves for the work of the Lord in whatever He might
call us to do that we gain our greatest joy and happiness.
When my soul has been at peace and I have enjoyed the
greatest peace of my life, is when I was in the throes of the
adversary trying to destroy this work. Knowing that I had tried
to arrange my life according to the instructions that have been
given to me by those whose right it was to preside over me, I
was able to ask the Lord to calm my spirit and He did. Through
that, we were able to endure the presecutions that we were
called to endure at that time. And from that time on, until
today, I have witnessed the same thing. Whenever the fight
seems to get the hardest is when I enjoy the greatest peace of
mind because I know that the Lord will do what He has said He
would do--if we will keep His commandments and seek to overcome
our weaknesses and imperfections and get our lives in order that
we might come close to Him--He will fight our battles for us.
I have seen these battles, whether they are small or great,
I have seen them work out if I give the Lord the credit for it
of saying, "I did this, and I did that." Then is when I enjoy
that greatest peace of mind, because I know that I am guided
momently by the Spirit of God. When temptations come our way,
if we invoke the blessings of God upon us and ask Him to help us
bear well the trial, we have a better chance to resist the
temptation. But when we give way to the powers of evil, we
incur the displeasure of the Lord and our souls are filled with
anguish and we don't know what is going to transpire. Let us
have the same faith that other men have had that we have read
about, the faith of Nephi when he was sent back for the records,
the faith of the brother of Jared when he asked the Lord to
preserve his language, and so forth--these are examples of what
we mean by having faith in what the Lord can do for us.
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It has been my faith ever since I got acquainted with this
work in this place that the Lord would assist us in bringing
about a righteous condition upon our land if we would keep the
commandments of God. But when we permit evil to come among us
and exist among us, we are in trouble. We are in great trouble
if we know there is evil in our ranks and we do nothing to get
rid of it. This takes the cooperation of those who dwell in a
community in order to bring about a condition of peace.
We who understand the principles of the Gospel know that if
we permit evil to exist among us and do nothing about taking it
away, then the whole community suffers as well as those who
commit evil. And through doing this, the righteous suffer with
the wicked. That is the condition of the world today. The Lord
has plainly told us that when the people are ripened in
iniquity, He would have to destroy them. And many righteous will
go down with the unrighteous unless they are counted worthy to
be protected and to take their places in the establishment of
righteousness in the earth. We found this to be the case in the
days of Christ when he appeared to the people upon this
continent. The record tells us that the more righteous among
them were the only ones that were saved. The record also tells
us that it took twenty years to convert all who were saved at
that time. But they were all converted to the fact that Jesus
was the Christ.
And then, the record goes on to tell us that the people
lived in perfect confidence with one another for two hundred
years or more. Then they began to fall away and to follow after
the dictates of the false and delusive spirits that came among
them. And we see the condition of those people today. When
this continent was discovered by Columbus and his people, they
found a low and degraded people here; and they are still here
upon this continent. But through the great respect that the
Lord had for the faithfulness of the Prophet Lehi and his
righteous followers, a great blessing was placed upon these low
and degraded Lamanite people. The day will come when we will
see the chastening hand of the Lord among them in defense of His
work in this day. But, here again, the more righteous will be
the only ones that will be left, and the thing that has
concerned this Priesthood Council ever since I have been
acquainted with them is the fact that they want
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to gather out of this generation all who are seeking for
salvation in the Celestial Kingdom of our God. And for that
reason, we call you together from time to time and try to keep
before you these saving principles of the Gospel and how
necessary it is to stamp out of our lives the evil that is
within us--the evil that exists in our families. We should labor
night and day to see to it that our children are continually
urged to do good rather than to do bad, to speak well of their
neighbor rather than to speak evil of him, love their fathers
and their mothers, and through this the purposes of God can be
obtained. Let us remember that the Lord has said that when we do
that which is evil, it is only the work of the devil, and if men
cease to do the work that the Lord has asked us to do and they
fail, it is not the work of God that is frustrated, but the
works of man that are frustrated.
Many men get a little education and they think they know
more than the Servants of God. They think they have a better
way-if they can just put it over to those that will listen to
them, they think they have a better way to gain their salvation.
But when God calls a man, or a set of men, and gives them
authority to go and teach people His ways, we should listen.
The scriptures are full of examples where this has been done,
and when men have kept the commandments that have been given to
them, they have been successful. But when they have fallen away
and have refused to do the things that God has asked them to do,
it has brought distress and disunity among them. This is our
trouble today. We have quite a large congregation of
people--not nearly as large as I would like to see, but those
among us who have made up their minds and are determined to keep
the commandments of God and apply to their lives the teachings
that they receive from Sunday to Sunday are the ones that will
make the grade, and the Lord will use them when He comes to set
in order His house.
Some may think that is far off, but the preparation of men
goes on from the beginning until now. Enoch, we are told,
worked for three hundred years to perfect his people. And I
suppose that many came and died, did all they could to perfect
their lives. The Lord has said that the righteous would take
their place in assisting in the redemption of His people,
because people through all the generations of time are going to
have to have a lot of work done. The Latter-day
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Saints from Joseph Smith's time until now are going to have to
have a lot of work done in order to perfect the work of God
because of the condemnation that was placed upon us for treating
lightly the things we receive from day to day. There is a lot
of work to be done-within our homes, within ourselves, among our
wives and our children--that those who live around us might see
our good works and follow our example. This is the only way
that we can perfect the work of God.
Many years ago before I knew anything about this order of
the Priesthood, I happened to be in Susanville, California. I
visited a branch of the California mission and I heard one of
the leading brethren make this remark: The time has come when
the Latter-day Saints will have to cease to teach their religion
by word of mouth and the only way that they will be able to
teach it is by example.
This bothered me for quite a while. One day, I met
President Barlow. He didn't talk to me very long until I found
out that this was true. This missionary that the Church had in
the field at that time must have known something about the
fullness of the Gospel or he wouldn't have talked that way.
The Lord is kind to us, my brothers and sisters, to allow
us to gather together and have these things rehearsed to us from
day to day, because this is a day of warning, a day of
preparation, to prepare ourselves against the day of visitation
when He is pouring out His judgments upon the wicked. The very
things that the Prophet Joseph said would happen are happening
today throughout the world and especially upon our own nation.
The Spirit of God has withdrawn from the earth and especially
from the minds of the leaders of our nation; and we are left
without a responsible head. So, what is in the making, we
little realize.
It is our duty, my brothers and sisters, to get down to
business and quit thinking that the servants of God are out of
their minds because they preach repentance from Sunday to
Sunday, and do something about it. This is one evil of the
great dross that lies among this people. We think we can get by
with it. We might for a while, but afterwhile it will catch up
with us, and then we will find we are in a bad situation because
we have been caught in a falsehood. There is a lot to be
repented of when we get to an understanding of
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what the Gospel means to us. The Lord says He is a God of truth
and He does not lie.
Our people have been called upon time and time again to
assist in the development of this community. In many cases we
have fallen down on the obligations that have been placed upon
us. We want to remember that the Lord gave us a plan whereby we
might save ourselves, financially as well as spiritually. He
plainly tells us in Section 42 of our Doctrine & Covenants what
He requires of us. He requires of us to dedicate all that we
have and are to the building up and establishing of the Kingdom
of God. After the first great consecration, He requires
one-tenth of our annual increase as a tithe from our people.
After we have thus been tithed and we take care of our
obligations, if we have anything left, it belongs to this
Priesthood--to Him.
If we would be honest with the Lord in this one thing, pay
our tithes and see to it that we have something to turn in--if
we are paid monthly, we should turn in monthly; if we let our
donations go for a year, then we use up the Lord's money or His
substance, whatever it is, and at the end of the year we have
nothing to pay with. Because we have treated lightly this
commandment that the Lord gave us, we are left in a precarious
condition. The Lord said that there would be plenty if we would
keep this commandment. There would be plenty to take care of
His people, and not only would it take care of His people, but
it would build His Church houses--and this would be the case.
But where there are a few that keep these commandments--they
keep them from time to time--there are others who do not. But
if they need assistance, they come to the Priesthood for
assistance just the same.
Some years ago we had trials meeting our tax situation in
this place. We want to remember that the land upon which we
live is not mortgaged. That has been the policy of the
Priesthood ever since I have been acquainted with them here,
that our community cannot be mortgaged. The land that is
mortgaged within our community is land that has never been
turned into the Priesthood, and individuals own the deeds.
We have quite a large community here, and it is worth a lot
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of money according to the government valuation. The people who
dwell here enjoy homes; the Priesthood has left them to
voluntarily help to pay the tax of this community. A few years
ago, we thought if we asked the people for twenty dollars a year
that we could collect enough money to pay our taxes, but over
the years, our taxes have increased and increased and increased.
Today, we find ourselves in a sad situation. We heard Brother
Truman, two weeks ago, ask us for assistance in gathering
together sufficient money to meet our tax situation. Next
Saturday, we will have to go down to the courthouse with a
little package of $13,000 to settle up our taxes, besides what
we took to Kingman this last month and paid half of the Arizona
taxes. The other half will have to be met by the first of May.
Truman is the man who has been designated by the community
here to gather in the tax money. He tells me that since he made
his call two weeks ago, he has gathered in about $5,000. This
leaves $8,000 that we must account for between now and next
Saturday. So, I am making another call to our people to assist
in this great work. There are a lot of people who live here who
have not yet paid their taxes for this year. We are grateful to
you for the support that we have had in years past, because we
have been able to meet the issue. Money is getting hard to get
and when you borrow it, the rate of interest is almost
prohibitive. So, if you could do something to assist in this
work, we would greatly appreciate it.
I don't want to criticize anyone because I know we are a
poor people. We have poor ways and we have to live and exist,
and many of us don't have that which we need, let alone
something to turn in. But there are some among us who are able
to assist, if they will, and keep us from borrowing money. I
would like to see the people of this community come up to the
mark and be self-sustaining in this place. Those who dwell here
should be mindful of the taxes, that the ground upon which they
live is taxable. We don't charge anybody rent upon the ground or
upon their homes, so we depend upon the honest of the people to
come up to the mark and to help us to meet these obligations
that are community-wide, because the tax situation is the
responsibility of every individual here.
The Lord has been mighty good to His people. He has been
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patient, long-suffering, kind and considerate of our needs and
our demands upon Him for the good health that we enjoy, for the
privilege of being among His chosen people and where we can hear
the word of God from Sunday to Sunday. We should be grateful
enough to Him to pay for the privilege of living here. If we
had kept the commandments of God, we would be out from under
this situation, for the Prophet Brigham Young told us when he
came to the Rocky Mountains that if the people would keep the
commandments of God that they need come under no other
government but the government of our Father. But we couldn't do
it. So we are living under the curse of a broken law. And
until we can raise ourselves out from under that curse, we are
going to have to deal with Babylon regarding the ground upon
which we live, even though we own the deeds to it and it is not
mortgaged.
And we don't intend to mortgage it to get the means to pay
our taxes, but we do depend upon the Lord to open the way
whereby we might obtain that which we need to carry on our
labors and to build up and establish the faith of God among this
people that is necessary for the Redemption of Zion. It is our
determination, also, to continue to harp upon the evils that
exist among us until they get tired of hearing us and move out.
I believe that they will do it, because a prophet of God said
they would, and the Lord has said that not one word of the
prophets shall fall to the ground unheeded. I have great faith
that this will be the case.
Now, I pray that the Lord will bless us with wisdom,
knowledge and understanding, and with a determination to
continue to bring about a period of peace in this community, and
to stamp out of our midst all evil, that we might be able to
call down the blessings of God upon us to protect us in the day
of visitation when he is destroying the wicked. I pray that He
will bless us with a determination to serve Him and keep His
commandments, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
965
SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, DECEMBER 1,
1974,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
I am grateful again, my brothers and sisters, to be here
and to mingle my voice with the rest of the brethren and to lay
a few conditions before our people that we might be encouraged
to keep on striving for the advancement of our natures in regard
to our salvation. I pray that the few moments I stand before
you and attempt to speak that God will give me words that I
might edify you, for I know and realize that without His help we
are nothing. We cannot edify or hold our audience in a peaceful
condition without the Spirit of God, knowing that the Spirit of
God is the spirit of peace; and the spirit of evil is turmoil
and unrest.
We have been called to repentance for a long time. Ever
since the Prophet Joseph received his wonderful vision of the
Father and the Son, this whole world has been called to
repentance. And seemingly, a deaf ear has been turned to the
words of the prophets and those who have spoken in defense of
the principles of righteousness. It seems that this has been
the case throughout the length and breadth of the world.
Whenever the Gospel has been placed before the people, the
principle of repentance has been the cry. In going over the
scriptures and reading the histories, there have been times when
the people have enjoyed a period of peace and God has prospered
them. It has been when they have drawn close to the
commandments of God and kept them and applied them to their
lives that they have been prospered; and they have grown
spiritually as well as temporally. But in all cases, as soon as
they began to fall away from the principles of righteous living
then turmoil has come among them. They have been disrupted in
their peaceful situations, and the result has been the downfall
of the righteous generation.
My mind goes back to the people called the people of Enoch,
and when I ponder upon the length of time that that dear old
prophet labored to perfect a people, who, if they had listened
to his words, could have been perfected in a generation or so.
But how many generations did he have to labor with to get enough
people together that the Lord would recognize His work? I have
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spent a lot of time thinking upon this subject, and then I go
from people to people and see the same thing existing among the
saints of God. It was just a few generations of time from that
dear old Patriarch Adam to Enoch's time, and the Lord had to
take Enoch and his people out--had to take them away from the
earth--this old earth that we live upon in order to preserve
them. And then just a few generations after this happened, He
had to destroy all flesh, so the scriptures tell us, because
they became wicked.
Now we bring it on down through the history of time. A
short time after the flood when people began to get unruly again
and began to fall away, some great men among them thought upon
an idea of building a tower--raising themselves above the earth
so that the Lord could not destroy them with a flood again. They
thought--by doing this we can preserve our people, and we will
show the Lord that we know how to save ourselves. But the Lord
had a different idea. We all know the history. There is no use
in my trying to tell it. It is there where we can all read
about it and know what happened. But from that tower came a
people to this continent. The Lord told the brother of Jared
that He would lead him to a choice land, choice above all other
lands, a land flowing with milk and honey; and the people who
possessed the land would be a God-fearing people, or when they
were ripened in iniquity, He would have to destroy them. Now
these were not idle words that the Lord spoke to Jared and his
brother. He meant what He said, and He kept His word. When
these good people did what the Lord asked them to do, He lead
them to this great continent upon which we live. We have the
history. It is not very long; it is short, but it is to the
point, and it is contained in this book (Book of Mormon).
We have a record here of two great nations that came here.
One of them was completely destroyed. And the other, the
righteous among them were destroyed; and we have the evidence of
the remaining part of that last great nation roaming the earth
today among us. The Lord told Nephi, or Lehi, when he came here
that He would not destroy all of his seed; and although they
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would dwindle in unbelief, He would gather them again. The
record tells us how great wickedness covered the land before
these nations were destroyed.
We still live under that charge that the Lord gave us. The
Lord loves His children, His people. He gives them all the
opportunity to save themselves and become a righteous generation
of people. He brought a new generation of people to this great
continent after the Nephite nation had been disrupted and the
Lamanites roamed the land for some fourteen hundred years. He
sent a new people to this continent. And He brought forth
another prophet--the Prophet Joseph Smith, and He showed Himself
and introduced His Son to him. We have been told time and again
that Zion would have to be redeemed. Zion is the pure in heart.
The mission of the Prophet Joseph was to gather out the pure in
heart from the nations of the earth, bring them together and
administer the principles of salvation to them, that another
righteous people might be gathered out--one that would be worthy
to meet that old Prophet Epoch and his people.
It has been a hundred and fifty years now that the Lord has
been laboring with the people of this continent and the world to
perfect this gathering, and how many people do we have that
believe that all the Prophet Joseph Smith brought forth is
necessary for the salvation of the souls of men? The Lord
placed the whole Church under condemnation within a year after
the Church was organized, because they treated lightly the
things that they had received; and He told them that they would
remain under this condemnation until they repented. In 1836,
the Lord visited the Prophet Joseph and told him that He would
redeem Zion even then if he could find five hundred faithful men
that He could work with and bring about the redemption of Zion.
But the Prophet could not find five hundred. I wonder how many
we could find today?
Because of wickedness creeping in among the saints, they
were allowed to be smitten and driven from the country where the
Lord revealed Himself to the Prophet Joseph and the land where
He has designated for the redemption of Zion. These
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are things we ought to think upon. The Lord knew what was going
to happen along the way, because He has had experience with His
children. He knows the hearts of men and women and what they
will do under certain conditions. But at the same time, He has
decreed that Zion will be redeemed. This does not only mean the
living upon the earth, but it means all the saints from the
beginning of time as we reckon time. Those who have prepared
themselves and become faithful, we understand, will take part in
this great redeeming work. When I look back upon the record
that has been made since 1830 when the Church was organized and
see what has happened among the Latter-day Saints and how they
have been driven and how the servants of God have been
ostracized from that great Church and all, I feel greatly
disturbed in my feelings today as to the welfare of the people
who have gathered around this little body of men called the
Priesthood Council.
When I read the history of the Nephite people, I find that
from time to time the enemy was allowed to come in and disrupt
the saints because they allowed iniquity to come in among them
and disrupt their feelings. The Lord allowed the enemy to come
in and go to war with them and kill off a lot of them, and then
they would repent, and the Lord would turn the battle. They
would go home and serve the Lord for a year or two, then they
would forget what had taken place. They would commence to fight
among themselves again, and the Lord would have to repeat His
chastisement to them again.
I bring it down to our day. We had a raid in 1934, in
1944; and ten years later we had another raid, simply because
the people could not learn by the experience of others that God
meant what He said when He said, "Keep My Commandments. My word
is sharper than a two-edged sword to the cutting asunder of both
marrow and joint." In 1944, after that raid, fifteen men were
sentenced to the federal prison. They had one or two women that
testified against these men and sent them to prison. I want you
to pay attention! In 1953, there were a great many more men
arrested and their families taken away from them. Women and
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children were carried away by the enemy, and the governor of the
state made a public announcement that he would take the children
away from the parents and adopt them out; he would put the women
in detention homes and put the men in the prisons; and after
three years, they would destroy the records and their identity
would be forgotten. But do you know what happened? They were so
sure that the women they were taking away would be so pleased to
receive a little freedom that they would be glad to testify
against their husbands. Had they been able to get one woman at
that time to testify against her husband, it would have been too
bad for the men, because they would have gone to prison. They
worked hard for it, but they couldn't get it.
We have had about twenty years now of peace to try to
perfect a people that could have that much faith. There are
many women today among this people that would be glad to give
testimony against us. Two women last week went to the attorney
general of Utah and begged him to do something. We do not know
what is in the making. But I do know this, my brothers and
sisters, that repentance has got to come mighty quick among this
people or the persecution is going to get great. I do not look
for the law to come in and disrupt us, but persecution can come
other ways. It has before, and it will again. The Lord has got
to have five hundred men who can stand shoulder to shoulder
without flinching; and their minds have got to be together in
respect to the work of God. And where are we going to get them?
We are being tested daily. Every man, woman, and child in this
audience and among this order of Priesthood is being tried every
day. Women are being tried greater than men at the present
time, because they hold a greater weight with public opinion
than men do, and they know it.
In 1953, we were in hopes that we could bring up a people
in this place that would fear God and keep His commandments,
that this might become a commencement place for the Millennial
Reign. But a lot of repentance has got to be made and that
immediately! When the attorney general tries to get me on the
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telephone, there is something in the making; and I do not know
how long I will be able to speak to this people under these
conditions. Knowing what has transpired over the many years of
time and what has taken place since the visitation of the Father
and the Son to the Prophet Joseph Smith, there are men among us
who have murder in their hearts or they wouldn't try to persuade
our people to do wrong and then laugh at it and set at naught
the counsels of the Priesthood.
We have got a work to do, my brothers and sisters. We are
not out of the woods yet. We might think we are safe in this
little place. The Lord has tested us out, and we have been
found wanting. I love this people. I love them because they
have gathered around us. I love them to come here and pay
attention, and there are those among us who the Lord will
protect. Else why did the Lord say, "I will protect My saints
when I pour out my judgments upon the wicked if needs be that I
send fire from heaven to do so." But there are those among us
who are here to gather something to go out and feast on, and
they do not care if they give it to the enemy of righteousness.
This I do know, that we do have the power of repentance if
we will accept it at the present time. There is enough faith in
this place to keep the enemy out, and the words of the Lord will
be fulfilled as it has come to the people who dwell here if they
will hasten to repent.
Now I pray that God will bless us with wisdom and knowledge
and understanding, and that He will help us make the attempt to
free ourselves from the yoke of bondage that is upon our
shoulders. We are at the present time enjoying a period of
peace, but what is going on out there and over here, down there
and up here? The announcer said that famine was rampant in the
United States at the present time. Millions of people are going
without food in our own land.
Read the Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith and then
compare your own life with it, and see what you can make out of
it. God is not very far off. He is right at our elbow if we
will reach out and let Him help us along. Let us repent of our
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sins. You young men and you young women, get your thinking
straight. The Lord says, "I will take the young and the
middle-aged and redeem Zion." What a great blessing that is to
be offered to the young and the middle-aged. I am speaking to a
middle-aged audience. Let us come out of our shell, my brothers
and sisters, before it is too late. We are here. We are
enjoying health and strength. We are enjoying plenty at the
present time. Then why not get down on our knees night and day
and cry for deliverance, that the blessings that have been
placed upon this community might be realized. Let us get out
from under the condemnation that the Lord has placed upon us;
for if we do not do this, if we continue in the rut that we are
in and continue to defy God and the words of His servants, I
fear for our existence here. And I know of no other place upon
the earth that is as safe in the heart of the mountains as this
place is.
I pray the blessings of God upon you and upon all who will
prepare themselves against the day of visitation, that we might
be able to call down the blessings of God upon us when we need
them; for no man can tell how soon great tribulations will come
among us. I pray for the Spirit of God to rest upon every
individual here, and I hope that we can become that people that
God is looking for for the redemption of His great work, and
this I pray for in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
972
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, DECEMBER 14, 1974,
AT THE FUNERAL SERVICES FOR SISTER JULENE PIPKIN
HELD IN SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
I feel greatly honored at this time to be asked to speak at
Sister Pipkin's funeral. I have known Brother Pipkin for many
years, and I have met his wife several times. I have had quite a
lot of association with some of his children. I have no reason
to believe anything but what this good lady has filled the
purpose of her existence here. I believe, like the other
brethren who have spoken this afternoon, that she has filled an
honorable mission and has been called home to report.
This is a subject that I would like to speak upon for a few
moments, this purpose of being able to report. We left the
eternal worlds with the understanding that we would come down
here and do all we could to purify the bodies that were given to
us and bring them back and report to the great judge the deeds
done in the flesh. We understand that we are resurrected either
unto eternal life or unto eternal damnation.
It is true that some may have a chance to do some repenting
after they leave this probation and go back into the presence of
our Father; but as for the Latter-day Saints, unless we can give
a good report when we go before the judge, I am afraid our
chances will be pretty slim.
One time, I heard David A. Smith speak in a Conference. He
told the Latter-day Saints at that Conference that if they
allowed themselves to go through this life without complying as
far as possible with the doctrines of salvation, if they wasted
their time here thinking that at some future time they could
repent and be saved in the Celestial Kingdom of our Father, that
when the time came for them to report to the great judge, they
would be a long long time dead before they would have another
chance, if they didn't repent here in this life. I have thought
about this a lot since I heard this man talk. And I have
thought along this line-wouldn't it be a wonderful thing for us
to commence now while we have an opportunity; for as long as
life lasts, we have the opportunity of taking notice of our
lives and seeing that how we live compares with the requirements
of the eternal worlds. The Lord
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speaks only in terms of the Celestial Kingdom. Let us try to
over-come the weaknesses we have, clean up our bodies and our
minds, that perhaps we might be able to make a good report when
we face the great judge.
I believe that when we come together on occasions of this
kind that we should be reminded of the importance of living the
very best we can, that we might be permitted to again see the
ones that we are paying respect to at the time. The Lord says,
"As for you, you are to forgive all men, and leave judgment to
me. I will forgive whom I will." So, why do we judge the ways of
our departed brothers and sisters? Let us think upon this
line--are we as well prepared to go and report as this good lady
who lies before us? Will we be able to give as good a report as
she will when she is called to report?
We have a great work to do; each and every person that is
in this building today has a great work to do to prepare himself
for an eternal salvation. The Lord says that He cannot redeem
Zion only upon the principles of the Celestial Kingdom, and in
the Celestial Kingdom there is no sin. So, if you and I expect
to take part in the redemption of God's work, in the
establishment of Zion upon the earth, or to take part in the
great Millennial Reign of a thousand years of peace, we must be
prepared for that time.
The preparation that we must make is to rid ourselves of
all evil. So we must start at home. We must start
now--today--.to clean up our minds, get rid of the trash that is
in there; and think no evil! That is what the Lord tells us to
do. Think no evil! And give the Spirit of God a chance to
dictate to us from hour to hour, from moment to moment, that we
might walk down the road with our heads up and say, "Lord, I am
doing what I can to prepare myself for a better life hereafter."
Let us clean up these bodies, that they might be
celestialized, and that we might be able to take them and use
them throughout the eternities of time; for this is the purpose
for which we are here in this probation--to take the bodies that
God gave us (for when we came into this world we came with clean
bodies) and return them to our Father as clean as He gave them
to us. These are some
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of the things that we should be thinking upon from hour to hour,
from day to day, and time to time.
I don't feel to prolong my remarks, my dear brothers and
sisters, but I do want to leave my blessings upon Brother Pipkin
and his family and those associated with him who are called to
mourn at this time--the dear mother of this lady, Sister Cox--I
want her to know that we feel deeply concerned at this time. I
hope and pray that the Spirit of God will rest upon them and
give them a determination to prepare themselves for a glorious
resurrection, as this good lady will receive.
Now, I pray God's blessings upon you all, in the name of
Jesus Christ, amen.
975
SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, DECEMBER 15,
1974,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
I feel, my brothers and sisters, that we have been well
instructed this afternoon. I am well pleased with the
testimonies. Our great concern at the present time is continued
preparation. The Prophet Joseph Smith was instructed to prepare
a people that he could use and that the Lord could use in the
redemption of His work. That was His great concern at that
time. We are now at this late hour still trying to get people
to prepare themselves for useful services of the One Mighty and
Strong when he is sent forth to set in order the House of God.
This work has got to be done in this generation, because the
Lord has said it.
I look at our day and see what is going on among us, and I
wonder what is going to transpire. Brother Hammon mentioned an
investigation that is in the making. There is only one way to
avert such an investigation, and that is to repent. We can
repent and get our boys and girls to come under the direction of
the Lord, for this is God's work; it isn't ours. We are only
here to assist you, by obtaining the Spirit of God. The degree
of the Spirit of God we can draw from the Heavens depends upon
your attitude towards wanting to know what you should do to be
prepared against the day of visitation. This day of visitation
is right upon us. We can see it being fulfilled daily. We can
see these things creeping up a lot faster than we are able to
repent of our sins and be prepared to meet them.
There is a lot of work to be done, my brothers and sisters,
to prepare ourselves for the useful services that are in store
for us--if we will just reach out and get the blessings. It just
as well be you and me as somebody thirty or forty years from
now. But in thirty or forty years from now, we won't be any
better prepared than we are today. We are better prepared today
than we were twenty years ago, because there are more of us; but
this is the only way. There are more young and middle-aged today
who have been instructed that this is the Gospel of Jesus
Christ, and it is our privilege to prepare ourselves to be used
in the building up and establishment of the Kingdom of God.
Some of us are determined to prepare ourselves in our
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own way. We don't listen to the instructions that the Lord
gives us to prepare ourselves. We want to go out and have our
time and take our time to prepare against the day of visitation.
This is in the minds of a lot of our young people. They show it
by their actions. They are, no doubt, here once a month to
Priesthood meeting. The house was almost as full this morning
with Priesthood bearers as it is with men and women this
afternoon. But where are they this afternoon? I notice a lot
of women here today. I believe there are more men here this
afternoon than there were a month ago in the afternoon meeting.
This morning Brother Timpson thrashed us pretty hard for
not being to these meetings. We need them, brethren; we need
them. One meeting of instruction is not enough. We need them
every day. I find that I need to go into this book--although I
have read it from cover to cover more than once. Many times I
have read parts of it--many many times. But I find that if I
don't continue to dig into it I lose ground. If I catch up, I
have to do a lot more studying. It is harder to catch up than
it is to keep up.
You take an automobile, and it is a lot easier to keep it
going than it is to build it up after it quits going and is down
and out. That is the way with our minds. The mind is
continually moving around, and unless we oil it with the proper
oil, we will find that the cogs will get rusty; then it is hard
to move it where we would like to have it move. So let us get
busy, let us--each one of us--get busy and prepare ourselves
that we might be able to meet the obstacles as they come.
(Section 101: 1, 2)
"Verily I say unto you, concerning your brethren who
have been afflicted, and persecuted, and cast out from the
land of their inheritance-I, the Lord, have suffered the affliction to come upon
them, wherewith they have been afflicted, in consequence of
their transgressions;
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This has been the case in all of our afflictions since we have
been acquainted with this work or since the Prophet Joseph
received his first great vision. Our people have been afflicted
because of transgression.
Some among us may be worthy of protection, and the Lord has
protected us. Although we have been persecuted and driven, we
are still able to go on. In 1944, the brethren were in prison,
but the Lord saw fit to fight their battles, and they were
finally liberated while some had to spend many years in the
penitentiary. Brother Vergel had to spend many years behind the
bars at hard labor. Why? Because of the determination of some
among us to have our own way. So the Lord allowed us to be
afflicted. Not because these particular men were law breakers,
but they were considered leaders among our people. It is the
leadership that they are after. They don't care much about the
general run of people. If they can get the leaders, that has
always been the great cry. "If we can get the leaders and
destroy them, then the rest of them will give up." But this
hasn't been the case among this people.
The Prophet Joseph and his brother Hyrum were killed, but
that didn't stop the growth of the Church--the Priesthood. It
went on and on, and when other persecutions came and the saints
were driven, the Lord fought the battles of the leadership; and
it has continued until our day. It will continue. It doesn't
make any difference how much investigation they make. That won't
kill the work. It might bring embarrassment upon our people and
cause a delay in our development. But everytime we have a
delay, we have a growth afterwards.
I believe we have more faithful among us than we had in
1953. But let us have a lot more. Let us brace up. The young
people, the middle-aged, come out and show your colors. Let the
Lord know that we have an army of men ready to do His work. Let
us do what He has said for us to do: Cry night and day for
deliverance that when the enemy comes in, he won't find what he
came after. The Lord can blind the eyes of unrighteous
investigators. He has done it before, and He can do it again.
So let
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us make it impossible for them to find what they think they are
going to find when they come in among us. I pray that the
Spirit of God will settle upon us, and that we will hasten to
prepare ourselves against that which the evil powers are trying
to bring upon the saints of God.
Our government is going down. It is on its way out. The
Lord has said that He would make a full end to all nations. What
is going to happen when our government goes out? You are going
to see the way prepared quickly for the redemption of God's
work. Somebody is going to have to take part in it, because
there has to be a body of men--able-bodied and valiant men. It
just as well be the men who are in this community and the
communities of the saints as for the Lord to bring in another
body of men. This isn't the only body that He is working with.
Christ said when He visited the Nephites upon this nation: "I
have other children to visit, other people to visit that are not
of this fold or the fold of Jerusalem, " where He came first.
So who is it? And what do we know about them or what they are
doing?
This Gospel may not be taken away from us and given to
another people, but who is going to be called upon to assist the
servants of God. Is it going to be you men that are here or
will it be someone out there that the Lord brings in to take
your place? You have the opportunity if you want it. Let us
want it and prepare ourselves to receive it. May God bless you,
amen.
979
SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, DECEMBER 22,
1974,
SUNDAY, IN SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
I am grateful again, my brothers and sisters, to stand
before you in health and strength. The Lord is certainly good
to us to allow us to gather together from month to month and to
have His servants here to teach us. I assure you, my brothers
and sisters, that I stand before you in deep humility, because I
know that this is God's work. He prompts the testimonies of His
servants and I do not want to say anything that will displease
the Spirit that has been exhibited here today. So, I pray that
the Lord will put into my mouth the words of eternal life that
are necessary for those who are desirous of hearing His word,
because I know that it is not my learning, in the worldly way,
that has brought me to this place.
It has been my desire to do just what these young men have
borne testimony that they would like to do. They would like to
become Priesthood men. I was taught by my father that this
should be the greatest desire of my heart--to be of use to those
who ruled over me and to be obedient to them. That is what I
tried to do after he passed away. I was a boy like all other
boys--full of life, full of energy. And I tried to do all I
could to enjoy life like other young men do, except for one
thing--I never did have a desire to do evil. I might have gone
to the line, close to the line a few times. About the closest I
ever came to drawing down the displeasure of the President of
the Stake and the Bishop of our Ward was on one Fourth of July.
Just to show you what young men will do sometimes--for many
years, we had a certain man in our town that did the bombarding
on the morning of the Fourth of July. He was a good man, but he
was slow. He moved around and took his time moving from one
place to another. On the Fourth of July, it was his job to do
the shooting. I had been out working on a canal, I was ambitious
and wanted to do all I could to provide for my mother and the
children she had around her, I was only about seventeen years
old at this time. When I came home off this job to celebrate
the Fourth of July, I put a half box of dynamite in my wagon and
took it home with me. When the Bishop announced that Brother
Harvey Lindsay would do the
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bombarding on the Fourth of July to wake the people up, I
gathered a few boys around me, and I said, "Let's help Brother
Lindsay." So, I showed them my box of dynamite and the caps I
had. I had been trained how to use it on the canal, and I was
careful with it. I chose boys I thought I could trust with it.
There were twelve of us, and we divided up; three of us took a
corner of town, north, east, south, west. Brother Lindsay took
the center of town to do his bombarding.
We waited until Brother Lindsay put off the first shot, and
then the man over in one corner of town waited a few moments and
set off a blast. We gave the City Marshall about three minutes
to get started over there to catch the boy, then the boy over
here set off one. The City Marshall went back to see what was
going on in that part of town. We gave him two or three
minutes, and the boy over there shot one off. When he got
started that way, one over here shot off. Then we waited a
little while for Brother Lindsay to shoot off another one in the
middle of town.
Well, after we had carried on for a little while, the City
Marshall went to the Bishop and said, "What shall I do? I need
some help if I stop this thing that is going on." The Bishop
said, "You know, the Fourth of July only comes once a year, and
I have never enjoyed such a Fourth of July before, so you will
have to go see President Sessions, the President of the Stake,
and see what he says about it." So, he went down and talked with
President Sessions, and he said, "The thing for you to do is go
up there and encourage Brother Lindsay to carry on his job." He
said, "He will get discouraged pretty soon and turn it over to
the boys, and I don't want him to."
When the word came to us that the City Marshall wasn't
after us any more, we boxed the rest of our artillery and came
in. It was about daylight by then, or a little after. But I
don't know of any worse trouble I got into than that, because
when I got home, I had a mother that was worked up in her
feelings, and she wore them out on me. I said, "Well, Mother, I
am sorry that I disturbed the peace, but somebody had to wake
Brother Lindsay up." She couldn't hold it any longer. She had
to laugh with us.
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It gave the President of the Stake and the Bishop material
to talk upon for a while. So, I got worked up in my inwards,
and after the Bishop and the President of the Stake had talked
on the evils that would come out of this if we didn't repent, I
raised my hand and got up and asked the audience to forgive me
for the part I played. Then one of the other boys got up. His
name was Lindsay, too. He got up and said, "If it wasn't for
Uncle Harvey, we wouldn't have got into this trouble. But we
are willing to ask the people to forgive us if they will forgive
us for waking them up on time for once."
But I want to tell you, my young brothers and sisters, we
have a job to do. It is all right to have our fun--to have our
times of rejoicing--but there is one thing we need to keep in
mind and that is, let us keep the Spirit of God with us while we
are doing it. Let us try to keep within our rights and
prerogatives and let the Lord bless us, I cannot conceive of a
God that wants a sober--complete sober congregation of people.
I think He wants us to be joyful in our attitudes, and He wants
us to go down the road and serve Him and keep His commandments,
because His ways are straight and His word is sure. He has said
that all who will keep His commandments will be saved and those
who will not will be damned, and He means it. But we do not
want to let ourselves get out of hand. We want to enjoy life,
both physically and spiritually, but enjoy it in the way that
will lead to eternal life.
Let us go down the road and do what the Lord has asked us
to do. Let us gather around us the necessities of life. And
one of the necessities of life that is the most worth to us is
the Spirit of God. Let us get it and keep it. Let us clean up
our minds. We will find that the cleaner our minds are, the
more easy it is to get the Spirit of God and keep it. The
Spirit of God is the spirit of peace. Some men may say that the
Spirit of God is not always the spirit of peace, but I do not
know when it is any other way. Even though we have been
chastised from time to time; yet the man that has chastised us
has not been mad. I have chastised a lot of people--young men
and old men because of their actions, but when I have chastised
them for doing wrong, I have felt good
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within myself. I have felt the spirit of peace within me, and I
believe that every other man does the same thing.
I pray that the Spirit of God will settle down upon the
saints of God--those who are determined to do something about
their salvation. I hope that they will allow the Spirit of God
to settle on them to that point where they can get the Spirit of
God and keep it, and they can clean up their minds and have
nothing there but good toward their fellowmen, because we cannot
love our neighbors and criticize them at the same time. If we
are going to criticize our neighbors, we had better think--this
is some of the trash I have got to get rid of. Let us clean up
our minds and then begin to love our neighbor as ourselves.
I pray that we can do this and that every Latter-day Saint
will be able to show the Lord that a little good is being done
in this day and hour in which we live. For we are going to have
to have it. We are going to have to have the Spirit of God upon
us if we weather the storm that is brewing upon us at the
present time. So, it is necessary that we do something about
it.
I have been greatly pleased with the testimonies of these
young men--these two boys that have been out in the army. I
hope that they will maintain the testimony that they bore today
and that they will come home in a better condition than when
they left home, for this is what the Lord has meant by
repentance. We go out every day and do things that are not
right, a lot of us, and then we laugh at them. Let us cease to
do these evils and laugh at them. Let us have compassion upon
our brothers and sisters and cease to do evil, but continue to
do good. I have known this Blackmore boy (John) ever since he
was a little boy. I have seen him grow up. Now he is becoming
a man, and he bore a good testimony. He had a good father to
teach him. Now, I pray that God will bless us with wisdom,
knowledge and understanding and help us to live according to the
knowledge that we have, I humbly pray in the name of Jesus
Christ, amen.
983
SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, DECEMBER 24,
1974,
FUNERAL SERVICES FOR MARILYNN TAGGART BATEMAN, WIFE OF CONNEL
BATEMAN,
HELD AT COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
My dear brothers and sisters, I am greatly honored today in
speaking at these services. I am grateful to the Lord for the
privilege we have of associating with one another in the bonds
of the Holy Priesthood. I am grateful for the testimony that He
has brought and left in the earth that men and women may know
the purpose of life and the purpose of death. In reality there
is no death. This young girl has only passed from one class to
another--one university to another. She was taught and trained
before she came to this life. She came here with a knowledge of
the purpose of life. She came here to obtain a body and to
purify it, that she might take it up again, that it might be
useful to her throughout the generations of time.
This should be a time of rejoicing. Those who knew her and
were associated with her knew that she had done all she could to
take this body back as pure as it was when it was given to her.
That is the purpose of life. Every man and woman that will
strive with all their might to purify their lives will have the
privilege of taking them up again and going on throughout the
generations of the eternities of time. No spirit that has come
to the earth and taken a body will take it up in a condition
that it will be useful to them throughout the eternities until
they have purified their lives.
So we have no need to worry about her. She came here and
got all the education that she could in her short time in life.
She listened to the teachings that she received from her parents
and from those whose care she came under. She did her best. She
has gone now to do a little more preparing, waiting until the
time she is called to take her body up again.
Now, it is up to you and me to profit by the examples of
others. When people we know are called in death, the first
thing we do is think over in our minds what we knew of their
character while they lived. The thing for us to do is to
prepare ourselves that we might be well cared for both in death,
in laying away, and in our resurrection.
It is the living that worries me as to whether they will be
as prepared to go, more than the body that lies before us. I
wonder what condition I will be in when I am called home.
Christ came here to
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set the example for all other people. He made the remark, "I do
nothing except what I saw my Father do." Some people think that
we are not all going to be crucified on the cross--but we are
going to be crucified in our feelings unless we can come here
and live without being tempted, and this we cannot do; for we
are all subject to temptation. Christ, Himself, was subject to
temptation, but He had the power to overcome. Every individual
has the power to overcome if they will put forth the effort to
do so.
We are taught that every person who comes here and takes a
body will take it up again, they will be resurrected. Some will
be resurrected unto eternal life, others will be resurrected
unto eternal damnation. It is eternal life that we are
after--one of the beauties of the Gospel is to know and
understand that we can gain it if we would like to and want it
bad enough. We all have the opportunity to do just what Christ
did, lay our bodies down and take them up again. When we take
them up again, let us be prepared--let us all be prepared--that
we may take them up, and that they will be useful to us
throughout the eternities of time. It is a beautiful plan when
we can look at it in the spirit of truth, with the Spirit of God
upon us. It is a beautiful plan.
I have heard men say that they didn't care whether they
were resurrected or not if the life hereafter is no better than
the one we enjoy here; because we have nothing but turmoil and
trails and tribulations. But a person is happy when they have
the Spirit of God upon them. The Spirit of God is the spirit of
peace--the spirit of peace in here ( touching his heart). If we
cultivate the spirit of peace and keep it, clean up our minds,
get rid of the trash therein and let the Spirit of God direct
us, we will be at peace continually. Although we may have trials
and tribulations; yet there is a spirit of assurance within us
that we will come out of it.
The Lord has said, "If you will keep my commandments, I
will fight your battles. " If we could just cultivate that
little small sweet voice that whispers to us, and keep it within
us, we would have nothing to fear; because the way will be open
to overcome all trials and tribulations that might come our way.
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Now, I have nothing in my heart but love towards my
fellow-men. I want Brother and Sister Taggart and their family
to know that I am their friend. I want to do good, and they
want to do good. This girl lived in my home for about three or
four winters, and we knew her character. I said to her when she
came there, "I will expect you home nights. After school is
out, I want you to be home." I don't know of a time that she
disobeyed that request. That is the kind of character she was.
Brother Taggart, God bless you; and Ethel, God bless you.
God bless your children and all that is concerned in your family
organization. God bless Connell Bateman and give him the spirit
of the Gospel that he might walk uprightly and honor the name of
this little girl, honor the name of his father and grandfather
and all of his Priesthood leaders that he has known, and all
others that have been connected with the Gospel of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints, although he didn't know them; because they
have been men of God. God called them into their different
positions, and He watched over and dictated their lives.
I want to say, God bless you, each and everyone that is
here today, and may we be well prepared when our call comes, I
humbly pray in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
986
A DISCOURSE BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, DECEMBER 29, 1974,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
I am glad to be here, my brothers and sisters. I trust
that the few words I speak will be dictated by the Spirit of
God. We have been given a lot this afternoon to think about. We
have been given a lot to think about from Sunday to Sunday ever
since I have been acquainted with this work of the Gospel of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I was brought up and tutored
from time to time by men who possessed the Spirit of God. I
know no other religion except that which the Prophet Joseph
delivered to the world.
I hope that I can live so that the Lord will be pleased to
protect and preserve me with those who will prepare themselves
for an eternal salvation. We have enjoyed many years now of
peace--relatively. We have been protected in this particular
locality. Great blessings have been promised through the mouths
of those who have spoken to us. Everything that has been
promised has been promised on the proposition that we keep the
commandments of God. All that we have been told this afternoon
depends on our ability to hold fast to the truth and put into
practice those things that are needful in our individual lives
to prepare us against the day of visitation. For the day of
visitation is upon us, and we don't need to look any further for
the judgments of our Father in Heaven. They are here.
Every person is being tried daily. We should take note of
our actions during the day, and at nighttime thank the Lord for
the experiences and invoke His blessings upon us that we might
go on and improve our time--the time that is allotted to us. He
has plainly told us that our days are numbered, and there is
none of us can say, "I will be here next Sunday." We have seen
it happen with the healthiest of men and women. So, it is today
that we need to prepare ourselves for an eternal salvation.
We are looking into the future for a better day. The best
days of our lives are now--the day that we live, while we have
strength and wisdom and knowledge to draw down the knowledge
that is necessary for each and everyone to prepare himself for
the things that the Lord has promised to those who will prepare
themselves
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while they have the opportunity.
When I go over the scriptures and think upon what has
transpired in the past in the lives of men, I don't remember of
reading the history of a man who has continued in wickedness and
then in the last year or two of his life gained the blessings of
God to that extent that he can say, "I have it made. " I don't
think we can spend our days in our early life serving the devil,
then when we arrive at the age of fifty completely wipe out the
dross that is within us and be fully prepared to meet the Lord
at sixty. I think we will have a lot of repenting to do after
we get over there, before we obtain the blessings that we think
we will have. I had a blessing given me when I was a boy. The
old patriarch said these words: All these blessings I pronounce
upon your head through your faithfulness unto the end. There is
quite a sermon a few words--through your faithfulness unto the
end.
I have been taught throughout the years that every evil act
I commit, I am going to have to atone for. The Lord plainly
tells us that we have to forgive all men. He says, "I will
forgive whom I will, but leave judgment to me; for judgment is
mine." Again, He says, "Judge not that ye be not judged." All
these sayings that the Lord has placed in the scriptures for us
to mull over and work over while we are working out our
salvation are stepping-stones to one of two things--either
eternal life, or eternal damnation. We hear many many clergymen
try to define the scriptures, but the Lord says, "The things of
men are understood by the spirit of men; and the things of God
are understood by the Spirit of God."
I have heard men say, "I have read the Book of Mormon. It
is a pretty good novel. Whoever wrote it had a real bright
mind, but it is no different than any other book that I can go
to the book stand and pick up. It is just a story."
I wonder how many of us have this idea in our minds, when
the Lord has told us that He preserved the record to come forth
for the eternal life and salvation of man. He told the Prophet
Joseph Smith that the book was sacred, the record was sacred,
and he had to be prepared to receive it before He would give it
to
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him. That is what He instructed the Angel Moroni to tell the
Prophet when he came and visited him. He said, "I have a record
of a people who dwelt upon this continent. It is a sacred
record. " He was instructed and the instructions were carried
out. He guarded with his life the sacred record when it was
delivered to him. He did all that he could, and the Lord even
sent someone to move the records out of his possession while he
was traveling to preserve them from falling into the hands of
the enemy of righteousness.
I am trying to bring to our people the seriousness of the
day we live in; for this is a great and glorious day. Those who
will prepare themselves for protection will get it. The Lord
has said that He will send fire from heaven if need be to
protect His saints. Not everyone that says, "I am a saint, " is
a saint in the eyes of the Lord. We have to keep all the
commandments of God, including honesty, preparation, cleaning up
of our minds and getting rid of all the false ideas that have
been placed in there through unrighteous living.
The day in which we live--today is one of the most wicked
that has existed upon the earth. The Lord says that only those
who prepare themselves to receive an eternal salvation will
obtain it. So, it is up to you and me whether or not we are
prepared to meet the issue of the day. This Gospel of the
Kingdom has been restored never again to be taken away or given
to another people until the sons of Levi do offer again an
offering unto the Lord in righteousness.
We have many conditions to meet. We have them every day.
We get up in the morning, and we are prompted to do a thing. In
a few minutes, we change the promptings. The Lord prompts us to
serve Him and keep His commandments. He has placed a guardian
angel by us to try to direct our footsteps in the right way. He
also allows false and delusive spirits to tempt us to do
different than we are prompted to do. So we have failures. The
Lord allows these failures to come to test us to see what we
will do with our time again.
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I have heard all my life that this life is what we make it.
I believe that is true. If we want a life of peace and
happiness, we can have it; if we want a life of worldly
happiness and pleasures, we can have that. If we want eternal
life, we can have it. The Lord has provided a way that we can
obtain it. He has also provided a way that we can obtain
eternal damnation and destruction to our souls--and our bodies
also.
I am grateful, my brothers and sisters, for the testimony
that God has given me of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am glad
that He gave me an opportunity to fight my way through the
experiences of life to this time and for the inspiration that He
has given me from time to time to protect me from the pitfalls
of eternal damnation. I am grateful for the privilege of being
numbered among a people who are striving for the advancement of
God's work in the earth. I am grateful for the people that have
gathered around the servants of God.
The eyes of the world have been turned upon this little
place. We depend upon the protection of our Father in Heaven
for our existence here, We have been told that if we would come
here and keep the commandments of God that God would bless this
place, and that those who dwell here would be a peaceful people.
In some instances, I think, we have fallen down on the
responsibilities that have been placed upon us, or the
opportunities that have been offered to us to show our
faithfulness. But I still believe that the Lord is willing to
bless us with protection and with success in our efforts to
purify our lives and the ground upon which we live--if we will
put forth an effort to do so. I also believe that all those who
find themselves wavering as to whether this work is right or
whether it is wrong will be given the privilege of serving whom
they will.
It has been said here today, and it has been said time and
again over the years, that every man and woman will have to work
out their own salvation. It is up to the individual. I cannot
judge your lives because the Lord won't let me read your
thoughts. So, I have to leave it to Him to judge whether I am
righteous or
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unrighteous. In the eyes of some of you people, I may be an
unrighteous man. In the eyes of others I may be righteous. But
who am I? It appears that I have been chosen to lead a people,
to teach them the principles of truth and righteousness. The
only way that I can teach them truth and righteousness is to
instruct them to stay close to the revelations of God. The Lord
has said, "Keep all my commandments for they are all true and
faithful, and they pertain to the salvation of men."
The enemy of righteousness is rampant in the earth today.
None of us can say that we have it made, that God will protect
us; for many righteous have gone down with the wicked. The Lord
controls our lives, He takes us at His pleasure, and He brings
us here at His pleasure. So why not serve Him and keep His
commandments and be one with Him. Let us seek to bind these
false and delusive spirits. Let us get them out of our minds
and don't let them back in again, then we will be serving the
Lord.
There has been a lot said about spare time. A certain
amount of time has been allotted to each individual. Wherein do
we have any spare time? The Lord says, "Pray always that my
Spirit might continue with you." So, we had better live so we
can have a prayer in our hearts, asking the Lord to let His
Spirit continue with us, that we might spend our time in working
out our salvation in fear and trembling before Him. Let us
cease to spend what we call our spare time in thinking evil of
one another. Let us cease to think evil. Let us cease to
criticize and find fault. Let us be firm in our determination
to serve God and keep His commandments. Let us get down to
business that when the enemy of righteousness comes among us, we
will have some weight with the Lord to protect our lives, that
we might be prepared to take part in the establishment of
Zion--the redemption of the House of Israel. That is part of
the work of this generation in which we live; for the Lord has
said it.
This is the generation of the fulness of times. We need to
get down to business, my brothers and sisters, and stamp out all
evil that exists among us. The Lord has said, "Come out of her,
O ye, my people, and be not partakers of her sins." Let us
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do that one thing. Let us come out of the world. It is not
impossible. There isn't a person in the room that doesn't want
to prepare himself for the United Order. The United Order
cannot be lived collectively until we have a people who can
exhibit the same faith as those who have lived it in the past.
What does that mean? The only record that we have of the United
Order is the way the people of Enoch lived and the people of the
Nephites for a couple of hundred years after Christ visited them
on this continent. The record says that they had perfect
confidence in one another for that length of time. Then what
happened? When evil began to creep in among them again, then
they began to be destroyed.
Those that were once righteous among them were all
destroyed. Where are the righteous? What happens to men when
they once testify that they know this is the work of God and
then a little later they claim that it isn't? They are lost.
That is what happens. So, we had better watch our language
regarding the work of God. We had better be sure that we are
skating on solid ice when we come up to the servants of God and
say, "I want to join up with you." This is what has brought
great sorrow to the heart of our Father in Heaven. When men
bear testimony that they know that He is God and that Jesus
Christ was the Savior of the world, and then they go against the
counsel that Christ gave, He says, "He that saith he believeth
me and keepeth not my commandments is a liar and the truth is
not in him." What does the Lord say about the liar? He says,
"I hate him."
All these things have been told to us time and time again.
But how many of us have sat down long enough to try to persuade
ourselves that we have got something to do to try to keep the
commandments of God. We build up a confidence in the hearts of
men, and then we betray that confidence by not keeping our word.
Let us be men and women of our word. Let us keep the testimony
that God has given us in a good condition. Let us not give the
Lord a chance to test us to see whether we believe what we say
or not. If He gives us a test, let us be sure that we know what
we are doing, and let the Lord know that we mean what we say
when we say that we know that He is God. Let us know it under
all conditions.
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It doesn't make any difference what we are called upon to
do. Let us know that God lives, and He will protect us if we
will keep His commandments. Let us not give way to the
temptations of evil and give the Lord a chance to chastise us
and to destroy us.
The Spirit of God is the spirit of peace. And if we will
keep the spirit of peace always, we can do the things that the
Lord has asked us to do. I hope that the spirit of peace will
settle in the bosom of every person here, and that we will keep
the peace, so that we won't have to have peace officers among
us. As long as we have to tantalize somebody and bring down
their displeasure upon us, we are not saints. If we were
promoters of peace, this place would be a different city to live
in. It would be a productive land to dwell in; otherwise, the
Lord can humble us very easy. He can take away from us the
things that we have, just as easily as we obtained them. Some
of us think that we have labored long and hard for what we have;
but if it weren't for the good graces of God, we wouldn't have
anything. We wouldn't even be here today. We would have been
scattered among the Gentiles. Some of us would have been still
in the prisons; but the Lord wanted to give us another chance.
He has given us another chance, and we have multiplied in
numbers, but what have we done in getting close to the Lord?
That is the next thing. Let us repent of our sins and
shortcomings and pray night and day for deliverance that we
might be prepared when the day of visitation comes; for it may
come any minute among this people or any other people.
I pray that God will bless us with wisdom, knowledge, and
understanding, and that He will help us to prepare ourselves
hastily against the day of visitation. May God bless you.
Amen.
993
SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, JANUARY 12,
1975,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
I am grateful for this wonderful privilege, my brothers and
sisters. I am grateful for the health and strength that the
Lord has blessed us with, not only myself, but the rest of you
people. I trust that the few moments I stand before you the
Lord will bless me with words of knowledge and understanding
that we might be built up in our determination to go on.
This life is one continual round of experiences. We have
experiences for and against the way of life that we try to live.
I was asked the question one time--what would I do if the enemy
were to come in and attempt to destroy us again. The only way I
could answer the question was, "I'll meet the problem when it
comes." This has always been the case among the children of God
in the earth. They have always had to be prepared to meet the
situation when it comes. That is the problem that confronts our
people today--the problem of being prepared to meet the issue
when it presents itself.
All that we have heard today is reminding us of the
conditions that exist among us. If there is anyone in the room
that has been wondering what has caused our delay in receiving
the blessings that have been promised to us, they should be well
informed by now what we need to do to prepare ourselves for any
condition that the Lord might bring upon us, or might allow to
come upon us, I don't think the Lord brings these trials upon
us. I think He allows the evil powers to work among us; and they
persuade us that there is an easier way to accomplish the work
the Lord has asked us to do than to do things the way the Lord
has asked us to do them.
We find that whenever the Lord has set up His work in the
earth, the evil powers have come along and set up camp near by,
and they watch our movements to see what takes place. When we
reveal the secrets the Lord has given us, then Satan knows our
weak points; and he starts to work upon us. This is what
happened in this community of ours.
One of the brethren made the statement that our next great
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test would be wealth. We looked far beyond first base to see
what our interpretation of wealth was. We have in our minds an
idea what it is, but this condition of wealth has been so
scattered out among our people that we have overlooked it. The
ball has been falling in near territory, and we have been
looking way out over there to see where that wealth is that we
are going to be blessed with, when it is being poured out right
among us.
We have enjoyed peace. We have enjoyed health and
strength. We have enjoyed good clothing, food; and everything
that we need, the Lord provides for us, for our comfort and
well-being. And, as has been said here today, there are more
wheels around this building than can be found around any other
edifice of the same kind in the United States. So, talk about
wealth. If you can judge anything by our looks, we are a
wealthy people. This is one reason that we bring this before
you, to try to get the idea in your heads that you have got to
do first things first. The food and the clothing, the comforts
of life that we bring into our homes--the price of bringing them
there should be taken care of first. Then if we want something
to travel over the sight-seeing portion of the earth and bring
us the pleasures of life, let us only use that part that we
need. If we can do that, we won't find ourselves in such a
deplorable condition as we are today.
We are in a deplorable condition in our store. It is the
people that we are talking to today that are responsible for the
financial condition of the store. It is an institution that was
placed here for our welfare and comfort. But for some reason or
another, we have abused the institution in order to have
something to make these wheels that we have under us carry us to
and fro. We might think that we can't get along without them.
I think we could get along without a lot of them, in order to
pay our debts and our obligations.
The Lord loves us, my brothers and sisters, for the effort
we are putting forth to gather around and hear His word and try
to become a better people. But He has to chastise us from time
to time in order to get us to humble ourselves to a point where
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we will listen to what He tells us. He has told us to get out of
debt and keep out of debt, but for some reason or other, we
can't do it--or it seems that way.
The Lord says that He loves those who He chastises. Let us
give Him an opportunity to bestow blessings upon us that we
can't contain; for He has plainly told us that if we would keep
His commandments, pay our tithes and offerings, and honor the
ordinance of baptism and the laying on of Hands for the gifts of
the Holy Ghost, He will pour out blessings upon our heads that
will be far beyond our expectations. Why not give Him a chance
to do this? It is just as easy to pay for that which we use as
it is to go into debt for it. If we can't pay for it, we don't
need it. The Gentiles say, "If you need it, get it now and pay
for it later." This is the difference between the counsel of the
Gentiles and the counsel of the Priesthood. If you need
something and have the money to pay for it, pay for it, get it.
But if you don't need it at the present time, don't get it or
run into debt for it. This is the way of life. Everything that
we buy is out of our reach as far as the cash is concerned to
pay for it.
The Lord has poured out blessings upon this place in the
last few years that are far beyond our expectations. Our
working men have been able to get jobs at high wages. We have
brought industry into our community that has brought a lot of
money in-a lot of money, I say, compared to what we have been
used to before. But it didn't improve the condition of our
store, which it should have done.
(Section 101:1-2)
"Verily I say unto you, concerning your brethren who have
been afflicted, and persecuted, and cast out from the land
of their inheritance-I, the Lord, have suffered the affliction to come upon
them, wherewith they have been afflicted, in consequence of
their transgressions."
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So, this is the reason that we have been moved upon today
to speak like we have. The great cry today is to prepare
ourselves against the day of visitation when the Lord is pouring
out His judgments upon the wicked. We feel very concerned about
the welfare of our people who have lived in peace, and who have
been blessed with plenty for so many years. It has been twenty
years now since the people of this community were carried
away--the women-folk and the children. Since that time, we have
grown to be a mighty people. A lot of mighty fine homes have
been built since that time. But what have we done to the public
service that the Lord has placed among us to bless us? We have
laid it on the block, and the axe hangs over it. Are we going
to let it fall?--cut the rope and let the hammer fall on us? Or
are we who are guilty of this great calamity going to rally to
and save it?
The Lord says that He will fight our battles if we will do
right; but if we fail to do right, He is not justified in
fighting our battles. Let us come to earth, my brothers and
sisters, and recognize the conditions that we find ourselves in.
The young men of this community who have the ability to get out
and make money, when they see the condition that exists, they
should have enough interest in the welfare of this people to
rally to and go out and save the day. They say they have their
hearts in this work. Why not do something about it?
Some men are working night and day, trying to find some way
to produce enough means to save the enemy from coming in and
closing the doors and taking away from us what little we have
inside. This can be done. When the raid came in 1953, we had a
store full of commodities, but they came in in the morning, and
that night we didn't have access to the commodities that we had.
We had to feed out of the army camp kettle--eat from their
tables. We are in a deplorable condition, my brothers and
sisters, and we need to do something about it!
The Lord is not very far away; and if you have been close
to Him and have done right and done all that you could to gather
the necessary means to meet your obligations, and you have
failed,
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the Lord is not very far away, and He can help you out. Those
who have willingly and willfully brought this condition on, or
helped to bring it on, should be ashamed of themselves and
should try to do something about it.
I know enough about the laws that exist to know that we are
not beyond the powers of the law. Our land may not be in
jeopardy, but other things we possess are in jeopardy. Sooner
of later we may be forced to sacrifice some of the things that
we feel we can't get along without. So, let us see what we can
do to relieve the burden that is upon us at this time. Let us
see if we can save the day with this wonderful store of ours and
let it continue to operate. It isn't the store only, but the
service station, also. We have tried to bring in money through
labor in trying to protect our borders from the floods, but it
is only a little that we can salvage from that source. The
expense of doing the work is so great that we receive but a
little compensation for it. Nevertheless, the Lord is willing
to go all the way with you. He goes on in this revelation and
says that although they have committed these great crimes, yet
He will own them when He makes up His jewels, provided they will
repent and do it no more.
If we can come out of it and do something about the
condition that is brought to our minds today and help to bring
more of the Spirit of God in this place instead of so much of
the spirit of criticism and faultfinding and so forth, the Lord
will bless us.
I am grateful for the effort that has been put forth to
give us the strength to come out and listen from Sunday to
Sunday to the instructions that the Lord has given to us. I am
grateful for the inspiration that has come to this people, and I
hope that you will keep coming. The Lord says that He loves
those who He chastises. Let us take our chastisement and use it
to our advantage--to our benefit. Let us see if we can bring up
a people that know how to serve God and keep His commandments;
for this can be done. It has been done before, and it can be
done again.
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But a great deal of effort has got to be put forth by this
people to bring ourselves to a point where the Lord can bless
us, not only with the good things of life, but with wisdom,
knowledge, and understanding.
I hope that we can bring down the blessings of God upon us
rather than the cursings of God. For when He allows the penalty
for negligence among us to be poured out upon this people, then
we suffer. So, let us prepare ourselves against the day of
visitation. This is what we call the day of visitation, when the
Lord is punishing the people for disobedience. It might be in a
community, it might be as a whole among all the people. He said
that He would make a full end to all nations unless the people
repented. He said again that when a people become corrupted
upon this land, that when they had filled their cup of
corruption, He would wipe them off--clean them off the land. So,
let us prepare ourselves against the day of visitation when He
is visiting the nations of the earth with these great judgments.
Now, I pray for wisdom, knowledge, and understanding to
settle upon this people, and I hope that we can draw in the
wanderings of our minds and be determined within ourselves to do
something about the condition that we find ourselves in, and
become a people that the Lord can smile upon and put His
protection around when we actually need it. No man knows the
day and the hour when great tribulation will cover the earth.
May God bless you, I humbly pray in the name of Jesus Christ,
amen.
999
SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, JANUARY 19,
1975,
SUNDAY, IN SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
The time is far spent. I want to let you know, my brothers
and sisters, that I feel humble at this time in standing before
you, for I greatly feel the inspiration that has been poured out
upon us this afternoon. I ask that while I speak the Lord will
put the words into my mouth that He wants delivered to you.
While President Jeffs was speaking, he called my attention
to the principle of working without purse or script. My mind
went back to the days of the 1953 raid when the officers came in
and arrested some forty men and sixty-five women, or so. The
number may not be exact, but it is somewhere in the vicinity. I
think it was the sheriff that asked me this question, "How did
you people live? When we searched this body of men we found
thirty-five dollars in all the men that were arrested." The Lord
sent in the army with their trucks loaded with provisions to
take care of our families while we laid in prison. We happened
to be in prison at that time. This was the condition of the
people in Colorado City at that time.
Before the court cases were over and our people were
liberated, the Lord had provided some $250,000 to liberate His
people. I leave this for you to figure out, and other people to
figure out. I had a New York banker, an old man who had banked
all his life, question me one day, a few years ago. He said,
"How much do you owe on that great episode of 1953?" I says, "We
don't owe a dollar." He said, "I went to the records in Phoenix,
and this case must have cost you over $200,000, now how much are
you in debt." I said, "We are not in debt a dollar. We have
paid it off." He said, "Incredible!" That's the way he answered
me. But they don't know the story. Many of us don't know the
story. There might be a few of the men who had charge of things
at that time who know part of it, but the rest of it will never
be known until the time comes that the Lord wants to make it
known to us.
These other things, these stories that have been told from
time to time that are faith-promoting, like the one we just
heard, should be evidence to this people that you are being
guided
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under the direction of heaven to prepare yourselves against the
day of visitation when God is pouring out His judgments upon the
wicked. If you have read the Book of Mormon, you know something
about how the Lord blessed and cursed the people who occupied
this great land of ours, and what Christ said would transpire in
the last days. We are living in the time that was spoken of by
the Savior when He told the Nephite people that the remnant of
Jacob would walk through the Gentiles and tread them down.
Don't think for a moment, my brothers and sisters, that
these are idle words. They were spoken many generations ago,
many thousands of years ago. But the Lord has said that not one
word of the prophets will fall to the ground unheeded, that all
will be fulfilled. We have had it reiterated here to us today
that in this generation these things will come to pass. So, let
us not kid ourselves any longer. Let us commence to cry night
and day for deliverance, because that is what we will need. The
time is here, my brothers and sisters, for us to get down on our
knees and cry night and day for deliverance from the enemy of
righteousness. Let us see if we can command enough faith among
this body of people to persuade the Lord that we are worthy of
His great protecting hand when great tribulation covers the
earth, especially our country. It is coming faster than we can
realize. We have no idea what is taking place behind the scenes.
I am grateful, my brothers and sisters, that the Lord
thinks enough of us to keep hammering at us, that we might be
persuaded to prepare ourselves against the day of visitation.
It seems as though the servants of God cannot stop in this day
without crying repentance, crying preparation. For the Lord is
looking for a body of men that He can trust no matter what might
happen, men that He can give a command to and they will keep it,
and they will go forth and perform. That is what He is waiting
for. We are not waiting upon Him for something to do, but He is
waiting upon us to do something about it. So, let us get down
to business and do it. Let us prepare ourselves that we might
be used when He calls for us. Let us quit thinking that we have
nothing to do,
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and if we had something to do we might be more useful in
building up and establishing the Kingdom of God; because you
have a job. Each and every man in this room has a job to do, and
if he will go to and perform, then the Lord can say, "I am
pleased with you and I will send fire from heaven if I need to,
to protect you in the day and hour of judgment."
Now, I pray that the Spirit of God will settle upon us and
that we might be able to command the Spirit of-God continually
with us, that we might be protected from the evils around us,
and that we might be able to weather the storm that is hovering
over us at the present time. God bless you, my brothers and
sisters, with wisdom, knowledge, and understanding, that you
might be prepared when the One Mighty and Strong comes to set in
order the House of God, I humbly pray, in the name of Jesus
Christ, amen.
1002
A SERMON GIVEN BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, JANUARY 26, 1975,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
I am grateful, my brothers and sisters, for the privilege
of being here today and hearing what I have heard. I am
grateful for the chastisements that the Lord gives us as well as
the blessings that He places upon us. I trust the few moments I
speak that the Lord will bless me with words that will be
beneficial to those who hear my voice.
In all my search for the knowledge that is necessary for my
eternal salvation, I find that the Lord is very gracious to us.
He opens the windows of Heaven and pours out blessings, and He
closes the windows of Heaven and withholds His blessings at His
pleasure. So, we find the conditions that exist among the
people of the earth today are very varied. Some are striving
daily for knowledge of who God is and how to become like Him.
Others have heard the story for so many years, and nothing has
transpired that has been miraculous in their minds or brought
about the conditions that they so earnestly, within themselves,
would like to see transpire while they live.
The Lord says that He is to be sought after. He gives His
word and pronounces blessings upon those who will obey His word
and put it into their lives, and He also lets them know that if
they don't do these things, the things He asks us to do, that
cursings will be our reward. Then He leaves us alone to work
out our salvation. He is right at our elbow every minute of the
time to give us directions if we will receive it. But first, we
have got to put ourselves in a position where we can recognize
His Spirit when He whispers to us. The only way that we can put
ourselves in this frame of mind is to do what He has told us to
do in the revelations that have been given to us from time to
time.
The Lord is very anxious that His children do something
about their salvation. He says, "I am jealous of the
workmanship of my hands, and I will be obeyed by those who
obtain eternal life." Again He says, "My sheep know my voice,
and none other shall they follow." But He tells us in the First
Section of the Doctrine & Covenants that this Gospel of the
Kingdom is unto all men, all creeds, and so forth. To those who
live upon the isles of the sea and all people who will listen to
His voice, the call is the same.
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He does not make any distinction. The only distinction that He
makes is that those who keep His commandments will gain eternal
life, and those who keep not His commandments will reap eternal
damnation.
It should be the outstanding desire of every individual to
do nothing that would displease the Spirit of God and cause it
to withdraw from you, that you might be dictated from moment to
moment by the Spirit of God, that your life might be perfected
and that you might be prepared against a day when He is pouring
out His judgments upon the wicked--those who do not have power
to obtain eternal life, those who refuse to listen to the
promptings of the Spirit of God.
Many people have heard the Spirit of God speak, but they
didn't know the voice. Many people have been warned by some
feeling that was within them, but they didn't heed the voice,
the warning, and they met with severe punishment. Then they
have said, "If I had heeded the hunch that I had, this wouldn't
have happened to me." They call the Spirit of God a "hunch." The
Lord has said that it is not our privilege to take His name in
vain. This is taking the name of the Lord in vain. When He
whispers to us and tries to warn us against evil and we turn a
deaf ear to it, we reap the reward of the mistakes that we make.
If we call it a "hunch, " we are taking the name of the Lord in
vain, because we don't recognize it when He gives it to us.
We get up in the morning, and the Spirit of God speaks to
us and tells us what to do or makes us feel that we need to call
upon Him for protection that day, and we fail to do it; then
when the protection is needed, He is not there. It is when we
have recognized His Spirit and the feeling we have and we have
knelt down and asked Him for His protection through the day that
He has helped us many many times.
I will read to you part of the Sixth Section of the
Doctrine & Covenants this afternoon, and I would like to read a
little more. I will read the last verse that I read a while
ago:
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"Now, as you have asked, behold, I say unto you, keep
my commandments, and seek to bring forth and establish the
cause of Zion;
Seek not for riches but for wisdom, and behold, the
mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto you, and then shall
you be made rich. Behold, he that hath eternal life is
rich.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, even as you desire of
me so it shall be unto you; and if you desire, you shall be
the means of doing much good in this generation.
Say nothing but repentance unto this generation; keep
my commandments, and assist to bring forth my work,
according to my commandments, and you shall be blessed.
Behold thou hast a gift, and blessed art thou because
of thy gift. Remember it is sacred and cometh from above-And if thou wilt inquire, thou shalt know mysteries
which are great and marvelous; therefore thou shalt
exercise thy gift, that thou mayest find out mysteries,
that thou mayest bring many to the knowledge of the truth,
yea, convince them of the error of their ways.
Make not thy gift known unto any save it be those who
are of thy faith. Trifle not with sacred things.
If thou wilt do good, yea, and hold out faithful to
the end, thou shalt be saved in the kingdom of God, which
is the greatest of all the gifts of God; for there is no
gift greater than the gift of salvation."
These are the words that were spoken to the Prophet Oliver
Cowdery, and these are the words that are spoken to every man
who reads that revelation. For the Lord has said many many
times in this book, "What I say unto one, I say unto all."
Remember that these revelations that are contained in this book
of revelations are as necessary for the salvation of you and me
as they were to Oliver Cowdery and Joseph Smith unto whom this
revelation was given. Every person who enjoys health and
strength today who hears these
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words and has them explained to them is under condemnation
unless they live them. It has been hard for the servants of God
to pound into the heads of this generation in which we live from
the time of the Prophet Joseph until now that the revelations
that the Lord gave him pertain to us. They weren't given to
Joseph Smith and those who were around him at that time
particularly for their benefit and not for ours, but they were
left for us to read, that we, too, might have the same
opportunity that Joseph the Prophet, Oliver Cowdery and Sidney
Rigdon and those men who the Lord placed around the Prophet in
those days had for their eternal salvation. They are just as
important today for your salvation and mine, and except we
incorporate them in our minds and into our lives and commence to
heed the promptings of the Spirit of God, we are left without
excuse.
We are going to find that we are going to be judged out of
the books, out of the revelations of the Lord to His people. He
does not have time to come here and speak to us through His own
mouth, He has got to speak to us through the mouths of His
servants. He plainly tells us in this book that whether it be by
His own voice or the voice of His servants, it is the same. So,
let us be diligent in our efforts to rid ourselves of those
things that are holding us back from walking by revelation each
moment of our lives, for every man and woman has that right if
they will live for it.
The things that have been told us from this stand from
Sunday to Sunday, month in and month out, are the things that we
will have to rid our lives of in order to obtain the Spirit of
the Lord to that point where we can be lead and directed from
day to day and from moment to moment. This has got to be the
case, my brothers and sisters, before Zion can be redeemed. The
Lord plainly tells us that this is a day of preparation, to
prepare ourselves to become useful in the redemption of His
work; for this is the day of redemption. This is the day of the
fulness of times when all things will be revealed from the
beginning until now. But only those who prepare themselves will
be left to receive it.
Let us be found among those who are righteous, so that the
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Lord will be justified in performing the work that He has said
He would do, He said, "I will send fire from Heaven if necessary
to protect my Saints when the day of visitation comes and the
day of purification when people are purifying their lives and
getting ready for the redemption of Zion."
Now, let us go to, my brothers and sisters, and study the
scriptures. Let us get the Spirit of God, do as Moroni has told
us, read this book with a determination to know and to
understand what it means to us. Let us apply it to our lives
that we might be found on the right hand of God when the day of
redemption comes.
I pray that God will bless us with wisdom, knowledge, and
understanding, and help us to overcome our imperfections and rid
our lives of the evil that is within us, that our light might so
shine that people will want to come and partake of the good gift
that God has offered to His children in this day and age. May
God bless you, I humbly pray in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
1007
SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, FEBRUARY 9,
1975,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
I think what Brother Hammon said is quite plain. There
isn't much more to be said. There is a lot more to be done, but
we have said the same thing over and over again until there
isn't much more to be said, that is true. The Lord loves us, my
brothers and sisters, or we wouldn't be chastised and told of
our weaknesses and imperfections. So let us get our feet under
us and our thinking straight, get down to business, prepare
ourselves for a day of trial and tribulation, for every day is a
day of trial.
When you rise in the morning, you rise with the same
responsibilities that have been on your shoulders for a long
while. It will be up to you and me to decide how we use our
time. If we have any spare time, let us use it wisely. Let us
put our lives in shape so that the Lord can use us in His work.
We are being used every day in one way or another. There is one
thing certain and sure, and that is that each man has got to
know himself. He has got to know that his course is right.
Each woman has got to know the same thing. They have got to
know that their course is right and then continue to prepare
themselves for that which the Lord has in store for us. God
moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform. He plants
His footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm. We are
guided every day by the Spirit of God. If we can recognize His
hand, there is no reason why we can't get the Spirit of God and
keep it.
I believe that the Lord has been a little bit pleased with
this people over the years because of the health and strength
that we enjoy and the blessings that the Lord has placed around
us while we live here in these valleys of the mountains. When
you get out of these valleys of the mountains among the general
run of people, you don't find the peaceful spirit that you find
here.
So let us praise God from whom all blessings flow, and let
us go down the road together and work out our salvation in fear
and trembling before Him. Let us be found worthy members of His
Kingdom, that when great tribulation is being poured out around
us, we can stand in holy places and watch the arm of the Lord
made manifest. For truly we are going to need assistance from
Him in order to be able to stand and to come through and be
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partakers of His great work.
I am grateful for the privilege the Lord gave me of living
in this day. I am grateful for the patience He had with me in
training and tutoring me and bringing me along until I met up
with this order of the Priesthood. I have known this Priesthood
all my life. I have known no other. I have tried to follow the
example of my father. I have tried to follow the example of
good men who have also tried to arrange their lives to be
honorable men of the earth and to be honorable men in the
Kingdom of God. I have tried to put into my life the examples
that were set before me.
Like all other human beings, I have been subject to
mistakes. I have made many mistakes, but I have been able to
surmount most of them and make the best of them, and bring
myself to a point where the Lord has been able to use me for a
little while. I hope that I can do a lot more good in the earth
while time lasts, but time runs out. Time goes on, and every
day we lose a little time here and we lose a little time there.
This is the reason that we find ourselves in a condition where
we have to be chastised and told of our weaknesses and
imperfections. But there is hope left for each and every
individual if they will reach out and take hold of the
opportunity that is before them and do something about it.
I am grateful for the testimony that the Lord has given me
of this work, for the testimony that I have of the Gospel of
Jesus Christ. I am grateful for the privilege of living in this
day and doing what I can to work out my salvation.
I am grateful for all of you. It grieves my heart to see
anyone do anything against the work of our Father. For I know
that when we do things that are wrong, we have to pay the
penalty. Sometimes the penalty is great. So, I pray the
blessings of God upon us, each and everyone. I hope that we can
draw in the wanderings of our minds now and do what we have been
told to do this afternoon and hold fast to all good and discard
the bad within us, that we might perfect our lives like we have
been instructed to do. May God bless you, I humbly pray in the
name of Jesus Christ, amen.
1009
REMARKS GIVEN BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, FEBRUARY 16, 1975,
SUNDAY, IN SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
I am grateful for this day and being here to hear what I
have heard this afternoon. I feel very humble this afternoon,
my brothers and sisters, in occupying this position and trying
to edify you further. I ask that the Lord will bless me that I
might say a few words of encouragement that we might go on and
take heed of the words we have already heard.
I remember very distinctly the time when President Musser
spoke these words and how it disturbed the feelings of many men.
Some of them, I thought, were really fine men and supporters of
the Priesthood; but they went out, because of the words of
President Musser. One man put it this way. He said, "I sat and
listened to the most damnable sermon that I ever heard
preached." I was shocked in my inward feelings because of the
attitude of this man. But I soon found out that he was on his
way out.
I am grateful, my brothers and sisters, for the testimony
the Lord has given me of the truthfulness of this work. I am
grateful for being a party to the task that is before us of
trying to keep alive the principles of righteousness. I am
grateful for the time in which we live, for great are going to
be the experiences of this people. I can't imagine how many
there will be that will stand the trials and tribulations that
we will be called upon to go through in the next few years. But
I do know this, that the Lord spoke the truth when He said that
He would protect His saints if He had to send fire from Heaven
to do so. I know this, too, that there is not one of us who can
judge who are saints and who are not saints. Only the Lord can
judge that. He is the only one that can read the hearts and
minds of men and women.
I am glad, too, that the Lord gave us the privilege of
working out our own salvation in fear and trembling before Him.
This is an individual responsibility that the Lord has placed
upon His children and especially in this day. Since the
Celestial Law has been desecrated and trampled under the feet of
men, it has been the responsibility of each and every
individual, who has been taught the principles of truth and
righteousness as they were given
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to the Prophet Joseph Smith, to apply to his life the principles
of salvation. That is something that no man can take away from
an individual, whether it be man or woman, if he or she has done
all that they could to prepare themselves against the day of
visitation, the Lord will protect them. He will find ways and
means of protecting His saints.
It has been truly stated that if the Savior were to come
today, He would have to say the same thing: "The Son of Man hath
no place to lay His head." Because there is not a dedicated
place upon the earth that has not been desecrated since it was
dedicated unless it is in the individual home of the man or
woman.
My brothers and sisters, let us get down to work. Let us
see to it that we spend not another day or minute idling away
our time. Let us spend our time building up a faith within
ourselves that we know that our course is right; for we have
been plainly told that only he who knows his course is right
before the Lord has any claim upon salvation or exaltation.
Our time has been well spent this afternoon. We have heard
some great sermons, and I hope that we can go from this meeting
built up in our determination to serve God and keep His
commandments, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
1011
SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON MARCH 2, 1975,
IN SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
Again, my brothers and sisters, I want to express my
gratitude to the Lord for His blessings unto us to allow us to
gather together and be taught again. I trust that the few
moments I speak that the Lord will bless me with words, for I
feel very humble this afternoon in standing before you.
I am truly grateful for the testimony that the Lord has
placed in my bosom, in my heart, of the truthfulness of the
Gospel of Jesus Christ as it was revealed through the Prophet
Joseph Smith to this generation. I am grateful for the
opportunity He has granted us to work out our salvation in fear
and trembling before Him, for I know that this is the truth.
When He said: Fear God and keep His commandments, He meant it;
for God giveth and He taketh away, and blessed be the name of
our Father. He is the Creator of our spirits. We were told a
few months ago that this statement is far-fetched, which it is
in one way. Our spirits were not created. The scriptures tell
us that there was material there, and the Gods met together.
They took of the materials that existed and brought them
together and formed the spirit of man. So when it comes to a
creation of our spirits, we need to be tutored and trained as to
what this means.
I am glad that there was an opportunity given us in the
heavens to be gathered together and taught the Gospel of Jesus
Christ and the fulness thereof, before we came here. And
because of this wonderful plan of salvation--the saving of the
souls of men and the opportunity that we were taught that we had
to come to this earth and be given a body that we might purify
it and bring it back to the Father that it might be
celestialized that we might be able to use it throughout the
existing generations of time, then we can be taught how to bring
together the elements that exist and to create or to bring
together and organize the spirits and souls of men. We were
taught the Celestial Law, and we were given to understand that
this is the law that will exalt us in the Celestial Kingdom. And
we still understand it in that light. We have been told that
without this law, we cannot be exalted to the highest degree in
the Celestial Kingdom. And unless we are exalted to the highest
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degree of glory, it will be impossible for us to go on and on
and on throughout the generations of time that the worlds
perform.
Tomorrow, I am going to have to listen to the doctrine that
men can be exalted without living the Celestial Law. I am going
to the funeral of one of my brothers that was born under the new
and everlasting covenant. But because of the teachings of the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the rejection of
the law of plurality--the law under which he was borne and
taught from his infancy up--tomorrow I have to listen to the
doctrine that he will be exalted in the highest degree of glory
in the Celestial Kingdom because of his faithfulness. He was
called on a mission when he was a young man. He came home and
was married in the temple and had a wife sealed to him for time
and all eternity. But when the Celestial Law was offered to
him, he said, "No, this can't be true because the Lord has taken
it away. We had a manifesto that relieved us of living that
law, and we will go on and work out our salvation in fear and
trembling before Him and receive as great an exaltation and
maybe a greater one than anyone that enters into it." That is
the doctrine he taught. He was a faithful Latter-day Saint. He
was a patriarch in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints.
President Musser was trying to tell you today that we have
a confliction of interests. We do have a confliction of
interests, if we want to take it that way. I hope that I don't
have a confliction of interest. I hope that my interests are
straightened out and that I can go down the road and keep the
commandments of God and bring myself the desired blessings that
I have worked for, for many many years. I hope that God can add
upon me, because of the interest that I have taken in His work
and the effort that has been put forth to rid myself of the
confliction that has been brought upon us through
unrighteousness.
I hope that every person in this room will be able to rid
themselves of any confliction of interest that pertains to their
salvation. I hope that we can get our thinking straight, and
that we can gain that knowledge necessary for our eternal
salvation.
Let us study. Let us not fail to get out of the Lectures
on Faith the faith that is necessary unto eternal life. And
then let
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us hang to it. Let us not allow anything to come in our minds
that would conflict with the testimony that we have that Jesus
is the Christ, and that it is necessary to live according to His
teachings. He says, "He that loveth me and keepeth not my
commandments is a liar." So if we say we love Him, let us keep
His commandments.
Let us not turn to the right hand nor to the left, but go
straight down the road and keep all of the commandments of God.
Let us rid our lives of all the dross that is within us. That
is the thing that President Musser was trying to put over today.
I hope it can be put over in our minds that we can go down the
road without any conflict whatever. Zion cannot be redeemed
only upon the principles of the Celestial Kingdom, and in the
Celestial Kingdom there is no sin. So if this be the case, we
have to prepare ourselves against that time.
Joseph Smith walked and talked with God. He was a mortal
man. Other men were permitted to see angels and to converse
with them. And when the great redeeming work is carried on
during the Millennial Reign, mortal men will have to be in a
condition where Celestial beings can visit them and talk with
them, deliver their messages. And mortal man will go through
and do the work that has got to be done. This is what Joseph
Smith tried to put over; the Lord tried to put it over. He
tried to show to the world that men could, if they would prepare
themselves, converse with heavenly beings. This is not strange
doctrine. This has been taught to us from the beginning of this
great work in this day. I have heard the same doctrine since I
was a boy and I began to be old enough to understand.
I hope that the Lord will allow us to prepare ourselves
against the day of visitation when He is visiting this continent
with destruction; for it is coming. The Savior said it would,
when He was here among the Nephites. He told them what would
take place before the temple was built in Adam-ondi-Ahman.
The Gospel is true. Jesus Christ is the Son of God. We
have heard it here today--the testimonies of the elders. Joseph
Smith was a prophet of God, and He saw the Father and the Son.
He conversed with them. This Gospel was restored never again to
be
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taken away or given to another people. The way has been
prepared, and it is here for its continued existence in the
earth. And the Lord has plainly said that the saints would be
protected if He had to bring fire from heaven to do so. And
why? To fulfill the covenant that He made with the Prophet
Joseph Smith when He had His servant lay his hands upon Joseph's
head and tell him that this Gospel would never be taken away or
given to another people. So, He will preserve the faithful. Let
us be the faithful. Let us be counted among them. Let us,
everyone of us, be determined to cast out of our lives every
whit of evil that possesses us. Let us get rid of our envying,
our criticism, our hatred towards one another. Let us serve God
and keep His commandments that we might be partakers of the good
gift when the time comes, I humbly pray in the name of Jesus
Christ, amen.
1015
SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, MARCH 9, 1975,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
Again, my brothers and sisters, I am grateful for the
privilege of being here, and trust that the few moments that I
speak the Lord will bless me with His Holy Spirit, that I might
speak the words that He puts in my mouth, for I only want to do
the things I am required to do of Him.
We are living in a time when great changes are about to
take place in the earth and are taking place every day. This is
all according to the words of the prophets who have come and
gone before us. The Lord says that this Gospel of the Kingdom
is unto all men. He does not make any difference as to who they
are or where they live. All men who will accept it will receive
their salvation sometime if they will overcome their weaknesses
and imperfections and live so that they can be added upon,
because it is through purification of our minds and bodies that
we are added upon.
We are told that we gain knowledge through an understanding
of the Gospel of our Savior. Inasmuch as the Lord has said that
not one word of the prophets will fall to the earth unheeded, we
still have a chance to apply to our lives the law of
preparation. Our great mission in the earth today is to prepare
ourselves for an eternal salvation. Not all who are baptized
will receive the fulness of the Gospel. Not all who are
ordained to the Priesthood will gain their salvation, but only
those who will prepare themselves and rid themselves of the sins
of this generation in which we live. The Lord has plainly told
us, through the mouths of His prophets, that when the people
become corrupted in their minds and their bodies and are ripened
in iniquity, He will have to destroy them.
When Joseph Smith brought forth the Gospel in his day, he
was told by the Lord that all the creeds of the earth were
corrupt, that none of them were right, and for him to join none
of them--that if he would be faithful and true, he would be the
instrument through which He would establish His Church and
Kingdom in the earth. Joseph Smith carried out the instructions
that he received, and he sealed his testimony with his own
blood. The generation in which he lived was so wicked that they
could not stand truth. This great
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war is still going on. It started in heaven, and it was carried
on to the earth, and it has been going on ever since the
beginning of time.
The Lord blessed this particular continent upon which we
live. He has told the prophets for many many generations of
time that those who dwell here would be a God-fearing people and
would serve the God of the land or when they were ripened in
iniquity, they would be destroyed. This is what we want to
guard against--being among those who are destroyed from the
earth. We want to be among those who the Lord chooses to carry
on His work. The Lord says He will preserve the righteous for
the redemption of His work, and I want to be among the
righteous. I have said it many times, and I say it again, that
I would like to see all those who are instructed under the
direction of the Servants of God be prepared to receive the
blessings of God when He destroys the wicked. You and I are
greatly blessed because we have shown a little interest in the
worth of our salvation by coming out and listening from time to
time and being instructed and encouraged to keep the
commandments of God, to prepare ourselves against that day when
great tribulation covers the earth. We are living today in a
troubled earth. We are living in a time when men have lost
sight of the fact that God would provide for us if we would do
right.
Sometime ago someone said in the meeting that Satan upon
one occasion said that he would buy up popes and priests, kings
and armies, and he would rule with blood and horror upon the
earth; he would rule with money. The great thing in the minds
of the rulers of the day is money. If they just had the money,
they could do all things whatsoever they needed to do, and it
would save them. But we have been told through the mouths of
our prophets that money is the root of all evil. It is
something that we all have to have at the present time. The
Lord plainly tells us that if we will serve Him and keep His
commandments. He will fight our battles, and that He will
provide for us. He likens us unto the flowers that grow in the
field and the birds that we see flying. He provides for them.
They live; they are clothed, and they have places to live. So,
we might be placed in a condition one of these days
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when we are going to have to depend entirely upon the blessings
of our Father in order to exist. We are going to have to find
ways and means of living without money.
The Lord has given us the earth, and He has proven to us
that He can bless us with rain; He can withhold the rain. He
can bless us with crops, or He can withhold the crops. When He
placed Adam in the Garden of Eden, He told him that He had
placed on the earth all the comforts of life. For many many
generations people lived upon the earth and, I suppose, without
the manufacturing devices that we have today to manufacture the
clothes that we wear and prepare the food that we eat. The Lord
has demonstrated to us that what He told Adam was true. When we
remember that He says that those who dwell upon the earth upon
which we dwell shall serve the God of the land or He will have
to destroy them, these few words alone ought to be proof enough
to us that He will provide for us if we will give Him a chance
to bless us. We cannot condemn Him and His saints or the
righteous among us and expect the Lord to bless us with plenty.
He says, "Seek me early and draw close to me that in your hour
of trouble I might be found; but if you are slow to recognize me
and keep my commandments, I will be slow to answer your prayers
when you are in trouble." This is what I get out of the
scriptures, and I believe you do, too.
So, it is time, my brothers and sisters, to begin to humble
ourselves and get down to earth and get close to the Lord while
we enjoy ourselves a little bit in prosperity, because one of
these days we are going to wake up without jobs that carry a
little money with them. When that time comes, there is going to
be great distress in the earth among the people. We are being
told every day, not only by the servants of God, but by the
servants of Satan that great tribulation is coming to us. When
I hear our great leaders of our country commence to squabble
about ways and means to keep our economy going, it makes me
shiver, for I know our people are not prepared to wake up in the
morning and find themselves in a condition where they will have
to depend on the Lord for something to eat and to wear the next
day. We are not prepared for it. We are in a sore condition.
The Lord tries us each day. This statement
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has been made from time to time, week in and week out. The Lord
tries us every day to see what we will do with the time we have.
There are those among us that make slurring remarks against
what the servants of God say from the pulpit, and they think
they are doing themselves a good turn, as well as those to whom
they speak. This is one of the evils among us. The older ones
do things that are out of the way, and the younger people here
feel that it gives them license to do the same thing. Little
children learn to do things by watching older people do them.
If you older people would commence to do right and not allow
yourselves to be led away into by and forbidden paths by doing
wrong here and there and letting these little fellows watch you
do it, it wouldn't be long until we had a generation coming up
who would serve God and keep His commandments. So, the Lord is
allowing us to be tried every day.
We have an opportunity to commence today to get close to
the Lord and let Him know that we want to repent of our sins and
commence to cry to Him night and day for deliverance.
Deliverance from what? From the evils that beset us. If we know
of a habit we have that is not pleasing to the Lord, let us get
rid of it. If we know of something that we are capable of doing
to help push the work of God along, let us do it. Let us not
wait until somebody else starts then we will get behind them and
do it, because we might not be able to do it that way, or that
day. If you can help today, help today!
The thing that we have to do is rid ourselves of evil, then
God can bless us. He can bless the works of our hands, our
labors. It doesn't have to be collectively altogether, but I
will tell you how to make it collectively--everyone of you just
do that one thing--rid yourselves of all evil. Make it a habit
when you get up in the morning to invoke the Spirit of God upon
you, and then see to it that you keep the Spirit of God and that
you do not dispel Him by your words or your actions. If this
congregation of people that is here today would do that one
thing, you would find a great change in this place. We wouldn't
have to worry about water to water our crops if we were living
right.
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God has provided a way to water the dry ground. You can go
down on this land and dig wells anywhere and get water. If we
were living right we could have green the year around. I have
asked the Lord to send the rain, and He has sent it. I have
asked Him to stay it, and He has stayed it. I know these things
can be done. There are a few people that know that this has been
done--who have had the testimony of my experience. The
scriptures are full of it--where the Lord has sent rain by the
mouths of His prophets, and He has stayed the rains by the
mouths of His prophets; and if He wants to destroy a people, He
can just withhold it. We have had quite a lot of moisture in
this place. But what has it done twenty miles out here in the
valley? I can take you through the state, and the valleys are
dry. It stormed right along the foothills, but what has it done
out in the valley? Nothing. The sheepmen and cattlemen have to
use the valleys for food. They have prospects for summer range
this year. But the prospects so far, for next winter in the
valleys, are very slim, and I should think we would look at what
is taking place under our noses and begin to pray.
The Lord has said we will have to pray night and day for
deliverance. Why not do it before the day comes when we know we
have to be delivered. We know it now! We have got to be
delivered from the evils that beset us, and these evils are
growing among us. The Priesthood Council today is over-run with
people wanting to know how we can straighten out this wrong and
that wrong that someone else has done to us. The only way we can
get rid of those evils is to start in the home and rid ourselves
of the evils that exist there, and there are plenty of them. We
don't have to be told them; we know them. The Lord said that
every child that is born here is born with enough knowledge to
know the difference between good and evil, an adult knows the
difference. You girls and boys, I do not care how young you
are, you know when you do wrong and when you do right. You
girls know when the servants of God say to leave the boys alone
that you ought to leave the boys alone. You boys ought to know
to leave the girls alone when you hear the servants of God say
to leave the girls alone, for evil comes of it.
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The Lord tried to set this order up in the days of the
Prophet Joseph Smith, and the people would not receive it. So,
He has got a monogamist church when He should have a plurality
church. I do not believe in polygamy, and I do not like the
word. The Lord does not use it. When I told the lawyers I
wanted them to fight our case from the standpoint that we were
not lawbreakers, they said they could not do it. I said, "Well,
I am going to have to hunt for lawyers until I find some that
will." The next day, they called me in and told me they were
ready to fight from that standpoint. I had spent some time
explaining what Plural Marriage meant. I took them to the 132nd
Section of the Doctrine & Covenants and explained to them what
it meant. They told me, the first day I spoke to them, that they
couldn't do it because there were laws, Constitutional laws
against it. I said, "No, there is no Consititutional law
against the way I am living." The first question that was asked
me when I went back the next day was. "We have been trying to
find out why you want us to fight this case that way because you
are doing nothing but living polygamy." I said, "I do not
believe in polygamy. It does not fit my situation. It does not
fit my people. We are not living it." "Well, then, " they said,
"Plural marriage." I said, "Yes, plural marriage." I said, "If
you can go into the scriptures and find where God has condoned
polygamy, I would like you to find it for me and let me know.
But He has a lot to say about plural marriage." So, they took
our case and fought it from that standpoint.
Now then, there is a lot of living to be done before we are
worthy of living plural marriage, and the Lord is going to hold
us to an accounting for the way we use that law. When I see how
people abuse it, how people try to live it, the many ways that
people have of living plural marriage, I am wondering how many
of us have been trained in what plural marriage means. We have
a church that is a monogamist church because they would not
receive the Law, but God has got to have men and women that have
Plurality at heart, and what I mean, they have got to have it at
heart. Women have got to overcome their jealousies and
criticisms, and they have got to make it absent entirely from
their souls. Men
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have got to do the same thing. I find that a lot of men do not
even know what marriage means. They abuse it from the day they
enter into it. So we have got a lot of living to do before we
are ready for the One Mighty and Strong to come and have a body
of men ready to go up to Zion. If you have two wives, and you
are a monogamist at heart, I am afraid the One Mighty and Strong
will not be able to use you. There are more men that have
entered into Plural Marriage that are monogamists at heart than
there ought to be. That is the reason the Prophet Brigham Young
said that this law would destroy more than it would save.
Many are called but few are chosen. And why are they
called? They are called to be tried and tested to see what they
will do with themselves. Every person in the building is being
tried every day. Let us see to it that we choose the good part
and apply it to our lives and discard the evils that are within
us, and in a little while we will have a people that the Lord
can use and bless; and they can go out and plant the garden and
say, "Father, I have tried to prepare myself for your blessings.
Now please bless the seed that I have planted; bless the ground,
and please send the moisture that is necessary to grow the
crop." And see if it won't work. But you know, we have got to
do a lot of thinking and a lot of work to get the Lord to do
that for us. He is right here close to us and you can talk to
Him just like I am talking to you. If your heart is right and
your mind is clean, He will listen to you. He demonstrates every
once in a while this very thing before your eyes, and yet, we
won't turn over a new leaf and serve God and keep His
commandments, which I hope we can do, my dear brothers and
sisters. I hope that we can bring up a people out from the midst
of this people that can serve God and keep His commandments and
seek for His blessings and receive them, I humbly pray in the
name of Jesus Christ, amen.
1022
SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, MARCH 16, 1975,
SUNDAY, IN SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
I am grateful, my brothers and sisters, for the privilege
of being here under such favorable circumstances. I am grateful
for the testimony of the Gospel that we all enjoy, for I know
that you enjoy the testimony you have received or you wouldn't
be here. The Savior said, "My sheep know my voice, and no other
will they follow." The purpose of our being here is to be fed
according to the word of our Father in Heaven to us through the
mouths of His prophets, and that is what I wish to give to you
today. I hope that the Lord will bless me with power to speak
as He feels to inspire me. I desire to do nothing only what the
Lord requires of me at this time.
Inasmuch as it has been stated here this morning that we
have come to listen to the inspired words of our Father in
Heaven through the mouths of His prophets, I will read a little
from the First Section of the Doctrine & Covenants. I think
that this preface to the book of covenants is one of the most
important of the whole of the book, because it is given to all
people. The Lord is kind to us, my brothers and sisters, to
leave this word to us. This truly is the word of God unto all
people. It makes no difference who they are or where they live
or what their faith is. If they hear this and partake not of the
spirit of it and put it into their lives, the Lord says they
will be damned. We should fear the Lord and keep His
commandments.
(President Johnson read the complete First Section of the
Doctrine & Covenants.)
1023
SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, MARCH 23, 1975,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
Once more I want to express my gratitude to the Lord for
the privilege of being here. I have been interested in the
testimonies of the elders that have spoken. I would like to
continue upon those lines while I speak. I ask the Lord to
bless me with words that I might be able to edify you at least
for a few moments.
First, I want to say that the Lord is pleased with us
enough to put protection around us. We ask the Lord to preserve
our lives, and He grants the blessing. I want to bring to your
attention a few items that have transpired in our experiences
here, how the Lord has showered His blessings upon us. It has
been but a few years since we were disrupted by those who didn't
like our way of life and prevailed upon the governor of the
state to take us away, destroy our city. But we prevailed upon
the Lord to protect us in our hour of trial, and He brought us
through. He allowed them to take us away and bring a little
distress upon us, bring us to our knees and see what we were
made of. He was pleased with the effort that was put forth to
protect us in that day and hour. He delivered us out of the
hands of our enemies. He delivered us back to our homes, in
face of the fact that the governor of the state had said that
they would destroy our way of life and sell our homes to pay the
expense of disrupting us, and so forth.
The Lord raised the means for us to deliver ourselves out
of the hands of the enemy of righteousness. Before this battle
was over, we broke the law in the state of Utah. Now they have
no law by which they can prosecute our way of life until they
revise their laws again. So, if this isn't evidence of the
protection that the Lord has placed around us, I don't know what
more we want. He even raised the money to pay the bill, which
is a marvel to financiers in our day in a small community of
this size, or the size of what it was then. To have us fight
such a battle and come out free of debt, they marveled at it.
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I had one banker ask me, "How much do you people owe your
lawyers for fighting that case for you?" I said, "We don't owe
them anything. We paid the bill." He said, "It can't be. I
have been figuring something on the bill. I can't figure where
that cost you people less than one hundred and fifty or two
hundred thousand dollars." "Well, " I said, "you can go to the
lawyers to see what we paid them. I think they will give you a
close estimate. Anyway they will tell you that we don't owe
them a cent." So men are astounded at the way the Lord has
protected this people.
Now as pertaining to the redemption of Zion, if the Lord
will bless me with power, I would like to read. I will read a
little, whether I read the whole thing or not.
( D. & C. Section 105)
Verily I say unto you who have assembled yourselves
together that you may learn my will concerning the
redemption of mine afflicted people-Behold, I say unto you, were it not for the
transgressions of my people, speaking concerning the church
and not individuals, they might have been redeemed even
now.
But behold, they have not learned to be obedient to
the things which I required at their hands, but are full of
all manner of evil, and do not impart of their substance,
as becometh saints, to the poor and afflicted among them;
And are not united according to the union required by
the law of the celestial kingdom;
And Zion cannot be built up unless it is by the
principles of the law of the celestial kingdom; otherwise I
cannot receive her unto myself.
And my people must needs be chastened until they learn
obedience, if it must needs be, by the things which they
suffer.
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I speak not concerning those who are appointed to lead
my people, who are the first elders of my church, for they
are not all under this condemnation;
But I speak concerning my churches abroad--there are
many who will say: Where is their God? Behold, he will
deliver them in time of trouble, otherwise we will not go
up unto Zion, and will keep our moneys."
The Lord is willing. We learned in the raid of 1953 that the
Lord was willing to deliver us out of the hands of our enemies,
simply because we were willing to do the things that He had
asked us to do. For some time prior to this raid, the servants
of God had called the people together and tried to organize them
in a way that their minds would be prepared for something that
the Lord was about to bring upon them.
We want to remember that the Lord has said: For surely I
will do nothing, except I will reveal it to my servants, the
prophets. These men knew that the Lord had a work for us to do.
They were trying to prepare us. Against what? Against the day
of visitation when the armies would come in and disrupt us. I
wonder if we are as well prepared today as we were then to be
delivered out of the hands of our enemies. I wonder what we
would do tomorrow if this same thing would happen again.
The Lord has not told us how He is going to deliver us from
the evil powers prior to the Redemption of His work. For a lot
of work has got to be done before the Lord can accomplish His
work of setting up and redeeming His people. This part of the
earth has got to be cleansed. Wickedness has got to flee from
off the face of the land; and wickedness rules today.
I am speaking today to a great part of the faithful
Latter-day Saints, and this is only one houseful. In two weeks
from today, we will gather together in conference. We will
gather all we can together. They will be in this vicinity. It
won't be all of them, but it will be the majority of those who
even believe that this order of Priesthood exists. For there
are
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not many people that feel like the God of Israel delivered us
out of the hands of our enemies in 1953, or 1955, when we were
finally released. Not very many people believe that it was the
hand of God that delivered us and paid the bill and provided the
way whereby we could go on and live according to the teachings
of our Father in Heaven.
We are being tested every day. The Lord brings a condition
here, a condition there, in the lives of our people. Every
individual here is being tested and tried. The thing that He is
trying to impress upon our minds is this, that every individual
should not cease to pray in their hearts and their minds night
and day until the kingdoms of this world are subdued and the
Kingdom of God is set up in power upon the earth. So, because
of this thing, the Spirit of God has worked upon the minds of
His servants, and they have preached some mighty powerful
sermons the last few years. Why? Because the Spirit of God has
worked upon the minds of His servants, and they know what is
about to take place. Unless we hasten to prepare ourselves, how
many of us are going to be able to say, "I know that my course
is right and that I do serve the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and
Jacob, the same God that has delivered us out of the hands of
our enemies all the way through and has preserved the servants
of God and allowed them to stand up and bear testimony that
Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that he brought and
restored, through the commandments of our Father in Heaven, the
Gospel of Jesus Christ; and that he set up an order whereby this
Gospel might be continued in the earth, although many would
reject it and would fall away."
To me, my brothers and sisters, this is a glorious day for
us. We are tucked away in the heart of these mountains, but we
are not entirely away from wickedness. There are those among us
who are suffering under the great delusion that the Lord has
allowed to come upon the minds of our people. There are many
among us who do not know whether or not they are being led
properly at the present moment.
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The Lord has told us through the mouths of His prophets
what we have got to do in order to prepare ourselves against
that time when He is pouring out His judgments upon the wicked.
We have been told from Sunday to Sunday, from month to month,
and year to year. He will continue to labor with us as long as
we will show any inclination at all that we desire salvation. He
tells us very plainly that repentance is unto all men. It makes
no difference who we are. The power of repentance is there. We
can reach it if we want it. If we want it bad enough, we will
take hold of it and apply it to our lives, that when the day and
hour comes that we need it, we will have that power to deliver
ourselves from out of the hands of our enemies.
Joseph Smith was a great man. He knew what was going to
happen. He knew what was going to happen to him, but he wanted
to get away from it. He wanted to come out west to find a place
for the gathering of the saints, his people. But as soon as he
started, they cried, "coward." In their minds, he was running
away from his people, leaving them to be devoured by the enemy
of righteousness. So he said, "If my life is worth no more to
you than that, it is worth no more to me. I will go back but I
go like a lamb to the slaughter. I have offended no one. I go
void of offense toward any man." That was the courage of Joseph
Smith, the Prophet.
Let us take courage, my brothers and sisters, and prepare
ourselves daily that we might not be found wanting when great
tribulation comes among us, because it is coming. The Lord
plainly tells us to pray night and day for deliverance that we
might be found worthy of His protection from the destroying
angels when they are sent forth among the people to cleanse the
earth preparatory to setting up the Kingdom of God.
Now, I pray that we can get the picture of the condition
that we find ourselves in today and that we will hasten to
prepare ourselves that we might not be found wanting. The time
is short, so let us start today and prepare ourselves and let
the Lord know that we believe what He has told us. May God bless
you, amen.
1028
REMARKS GIVEN BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, MARCH 30, 1975,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
Once more I am grateful to be here, my brothers and
sisters, and to hear what I have heard this afternoon. I pray
that the Lord will put into my mouth the words that He wants me
to say. I only want to leave a word of encouragement with you,
to encourage you to keep on striving.
It is true that we cannot progress as God wishes us to
progress when we are trying to serve Him and keep His
commandments and at the same time use the ways of the world to
advance our physical necessities. The Lord's way has always
been, as long as I can remember, to get out of debt and stay out
of debt. But we live in an age now that this is the pattern of
the whole world, to go into debt and pay on the installment
plan. The installment plan is one of the fine weapons that the
devil brought forth to increase the delusion over the minds of
the Latter-day Saints and the Kingdom of God; because all who
bear the name of Latter-day Saints, wherever you go, are living
on borrowed money. I don't know but a very few, if I know any,
among those who profess to be working for the advancement of the
Kingdom of God in the earth but what are living on borrowed
money. It would be hard to pay the bill if we didn't.
I think conditions could have been better if we had had
better managers in our government. But I find this to be the
case, that we have too much sympathy for our neighbors. We
think because we have a thriving nation that we can bring the
people of our nation to their knees a little more, take their
money away from them, and send it to other nations that need it.
But our nation today is right on the verge of collapse because
of this great thing. We have been caught in the same trap that
the rest of the people in our nation have been caught in.
Christ once said, "Oh, will there be any faith left when I
come?" If everyone among us that owes more than we are worth
financially were required to pay the bill or go to jail, we
would all have to go to jail. This may be what is trying to be
set up in the near future. We are laboring at the present time
under a different government than we have labored under before.
The
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President of our United States is laboring under an appointment;
so it is an appointed government that we are ruled by.
I think the Lord spoke well when He said that His House was
out of order, and He would have to send One Mighty and Strong to
set it in order. He has also left us the words of Christ from
two thousand years ago when He said that the time would come
when the people were ripened in iniquity and he would have to
destroy them and the remnant of Jacob would walk through and
tread them down and none can deliver. He says, "I will throw
down their strongholds, and destroy their chariots, and my
people, who are a remnant of Jacob, will walk through and tread
them down. They will be like a lion among a flock of sheep who
both teareth in pieces and treadeth them down, " and so forth.
So this is before us.
But the Lord has set up a kingdom here that will survive,
because He has said it would. He said it would never be taken
away or given to another people. So, there will be a few among
us who will be protected. He said, "I will preserve my saints
when these times come if I have to send fire from heaven to do
so." He says again that there will be two working in the field
and one will be taken and the other left. There will be two at
the mill, one will be taken and the other left, and so forth.
We have all read the scriptures, and we know what they contain.
If we haven't, we had better get the scriptures and start
reading them. The Lord is just; and He will mete out judgment,
and it will be a just judgment to His children. He has said,
"As for you, you are to forgive all men, and I will forgive whom
I will. But leave judgment to me. Judgment is mine."
The great call of the Priesthood is to love your neighbor
as yourself and get the Spirit of God and keep it. So, let us
overcome our jealousies, our evil thinking, clean up our minds
and let the Spirit of God continually be with us while we work
wherever it is, whatever we are doing. I think a man can have
the Spirit of God on him and work among thieves and liars if he
wants to. If he wants to partake of their spirit, he can do
that.
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But if he does, he displeases the Lord.
The Lord says, "I will take the young and middle-aged and
redeem Zion." I believe this is what He will do. So those of us
who are living today and are old enough to be here to hear what
the Lord has for us from Sunday to Sunday, if we will catch the
picture and begin to do something about it, there is a chance
that we will be called up to take part in that great work, but
our time is fast sliding by. We think it might not be this
year; it might not be next year; it might take a hundred years
for the Lord to accomplish the work that He has to do before the
One Mighty and Strong can come to this part of the globe. But
let it be whatever the Lord has designed that it should be, the
thing for you and me to do is to hasten now, while it is day,
while yet life is still in us, to do something about it. This
Gospel of the Kingdom is unto all men no matter where they live
or who they are. If they will repent, the Lord says, "I will
forgive them, and I will remember their sins no more before my
face; but if they sin again then their former sins will come
back upon them." So, when you make up your mind to serve God and
keep His commandments, there is no turning back. Let us go down
the road.
The Lord is kind to us. He has blessed us with plenty. He
has blessed us with life, with health. But what the future will
be we know not. The last year has been a changing year. I don't
know of a time that I have witnessed just exactly the same
pattern that the last twelve months has brought to us. I have
seen a lot of winters; I have seen a lot of summers. But what
will the next year be? It will be just what you and I make it
while we live. Our circumstances a year from now can be just
what we make them, and we can make them what we would like to
make them if we will go at it right. I have had experience
enough to know that God lives, and He hears and answers prayers,
and if we desire a blessing, we can obtain it if we will pay the
price of it. But we have to pay the price for it first.
The Lord is no respecter of persons. If I read the
scriptures right, every promise that has been made in this book
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by the Lord is on the condition that we are faithful and true to
the end. Men are rewarded after they have been tried. They are
not rewarded first and then tried afterwards. I can't find an
instance where this has been done. We borrow money and promise
to make payments. It is the devil's way to pay people before
they have been tried. You borrow money and promise to pay it
back so much a month, and if you don't do it, then they have to
foreclose, they want their money back.
But the Lord has never asked us for the blessing back that
He promised us on conditions that we would do right. He has
never asked for the blessing back. But He has told us what
would happen to us if we didn't do what we promised to do--we
would be destroyed. So, that is all that is left for the
general run of people on this fine continent we possess. "When
they are ripened in iniquity, I will have to destroy them, " the
Lord says.
If it weren't for the great promise He gave to the
righteous, that they would be protected while He is destroying
the wicked, if they would keep His commandments and be faithful
to the end, we would have no hope. I think it is worth working
for. I think every boy and girl, man and woman should catch the
picture of what the Lord is trying to do. He is trying to
prepare a people that can be used throughout the generations of
time. When the morning of the resurrection comes, the just will
be resurrected to eternal life. The unjust will be resurrected
to eternal damnation or destruction.
Now, which side of the fence do you want to be on? Right
now is the time to decide and commence working for it and
staying firm and true so that our calling and election can be
made sure. Now, I pray that God will bless us with wisdom,
knowledge, and understanding and bless us with a determination
to overcome the evils of this day in which we live and apply
ourselves to the building up and establishing the Kingdom of God
in the earth. May God bless you, amen.
1032
SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, APRIL 6, 1975,
CONFERENCE, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
I assure you, my brothers and sisters, that I feel very
humble this afternoon before you, for I know that unless the
Lord will put words into my mouth to speak, I will be unable to
edify you for a moment; but the Lord being my helper, I hope I
will be able to say a few words at least that will help to
stimulate within you a desire to serve Him and keep His
commandments.
First, I want to thank you for being here. My soul is
thrilled to see this vast congregation, especially at this
particular period of time when great stress covers the earth,
and some of you have come so far to be here and to hear the word
of the Lord given to you as it has been today. I feel that we
have had an outpouring of the Spirit of God. We have received
many wonderful instructions, and I hope you will go from here
feeling paid for the effort that has been put forth.
The eyes of the world are upon this spot of the earth. We
have been on television, at least our name has been on
television, but I hope that very little information went out of
this place to those who sought to bring further distress upon
us. The Lord has said that we should not "cast our pearls
before swine." He has also said that the Celestial Kingdom is
only for those who will prepare themselves to receive it.
Again, He says that Zion cannot be redeemed only upon the
principles of the Celestial Kingdom. If I understand the
principles of the Celestial Kingdom, I understand that there is
no sin there, for God is a God of Truth as has been stated here
today, and He does not lie, and He does not speak evil against
His neighbor.
The Lord is now trying to prepare a people who can do the
work of redemption, that Zion might be redeemed. He is seeking
for a people who will prepare themselves for this work. He has
also told us that Zion could have been redeemed in 1836, but He
could not find enough faithful men to perform the work, so He
had to wait a little season. Now He is trying once more to
bring out of the world enough faithful men--men who will prepare
their hearts, who will clean up their minds, who will rid
themselves of all enmity towards their neighbors, towards one
another--those with
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whom they mingle, and cease to criticize all people, for the
Lord has said, "As for you, you are to forgive all men, and
leave judgment to me. I will forgive whom I will. It is for me
to judge." So the responsibility is put upon each individual.
He has also told us that He is the only one that can read our
minds and tell us what is in our hearts. Satan and his
followers have power to lay before you the temptations, and if
you fall for them, as has been stated here today, then you lose
that great prize that God has offered to the faithful--those who
will clean up their minds and their hearts and serve Him with
their hearts and minds unto the end. All blessings that God has
given to his children are predicated upon the proposition that
we stay faithful and true unto the end. That does not mean just
for one day, but every day throughout our lives until He calls
us Home. He has said that all people will be resurrected unto
eternal life or unto eternal damnation.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is true, and He told the Prophet
Joseph Smith to bear this testimony to this world that he had
seen God and His Son, Jesus Christ, and that He had borne
testimony to him that all the creeds of the earth were
corrupted, that they were all wrong. But if he would be
faithful and true to what they told him to do, he would have the
privilege of establishing His Kingdom in the earth never again
to be torn down or given to another people. This was the promise
given to him during the days of his life. He says, "Those who
will believe your testimony will be saved and those who believe
it not will be damned." So there are only two ways to go. One
is to clean up our lives and be counted on the right hand of
God, or, to remain in our filthiness and be found on the left
hand of our Father. So let us prepare ourselves and be found on
the right hand of God, as Joseph, so is his brother, Alvin,
according to the testimony of Joseph.
Now, my brothers and sisters, we are here. My heart was
thrilled last night when I witnessed this vast audience of men
connected with this Order of the Priesthood. Some six hundred
bearers of the Priesthood were in this room last night, and the
Lord poured out His spirit upon them and gave them instruction.
And then this vast audience today of men and women--I believe
the
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Lord is pleased to some extent with the efforts that have been
put forth, and He is trying to instill in our hearts a
determination to overcome our weaknesses and imperfections and
prepare our lives that we might be called up, and when we are
called, that we might be found ready and willing to accept the
call and be used by the One Mighty and Strong in setting in
order the House of God.
It is going to take One Mighty and Strong in order to
perfect God's Kingdom here in the earth. Man cannot do it
alone; he has to have help. So we have got to have men
prepared--men who have cleaned up their minds, who will not
listen or condone evil in any way, shape, or form, but stamp it
out of our lives; women also. Women must be as clean as the
men. Their minds must be clean; they must love one another.
Men should love one another and quit bickering and finding fault
with one another and criticizing. This is what the brethren
have been talking about. This is what the Lord wants us to do;
it has been the instructions that we have received from each and
every speaker this afternoon. The Spirit of God has worked upon
their minds, and I hope that you have got the message that the
Lord wants us to hasten and prepare ourselves against the day of
visitation when He is pouring out His judgments upon the wicked,
because it is coming. It is at our door and already commenced.
It will continue until wickedness is done away upon this
continent and the Kingdom of God is set up and the work of
redeeming Zion is accomplished. That is what we want to work
for.
We have been offered a Millennial Reign--a time of peace
for a thousand years, when Satan is bound in the hearts and
minds of men and women. The only way that we can bind Satan is
to clean up our lives. You cannot serve two masters. You
cannot be a saint today and mingle with the wicked tomorrow and
have a lot of fun with them. The Lord told us last night in our
meeting that this is not a day of pleasure. This is the most
serious dispensation that has ever been. This is a day of
preparation. The Lord has been trying to prepare a people for a
hundred years; we are getting close now to the time of
redemption, and the Lord has got to have a prepared people. We
have dilly-dallied along for a hundred years, and we are no
nearer the goal today than we were in Joseph's time.
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in 1836. If the Lord were to make the same call today--I don't
know--I am afraid that we would have a hard time to qualify.
But I do believe that we have men enough among us to qualify if
we will do what we are told to do and what the Lord is trying to
bring to pass among us. It is our opportunity to do so if we
will grasp it and be determined in our minds to prepare
ourselves to receive it. It is here for us. Otherwise, He will
have to go somewhere else for His leadership, or at least part
of them.
We say in our hearts there is no other place on earth that
He can go because this is the only place that the Priesthood is
operating. How do you know? How do I know? There are at least
four patriarchs that are working upon the earth. They are
working upon the hearts of men. If the One Mighty and Strong
were to come and blow his trump and ask the honest in heart to
gather together throughout the world, how many do you think
would come and take the place of this body of men that we had
here just last night, or part of them?
Since the Lord has said that He is the only one that can
read the hearts and the minds of men, do we think that He is
going to be lenient with us year after year; until we get ready
to serve Him at the last hour, and be rebaptized, and say that
our sins are forgiven and that we are prepared to do His work?
It is going to take men who understand how to be clean in mind
and body. There are many people in the earth who are way over a
hundred years old. The Prophet Joseph said upon one occasion,
"There are those living upon the earth today whose eyes will not
be closed in death until all these things I have told you would
come to pass." He was speaking of the redemption of Zion and
what would take place before that time.
When I read the scriptures and compare them with the time
we have, I cannot help but believe that Joseph Smith was a
prophet, that Brigham Young was a prophet, and the men that have
filled this position of leadership from that time until now have
been endowed by the Spirit of God, that His work might be
continued in the earth and the great redeeming process might be
taken care of according to the will of God.
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Now, I hope that this body of people will hasten to do
these things, that we might not be found wanting. Things are
happening mighty fast in the world today, and the way things are
shaping up, a year from now we may not be able to gather
ourselves together and hear what we have heard today and have
another body of people together like we have today. Our main
mode of travel may be shut off. This time is coming. The Lord
has said so. All you have to do is read what the Lord told the
Nephites in Third Nephi in the Book of Mormon. He says, "I will
throw down their strongholds and destroy their chariots." Who
knows when this is coming? He says, "No man knows." Men have
prophesied; women have prophesied; some of their words have been
fulfilled. They have taken courage and prophesied again and
again, but the word of God has still been preached, and He has
not found a people well enough prepared that He might bring to
pass His great work in the earth yet.
So, let us--while the day still lasts--let us get down to
business and prepare our hearts against the day of visitation.
I want to tell you this. We talk about the United Order, and
why don't we organize it and gather together those who are
prepared to receive it? This has been tried time and time again
since the days of the Prophet Joseph. But since the Lord placed
us under condemnation because we treated lightly this law, He
has said that we would remain under this condemnation until we
repented. How many have repented? We might think we are
prepared. There have been a lot of people who have thought they
were prepared for the United Order. The servants of God have
tried to set it up, but no sooner do they set it up, than
someone in the Order starts to conduct themselves in a way so it
is broken up. Anyhow, the Lord has not come out yet and told us
that we are capable of receiving the law again, or He has not
prospered the effort that has been put forth to establish it.
And why is it? Simply because you and I criticize our neighbor
or find fault with this or that.
So let us begin to prepare ourselves for a better life. Let
us hasten, my brothers and sisters, to get the picture and to
get the message in our hearts that we have received today, that
we might be built up in our determination to serve God and keep
His
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commandments, that we might get the Spirit of God and keep it
and know when we have it. Let us cease to seek after the
pleasures of the world. Let us seek after the pleasures of
heaven and become godly men and women. Let us do all things
whatsoever the Lord has commanded us to do, I humbly pray in the
name of Jesus Christ, amen.
1038
REMARKS GIVEN BY PRESIDENT LEROY S, JOHNSON, APRIL 13, 1975,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
I am grateful for the privilege of being here this
afternoon, my brothers and sisters, and hearing what I have
heard. I pray that the Lord will bless me with words that I
might not detract from the spirit that has dominated the
meeting.
First, I would like to bring to our attention a condition
that exists at the present time that we must meet. Before the
end of this month, we are going to have to meet the rest of our
taxes on the Arizona part of our property. I am advised that we
need about $4,000 more to be able to meet these taxes. So, if
there is anyone who can come forward and raise the money to help
us out, we would like to have it done. It has been quite a
burden to be taxed as much as we have 4-8-61 book johnson anyone
opportunity we have to bear under the pressure that is upon us.
So, let us petition the Lord for His assistance in this matter.
Let us make it as easy as possible on the Priesthood to meet
this obligation.
I have been really interested today in the remarks that
have been made, especially about the calling of the Priesthood.
I couldn't help but reflect upon the fact that the Lord is
mindful of His people. We don't need to worry about who the
Lord calls to preside and to guide and direct His work here in
the earth. We had a real fine rundown by President Jessop on
the order of Priesthood, I couldn't help but reflect about those
who are guiding this work today--those who were called since I
joined up with this order of things.
The first time I heard Brother Barlow talk, the Lord bore
testimony to me that he was what he professed to be, or what his
colleagues or council bore testimony that he was. The Lord told
me that he was His servant, and if I did what he told me to do,
I would gain my salvation. This, I believe yet. At that time,
we had a completely different body of men leading us. These men
were called and set apart by Lorin Woolley. Today, we have a
governing body that was called and set apart by President
Barlow, since I met up with this work. We don't need to worry
about who is leading or whether the Lord is directing the work
or not.
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I want to bear testimony to you that I am greatly pleased
with and I greatly support those who the Lord has placed around
me--President Hammon, President Musser, President Jeffs,
President Jessop, President Timpson. These men were called by
revelation of the Lord and placed here to support this work. It
is our duty to uphold and sustain them in the calling that they
have. I want you to know that I sustain them with all my heart,
might, mind, and strength.
I am grateful, my brothers and sisters, for all of you who
have gathered around us and shown the faith that you have in
supporting us by coming out from time to time whenever we are
called together, and the willingness you have shown forth to
support this great work.
I don't think there is a time in history when more faith
was shown than in 1953, twelve years after I was called into the
Council. The work has grown and come up since that time.
Sometime ago, the Lord told us that we were no further advanced
than we were thirty years ago. Thirty years ago, we didn't have
this many people around us. This is the only thing in which we
have grown--in numbers. I don't believe that we could show
greater faith today if we were called under the same
circumstances than we did in '53. There were about sixty women
who were taken out of this place, and not one would testify
against her husband or against anyone else in this order of the
Priesthood. Where can we find greater faith than this?
I don't know what the Lord has in store for us in the
future, but we are going to see greater calamities, and we are
going to be called upon to show greater faith than we were
called upon to show in 1953. This people is going to have to be
prepared to meet it.
Let us go forth with a greater effort, my brothers and
sisters, to keep the commandments of God and to bring about a
situation among us where the evil powers cannot come in and
disrupt us. Let us have it said that this place will be the
starting place of the rise of the Kingdom of God in the earth.
We just as well have a cloud hanging over this place by day and
a pillar of fire
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by night as any other place upon the earth during the days of
tribulation when God is accomplishing His work for the rise of
the Kingdom of God.
Now, I pray that we can prepare ourselves against that day,
and I ask it in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
1041
SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, APRIL 20, 1975,
SUNDAY, IN SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
Again, my brothers and sisters, I am grateful for the
privilege of being here, and I pray that the Lord will bless me
with words to comfort and build us up in our faith and
determination to listen and pay attention to the words of
salvation as they are given to us from time to time. While the
brethren have been speaking, I have been searching my mind for
words to express my thoughts when it came my turn to speak this
afternoon. I find that in my own mind, there is nothing that I
can do or say of myself without the assistance of my Father in
Heaven; but with His assistance, I can give unto you a few words
of encouragement.
As I study the scriptures and the revelations that were
given to the Prophet Joseph Smith, the charges that were given
to the first elders of the Church, of the Priesthood when they
were sent out to reprove the world, I cannot help but compare it
with the time in which we live. For if I understand the record
right, there are about as many people in the world today who
believe in the prophecies of Joseph Smith as there were in his
day. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has many
thousands of converts who have embraced the Church through the
efforts of the elders who have gone out into the field into the
different nations of the earth and converted them to Mormonism.
But among all these thousands of people, how many of them are
seeking for an eternal existence?--or how to become like God,
how to know Him and to become like Him? It has been stated here
today that we are commanded to preach nothing but repentance to
this generation, and this is true. All people must repent, says
the Lord. Every person must prepare himself for an eternal
salvation. Every person must learn the lesson of who God is and
how to become like Him. This is the great lesson that we are
commanded to teach the people--to repent of their sins and learn
to know God and how to become like Him. Zion cannot be redeemed
only upon the principles of the Celestial Kingdom, and in the
Celestial Kingdom there is no sin; there is no envying and
strife, no criticism or quarreling one against another, or
bearing false witness against our brethren. All these things
must be blotted
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out of our characters before the Lord is pleased with us. This
is the only way that we can become one. This is the only way
that we can become one and be prepared to be ushered into the
great order, the United Order.
Selfishness is one of the greatest weapons that Satan has.
He will put it into the hearts of men. He will put it into the
hearts of women. If we see one man preparing himself, we envy
him. Envy is another weapon of the devil to persuade the minds
of people to serve him. The world today has come to the
condition that these great evils beset the minds of people, and
that is what has held the Saints from being perfected, even now.
The Lord tells us that Zion could have been redeemed even now,
in 1836, had the people been prepared to receive these great
blessings, but only a few, a few out of the many hundreds that
were tested and tried, passed their grades. I wonder how many
could pass them today. If the Lord were to come and put the
same tests upon us, how many of us could stand them?
Let us think seriously upon the proposition that we have
got to individually prepare ourselves against the day of
visitation when the Lord visits the earth with great
destruction. How many of us will be prepared to meet it?
Joseph Smith asked the Lord to close the vision when he was
shown what would take place before the redemption of Zion could
come unless speedy repentance took hold of the minds of the
people and they accepted the Gospel of Jesus Christ and applied
it to their lives.
I have worked ever since I was a boy in the Church; and I
thought I was pretty well learned in the Gospel until I met up
with this Order of the Priesthood. Then I began to be taught
the things that I had to overcome, and I am sorry to say, a lot
of them I have not mastered yet, but the Lord has been kind to
me. He is kind to you. He is kind to all of His children to
give them a chance as long as they live to overcome their
weaknesses and imperfections and prepare themselves to become
like Him. He has continually brought up before the minds of His
servants and the people the fact that He and Jesus Christ, His
Son, are one--one in all things, and except we become like Him
we can in no wise
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enter into the Kingdom of our Father.
I see people trying, trying to overcome their weaknesses,
and once in a while they will give way, and they will want to
know what they can do, if there is any chance for them to
repent. Of course there is a chance to repent. That is what
repentance is for--to prepare a man for an eternal salvation.
He cannot do it in a day. I have heard men say, "I have
repented of all my sins." But have we repented of all our sins?
We might say within ourselves--I am not going to do that
anymore--but the first thing we know we are caught unaware, and
we are doing the same thing again. Let us remember that the
Lord has said, "If you love me, keep my commandments, and if you
will repent, I will forgive you of your sins, but if you sin
again, your former sins will come back upon you." And when they
do, we have a harder time than ever to overcome. So, let us
stay in the straight and narrow way. Let us serve God and keep
His commandments. Let us repent of all the evil that besets our
households. Let us work daily and nightly to get the Spirit of
God and keep it, that we might be found worthy to become sons
and daughters of God, and that we might be found worthy of an
eternal salvation when our time comes to report.
I pray the blessings of God to be upon us that we might
hasten to become that people who are willing to pray night and
day to God for deliverance, for we need to be delivered out of
the hands of the enemies of righteousness. They are at work,
and they are trying to destroy the servants of God and the
saints of God. It is going to take a concerted effort in the
mind of every individual to overcome their weaknesses and
imperfections that they might be prepared against the day of
visitation when God is pouring out His judgments upon those who
do not have the power to repent, and I humbly pray we will
hasten to do so, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
1044
SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, APRIL 27, 1975,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
I am certainly grateful for this wonderful audience of
people here today. I am grateful for the privilege of being
here and hearing what I have heard, I am grateful for the
testimony that the Lord has given me of the truthfulness of this
work. I trust that the few moments I speak, I will be directed
by His Holy Spirit; for I know that we cannot be edified by any
other spirit than the Spirit of God.
We have heard many testimonies today bearing testimony of
the truthfulness of the Gospel as given in our day since Christ
appeared to the Prophet Joseph Smith and on down till our time.
We have heard of the great persecutions that have followed the
trail of the servants of God as well as the saints of God. All
these testimonies go to strengthen the testimonies of those who
are striving to round out their salvation in fear and trembling
before the Lord, for we certainly fear and tremble when we try
to work out our salvation and find out what we have to do in
order to be prepared against that which the Lord has to deal out
to a wicked generation.
We are living in a day when the Lord is preparing the earth
for a new arrangement of government. He has plainly told us
that when people reject His word and the words of the prophets
and apostles and teachers of righteousness, and serve the devil
in unrighteousness, when they are ripened in iniquity, He will
have to destroy them. All the Holy Prophets have prophesied the
same thing. They have prophesied of the destruction of the
wicked. They have prophesied of the second coming of our Savior
and how the earth must be prepared to receive Him. He put it
into the heart of a boy to beseech Him and to find out the
condition of the world at the time the Prophet Joseph Smith went
into the woods to pray, as has been mentioned here this
afternoon.
I couldn't help but open my book and read a little of what
transpired many many generations ago. I went back nearly one
hundred years before Christ came in the meridian of time, to see
what I could find of the kind of Gospel that was being taught in
that day and compare it with what is being taught today. Then I
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came down to another prophet, four hundred years after Christ
made His appearance to the people upon this continent, and I
compared the teachings of that day and the teachings of our
present-day teachers of religion. I find that we can be
reassured of the ground upon which we stand in regard to our
salvation if we will just study what the past was and what the
result was by living certain ways and compare it with the day in
which we live. And we can be pretty sure of what is going to
transpire in the near future because of the things that have
transpired in the past under the same conditions. People are
people. The people who lived a hundred years before Christ were
people like what we are looking at here today in this building.
They looked the same as we look today. People could mingle
among people; they could converse one towards another. It took
the same things in that time to save the people that it takes
today. One of the old prophets made this statement, "This is
the day in which we live to prepare to meet our God." We have
brought it down to this time. We have had many sermons preached
to us. This is the day in which to prepare to meet our God.
This is verily true.
We have a set of books called the Journals of Discourses.
We have in those books the testimonies of our early leaders in
the day in which we live. We also have the Book of Mormon that
contains the records of the teachings of the prophets in their
day. We have some of their sermons recorded. They refer to them
from time to time in that time. The same sermons have been
taught from the beginning of time until now upon the salvation
of our souls.
We might think we have heard these things all our lives.
One time, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was
holding a quarterly Conference in Kanab, I was on my way down to
the meeting house to listen to the Conference. I happened to be
walking right behind Anthony W. Ivins and the President of the
Stake.
There were two or three men leaning up against the fence
talking. Brother Ivins says, "Well, John, you better come on
and hear what we have to tell you today." "Oh, " he said, "Go
on. I know what you are going to say. I have heard it all my
life, and nothing has happened yet." Brother Ivins said, "Well,
you might
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hear some word drop that might start you to thinking." "Oh, " he
said, "I have heard those things before, and I have got them all
thought out." Men are the same. No doubt something similar
happened a hundred years before Christ and four hundred years
after. Now, two thousand years later, we hear it again.
We have heard these words over and over and over again. But
we want to remember that there are some in the room who are
beginning to get aged, and they have heard these things all
their lives. We have others that are just coming up. There are
many little boys and little girls here in this building today
who must be taught these things and must hear the testimonies of
the brethren. They must hear the testimonies of their fathers
and their mothers in order to help them to come up and be taught
how to save their own souls. So, this is the day in which to
prepare to meet our God. It isn't only to the old and
middle-aged, but it is for the young also.
This is a wonderful Gospel. It is the Gospel unto
salvation; and there is no other way to receive it. We have
been told here today to give ear to the things that are spoken
Sunday after Sunday, and try to apply them to our lives that we
might be prepared against the day of visitation when God is
pouring out His judgments upon those who do not have the power
to repent. There are millions upon the earth today who will
have to be destroyed so that God can finish His work that He has
begun.
We have been about six thousand years now preaching the
same Gospel that you have heard here this afternoon, trying to
prepare somebody to be saved and exalted in the Celestial
Kingdom of our God. How many will listen and apply to their
lives these saving principles? Since the Prophet Joseph Smith
received the wonderful revelation of seeing the Father and the
Son, many many missionaries have been sent out to the four
quarters of the earth trying to preach repentance and trying to
bring souls to a knowledge of the truthfulness of a true and
living God. But there aren't many audiences today that are
getting the teachings that you people are. Very few in the
earth have accepted the testimony of Joseph the Prophet and
given ear and heed to the testimony that the Savior
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told the Prophet to go bear to the world. There are very few
people compared to the many millions upon the earth who believe
that Joseph Smith told the truth. Even the Latter-day Saints are
beginning to wonder, a great many of them, whether Joseph told
the truth or not when he said that he saw the Father and the
Son. We are not very many generations, about four or five, from
the Prophet Joseph Smith, and this doubt is coming among the
members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Even the leaders, men who have been chosen to lead and
guide in the wards and the stakes of the Church today are
beginning to wonder and to express their wonderment as to
whether it was right for them to believe the testimony of a
fourteen-year-old boy or not. I wonder how many of us have
these wonderments in our minds. I wonder how many of us are
throughly convinced that Jesus is the Christ, and in order to
obtain the salvation of our souls, we must give heed to His
teachings and apply them to our lives. I wonder how many of us
are sure of our footing. It doesn't take very much to displease
the Lord. Just a few words spoken when we are not thinking, so
to speak, might drive the Spirit of the Lord out of our system
until we can't get it back again; because we believe that once
the Spirit of God is grieved, and it withdraws from us, it is
hard to get it back again. This is true.
We might think that we know that the Gospel is true, and we
speak critically towards our neighbor; we lose the Spirit of
God. It is a mighty hard thing to get it back again and get the
spirit of peace in our bosom. The spirit of peace is the Spirit
of God. The spirit of unrest is the spirit of evil. There are
many among us who are not entirely at peace within themselves,
and they try to make it miserable for those around them; because
they don't want to be alone.
I often think of the words of President Jessop. He says,
every once in a while, "The Gospel is true whether I believe it
or not." It means a lot when you analyze those few words. It
doesn't make any difference how many sermons we preach or who
speaks them, unless we do something about it, it won't do any
good. We speak of the faith of Jared and the brother of Jared,
and the many
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miracles that have been performed in ancient times, but we
little notice the miracles that have been performed in our day,
and are being performed every day in our lives if we would just
stop long enough to think about them. There have been many
miracles performed in our day just as great as what we read
about in the scriptures, but we think little of them. It was
the same in days of old when miracles were being performed.
My brothers and sisters, let us get down to business. Let
us pay attention to what we hear from Sunday to Sunday. Let us
begin to prepare ourselves against the day of judgment when God
is pouring out His judgments upon the wicked; because He is
already pouring them out upon those who do not have the power to
repent. Great destruction is taking place in the earth. The
hearts of men are failing them. Men are being dethroned from
power; other men are seeking for power. You will find it is
getting worse all the time. Great men are going down, according
to the ways of the world.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ unto salvation is the same
yesterday, today, and forever. The same principles that would
save the sons of Alma, the sons of Jacob, before Christ's time,
the same Gospel that would save the sons of Mormon and Moroni
four hundred years after Christ, the same principles that were
taught then will save the children of men today.
The Lord has been kind to us, my brothers and sisters, to
allow us this wonderful privilege of working out our salvation
in fear and trembling. So, let us get down to business. Let us
do what the prophets have asked us to do. Let us be prepared
when the One Mighty and Strong comes to set the House of God in
order. Let us be among those he can call upon as being true and
faithful and capable of becoming teachers; because missionaries
have got to be prepared.
We have to know the saving principles of the Gospel of
Jesus Christ so that we can administer them to the tribes of
Israel when they come in. They are going to be numerous upon
this land upon which we live. The way has to be prepared that
they might have a place to dwell. The earth has got to be
prepared. A great
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shaking up has got to come. So, let us get ourselves in a
position where we can call down the blessings of our Father,
that when those great shakings come, we can be caught up while
they go on; then we can be set down again upon the earth. These
things have all been prophesied of by all the holy prophets.
You can find them if you will just dig in for them. It will
help you to prepare yourself in this day. Those who are living
upon the earth have got to be prepared as much as people had to
be prepared in Christ's time, or any other age of the world;
because the Lord has a way of using us--using all of
us--all who will do something about their salvation.
Whether we live or whether we die, it is all the same. We
have to be prepared to meet our God. We just as well quit
fooling ourselves by saying, "I will have a good time while I
live, and I will repent later." When repentance comes later, it
is too late. We have had the opportunity here of hearing the
testimonies of the elders of Israel. You who have heard the
words spoken today, if you treat them lightly and go out and
have a good time tomorrow, when are you going to repent? When
are you going to get the spirit of repentance? You can't get
it.
Christ said: "Go bear this testimony to the world and all
who will believe will be saved, and those who will not believe
will be damned." Did He mean it? I think He meant it! To be
damned is to be stopped. So, let us quit kidding ourselves
about going out and having a good time and repenting later. Let
us be wise servants. Let us keep the commandments of God and
apply them to our lives and be saviors on Mount Zion, I humbly
pray in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
1050
SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, MAY 11, 1975,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
I trust that the Lord will bless me with words that I might
not stand here and take up your time unnecessarily. We have
heard a lot of things this afternoon that we need to remind us
of our situation and to remind us of the things that must be
done in order to round out our salvation. I trust that the Lord
will bless me with proper words to edify you for a few moments.
While I have been listening to what has been said, I
couldn't help but be reminded of the revelations that God has
given us for our edification in this day and time, and also for
our preparation for the hereafter. I have particularly in mind
Section 63 of the Doctrine & Covenants, wherein the Lord tells
us that He will not be mocked in the last days. I tried to
satisfy my mind on what He means by being mocked. We can go
from this place out into the city, and we will see a great
concourse of people who are a mockery in the sight of the Lord.
We think that that is where it exists. Ever since I have been
acquainted with this work, I have heard the brethren talk about
our following after the pattern of the Gentiles. We have many
things in our homes; we have many evidences in our dress, our
make-up, things that we use, and the things that we cherish
most, valuable to us. If we will look them over to see what it
does for our character, we will find that we have many things
that are holding us back from getting the Spirit of God and
keeping it.
The Spirit of God is the spirit of peace. We have the
spirit of peace in our hearts when we are doing something about
cleaning up our lives, cleaning up our minds.
I have noticed that our people are a great people to go for
decorations. We go to great lengths to make our places of
entertainment decorated with the ways of the world. These are
only the pagan's way of celebrating the birth and the death of
our Savior. We have done one thing, we have taken the Christmas
tree out of our homes. So, why can't we go the rest of the way?
Someone talked some time ago about idols that we have in our
homes.
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I believe that we did a pretty good job in cleaning up our homes
of the idols that we had. But still we find people having these
idols. If we can't have them in the house, we will wear them on
our person. Many people are decorated with rings and bracelets.
Where do we get the idea from? Most any store we go into, we
find a case that is full of these ornamental enticements to take
the eye of a person and lead them carefully away.
My mind goes back to what Nephi said in giving instructions
to his people. He said that in the latter days, men would come
among us and flatter us with many words and lead many away
carefully down to hell. We take these words lightly, and it
brings on the chastisement that we heard this afternoon. But
with all this, the Lord has said, "If you will repent, I will
forgive you, and I will remember your sins no more before my
face." But it is when you sin again that your former sins come
back upon you. When this happens to a people, it is hard for
them to repent and get out of the habit again. Some of us have
suffered, terrifically, because we have asked the Lord to
forgive us for certain things and after a while we find that we
have done the same things over again. Then we have tried to
repent again; we have tried to go before the Lord, but we
couldn't get to Him. Why? Because we have disgraced His holy
name.
I heard a man, one time, tell President Barlow and
President Musser, "It doesn't make any difference what happens
to me, I will never deny that you men hold the keys of the
Priesthood." He had been sentenced to serve a term in jail
because of plural marriage. He had been convicted of open and
notorious cohabitation. He went to prison and spent some time
there. Finally, he was released and came home. In my first
conversation with him, he said, "I am going to ask the Lord
again for another testimony. I am not sure that these men hold
the keys of the Priesthood. From things that have transpired
and what I have heard of the lives of these men, I don't know
whether they hold the keys of the Priesthood or not. So, I am
going to ask the Lord for another testimony."
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I said, "Brother, if you do, you will be so confused that
you will never be able to satisfy your mind on who holds the
keys of the Priesthood. The thing for you to do is to ask the
Lord to strengthen the testimony that you have and go down the
road and get close to these men and do what they ask you to do."
His answer was, "I can't do it." That very thing took him out of
the work. He allowed somebody to leave him with a doubt in his
mind. Not all men will allow a doubt to come in their minds.
It doesn't make any difference what happens or what takes place,
if he knows that he has the approbation of his Father in Heaven,
that the thing is true, there is nothing that can change him.
It is when we allow a doubt to be left with us that our faith is
destroyed. You can go back to the beginning of time, wherever
you can find an era where the people have risen to a great
height in the knowledge of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, when they
have allowed men to put a doubt in their minds is when the great
destruction came. You can go and find it.
The only reason that Enoch was able to perfect a people was
simply because he labored hard, long and hard, to cast out of
the midst of his people men and women who would entertain in
their minds a doubt about the thing that he wanted to
accomplish. When we get the record, we will find that he had to
cast men out because they persisted in leaving people with a
doubt in their minds. Teachers were among them who said that in
order to perfect their knowledge of God and who He is and how to
become like Him, they would have to go out and see what the rest
of the world was doing; then let them judge between the two to
see whether they really had a testimony or not. When Enoch
found that this existed among his people, he would cast them out
until he had a people that were able to have perfect confidence
in one another, and they would do the things that he asked them
to do. When He got a body of people that were determined
against all odds to follow after Enoch, the Lord said, "I will
use you for an example. I will take you and your people away,
because you have been able to perfect your lives."
I believe that we are living, at the present time, in a
time when God is doing the very thing that He told the Prophet
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Joseph Smith that He would do. The Prophet Joseph Smith asked
Him a question when he gained his strength after the evil powers
had overpowered him and tried to destroy him. When he got
strength enough to say, "Oh, God, deliver me, " then God
delivered him. He looked upon God and saw Him. His testimony
was that he saw two personages. One turning to the other and
pointing to Him said, "This is my Son, Jesus Christ, hear Him."
Christ spoke to him and told him in answer to his question as to
which of the sects or creeds of the day was right. "Join none
of them for they are all an abomination in my sight. Their
teachers teach for doctrine the commandments of men, who think
that they have a form of Godliness; but they deny the power
thereof." Think of it a while. He didn't tell Joseph to go and
find out what they believed and then come back and compare it
with what He had told him, but He said, "Join none of them."
Then He went on to say, "If you will do what I ask you to do you
can become my servant in establishing my Kingdom upon the
earth."
Take these things under consideration, then look around
you, see how many of us are still beset with the mockery that
has dominated the minds of the people for so many generations.
For about two thousand years--since they rejected Christ and
hung Him on the cross and took His life, they haven't been able
to bring themselves out from under that great curse.
Now, we have been together a good long time. I pray that
the Spirit of God will settle upon us, and that He will instill
into our hearts that spirit of peace that we might know when we
do wrong, and that we might hasten to repent before we displease
the Spirit of God and our former sins come back upon us. Let us
be faithful and true to the knowledge that we have of the
existence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and let us not be found
among those that Christ meant when He said, "He that saith that
he loveth me and keepeth not my commandments is a liar and the
truth is not in him."
Let us be found on the side of truth. Let us acknowledge
Christ. Let us acknowledge Joseph Smith and those that have
followed after him in the Priesthood line. Let us hasten to
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give heed to the servants of God, who have been called by His
voice out of Heaven to lead and guide and prepare a people to
take part in the redemption of Zion. That is what we are
working for, and we can't keep off this subject. The Spirit of
God settles upon us, and we can't keep off this subject. Joseph
Smith couldn't keep off the subject that he had seen God and
Jesus Christ, and he knew he had, and he couldn't deny it.
Now, I pray for wisdom, knowledge, and understanding to
settle over the minds of this people and help us to bring
ourselves out from under the condemnation that rests upon us
that we might be counted worthy to be called Saints of God that
we might be protected in the day of visitation which is speedily
coming upon this nation. God bless you, amen.
1055
SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, MAY 18, 1975,
SUNDAY, IN SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
My dear brothers and sisters, once more I stand before you
in deep humility, for I realize my weaknesses and imperfections
and my inability to speak as I would like to speak. I only want
to speak according to the will of God, and I hope that He will
put into my mouth the words that I should say to you this
afternoon. I have been greatly impressed with the words that
have been spoken today and for the continuation of the spirit of
preparation that has been laid before us. When I go through the
scriptures, I find that this has been the great object of our
Father in Heaven--to get His children to prepare themselves for
a glorious resurrection. In our day, He has told us to prepare
ourselves against the day of visitation, for He has got to
cleanse the earth for a glorious day.
We have been told this afternoon that we cannot carry two
yokes, and this is one reason that the Lord is preparing this
continent for a Millennial Reign. He has got to have a people
that will wear one yoke, and that is the yoke of Christ. All
who will not take upon themselves this yoke and wear it must be
sloughed off, or destroyed, as the Lord puts it. We are living
in a day when great wickedness covers the land, and in order to
remove this condition, much sorrow and tribulation must be
brought upon those who will not repent and put on the yoke of
Christ. So this is the reason that the Lord put the title--day
of visitation--upon this condition of things that I spoke about.
When He is visiting the wicked with destruction, and He has to
show forth His hand in defense of the righteous, it is going to
be a great day. It is going to be a sorrowful day both for
saints and sinners because the very thing that we have been told
about today will happen. There will be those among us who think
that they have done a good job in preserving their children and
those who have gathered around them--their wives. When this
time comes and their hearts fail them, and we see them
destroyed, it is going to be a sorrowful day.
In reading the scriptures, I find that during the days of
Alma, he was trying to prepare a people for a glorious
resurrection,
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and there were those that came among them teaching false
doctrine. There was no law to put a man in jail because he did
not believe the words of Alma. There was no law that would
punish him for it. They had a right to believe what they wanted
to believe; so he told his people, "Choose ye this day whom ye
will serve." And that is all we can preach today. We know that
there are false teachers. There are false teachers on all sides
trying to persuade the people that the servants of God are not
laboring under the Spirit of God, that they are holding the
people in bondage, that they do not give them their rights. But
I do not know of any people who have leaders who are more
lenient in their teachings than this Priesthood Council.
We cry Sunday to Sunday, month to month, repentance and
preparation for that which is to come. But this is not putting
the yoke upon them that they have got to come under the
direction of the Priesthood. We have many men come among us and
stay for a while and then go. What do we do with them? We let
them go. If they do not like our religion, our teachings, whose
business is it? It is not our business to go out and say--now
you have got to come back and do thus and so. We have got to be
as good as our Father in Heaven is to us. He puts us here in
the earth, gives us good parentage and turns us loose. He puts
teachers around us to teach us the truth. We have many teachers
who teach untruths to us, so we have the same situation that
Alma had--choose ye this day whom ye will serve! So, this
Gospel of the Kingdom is unto all men wherever they are, whether
they be saints or sinners. This Gospel of the Kingdom is to
them, and we preach repentance to those who are doing wrong and
ask them to turn and serve God and keep His commandments.
Moses was told to serve the God of the land. Who is the
God of the land? He is the Creator of it. He is the man that
brought the elements together and formed the earth--the man that
brought the elements together and formed the bodies of men, the
spirits of men. So why shouldn't we serve Him and keep His
commandments and prepare ourselves for a glorious resurrection?
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I pray that God will bless us with wisdom, knowledge, and
understanding and bring us to a point where we can believe in
the testimonies of the servants of God and hasten to prepare
ourselves against the day when He is pouring out His judgments
around us, that we might be able to stand and to be controlled
by the Spirit of God. May God bless you, my brothers and
sisters, and help us to hasten the day of our salvation, in the
name of Jesus Christ, amen.
1058
REMARKS GIVEN BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, MAY 30, 1975,
AT THE 8TH GRADE GRADUATION EXERCISES
HELD IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
The School Board, Teaching Staff and Students, I am
certainly thrilled, my dear friends and brothers and sisters,
for this fine opportunity to express my feelings here tonight. I
first landed in this place in the fall of 1926. Two of my
children were in school at that time during the winter. I think
there were, if I remember right, seven students in all the
school. The school house that was in operation when we came was
the little harness shop that Uncle Marion has at the present
time. So you can see how crowded it was.
When I moved in with my family, I helped move another house
in--one that had been built by some farmer that had come in and
tried to farm on this stream of water. We pulled that in and
made room for the additional students. In 1928, I was made a
member of the School Board. By this time we had a few more
students. I don't just remember the number, but we tried to get
$1,500 out of the County to pay the expenses of the school. It
was hard to convince them that we had grown to the point where
we had to have $1,500 to run a school with. The next year we
asked for $2,000, because we had a few more students come in;
but we were turned down. We had to hold school another year on
$1,500.
I am thrilled, my brothers and sisters, to look upon this
graduating class tonight. I feel grateful for the efforts that
have been put forth by our people to educate our children,
educate our people and bring them up in honor before the world.
I am grateful for the part that I have been permitted to play in
the progress of this place.
I am delighted, my brothers and sisters, at the growth that
has been made since this place was raided in 1953, when all of
our children were moved out of this place, taken off to another
school; and we were told over the radio that our children would
be adopted out, our wives would be placed in detention homes,
the men put in prison, and in four years time the records would
be destroyed and our identity be lost.
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This is certainly a pleasure to me to be here and to speak
before this audience, as well as to encourage these boys and
girls who are now graduating from the Elementary School. Next
year they will be entering into the Academy, and we hope that
they can go on and on, and the progress that has been made over
the last few years can increase in this place, and the
determination of our people will increase to serve the God of
the land in honor to our forefathers who first set foot upon
this land to redeem it, who came where they could worship God
according to the dictates of their own consciences. This is
what we have in mind to do--to teach and train your children and
your children's children to worship God--the God of the land,
the God who has directed the civilizations that have come and
gone upon this goodly land until the words of our Savior come to
pass upon it wherein He has said that this particular land would
enjoy a thousand years of peace while God is finishing His work.
This is the aim of those who direct the work of this people.
I want to encourage you boys and you girls to keep
yourselves clean and free from the sins and imperfections of the
world, for God has plainly said, "Come out of her, Oh ye, My
people, and be not partakers of her sins." We want you, while
you are young, to begin thinking of these things and to apply
and encourage them in your minds, in your actions, and in your
works. And keep in mind that you should be determined to go on
and finish your education in doing the things that our
forefathers fought for when they fought for their liberty upon
this goodly land. It was not only for the gathering of people
from foreign lands, a place to come and make their homes, but it
was for the perfection of their determination to serve God
according to the dictates of their consciences. This is why
this wonderful land upon which we live has been so successful in
the years gone by.
Let us all work. Let us work for the purification of our
lives, that we might be an honor throughout the generations of
time to those of our forefathers that have passed on. May God
bless you, amen.
1060
A SERMON GIVEN BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, JUNE 15, 1975,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
I thank the Lord, my brothers and sisters, for the
privilege of being here today and hearing what I have heard and
having so beautifully portrayed to us the principles of
righteousness. I hope that the few moments I speak to you the
Lord will put words into my mouth that we might be edified and
built up and encouraged in our determination to serve Him and
keep His commandments.
I have had the question asked me several times lately, "Why
don't we set up and organize the United Order among this people
so that we can more hastily prepare ourselves to receive the One
Mighty and Strong?" One time, I heard President Joseph Musser
speaking upon this subject. Someone had been asking him the
same question. He said, "We are not trying to set up the United
Order, but we are trying to live at it." I thought it was quite
a strange definition about how to go about living the United
Order. Since that time I have come to the conclusion that that
is all that we can do--live at it.
I want to give you a key to the United Order. You might
lean forward in silence trying to find something new that is
about to be told to you. "Love thy neighbor as thyself, " is
the key to the United Order. No man, no family, no mother, no
child is ready for the United Order until they have completely
eradicated from their lives any differences between them and any
other person, any thought of criticism. This is what it means
to love one another. If only we could bring that about within
our family union and keep our people from carrying tales back
and forth. Because we heard something said about one person, we
have to hasten to tell it to someone else. This is not loving
your neighbor as yourself.
The Lord is kind to this people to give them from time to
time keys that will lead them on and on to salvation. This one
principle alone, as fast as a family can apply it to their lives
and become perfect in their own home the Lord will add more to
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body else knows anything about it by tales carried. The Lord
has said that we learn here a little and there a little, precept
upon precept, and so forth. So, if we are anxious to become
members of the United Order, let us start living it within our
own homes. Let us prepare ourselves against the day of
visitation. When the angel comes by and knocks at the door and
finds out how the people are living, one of the questions he is
going to ask is, "Do you love one another? Do you love your
neighbor as yourself? You cannot become a member of the United
Order until you do." So, let us be prepared, my brothers and
sisters, to answer the questions that might be asked us.
We can go back to the beginning of time and prove that the
words of Elder Harker today are true. The Priesthood actuates
the minds of people. The Lord says that every person born into
the world is born with enough knowledge to know the difference
between good and evil. I believe Him. I believe that every
child that comes into your home need never know anything but
good. That is what is going to save us. We have men among us
who teach that you have to go out and meet the world and find
out what they have for us, then compare their religions with
ours and see which is right and which is wrong. But this is not
necessary. You can follow the example of Christ; you can follow
the example of other men who would not partake of the evils that
are around them.
Christ said, "I do nothing except what I saw my Father do."
Did He see His Father go out and partake of the religions of the
world? No, He didn't! He saw His Father keep the commandments
of God. He tried to teach this in His life. Joseph Smith tried
to teach the same thing.
I want to give you a few examples to think about. When
Christ was crucified, why was it that there were three days of
darkness upon the land? What power held back the light? When
He appeared to the people upon this continent, the history tells
us that in a period of about three hours time, this continent
was shaken up. The whole face of the land was changed. Cities
sank, cities burned, and the great destruction went forth upon
the land.
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By what power? I can tell you in just a few words. The Power
of the Priesthood was taken from this continent for the space of
three hours. The Lord had to place it back again in order to
save it from completely destroying itself.
Now, if you don't believe me, if you think I am teaching
false doctrine, go to the record and find out what Priesthood
is. By what power was the earth brought together? By the power
of the Priesthood. It is by the power of the Priesthood that
this congregation is gathered here today. You can figure that
God is kind to you to bring you here to hear what you have heard
today. You had better be careful how you treat it, that you do
not treat it lightly. Brothers and sisters, the Lord is kind to
us. He is kind to us to bring us together and to bring to our
minds the things that will eventually take us back into His
presence if we will put them into our minds and into our lives.
Let us clean up our minds. Let us get rid of the dross
that is within us, and let us replace it with the knowledge of
who God is and how to become like Him. Let us prepare ourselves
that we might be prepared for any emergency that the Lord might
feel to bring upon us. Let us be prepared to meet them. This
is an individual obligation. Each man and each woman is capable
of bringing themselves under this order of the Priesthood
regardless of what takes place around them. We don't have to
listen to what other denominations have to say or how much they
have to produce in evidence that they are right.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ needs no argument. We teach
only the words of the prophets as they have been given to us
from time to time. We teach the testimony of Joseph Smith, the
prophet in our day. We teach the testimony of Christ in His
time. We teach the testimony of Lehi, of Jared and his brother,
of Noah, Enoch, and Adam. We teach no other doctrine. So, let
us be faithful and true to that which we have heard and what we
hear from Sunday to Sunday. Let us discard all other ideas out
of our heads, that we might be prepared against the day of
visitation that the One Mighty and Strong might have a people to
work with, I humbly pray, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
1063
DISCOURSE DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, JUNE 22,
1975,
SUNDAY, IN SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
My heart is filled with gratitude, my brothers and sisters,
for the privilege of being here and partaking of the Spirit of
the Lord again. I am greatly blessed for this wonderful
opportunity. I feel very humble in standing before you, because
of my weaknesses and imperfections; but because of my high
office and calling, I stand here in deep humility, and what I
say this afternoon will have to be what the Lord wants me to
say.
I think the Lord is very pleased at the moment over the
effort that is being put forth by this body of people to be
instructed and built up in their faith and determination to do
something about their salvation. He has said that He would take
the young and middle-aged and redeem Zion. It is up to you to
prepare yourselves for this great work. I do not know what He
calls the middle-aged, but all those who prepare themselves for
this great and glorious work will take part in it. He says in
His House there are many mansions, and there is one prepared for
you and me. But when it comes to the great and glorious work of
redeeming Zion, it is a far-reaching subject. It is a
far-reaching responsibility that has been placed upon the young
and middle-aged, not only of this generation, but all other
generations. We are going to find that there is work for
everyone to do, but a great preparation has to be made.
This people is being tried every day. What for? To
prepare ourselves against the day of visitation when God is
destroying those who have not the power to repent and come unto
Him. So, we have a job before us, my brothers and sisters, to
overcome the weaknesses of the flesh and be prepared against the
day when God is pouring out His judgments upon those who do not
have the power to repent.
We go down upon the streets of the cities today, and we
find great crowds of people who are going to and fro, knowing
not where they are going. They are all the children of our
Father. This is only a teaspoonful, you might say, of the people
who must be prepared for the redemption of Zion. We only have a
little start here, and some of them want to get away from it.
Some want
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to go this way and that. Some have come and cried on our
shoulders to be admitted and be partakers of the goodly work.
They stay for a little while and get dissatisfied and want to go
back to their old way of life. Why? To be ushered out of the
goodly work?
The Lord has said that no person can get into the Celestial
Kingdom unless he obeys the Celestial Law. What is the
Celestial Law? The Celestial Law is to rid ourselves of all the
evil that is within us, for in the Celestial Kingdom there is no
sin. If we are full of sin here, we will be full of sin
there--for that is where we will go--where the sinners go. When
we prepare ourselves through diligent effort to overcome our
weaknesses and imperfections, we have some chance to be placed
on the right hand of our Father; and that is the side of the
line that I would like to be on. That is the side of the line I
would like to see every person on that has come to the feet of
the Priesthood during my day and asked for admittance into our
society, that they may be prepared against that time, I hate to
see any person try to slide out or become unworthy of the
blessings of eternal life.
The first thing that you need to do, you men, is to know
the worth of a man in the eyes of our Father and then prepare
yourselves to become that kind of men. He says, "As man is, God
once was; and as God is, man may become." How are we going to
become like Him unless we can idolize His character?
You women, if you don't know your missions in the earth,
you should study what they are. They are to prepare yourselves
for a glorious resurrection, and that has got to be. Your minds
have got to be in such a shape that you will prepare yourself
for a glorious resurrection, regardless of whether your children
follow you or not. Your children are going to follow you--if
you go the way of the world and go back into the haunts of the
Gentiles and try to forget the blessings that God has promised
upon you, your children are going to follow you. So, if you
want a glorious resurrection, set the pace before your children
and take them with you, because they will want to do the things
that they see you do. They will want to do the same things that
father and mother do. So, let us set the example.
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You men have got to know the worth of a woman. There is no
place in the Celestial Kingdom of our Father without a woman at
your side. If you have women sealed to you, you have got to
bless them. You have got to gather them around you and teach
them the glories of the Celestial Kingdom. They are jewels.
God says that He is jealous of the workmanship of His hands, and
we cannot get where He is unless we obey the same laws that He
obeyed. We cannot fill our mission, neither man nor woman,
until we have learned how to take care of that which the Lord
places in our hands.
You take a farmer--if he believes that Jesus is the Christ
and that God lives, and he is trying to prepare his life for a
glorious resurrection, and he takes this farm and uses it and
runs it down by methods that he knows are not right, how much
good is it going to be to him? I know what it is to be a
farmer. I know what a farmer does. A farmer looks at the crops
that he raises, and he glorifies himself in it because he has
had success. The Lord might bless him with success and fill his
barns and granaries and the first thing you know he takes honor
to himself--I did this and I did that; I used this method and I
used that method. The farmer must know the worth of the farm,
the land, the water, and when and how to plant and harvest and
how to take care of it; and after he does this, give God the
glory for it--Look what the Lord has blessed me with; Look how
the Lord has blessed me with knowledge and understanding of how
to operate this land that it might be useful to us, that it
might produce like it has for the benefit of our people. Then
he should use it for the benefit of our people instead of using
it for something that will cause him to lose his faith.
This is the way with our families. The Lord blessed us
with children and then we glorify ourselves because of the
success that we have had in raising our children, and we forget
that it was the inspiration that the Lord gave us that has
helped us to produce men and women that want to serve God and
keep His commandments. We have got to come to this. We have
got to teach our wives and our children to love God and glorify
His work and prepare ourselves for that which is to come. We
have got to learn how to
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serve God and keep His commandments. We have got to learn how
to manage our affairs in a way that will be pleasing unto our
Father, and try to stamp out of our midst all the evil that
creeps into our families and into the lives of our children. We
have got to work upon them. We have got a great work to do, my
brothers and sisters. We have got a job to do, and let us do
it! Let us go down the road together. Let us work here and
there where it is necessary, and let us prepare ourselves. We
are not ready for the United Order until we can stamp out of our
lives every vestige of evil that is in there.
If you knew what the United Order meant--it does not mean
just to be a body of people working together, eating from the
same table, dressing alike, thinking alike. This is only part
of it; the other part is to rid ourselves of all evil. For over
a hundred years now, we have been trying to live the United
Order. Every now and then we hear of men entering into a United
Order to try to perfect themselves. We hear of fathers trying
to organize their families to live the United Order. Brigham
Young says if you can find a few men that can live unitedly
together and do what the Lord has asked us to do, he says, "I
will stand between you and heaven and support you." But he knew
what it meant. I know partly what it means. It means that
every vestige of sin must be stamped out of the heart and the
mind of this person (pointing to himself) before I am prepared
to enter into the United Order with a body of my brethren.
We have got to be in a condition so that the leader, the
man who stands at the head, can say, "I want this done today, "
and it will be done without complaint, without criticism. And
then tomorrow, the Lord will give him another job to do; and he
will say, "I want this done today, " and it will be done without
hesitation. And every person will take his place and do his
work. He will be given a job to do, and he will have to do it.
When he finds a man that rebels, he will no longer be a member
of the Order. He will have to be cast out. That is what I get
from this book right here (Three-In-One). He will be called in
and labored with and if he cannot cease to be rebellious, he
will have to leave the Order.
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This is only a part of it, my brothers and sisters, but
this is what we have got to do before we are ready for the
Celestial Kingdom, before we are ready for the Millennial Reign;
because Zion cannot be redeemed, only upon the principles of the
Celestial Kingdom. In the Celestial Kingdom there is no sin.
Think upon it.
You men and women that think you can come into this place
among this people and be told how to live and then go home and
do as you please, pull away when you please, go the way of the
world, and think that you know how to do your work better than
we can tell you, you are not ready for this work; you are not
ready to be used by our Father in Heaven.
The thing we are trying to get you to do is to rid your
minds and your hearts of all sin; and when you are prepared,
then the Lord can bless you, and He will bless you. But keep on
coming. Keep coming here to the fountain head to be fed more and
more because you will get more and more. The Lord is forever
learning. And if He is forever learning, we must have to be
forever learning.
Let us see if we can get ourselves to believe that Jesus is
the Christ and that His laws and commandments must be lived in
order to prepare ourselves against the time when God is pouring
out His judgments upon those who do not have the power to
repent, for there are many of them. So, let us be prepared, and
let us go forward now and see what we can do about our
preparation.
May God bless you, amen.
1068
SERMON GIVEN BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, JUNE 29, 1975,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
I trust, my brothers and sisters, that the Lord will bless
me with words that I might not displease Him in what I say this
afternoon. I am grateful for the opportunity of being here
under such favorable circumstances, for the testimony that God
has given me of the truthfulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I am grateful for my parentage, for the teachings of my father
and my mother, for the privilege I have had of being guided and
directed along the way by the servants of God. I am thankful
also for the determination that God placed in my being to be at
least obedient in a small way to the counsels that have been
given to me.
I was driving down the street yesterday and I saw a young
boy at the wheel of an automobile. I thought, Well, what is the
difference in this young boy driving down the street in an
automobile and Roy Johnson driving a team with a large load of
lumber on a wagon following a string of wagons with men at the
driver' s seat doing the same thing. I learned to drive a team
when I was twelve years old. It took two of us to lift the
harness and put it on the horse. After we got the harness on
the horse, it was not so hard to hook up the single-tree, pick
up the lines and sit on the wagon seat and drive the horses. We
did not have to have a license to drive the horses. But today
we have to have a license to sit behind the steering wheel of an
automobile. Times have changed. In my time, when I was a boy,
we had to depend on horses for conveyance or else walk. Today
we have forgotten how to walk, we have to have an automobile to
ride in. If we want to send to the store for something we need
to fix the machinery with, we cannot go unless we have an
automobile to run in, or else we have to step to the telephone
and have someone else get in an automobile and bring it to us.
When I first landed in this place, I had a Model T Ford
car. That was my way of getting around. However, soon after I
came here I got hold of a span of horses. The Priesthood asked
me to go down to Big Bend, down below Kingman, and I took my
team down there. I was there a couple of years, but I had to
move off the ranch because
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I did not want to work under the influence of apostates. The
man that owned the property (his father was considered a good
Mormon) but he had apostatized and gone his way and made a lot
of money, and he found his way into politics. I don't know
whether he ever held a position or not, but he was quite a
politician, and his son politicked Brother Barlow and myself
into buying this place. So, we bought it and entered into an
agreement with him. He did a little misrepresenting to make a
little money. He had a great story of a long line of water
rights on the Colorado River, and we happened to have it in
writing. In a letter he had written to us, he told us about the
great water rights he had. But after we had been on the place a
couple of years, the Colorado River Commission came in and shut
off my pumps. I went to the man and told him what they had
done, and he came and turned the pumps on again and gave me
instructions not to stop them and he would go and meet with the
commissioners and take care of any misunderstanding with them.
I ran the pumps for three or four days, and all at once this
commissioner was standing by me. He said, "I thought I told you
to shut these pumps off." I said, "You did, but Mr. Fox told me
to turn them on again and that he would take care of the
misunderstanding between you and him." He said, "Well, I am
putting a chain on it this time and putting a lock on this
motor, because Mr. Fox doesn't have any rights to the water on
this river."
Mr. Fox came up and he said, "What is the matter, you are
not irrigating today?" I said, "I have been having trouble again
with the commissioner." Mr. Fox said, "I just came back from
Phoenix, and they gave me a clean sheet on these water rights."
I said, "I can't help it, the pumps are under padlock and I
cannot take it off." So, he took a hacksaw and cut the chain and
turned the pumps on. I didn't know what to do. I went to the
Lord and asked Him what I should do about this situation. And,
inasmuch as the pumps were turned on, I went down in the field
to take care of the water. In a little while I didn't have a
stream of water. I went up to the pump to see what was the
matter and met the commissioner again. He said, "Now if you
turn this water on again, I am
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going to arrest you and take you in." I said, "You don't need to
blame me. I am not the one that turned this pump on." "Well, "
he said, "then we will take care of Mr. Fox." In a little while,
Mr. Fox came up and I said, "Mr. Fox, as soon as this crop is
harvested, I won't need anymore water on it. I am going to
leave." This disturbed his mind, and he said, "You are going to
leave now." And he made quite a little argument on his side,
telling me that I shouldn't be permitted to stay there.
I made a trip during the night to Kingman to see what my
rights were. I thought the County Attorney was on my side, but
he said, "I know what I would do. I would take a gas pipe to
him." So, I knew he was not on my side, because he was trying to
get me to break the law and put me on the offensive instead of
the defensive side. I had no friends in the County Court House,
and I had no friends at the ranch. I went back to the ranch and
got an hour's sleep, got up and got dressed and here came Mr.
Fox. He drove his car up in front of my home. He got out of
his car. He had a six-shooter on the left side and a six-shooter
on the right side. He pulled one out and pointed it at me, and
he said, "Now you have your boy get that pickup around and you
load what I tell you to load and leave what I tell you to
leave."
I took one glance at his car; his wife was sitting on the
running board with a thirty-thirty in her hand. I thought,
Well, this is it. It's either do or die, so we better do.
Orval wasn't satisfied, and after we got started to load, he
said, "If you will kick the gun out of his hand, I'll grab it."
I said, "Leave him alone, he is in the hands of the Lord now,
and He will take care of him. You do what he tells you." So we
did. When we were leaving the place, after we loaded what he
wanted us to and we started out, I asked the Lord to take care
of him. I said, "Father, I haven't any water right here, but I
can remember what you said--Wash your feet in clean water and
dress yourself in the robes of the Holy Priesthood--I have no
water, but I am washing my feet against this place." This was
back in 1938, in the fall of the year. They have never been
able to do a thing with that particular piece of ground since
that time.
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Two days later, Mr. Fox went down to look at his crop. We
left about ten acres of beautiful cane ready to harvest into
molasses. We left an unharvested crop of sweet potatoes and
corn, and had a nice crop of alfalfa to harvest. A neighbor of
ours by the name of Gene Shaw saw Mr. Fox coming and he walked
out to the road and hailed him. When they met, he said, "Mr.
Fox, I am still wondering why you drove those people off that
place." This riled the man's anger again, and he jumped out of
his car and hit Mr. Shaw in the face. When the tussle was over,
Mr. Fox had a broken arm and several broken ribs; and his leg
was broken, too. Mr. Shaw was a man about the size of my boy,
Orval, now. He knocked Mr. Fox dawn and jumped in the middle of
him and broke his ribs. They went to court. They were in court
a couple of years. Mr. Fox lost the court case. He lost his
wife, and today he is in Phoenix in the poorhouse. But the land
upon which our farm was located is idle--an idle piece of
ground. Even the deeds to the property have been lost and
cannot be located, according to the report that comes to us.
They can't do anything with it. They have tried to plough it
up, and it turns up in big hard clods. The county has now
turned it into a parking place for their heavy machinery. They
don't try to do anything with it. It is just laying there idle.
Here is an example of what takes place when men apostatize
from the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is also an example of how
the Lord blesses His servants if we try to keep His
commandments. We may be subjected to a lot of persecution; we
may be subjected to a lot of criticism, but this does not make
any change in the truthfulness of the Gospel.
This life is what we make it. If we want eternal life, we
can get it; but we have got to want it in order to get it. If
we want it bad enough, we will repent of our sins and so arrange
our lives that God can bless us. And you do not have to be an
apostle to have these experiences, for this incident happened
five years before I had anything to do with the Priesthood
Council. I was a lay member like you people. There is no place
in the Kingdom of God for cowards. The kind of cowards I am
talking about are men
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and women who cannot understand the principles of the Gospel
that the Lord has so plainly told us about--that He has
explained so plain that a child can understand.
Ever since the Prophet Joseph's time we have wondered why
we couldn't get into the United Order. The only reason we
cannot get into it is that we do not want it bad enough that we
can learn to love our neighbor as ourselves. That is all it is
going to take. If you learn to love your neighbor as yourself
and quit criticizing one another, you are ready for the United
Order.
It only takes one person in the Order to poison the whole
batch. I think it was Christ said that the Gospel net gathered
all kinds of fish. If it were true in his day, it is true in
ours. If it were true in the Prophet Joseph's time, it is true
today. The only thing that is the matter with us is that we are
not fully converted. Yet, we feel within ourselves that we know
the Gospel is true. If we know the Gospel is true and that we
have got to do according to the teachings of our Savior, then
let us learn to love our neighbor as ourselves--get our feet
under us and get the will of God around us to a point where we
can be protected from day to day, from time to time--day in and
day out; let us get the spirit of peace. The kind of peace that
I am speaking about is that lasting peace which the Savior
talked about, that Joseph Smith talked about, that Brigham Young
talked about, and all the other prophets.
Brother Timpson talked about Nephi. Nephi couldn't
accomplish his work until he got the spirit of peace in his
soul. Before he could do the work that the Lord required at his
hands, he had to have that peaceful spirit come over him that he
knew he was doing the will of God; and every Latter-day Saint
can get it. That is what the Lord meant when He said, "If you
will submit yourself to baptism, I will forgive you of your
sins, and you can have the gift of the Holy Ghost." The Holy
Ghost is the spirit of peace.
I have baptized a few believers that have come in from the
outside and wanted to be baptized, and after I have talked with
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them, they submitted to the ordinance of baptism. They have
come out and borne testimony that they never felt such a
peaceful spirit in their lives. It was the Spirit of God
bearing testimony to them that they had done right, and if they
would continue to do right and not give way to evil, they would
feel that way all the time. It can be done. It has been done
before, and it can be done again.
Our time, my brothers and sisters, is far spent this
afternoon. I pray that the Lord will bless us with wisdom,
knowledge, and understanding and bring us out from under the
depression that we are under; for we are certainly under a
depression. Let us prepare ourselves, and be prepared to meet
the situation that is ahead of us. All the evidence, outward
evidence, that we can see at the present time shows that we have
some very trying circumstances to pass through in the near
future. This day that we are living in has been talked about
for many many generations. Any hour now, the Lord has got to do
something in order to save a few souls in this old world of His.
There is not much faith left. Let us get our feet under
us. We have an opportunity--while life lasts we have an
opportunity to repent and humble ourselves before the Lord and
get His Spirit and keep it. And that is the only thing that is
going to save us.
Our community is no different from any other community,
because there is evil going on daily in our midst. There is
evil going on momentarily outside of our midst, and we are in a
bad way. I pray that God will bless us with wisdom, knowledge,
and understanding and help us to do our work well, and I ask it
in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
1074õo§å+Z>1072
A SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, JULY 6, 1975,
SUNDAY, IN SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
I am grateful again, my brothers and sisters, for this
wonderful privilege of being here and partaking of the blessings
of the Lord thus far in this meeting. I am grateful for this
wonderful audience that we have here this afternoon. I hope
that the Lord will bless me with knowledge and understanding and
put words into my mouth that I might say the things that He
would like to have me say to you this afternoon.
I have been greatly pleased with the testimonies of these
young men that have spoken this afternoon. It tells me that the
efforts of the servants of God to try to bring up a generation
of young men that can be used in the redemption of Zion has not
fallen by the wayside unheeded. It tells me that a great deal
of faith is being instilled into the minds of our young men; and
if it is being instilled into the minds of our young men, it is
being instilled into the minds of our young women. I believe
that the Lord is as pleased over this situation as His servants
are, for we are certainly thrilled because of this condition.
The testimonies that have been borne here this afternoon
tell me that the words of the prophets are being fulfilled
wherein they have said that there would be a people come out of
the heart of the Latter-day Saints who would put to the fore
these sacred principles of the Celestial Kingdom. So, we are
living in a day when these prophecies are being fulfilled. We
are living in a day when God is pouring out His blessings upon
those who will serve Him and keep His commandments. We do not
care what our neighbors say--we have the word of God to rely
upon; and if we will do what He has asked us to do, and ask in
faith, nothing waivering, He will grant it unto us.
This is an individual preparation that has to be made.
Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff and
all other prophets have borne testimony that this would be the
case. If I read the scriptures right, the Doctrine & Covenants,
the revelations that were given to many of the early elders, if
I interpret them right, this is what the Lord meant to every man
that He gave revelation to: of you it is required that you do
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certain things; and if you will do them, you will have eternal
life; but if you do not do them, I will have to destroy you.
This is the sum and substance of these revelations. This is the
sum and substance of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Christ said,
"He that saith he believeth in me and keepeth not my
commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him."
If this be the case, my brothers and sisters, it is an
individual responsibility, for one man cannot answer for the
sins of another. "We believe that all men will be punished for
their own sins and not for Adam's transgression." This one
commandment preaches a great sermon to us if we will just sit
down and analyze it, and then apply it to our lives. No one can
keep you out of the Celestial Kingdom if we will make up our
mind you are going to get there, and put your efforts into
cleaning up your minds, cleaning up your lives and stamping out
the dross that is within you.
Christ set the example. He came here and went among
sinners teaching repentance, and that is all He did while He was
here--teach repentance. "Come unto Me, " He said, "and I will
show you the way." What were His instructions to the Prophet
Joseph Smith? "Go bear testimony of the Father and the Son who
appeared to you, and all who will believe will be saved, and
those who will not believe will be damned." Here again is
another sermon. When we analyze it and apply it to our lives,
we will find that we are on the road to eternal life. There is
no other way. You cannot bypass the principles of
righteousness, the principles of the Celestial Kingdom.
Throughout the generations of time, they have been the same.
You cannot get in there any other way--only the way that has
been laid down by our Father and had testimony borne to by the
prophets of God.
Abraham received his blessings through obedience to the
principles of righteousness. He defied his father, and he
defied the kings of Baal. He went ahead and did that which the
Lord asked him to do in all things. The Lord told the Prophet
Joseph Smith that Abraham had received his reward; he had become
a God. He did not get it by listening to false and delusive
teachings
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that we have to listen to today.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is true, my brothers and
sisters. The mission of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, is true.
The example he set is true, and it is up to you and me to follow
the examples that these men have set for us and apply them to
our lives, regardless of what men or women say--regardless of
what enticings might come into our paths to entice us away into
an easier way to get our eternal salvation.
I pray that God will bless us with wisdom, knowledge, and
understanding and that we will have a more firm determination to
get down to business and serve God and keep His
commandments--clean up our minds. Let us get rid of the dross
that is in our minds and cease to put back that which we have
taken out. Let us think more about our eternal salvation, and
let us put it into practice in our lives and become that people
that the Lord is seeking for for the consummation of His great
work, the redemption of Zion.
I pray for wisdom, knowledge, and understanding, that I
might go on and live and accomplish the labors that the Lord
requires of me as long as I have the power to do so, and I pray
that you people will go along with me. God bless you. Amen.
1077
SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, JULY 13, 1975,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
I am glad to be here, my brothers and sisters, and to hear
what I have heard this afternoon. I have been greatly
interested in the testimonies that have been borne. I hope that
the Lord will recognize me enough to put words into my mouth
that I might be able to say a few words of encouragement to this
people.
I am going to start out this way--I am going to ask this
people to take to heart the things that they have heard and
discuss them with themselves, not with their neighbors. Think
of what has been told to you and don't carry the sermons that
have been spoken to the outside. Keep within your heart the
things you hear and weigh them well. There may have been words
said that may not have been altogether what we think should have
been said, but we have no right to criticize. This is one of
the things that the Lord has impressed us to bring before this
people--the responsibility of overcoming our criticism, our
faultfinding, and our complaining about the things that exist.
We have conditions that exist in our midst that cannot be helped
at the present time, only through repentance. So, let us think
twice before we open our mouths and criticize. That goes for
everyone.
The Lord is trying to prepare a people that can be used. He
cannot use a tattle-tale or a critic. There will be no place
for them in the Celestial Kingdom. Let us remember that. Let
us remember that we have a job to do, and let us do it.
The things that have been told us are true. We have
existing problems that will destroy this people and will destroy
the good name that President Hammon just told you that this
people has among some of the Gentile people. But it is fast
being destroyed, and it is coming right from this people. Let
us boost our morale instead of tearing it down. Let us rid our
community of those who are seeking to destroy the minds of our
boys and girls.
The Lord says, "I cannot look upon sin with the least
degree of allowance." That one phrase is worth more to every
person in this room than any phrase of the same length that I
know of. Analyze it; turn it over, and analyze it again. Apply
it to your lives and you will become a better people. I can go
through the
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scriptures and give you many other phrases that would be just as
important in our lives as that one. The Lord says, "I have
given my word in great plainness--so plain that a child can
understand it." The only reason that we cannot understand it is
simply because we will not ask God in faith, knowing that we
will receive an answer to the question that has arisen. Moroni
gave us the key. Let us look it up and apply it to our lives;
then go through the scriptures and see what we have to do to
straighten up our lives.
Let us cease to criticize. Let us cease to complain. Let
us learn to love one another--love our neighbor as ourselves, I
humbly pray in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
1079
SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, JULY 20, 1975,
SUNDAY, IN SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
Again, I am grateful, my brothers and sisters, for the
health and strength that I enjoy and for the privilege of being
here and hearing what I have heard this afternoon. I trust the
few moments I speak that God will bless me with the voice to
speak, and I hope that He will put words into my mouth that I
might speak His will concerning this people.
We have been told this afternoon of the responsibilities
that rest upon us. We have been warned and forewarned for many
years of that which is coming upon the earth to prepare it for a
Millennial Reign. This is the reason that the servants of God
are putting so much stress upon the principle of repentance and
the principle of preparation, preparing ourselves to be used in
the work of the Lord in performing His great work and a wonder
in the earth, for truly He is going to accomplish that which He
has said He would accomplish. He is going to cleanse the land
of wickedness, for this is the land of Joseph. This was
promised to Joseph many many generations ago--this goodly land
upon which we live.
The Lord promised Jared and his brother that He would lead
them to a land that was choice above all other lands--flowing
with milk and honey. He also told them that those who possessed
the land would be a God-fearing and a God-serving people, or
when they were ripened in iniquity, He would destroy them. He
kept His word. Those people were led to this land upon which we
live. We have the record of it, of their being led here; and
they became a mighty people. God blessed them whenever they
would keep the commandments of God. But when they were ripened
in iniquity, He kept His word--He destroyed them to the last man
because of wickedness, because they had fallen away from the
word of God.
Then there came another people upon the land, and the same
charge was given to them, that this land was a land choice above
all other lands, and those who dwelt upon it would be a
God-fearing people and would serve the God of the land or they
would be destroyed. Then we come down now to our day. He raised
up a prophet, the Prophet Joseph Smith; he brought forth the
records of these two great nations, and he was charged by our
Savior to go and bear
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testimony to the world of the truthfulness of this Gospel, for
this was a part of the Gospel. And all who would believe would
be saved and those who would not believe would be damned; and to
be damned means to be stopped.
We will bring it down now a little closer. After a little
time the Saints were driven from their homes. They had to find
a new place to live, so they came to this goodly land upon which
we live today thinking that they would come out of the world and
be able to live and obey the laws that would save them from
another great destruction. But soon after they arrived here,
the leadership was lowered into carnal security; and through the
promises of great wealth and great security, they gave up the
Celestial Law.
I am going to bring it down now to my day--my experiences
in this work. In 1944 two great wars started. To put it in the
words of the prophet Joseph W. Musser, "Today war was declared
in the east, and today war was declared in the west." When war
was declared by the United States against Germany in the Second
World War, the same day war was declared against the Celestial
Law in this goodly land in which we live. Since that time, we
have been persecuted, driven, pulled out of our homes, and our
wives and children have been taken out and held captive.
In 1953, that great day when the army came in and took over
the city of Short Creek, it started to rain a gentle rain. The
Lord told the people at that time that the heavens wept. This
is not the only time that the heavens wept. You can go to the
Book of Moses and find out what was done in the days of Enoch.
The heavens wept. The heavens did not stop weeping in 1953
until after the enemy had accomplished its work. They took the
men out and put them in jail. Then they ravaged their homes,
took their wives and children, loaded them on buses and took
them away. It took a week's time to accomplish all this, but
they did it. When they were going out, there was so much mud on
the roads that the buses had to be helped until they got to
Fredonia, a distance of about forty miles, till they got on the
oiled roads. So, the heavens wept because of what was taking
place. Was it altogether because of what was taking place? Was
it altogether because of the taking
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away of wives and children and men? No. It was another great
test that had to be accomplished, and this was the way the Lord
had of accomplishing it. He had to know again how the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints felt toward the Celestial Law.
So, this is what happened: Soon after these people landed in
Phoenix, Arizona, there was a quarterly conference held in Mesa,
Arizona. President David O. McKay was in that conference, and he
made this statement, "I want the people to know that the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is in full harmony with the
actions of the state of Arizona in the Short Creek episode."
What did it mean? Wait and see. It isn't over yet, and I doubt
very much if the persecution of this people is over. I am
wondering what is in the making now.
This makes the second summer, throughout the southern part
of our state, especially, when there hasn't been enough water
run to fill the reservoirs that have been dug for the benefit of
the cattle and sheep men to provide water for their animals.
This is the second summer that they have not had water, and they
are going into this next winter with a dry earth. Last year
they had to sell their cattle at a sacrifice in order to save
them because of the great price of feed.
If the Lord will bless me, I will read just a little from
this good book. First I want to say this: Last week we had a
nice little rain in Colorado City. We had about a twenty-four
hour gentle rain. Then it ended with a demonstration of
lightning and thunder. I have seen a lot of lightning and
thunder storms, but I never saw one any greater than the one I
witnessed last week in Colorado City. For the space of about an
hour there was one strike of lightning after another and one
strike of thunder after another. It sounded like everything was
going to fall to pieces. We had a nice little shower along with
it, but it was localized. It did not go up into the hills to
run water into our reservoir. That reservoir has been depleted
of water by sprinkling our fields to try to raise hay for our
milk cows this coming winter. But it rained enough to insure us
another crop. We had the first crop
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down and most of it was in the barn, but some of it got wet.
I want to read just a little now from this really good book
of ours. ( D. & C. 43:22-25 )
"Yea, and again, when the lightnings shall streak
forth from the east unto the west, and shall utter forth
their voices unto all that live, and make the ears of all
tingle that hear, saying these words--Repent ye, for the
great day of the Lord is come?
And again, the Lord shall utter his voice out of
heaven, saying: Hearken, O ye nations of the earth, and
hear the words of that God who made you.
O, ye nations of the earth, how often would I have
gathered you together as a hen gathereth her chickens under
her wings, but ye would not!
How oft have I called upon you by the mouth of my
servants, and by the ministering of angels, and by mine own
voice, and by the voice of thunderings, and by the voice of
lightnings, and by the voice of tempests, and by the voice
of earthquakes, and great hailstorms, and by the voice of
famines and pestilences of every kind, and by the great
sound of a trump, and by the voice of judgment, and by the
voice of mercy all the day long, and by the voice of glory
and honor and the riches of eternal life, and would have
saved you with an everlasting salvation, but ye would not!"
He is speaking here of the wicked. But great are the
blessings of those who will repent and clean up their minds and
be prepared against the day of visitation. That is the reason
that the Lord has placed us here to sound the warnings to you in
this day and hour just before He is going to accomplish His word
again by destroying the wicked and preparing the earth for a
Millennial Reign. I read you these words because they were given
to the Prophet Joseph, but they pertain to you and me in the day
in which we live. The people in Joseph's day would have
obtained the same blessings had they kept the commandments of
God, but they would not and had to be
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driven to these mountains. Now we are here in these mountains,
and we are as wicked as they were in the valleys from which they
were driven.
Let us lend a listening ear to the servants of God. Let us
lend a listening ear to that which we read in these revelations
that God has left us. Little do we know what is being put into
the hearts of young men throughout Mormondom. We were inspired
a few years ago to reproduce the Journals of Discourses which
have the testimonies of the early leaders of the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints. Since that time, thousands upon
thousands of sets (and there are twenty-six books in the set)
have been scattered throughout the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints. So there must be somebody reading them. What
are they doing to their minds? Can you tell me? The Lord says,
"I will take the young and the middle-aged and redeem Zion." You
have heard what the brethren said here today about what has been
prophesied of the Church. How many of those who did not make
the covenant with death and hell are going to rise up one of
these days and demand that they be given the truth? Where are
they going to get it? Who is there among the Latter-day Saints
that can get up and bear testimony to the truthfulness of the
sermons that are in those great books?
Let us keep the commandments of God. Let us come out of
our shell and think deeply upon the things of eternal life, and
let us apply them to our lives that we might be prepared against
the day of visitation, I humbly pray in the name of Jesus
Christ, amen.
1084
SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S, JOHNSON, JULY 27, 1975,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
I am grateful to be here this afternoon. I am grateful for
this wonderful audience that has come out to be instructed. I am
grateful for the testimonies that have been borne. It is true
that we are living in a great day of the Lord, I trust that the
few words I speak will be directed by Him, and that we will be
lifted up in our determination to serve God and keep His
commandments when we leave this building.
Each day brings us a little nearer to that time spoken of
by the Prophet when great tribulation covers the earth. When we
look at it in the true light, we realize that great tribulation
has covered the earth for many many years--many generations.
Many people wonder why the Lord allows things to go on like they
are, and yet, He still continues to instruct the people to
repent and turn unto Him. We want to remember that God is bound
by law as well as you and I are bound by law. We are bound by
law to keep the peace in our community, in our families, to
teach our children and our wives to keep the commandments of God
and apply to their lives the principles of righteous living.
This is bound by law. You men who deviate from it--you break the
law. Then you have to suffer for doing the things that we have
been told not to do.
For many many generations of time, people have been
permitted to have their own way. They gather together and form
organizations to try to bring about what they think would be a
better condition where they live among the people. They have
rejected the great Law-giver and the counsel that brought the
elements together to shape this great earth upon which we live
and put it into orbit and placed man upon it and told him to
till the earth and to serve the God of the land.
We have had the promise for many many generations of time
that if we would keep the commandments of God and do the things
that He has asked us to do to bring us back into His presence
and to be exalted with Him, that He would exalt us. But if we
broke the commandments that He gave us, He would have to destroy
us when we were ripened in iniquity. This process has been
going on time after time with the hope that God might be able to
bring
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out a few faithful and be able to crown them with the blessings
of eternal life.
I am reminded of the revelations that the Lord has left us
for our edification and learning. He has been very plain in
them, in instructing men how to direct their lives and how to
get back into His presence. But our forefathers and our
forefathers and our forefathers have been so steeped in the
traditions of the world and the commandments of men that they
cannot recognize the word of God when they hear it, and their
children cannot. If we did, we would be a better people. We
could be organized and doing the things that the Lord requires
that we should do in order to be educated along the lines of
eternal life. But we would rather be organized according to the
will of man and spend our days in trying to bring to pass the
commandments of men--rather than trying to bring to pass the
commandments of God. So, He has placed the whole Church under
condemnation, because they have treated lightly the things they
have received. They will remain under this condemnation until
they repent. This work has been going on a good deal over a
hundred years since the Lord placed us under that condemnation.
Instead of being a better people, we still have to be taught the
principle of repentance.
The word of the Lord to us is: All who will repent and
apply to their lives the principles of salvation will be saved,
and those who will not will be damned.
The earth today is preparing for a great struggle for life
and liberty. We glory in the fact that this goodly land upon
which we live is the only land of liberty that there is upon the
earth. Of all the nations of the earth, this land should be far
ahead of any other in enjoying liberty, but our liberty has been
taken away from us by the wisdom, knowledge and understanding of
scientific men and women.
The Lord is going to have to do something about it, or we
will find ourselves in a world of old men and old women. There
will be no young coming up among us, because the principle of
destruction is working in the minds of all men and women. Even
in
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the minds of the leading Latter-day Saints, these evils are
working. When the Supreme Court Judges will rule that we are
invading the privacy of the rights of our children, our teen-age
children, when we try to stop them from doing things that will
deprive them of increase, then their very lives are at stake.
It is ruled now that the teen-age child can go against the
counsel of its parents and be protected by the law in doing
wrong. We have proven over the years that this is the case in
other communities.
We have tried to bring about a condition in our community
to curb the falling away of our young men and young women. We
find that if we take them before the courts that there is always
someone there to defend them and to liberate them from the
charges that have been made. So, that doesn't do any good any
more. This new ruling of the Supreme Court will make it worse
than ever. The seeds of destruction are being sown among the
great hoards of men and women that are upon the earth today.
I don't know how long it will be, or when the time will
come, or anything about it; it may be a hundred years yet. What
will take place in a hundred years time with conditions that
exist at the present upon our highways, in our cities, upon the
sea, in the air, in the home, or anywhere else. I know
not--unless we can do what the Lord has asked us to do. It has
come to a point, my brothers and sisters, where you are going to
have to do something about your salvation.
I had a young man tell me one time when I tried to correct
him for doing evil, he said, "I will give you to understand that
you have no right to correct me, and I am not going to do what
you have asked me to do. " That was twenty-five or thirty years
ago. The boy is not with us. He was one of the spirits that was
born under the new and everlasting covenant. I have noticed that
this same spirit has taken over a lot of our people; it has
taken them out. I am sorry to say, but a lot of our middle-aged
men, who are fathers of children in this community, still delve
into the idea that unless they can go out with some of their
pals and have a good time--weekends--to help to take away the
cares of the labors of the week, that they are in a sad way.
But the sad thing of it is, that
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the man is destroying that which the Lord gave him. He gave him
the right and privilege to stay home and teach and train his
young wife and family in the principles of eternal salvation,
that perhaps, sometime, they might be exalted in the Celestial
Kingdom of our God and be numbered among the righteous of the
generation in which we live. But if they continue to practice
these habits that they are forming, they will have to go down
with the wicked when the Lord comes in to destroy them, because
this is rejecting the testimony of Jesus. Think it over.
Let us get the Journals--if we haven't got enough sets in
the house, let us get another one, so that two or three can sit
down and read at once if it is necessary. I think one set of
Journals in a man's home is plenty if he will handle it right,
together with the standard works of the Church or the
Priesthood. Let us do something about our salvation. If we
expect to abide the day, we are going to have to do it. There
are a few things that we will have to do if we think anything
about our eternal salvation. But if we have lost all hope in a
glorious resurrection, then I say, go to Las Vegas, Reno, or any
other place where you can get the fun and the pleasure that you
are looking for. But if we are interested in the pleasures of
the eternities, let us do something about it.
The Lord has left us examples where great conversions have
been made along the way. We only have to read the history of
the Jaredite people and the Nephite people to find where great
strength has been promoted through turning from wickedness to
righteousness. It is not an impossibility, even in our day; it
is not an impossibility that we could repent.
The Lord has said that we would have to pray night and day
for deliverance--deliverance from the evils that are around us,
that we find ourselves in, the evils of the time we live in. We
live in a troubled world. Nobody knows how to remedy the
trouble that we have. There are many parties that think they
have the answer, but it has been proven to us over the last few
years that they do not have the answer.
Next year there is an election coming up. Who can say
today what the conditions will be in a year from now. The Lord
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hasn't revealed it to us, and He says that He won't; for no man
knows the hour or the day that great tribulation will come, not
even the angels in heaven know about it. But we do know it is
coming, for God has said it through the mouths of His Apostles.
Many here say they believe. Well, if we believe, let us go
to and keep the commandments of God. Let us cease to do evil.
Let us stamp it out of our midst. Let us start in the home in
which we live and see that no evil thing enters into the home.
Many of us live in dedicated homes, but what good is a dedicated
home if we allow it to be desecrated? That is what is the
matter with the Church. We had delivered to us at one time the
pure Church. It came directly from Jesus Christ and His Father.
The Father brought Jesus Christ here with Him to answer the
prayer of a little boy. He introduced His Son to him, "This is
my beloved Son, hear Him." "Join none of them for they have all
gone astray. They worship me with their mouths, but their hearts
are far from me. " Let us read the testimony of Joseph. Let us
believe that he was a pure boy, that he did see the Father and
the Son, and that we are obligated to him for the testimony that
he left. Let us repent of our sins and get down to business
before it is too late.
You can talk about great artists. Many of us think we have
accomplished great things by being able to paint great pictures,
but let us take one look at the picture that the Lord has
painted before our eyes, and we can't see it. He says in this
book:
(Third Nephi - 21:14, 15)
"Yea, wo be unto the Gentiles except they repent; for it
shall come to pass in that day, saith the Father, that I
will cut off thy horses out of the midst of thee, and I
will destroy thy chariots;
And I will cut off the cities of thy land, and throw down
all thy strongholds.
(Verse 12)
And my people who are a remnant of Jacob will be among the
Gentiles, yea, in the midst of them as a lion among the
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beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of
sheep, who, if he go through both treadeth down and teareth
in pieces, and none can deliver."
All we can see are a few Lamanite people that roam in our midst,
but little do we know what the Lord has done. Talk about a
great artist.
Last night I turned the porch light on and stood inside the
house for a few moments. One of the armies of the Lord came and
covered the screen of the stormdoor. We think little of these
flying ants we see. Do you know what the scriptures say? It
says that one of these times there will be a fly come out of
Egypt, and it will bite the people, and worms will eat the flesh
from their bones. You don't believe it. It is already being
done in these foreign countries.
I read a piece not very long ago about a jet that took off
from the airfield. It started out, and a flock of birds went in
front of the jet and wrecked it and killed all the people.
Every once in a while, He sends a whirlwind that kills a lot of
people and destroys a lot of property. According to the Prophet
Joseph Smith, all these things will take place before men who
were then living close their eyes in death. If you think you
have another hundred years coming to repent in, I don't know how
you figure it. I don't think I have.
Let us get down to business now, my brothers and sisters,
and pray to God night and day for deliverance, because we need
it. It is here upon us. Let us realize it, not only in words
but in deeds also. Let us get the Spirit of God and keep it.
Let us clean up our minds. Let us rid them of all evil and
think about nothing but the way to get back into the presence of
our Father and be counted one with Him in His great work of
creation of what we can see around us. May God bless you, in
the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
1090
SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, AUGUST 3, 1975,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
Once more our hearts are filled with gratitude to see this
room well filled this afternoon. We should be the most thankful
people on the earth for being allowed to assemble under the
direction of the Priesthood and be instructed by them. However,
we are grieved, at this time, to announce that next Tuesday at
one o'clock, funeral services for Brother Hammon's little two
year old girl, Merle, will be held in this room.
I hope that we can draw in the wanderings of our minds and
be instructed this afternoon by the words that we hear. Our
opening song will be number 46.
*
*
*
*
I am grateful, my brothers and sisters, for the opportunity
to bear my testimony to the truthfulness of the Gospel of Jesus
Christ. I trust that the few moments I speak the Lord will
bless me with words that we might be built up in our
determination to go on and do the things that we have been
instructed to do this afternoon.
The Lord has plainly told us that He is a jealous God, that
He is no respecter of persons, that we are all the creations of
His hands, and that He loves us all. It is a great trial to Him
to have to destroy that which He has created. So we are here,
and we are born under the new and everlasting covenant; we have
all the rights to the Priesthood and the blessings of God that
He has promised to the faithful, if we will do one thing--that
is; Love Him, and next, love our neighbor as ourselves. Upon
these two commandments, He says, hinges all the law and the
Gospel. So, let us learn to be kind to one another, learn to
overcome our weaknesses of criticism and fault-finding, and
cease to take advantage of one another. Let us learn to build
each other up and leave a word of encouragement to one another.
In Section 63 of the Doctrine & Covenants, we are told that
the Lord will not be mocked in the latter days. This is quite a
statement. When I see the great trend of people today, the
great cry of the Latter-day Saints is to go to the temples and
be married for time and all eternity; but the ordinances of the
temples have been changed in my days. They do not receive the
same instructions
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today that were given to us when I went through the temple. I
went through the temple first in 1914. The last time I was
permitted to go through the temple was in 1928. In that short
period of time, great changes had taken place. So, I know that
the changes that have been made over the years are mockery in
the sight of our Father; for He is not pleased with the
Latter-day Saints, including a great number of the
Fundamentalist arm of the Latter-day Saints.
There may be some that are striving with their might to
receive the blessings that Brother Hammon has been telling us
about this afternoon; but when I see the trend of conversation,
and the actions of our people, I wonder how long it is going to
take to bring enough saints up to please the Lord.
At the time Christ visited the Nephite people upon this
continent, the story says that He left the body of the people
and went a little way off and prayed to our Father in Heaven.
In His prayer, He said these words: O, will there be any faith
when I come? He had been telling the people that He would come
again to redeem His people. The great destruction that had
taken place was to destroy the wicked, that there might be some
salvation for the more righteous among them.
My brothers and sisters, this is a great day in which we
live. It is a day of preparation; every man and woman that will
prepare their hearts and their minds to receive the blessings of
eternal life can receive them, for the Lord has said so. He has
plainly told us that all who will repent and sin no more, He
will remember their sins no more before His face. But it is
when they sin again that their former sins come back upon them.
When this happens, it is a hard thing to shake off our
imperfections again. So let us remember this. Let us remember
to keep the covenants that we make with our Father in Heaven
from time to time, whether it be solemn covenants that we make
in private or whether it be at the water's edge when we ask for
baptism for the remission of our sins. If it is at the waters
of baptism, let us remember that we make a covenant that we will
not sin any more. The Lord has said that if we will keep that
covenant, then He is bound. But when we break the covenant that
we make, we have no promise.
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Let us go to from this meeting this afternoon, and let us
make a solemn covenant with our Father in Heaven that we will
overcome our weaknesses and imperfections, and then let us work
on them. Let us show the Lord that we mean business, then He can
commence to smile upon us, He can commence to bless us. We can
commence to control the elements, control our enemies and those
who seek our destruction, for they will dare not to come among
us.
My brothers and sisters, great are the blessings that await
us if we will do these things, if we will repent of our sins and
draw near unto the Lord night and day for that is what we are
going to have to do, He has said so. He said that the time
would come when we would have to pray night and day for
deliverance. Let us not wait until it is too late to start.
Let us take Him at His word. Let us bow the knee and implore
Him in deep humility to forgive us of our sins and shortcomings.
Let us build up a people and a community that He can commence
His great work--the Millennial Reign. It can start right here
if we want it to. If we want it bad enough we can get it.
Let us keep the commandments of God. Let us do what He has
asked us to do and see if He won't pour out blessings that we
are not able to contain, I pray for these things in the name of
Jesus Christ, amen.
1093
BENEDICTION BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON AUGUST 10, 1975,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, AR1ZONA
Our Father in Heaven, we come before thee at the close of
these services. We thank thee, Father, for the chastisement that
we have received and for the encouragement that we have received
this afternoon. We are grateful for the privilege of living in
this day and for the opportunity we have of cleaning up our
lives and being more determined in our make-up, cleaning up our
bodies, our minds, and our determination to serve you and keep
your commandments.
We know, Father, that we are not past the time of
redemption. There is time for us to clean up our lives and draw
near unto you that the blessings of eternal life may be obtained
by those who are determined within themselves to obtain this
great blessing.
Now, we bring your attention to the incident of Ninevah,
when you sent Jonah down to preach repentance to them, and they
listened and turned unto thee. Now, we pray that this same
blessing might settle upon this place, that the preparation
might commence here for the redemption of thy great work. We
have the Priesthood; we have the authority; we have the ability
and the manhood and womanhood to accomplish this great work if
you will just put it in our hearts to do so. Help us to
overcome our weaknesses and imperfections and live close to
thee, we humbly pray, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
1094
REMARKS GIVEN BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, AUGUST 17, 1975,
SUNDAY, IN SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
I am grateful for this privilege, my brothers and sisters,
of being here this afternoon, I do not know of a time in my life
when I have gone to a meeting of this kind that I was sorry that
I went. So, I am certainly pleased to be here, to hear the
testimonies of the elders and to be numbered among you, my
brothers and sisters. We are all here for the same purpose of
being instructed. The Lord is kind to us to allow us to be
together once in a while and listen to what He has to deliver to
us, and I trust that the few moments I occupy this position that
God will pour out His Spirit upon me that I might be able to
further encourage you to do something about your salvation.
Every time the brethren speak, I see something that I need
to do to straighten up my life. We are all human beings and are
subject to the temptations of evil. We are subject to
misgivings, and a lot of times we give way to the enticings of
Satan. I hope that we can bring ourselves out of the delusion
that has been spoken of and prepare ourselves against the day
when the Lord is turning those over to the buffetings of Satan
who are disobedient.
I can't help but allow my mind to look over the condition
of the human race. We are all the children of our Father, and
He is a just God. He loves His children, and He will do
anything for them that He can do to keep them from going into
dissolution. He has granted us the principle of repentance, and
repentance means to cease to do evil. It is through cleaning up
our lives and ceasing to do evil that we get the Spirit of God.
The man or woman or child that is possessed with the Spirit of
God is happy. True happiness comes through keeping the
commandments of the Lord.
The Lord has plainly told us how to get His Spirit and how
to keep it. Brother Musser has plainly laid before us today one
of the ways to clean up our minds and to get the Spirit of God
and keep it, and that way is to remove all evil from our eyes.
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The Lord goes a long way to influence the human mind to look at
things. You can take an artist. He sees a beautiful picture
and immediately his mind begins to wander around, and he desires
to paint a picture. This is what the Lord has tried to do in
all of the revelations of this book. He has tried to put before
the people a picture that they would like to imitate and put
into their minds. That is what Brother Hammon meant when he
called our attention to that wonderful Section sixty-three in
the Doctrine & Covenants. It is just like all the other
Sections in the book, but there is a lot to it. It tells us a
lot of things right from the very first verse to the last one,
and it would do you well to read it and ponder upon it. It tells
us in there that the Lord will not be mocked in the last days.
He tells us what will happen to the mocker, and those who will
not cease to do evil.
I don't know what more could be said than what has been
said this afternoon. But I would like to admonish you people--I
might be speaking over the heads of a lot of people here today.
Brother Musser, Brother Timpson and Brother Hammon have talked
over the heads of a lot of people. You already know what we
have been talking about, but there are a lot of people here
today that might need this--this kind of instruction. So we
come here to be instructed. Each and everyone of us have come
here to be instructed and to be built up in our determination to
serve God and keep His commandments. It would do my heart good
to see a thousand times more people here than we are talking to
today to listen to what we have had to say--what the Lord has
had to say to you, for He has been kind to you.
I want to bear this testimony to you that I worked a long
while trying to find out why I couldn't get the Spirit of God
and keep it. Finally, through listening to the sermons of
President Barlow and President Joseph Musser I began to do
something about these things. I began to clean the pictures out
of my home that tend to bring the spirit of evil in. And I do
not want to leave out LeGrand Woolley (there were many times
that
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LeGrand Woolley came into my home for just a few minutes and
gave me a few ideas on how to get the Spirit of God and keep
it.)
We dedicate a person's home and tell them to keep it in a
dedicated condition. How can we keep it in a dedicated
condition? By keeping evil out of it. If I know a man is evil
or a woman is evil and I have their picture hanging on my wall I
am not doing what the brethren have told me to do to clean up my
home and to keep it in a dedicated condition. I have tried to
keep this spirit out of my home. I like to go into a room where
I have nothing but the influence of my brethren, or women that I
know have been righteous women. So, let us clean up and do what
the brethren have asked us to do--clean up our minds and our
homes and our surroundings. Let us get ourselves in a condition
so we will be prepared when the Lord pours out His judgments
upon those around us who do not have the power to repent and
come unto Him.
Some of us may wonder why the Lord is bound to destroy the
wicked. He has said that His Spirit would not always strive
with men. He will strive with them; He will be kind enough to
lay before them the principles of salvation. Since the days of
the Prophet Joseph Smith, thousands upon thousands of men have
been called on missions; and they went out and testified that
Joseph was a Prophet.
They have these works printed in every language upon the
earth. The Book of Mormon etc., are on the shelves of every
library in the world. People seeking for information can get
it. So, we are left without excuse. If we are seeking for
something to do about our salvation, we can get it. If we are
seeking for pleasure, we can get that. If we are seeking for
entertainment, we can get it. We can get anything we want if we
will go out after it. But for a person to obtain an eternal
salvation, he must do the things that God has designed that he
shall do in order to round out his salvation.
Let us go to, my brothers and sisters, and get the Spirit
of God and keep it, not only within ourselves but in those
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we have jurisdiction over. Let us see to it that we all enjoy
that sweet spirit of peace which goes with the Gospel of Jesus
Christ, I humbly pray in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
1098
SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, AUGUST 24, 1975,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
Again, I am grateful, my brothers and sisters, for this
wonderful opportunity of beholding this vast audience here this
afternoon and to stand before you in health and strength. The
Lord is good to us. I pray that He will bless me with words,
that we might be built up in our faith and ambition to serve Him
and keep His commandments.
I want to mention, especially, my gratitude for this
wonderful stand we have. It is a wonderful improvement in this
building for us to be able to stand where we can look down over
the audience and be permitted to go a little farther in our
efforts to serve the Lord and keep His commandments.
When I go over the scriptures and try to compare them with
the day we live in, I find that we are living in a great day.
Great things have taken place in the last twenty years--much
greater than the average man can fathom. Great preparation is
being made. The Lord is God, and He knows what He has in mind
to do. He is the Creator of our bodies. He is the Creator of
our souls. He knows our make-up. He says that He is very
jealous of His workmanship.
We go into a great shoe manufactoring shop, and we see the
shoes made and produced. They are put on the belt, and they go
by the inspector, who inspects by the thousands a minute in a
factory. The inventor of the institution is very proud of the
accomplishment that he has made. He ships shoes all over the
world that have his brand on--his trademark. He hates to see
them misused. They are there to serve the public. But he
creates so many of them that after they leave the factory, he
loses sight of them. He doesn't know what becomes of them after
that.
The Lord, I imagine, has a greater institution than that.
There is a great audience here today of the workmanship of our
Father. It is true that God is the Creator. No one else can
create what I see here today and put life into it, power to
think, power to feel and speak and converse with one another and
so forth. The Lord says many times in His revelations that He
has given to the Prophet Joseph Smith chat His word is more
powerful than a
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two-edged sword to cut asunder the marrow and the bone and so
forth. So, it must be a pretty sharp tool which He has. He
uses the expression to impress upon the minds of His servants
that He means what He says. He says that He is a God of truth,
and a God that keeps His word, When He says that He will do a
thing, He will do it; and we don't need to kid ourselves.
I would like to draw a few comparisons here this afternoon.
A few years ago, the Lord told me that He was going to send a
drought upon the land. At the time, we had a little herd of
sheep. I immediately told Orval to go to the man that owned the
sheep and tell him that if he wanted to realize anything out of
his sheep, he had better find a buyer and sell them. At that
time, to the average person, it seemed foolish. We were in
comparative prosperity then. But, Orval didn't lose any time.
He went into town, saw the man, and told him. The man laughed
at him and said, "What is the matter? Are you weak? Can't you
stand a little drought? I have seen many droughts. We have gone
through them and come out and gone on and been better off."
Orval said, "Well, that may be true. I am not afraid to go on
with this herd if you want to go with me. But my father told me
to come to you and tell you that we are in the throes of a
drought and that if you want anything out of your sheep, you had
better sell them."
He didn't argue any more. He went home, but a little later
he saw Orval and said, "I went home and opened the Book of
Mormon. I read Third Nephi where Christ says, 'I will throw
down their strongholds and destroy their chariots, and my
people, who are a remnant of Jacob, will walk through and tread
them down, and they will be as a lion among the sheep--a young
lion that when he goeth through both treadeth down and teareth
in pieces, and none can deliver, '" He said, "For some reason, a
shiver went down my backbone; and the next day, I was out
hunting a buyer for my sheep." He found a buyer and got top
price for his sheep. A few months later, the drought had
produced to a point that the price of hay went up where a lot of
men could not afford to feed cattle. The result was that the
market was flooded, both with cattle and sheep.
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Inside of three months the price had gone down considerably on
livestock. Since that time, we have had some rain in some spots
in the West here. From Filmore to the Idaho border, they have
had excess wet along the mountain ranges, but in the valleys,
the Lord has withheld the rain.
A week ago, I thought I would take a little vacation. I
went to Los Angeles and up the Coast to Portland, Oregon, and
back to Salt Lake. I have never seen the country so dry as it
is today. There is no green grass. The trees seem to be green,
but the grass is as dry as can be right out to the ocean's edge.
The only place we saw any green along the West Coast was where
people irrigated alfalfa, and the crops that were irrigated
looked good. The country looked like it was ready for the
burning. If a match got started in one place, and the wind was
proper, it would take the whole West, because of the drought.
My mind went back to the scriptures again. In the days of
Israel, the Lord told the prophets that there would be seven
years of plenty, and then there would be seven years of famine.
If the people would take care of what they could raise in the
seven years of plenty, they would have something to go through
the famine with. But they didn't listen to the prophets. When
there is plenty, there is plenty; and we don't need to worry.
We are like Uncle Josh in the funny papers. He said to Cy
Huskin one day, "I notice a hole in the roof of your house. Why
don't you get it fixed?" Cy said, "I don't need to fix it. When
it doesn't rain, it doesn't leak." "Well then, now is the time
to fix it." "Well, when it doesn't rain, it doesn't leak, and
when it's raining, I can't fix it because it is raining." And
that is the way it goes.
So, when we have plenty, we don't know how to take care of
it. We don't have to take care of it, because we have plenty to
eat and plenty to drink--plenty of water and plenty of
everything else. Yet, when a famine came, the people of old had
to travel great distances in order to get food to preserve life.
The Prophet Heber C. Kimball said, "There is a great
famine coming." I can't figure anything else but that the Lord
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has tried to get the people for years to preserve that which we
have in such a way that we can use it in case of need. It seems
as though the more we have tried to preserve, the greater the
law of destruction has been to take away from us that which we
have. Why is it? The Lord has said to us that if we would keep
His commandments, He would provide for us. He said, "I will
protect my saints when tribulations come if I have to send fire
from Heaven to do so." We have the promise that this Gospel of
the Kingdom will not be taken away until the sons of Levi do
offer again an offering unto the Lord in righteousness.
I am afraid we depend too much upon the protection of the
Lord, thinking that we are okay. We have been baptized, had
hands laid upon us for the gifts of the Holy Ghost, had the
Priesthood given to us, and we have the authority to use the
Priesthood. But the Lord tells us that we have got to keep His
commandments. What are His commandments? "Come out of her, O
ye, my people, and be not partakers of her sins." But we can't
do it, it seems like. We have to go among the Gentiles to make
our daily bread, to fetch in enough money to pay off the
obligations that we have contracted. About every young man that
has started out for himself is deeply in debt. There are a few
who have been wise in their efforts to keep out of debt. A few
have done a very good job. But the majority of our young men
are deeply in debt. So, we haven't come out of her like the
Lord has told us to.
Again, I notice another thing. Our visit with John today
brought to our attention the increase in number among the Navajo
Indians. In 1953, when the people were taken out of this place,
we were confronted with the thought that our children would be
taken away and adopted out, because of our belief and the way we
were living. But the Lord came to our rescue, and He brought to
the attention of the attorneys the fact that no child could be
adopted out without the written consent of the parents. Until
this time, for many many years, the government had been taking
the children away from the Indians, or the Lamanites, as fast as
they were born and adopting them out and sending them all over
the world. Not only in our own country, but some were sent to
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Germany, and some to France and other nations. But when our
people were taken and this fact was brought to the attention of
the court, this vast taking away of the children of the
Lamanites ceased. Today we have a new generation of these
people coming up. They are ambitious. They are not quick to
give up their way of life, even though they are educated. They
feel, and it has been the tradition among them, that the white
man came in and took their land away from them and pushed them
back onto the reservations and held them there all through these
generations of time since the white man first came here. All
this goes to show that the scriptures are being fulfilled.
When I go out on the streets of the cities of this nation,
what do I see? I see this generation of people fast being
degraded. In another decade, unless something transpires, we
will find that this generation of people won't be any better
looking or any more enlightened than the benighted Indian that
was found when Columbus came here. Just go out there and look
around and see what you see.
Now, the Lord means what He says when He says that His word
is sharper than a two-edged sword. When He says that He will
destroy those who will not keep His commandments, He means it!
He means for His people to come out from the Gentiles, accept
the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and apply it to their
lives, and let Him bless us. He can shower blessings upon us
greater than the Gentiles can if we will but accept them. But,
He has given us trials time and again, and we have fallen short.
We have failed to make the grade.
Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. God meant what He said
when He told him that none of the churches was right and to join
none of them; for they are all an abomination in His sight.
"Except they repent and turn unto me, " He said, "I will have to
destroy them." He hasn't said how He would destroy them, except
that the remnant of Jacob would walk through them and tread them
down. But He has offered to the blood of Ephraim His protection
to those who will repent of their sins and turn unto Him and
prepare their lives to become saints.
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(D. & C. Section 38:1-5)
"Thus saith the Lord your God, even Jesus Christ, the Great
I AM, Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the same
which looked upon the wide expanse of eternity, and all the
seraphic hosts of heaven, before the world was made;
The same which knoweth all things, for all things are
present before mine eyes;
I am the same which spake, and the world was made, and all
things came by me.
I am the same which have taken the Zion of Enoch into mine
own bosom; and verily, I say, even as many as have believed
in my name, for I am Christ, and in mine own name, by the
virtue of the blood which I have spilt, have I pleaded
before the Father for them.
But behold, the residue of the wicked have I kept in chains
of darkness until the judgment of the great day, which
shall come at the end of the earth."
Now, you can go and read the rest of it. The Lord isn't
kidding us, my brothers and sisters. He means what He says. He
has said that He would save every person that would prepare
themselves against the day of visitation. He says, "I will take
the young and middle-aged and redeem Zion."
The record tells us that the most righteous people that we
have any account of in the Book of Mormon days were the
descendants of' Laman and Lemuel, after they were converted. We
want to remember, too, that there is a great deal of the blood
of the Nephite people among these benighted Lamanites. It is
true that they fell into darkness, and they wandered to and fro
in the earth for many many generations. They have been pushed
to the wall. But when they become educated and brought up, what
can the Lord do
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with them? We are not the only people that the Lord has or that
He will use in the redemption of Zion. He does want enough of
the blood of Ephraim to be the leadership. He has to have them.
Where are they coming from? Are we going to wait to find
another people somewhere? Or are we going to take advantage of
the opportunity we have and prepare ourselves against the day of
visitation when He is pours out His judgments upon the wicked?
We live in a great day. The Lord is forcing us to a point
where we will get down on our knees and cry to Him night and day
for deliverance. At the present time, we have to make a living.
We find ourselves in a sad situation. Had the Latter-day Saints
kept the commandments of God, they would have been able to
protect themselves in the day of tribulation. But they have
lost all their strongholds. The Lord has thrown them down,
because of transgression, because they have treated lightly the
things they have received. We are under condemnation, and we
will have to remain there until we come out from under it.
Again, I want to say that this is an individual
responsibility to prepare ourselves against the day of
visitation. If we have to go out among the Gentiles to make a
living, let us be not partakers of their sins. We don't have to
partake of their sins just because we work among them. The Lord
says, "Pray always that my Spirit might continue with you." So,
let us have a prayer in our hearts that the Lord will protect us
from the evils that we work among, that we can close our ears to
what we hear, or what is said that is not good. Let us hold
fast to that which is good and discard the evil that we have
partaken of.
Now, I pray that God will bless us with wisdom, knowledge,
and understanding, and that we will hasten to change our ways
and serve God and keep His commandments. Remember that we don't
have to go out and learn Catholicism, Baptistism, or any other
ism. We need nothing but the word of God to direct our lives,
then we will become a light and delightsome people. We will
find favor in the sight of God, and He will protect us in our
days of trial and tribulation. But unless we do something about
it, my
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brothers and sisters, we are going to find ourselves in deep
trouble. It is not very far off.
Let us repent of our sins while it is yet today. Let us
not wait until it is night, and then say, "Oh, Lord, I wish I
had been better. Will you please protect me and give me another
chance?" I pray that the Spirit of God will settle upon us, and
that we will prepare ourselves against the day of visitation,
and that every man here will prepare himself to become a leader,
to take part in the redemption of the children of Israel. God
bless you, amen.
1106
SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON AUGUST 31, 1975,
SUNDAY, AT COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
I am grateful for the blessings of the Lord that He has
poured out upon us. I trust that the moments I occupy this
position that the Lord will dictate my remarks. I can't help
but recognize the goodness of God to us in opening the way
whereby we might be amply prepared for another winter. I have
been greatly impressed for sometime to encourage our people to
take care of all surplus vegetables and fruit that come their
way. Be diligent in seeing to it that it is well taken care of,
because we are going to need it. When I go into the grocery
stores throughout the breadth of the State, I find great crowds
of people living out of the stores.
The stores are doing a great business even though the
prices of commodities have gone up to an outrageous price. I
picked up an item in the grocery store the other day, and on the
outside of the package there were five different prices. About
a year ago the same article was obtained for about sixty-nine
cents; raised to seventy-nine cents and then to ninety-nine
cents. The price today is two dollars and forty cents. This is
the way foodstuff has advanced in price. The outlook for labor
and money making is very great at the present time. There seems
to be a movement on foot to get a little money into the hands of
those who have to labor for a livelihood, but how long it will
last no one knows.
We are living in perilous times. This we know, because of
the revelations that God has given us. We have been dilatory in
keeping the counsels that have been given to us, so we find
ourselves in the condition that is very vexing in the sight of
the Lord, because He loves to bless His people. Whenever a
people has been called to repentance throughout the history of
time and they have repented and turned unto the Lord, He has
opened the windows of Heaven and poured out blessings to them,
and they have become a wealthy people. But when they have
turned their backs upon Him and have gone their own way, they
have had to suffer, and great has been their suffering in many
cases.
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We live on the verge of a great destruction. In the
words of the Prophet Joseph Smith, this nation is right on the
verge of one of the greatest scenes of bloodshed that the world
has ever known. History tells us of many great battles even
upon this land. Great destruction has taken place. So it has
been well said here today--do not kid ourselves on the
proposition that we are righteous enough to escape the judgments
of God. Let us live from hour to hour the best we can, and let
us apply to our lives the counsels of the Lord and be prepared,
that when the destroying angels invade us they might pass us by
and allow us to take our place in that great army that the Lord
has got to have in order to perfect His work. The only way it
can come about is through individual preparation.
We do not have to publish our faults and failings in order
to overcome them. All we need to do is go to the Lord-confess
our sins and our faults and failings and ask Him for help. If
you are sincere in your heart, He will help you. If you go
half-heartedly, He may not help you for sometime. For remember,
He has said that if we will draw near to Him in our days of
peace, then in our days of trial He can be found. It is when we
forget Him in our days of peace that He is hard to find when we
need Him.
Let us keep in mind these simple principles that the Lord
has given us for our individual edification. Let us get busy
with ourselves and work upon our weaknesses and imperfections
and overcome them and teach ourselves to love our neighbor as
ourselves and to love the Lord with all our might, mind, and
strength. We cannot love the Lord with all our might, mind and
strength and still be hateful against our neighbors. Let us
overlook their faults and failings, and after a while they won't
be faults and failings. You will find they are working as well
as you are; and the first thing you know, we will be going down
the road together.
This life is what we make it. We can make it one of
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peace and happiness. We can have peace and happiness and joy in
our everyday lives and in our living, or we can have turmoil in
our homes. We can have the pleasures of the world and go out
and mingle with the world, but when we come home, we wish we had
stayed home.
Now let us get busy with ourselves and perfect our lives in
a way that the Lord can use us when He calls for His help. It
may be some time for He has told us His army must be very great,
and He has got to have a people He can trust. He has to have a
people that can go among the wicked and still keep the Spirit of
God upon them, You boys that are working for the Gentiles, see
to it that you do not partake of their spirit. Have a prayer in
your heart continuously that God will preserve your purity and
that you will be able to become vessels of honor before our
Father in Heaven. And you girls, in all your activities, see to
it that you do not partake of the evils of this day or let down
the bars in any way, shape, or form, that you incur the
criticism of our Father or our Mother in Heaven.
Let peace adorn thine habitations from day to day. Let us
create the spirit of love towards our neighbors. Let us not
forget that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God, and that he
actually saw the Father and the Son and they spoke to him; and
they conversed with him, and they told him what to do to perfect
a people that might be used in the redemption of Zion. This has
been the cry throughout the ages of time--prepare yourselves for
a glorious Millennial Reign. For this is the day that all the
holy prophets have desired to live and see. Even Enoch was
promised of the Lord that he and his people would come back and
take part in that great and glorious period of time.
Now I pray, my brothers and sisters, that we will listen to
the whisperings of the Spirit, for the Lord is not very far off.
He will hear and answer your prayers if you are sincere in your
hearts and are determined to work out your salvation in
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fear and trembling before Him. This is what He said you would
have to do to purify your lives; because Zion cannot be redeemed
only upon the principles of the Celestial Kingdom. In the
Celestial Kingdom you will find no sin, for those who enter
therein will have to be prepared for that great blessing.
Now, I pray that God will bless us with wisdom, knowledge,
and understanding, and that we will hasten to apply the
knowledge He has already given us to our lives and prepare
ourselves against the day of visitation, I humbly pray in the
name of Jesus Christ, amen.
1110
SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, SEPTEMBER 14,
1975,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
I pray for the Spirit of God to direct my remarks this
afternoon. I am here because of the faith I have in this people
preparing themselves for the work ahead. I am grateful for the
testimony that God has given us of the Gospel of Jesus Christ
and for the privilege of working out our salvation in fear and
trembling before Him. He says, "I have to have a tried people.
My people shall be a tried people." He has to test every
individual that takes part in the redemption of Zion. He has
left us without excuse.
The Lord and His Son Jesus Christ appeared to the Prophet
Joseph. Joseph was delivered enough for the salvation of the
human family. The Savior told the Prophet Joseph to go bear
testimony to the world of what he had seen and heard; and all
who would believe would be saved, and those who would not
believe would be damned. It is summed up in just that many
words. We don't have to go to great lengths with words to tell
people in what way they will be damned and what way they will be
saved. It is simple and to the point. All we need to do is
find the answer to two questions that were asked this morning.
You men were here, all of you, and heard the questions. And it
is your place to dig the answers out.
One of the questions was: The Lord says that His Spirit
will not always strive with man, or in other words, the Spirit
of God is easily grieved. Once it is grieved, it withdraws from
us, and it is hard to get it back. I will read the question as
it was given to us this morning. What is meant by this?
(D. & C. Section 1:31)
"For I the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree
of allowance."
In another place, the Lord says, "If you break the least of
these commandments, you are guilty of the whole." If this be the
case, then it is evident that the other is true also. If I
commit sin, I am under condemnation until I repent. The Lord
will not forgive
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me until I meet the requirements for the sin that I have
committed. If I break a commandment of God, I am guilty of
breaking all the commandments, and I am under condemnation. I
can't live under condemnation and apply part of the commandments
of God to my life. I can't do it. That is what is the matter
with this people.
We do not believe that the Lord means what He says. If we
did, we would be a better people; we would bring ourselves out
from under the condemnation that God placed us under and told us
we would remain there until we repented. That one remark alone
shows us that the Lord meant what He said when He said that He
doesn't look upon sin with the least degree of allowance;
neither can we break one commandment of God and live all the
rest and be saved; because we are damned as soon as we break a
commandment of God unless we repent of that sin.
It is just that important in our lives, my brothers and
sisters, to bring about our eternal salvation. He says, "Be ye
pure." We can't be pure and have evil thoughts. So it is a
continual struggle. We are being tried everyday. Every man and
every woman is being tried every day. So, let us cease this
failing of repenting in our hearts while we are in the meeting,
then go out and talk about our justifications after we get away
from the meeting.
This is a great day in which we live. The principle of
repentance covers a lot of ground. As long as we live, we have
the privilege of repenting of our sins. We can't get together
in a crowd and talk about the ways and means of overcoming some
of our imperfections. We know what is good and what is evil in
our hearts and in our minds. The thing we have to do is go to
our Heavenly Father and ask Him to help us overcome them. You
don't have to go to your neighbor to find out from him or her
how to do it. All he can do is tell you to go to the Lord and
work out your salvation.
I might think a man is ever so unworthy of salvation. Yet,
little do I know what he is struggling with or what he has in
his heart. The Prophet Joseph Smith was accused of many things,
many misgivings; and the Lord, time and again, rebuked men for
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railing against His servant, Joseph. So, each one of you people
has an opportunity to work out your salvation in fear and
trembling before the Lord. As we work out our salvation and we
become worthy of blessings, the opportunity will be given to us.
We receive blessings as we are prepared to receive them.
I find that there are a lot of people who do not believe in
even the marriage covenant or the system of marriage, the way
the Lord would like to have it done. We want it done our way.
That is the way that has been taught us all our lives. We think
it is permissible to go the way of the world to obtain
women--wives, and wives to obtain husbands. But it is the most
sacred law that God has given to men. When we look at it from
that standpoint, we will treat it as such. If we have any
desire within us to work out our salvation in fear and trembling
before the Lord, we will fear to offend Him and tremble because
of the results of disobedience.
The Gospel is true whether we believe it or not. The
sooner we get down to business and bring about in our lives the
determination--each individual, boy and girl, man and woman--to
serve God and keep His commandments, the sooner we will have a
prepared people that the Lord can use in the redemption of Zion.
That is the only way that He can get it--through individual
preparation. That is the charge that is put upon every person,
man or woman.
The Priesthood is under the obligation of being guided and
directed by the Spirit of God by revelation. Men are instructed
by the servants of God what to do to work out their salvation.
Men, in turn, instruct their wives what to do to work out their
salvation. There is not one of us that has to go to the
neighbors to find out. We can come to meeting and listen to the
testimonies of the elders, and then go home and start living.
If there is a question in your mind, ask the Lord to open the
mouths of His servants and answer the question for you. That
way you can be instructed. If you can't get the answer from the
proper source at home, you can get it that way. All the
questions can be answered.
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Let us be a better people. Let us be prepared for an
eternal salvation when the time comes. There is not one of us
that knows when our time is here. We are living today; tomorrow
we may be laid away. We have to be prepared for that day which
is to come. We don't have any time to waste. We waste a lot of
time doing the things we want to do rather than the things that
pertain to our eternal salvation. Let us be prepared every
morning to meet the day. We can be. The Lord says, "Pray
always, that my Spirit might continue with you." If you have the
Spirit of God upon you, every move you make during the day will
be according to the will of God; otherwise, you have no promise.
He is a man of His word, and He will live up to every word that
He has said. He expects us to do the same. He expects us to be
as honest as He is.
So, here are a number of things that we can work upon in
our lives and be prepared against the day of visitation when He
prepares the earth for the Millennial Reign. I pray that God
will bless us with wisdom, knowledge, and understanding, and
with a determination to do something about our salvation. I
pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
1114
REMARKS GIVEN BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, SEPTEMBER 21, 1975,
SUNDAY, IN SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
This is a glorious day, my brothers and sisters, to be
living in, and I assure you that I am grateful to the Lord for
this wonderful privilege and especially for the health and
strength that we enjoy--myself as well as you. For we have to
acknowledge that God has been kind to us to allow us the
privilege of being here under such favorable circumstances and
to hear what we have heard today. I hope that we can put into
our lives the saving principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
In this day of preparation we have many things to think upon.
It is not a day of setting in order the House of God, only as we
prepare ourselves to receive the blessings that we have been
reminded of here this afternoon.
This day of preparation is very important in the setting in
order of the House of God, for it is going to take every
individual who will prepare himself and herself for this great
work. They will have all they can do to comply with the
requirements of the One Mighty and Strong. Let us remember
this, my brothers and sisters, that this is the day of
preparation.
We are told that in olden times men spoke as they were
moved upon by the Spirit of the Holy Ghost, or the Spirit of
God, and we can say the same today. Men speak as they are moved
upon by the spirit of the Holy Ghost.
So, let us go to now and obey the instructions that we have
been given and be prepared against the day of visitation, I
humbly pray in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
1115
SERMON BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, SEPTEMBER 28, 1975,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
I am grateful for this wonderful privilege, my brothers and
sisters, of being here this afternoon. I am grateful for all of
you who are here. This room is well filled, and I trust that
the few moments I speak the Lord will bless me with words of
encouragement that we might be built up in our determination to
humble ourselves before Him.
The longer I live, and the more I see the trend of
deviation from the principles of salvation that this great world
of ours is traveling, it makes my heart bleed and keeps me in a
mood that is greatly subdued. I have been brought to a point
where I know that something has got to be done in the minds of
our people, especially you who have been baptized into the
Church and Kingdom of God. This responsibility is great upon
us.
When I see our people partaking of the evils of this day,
my heart sinks. When I see our young men leave this town in the
early hours of the evening and then not return until late at
night, I wonder how their thinking is going. Every young man
that has been added upon by this Priesthood is under the
obligation of rejuvenating his mind and his thinking and
beginning to think more about his eternal salvation and the
eternal salvation of his family. It is a great responsibility
for two young people to be set together in their early life.
And they should not be separated in the early hours of the
evening and the lady be left to take care of the home and the
man be out enjoying himself with some other man, or other men,
unless he has been called to by the proper authority. I see
young men taking off in the early hours of the evening thinking
that they can go out among the Gentiles and be entertained, then
come to these Priesthood meetings. We call a Priesthood meeting
and this building is filled with Priesthood bearers from deacons
to high priests. They come here and are instructed in the
duties of the Priesthood and different organizations of the
Priesthood. And when they go among the Gentiles for
entertainment, they are violating their Priesthood covenants.
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We live in this world and have to partake of the
environments that we find ourselves in. We do not have to
partake of the evils, but we have to live within the environment
of evil. We are here to overcome this. We are taught in these
meetings that it is our duty to overcome all evil and prepare
our minds for a greater light, or life.
I would like to remind this audience that all who are here
are not Ephraimites. We can have hands laid upon our heads and
be given a Patriarchal Blessing. The Patriarch will tell us
that we are of Ephraim, but before he is through, he will say,
"These blessings I pronounce upon your head through your
faithfulness unto the end."
Many men were placed around the Prophet Joseph, great
blessings were given to them by the Lord telling them what they
could attain to if they would keep His commandments. What
became of such men? Men like Sidney Rigdon, Oliver Cowdery,
David Whitmer, Martin Harris, the Law boys, the Higbees and
others? They were called to important positions. Go into
history and see what the Lord had to say to them and the great
blessings He gave them if they would be faithful. They had to
fall by the wayside. They had the opportunity of becoming part
of, or being grafted into the House of Israel, or the House of
Ephraim. But they wouldn't prepare themselves. We are in the
same condition today. The Savior told the Prophet Joseph to go
and preach the principles of salvation to the people, and those
that would accept and apply them to their lives would be saved,
but those who would reject them would be damned. And it will be
just that way.
So, I say again, this is an individual preparation that the
Lord is trying to put over in this day. We also have been
promised that this Gospel of the Kingdom would never be taken
away or given unto another people until the sons of Levi do
offer again an offering unto the Lord in righteousness. What
people was He talking about? Was He talking about the Gentiles?
He was talking about the rightful heirs of the Kingdom--those
who would prepare themselves to receive the Kingdom and carry it
off.
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We find gathered around this Order of Priesthood at the
present time about twice as many as are in this room out of the
millions that have heard the Gospel and heard the testimony of
Joseph Smith. Out of those millions, how many have prepared
themselves to be worthy of the Kingdom of God? The Lord has
said that there would be one of a city and two of a family that
might be prepared to receive the blessings of Ephraim. I have
heard a few of the brethren along the way talk and discuss the
matter. I have wondered why it was that more of my father's
family did not step up to the line and accept the fulness of the
everlasting Gospel. Most of you who are here today have been
acquainted with all those who have really accepted the Gospel
and applied it to their lives of my father's family.
The Lord says, again, "Not all who say, Lord, Lord, will
enter the Kingdom of Heaven." So, it is up to you and me while
we live to prepare ourselves to meet our God. The words of Alma
come back to me. In speaking to the audience, he said, "This is
the day, the day in which you live, to prepare to meet your
God." Some will say, "Well, I will do the best I can, try to be
kind, and when I am dead somebody will do my work for me because
this is the work for the Millennium." But I will tell you, it
will be more like David A. Smith said in my hearing one time.
He said, "If we do not do something about our own salvation, we
are going to find that we will be a long, long while dead before
we have another opportunity." If this is the only opportunity
we are going to have for a good long, long time, we had better
take advantage of it while we have it.
It still remains your responsibility and mine as to how far
we will get in the hereafter, whether we have one wife or ten or
fifteen or twenty. The wives are not going to be able to save
us. Men have got to do something about it. So when are we
going to start in? Are we going to wait until we cannot work
any more and then repent of our sins and turn to God, or are we
going to start now and train ourselves as we grow up in this
work? You young people had better stop and think what you want
and
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whether you want a hereafter or not. If you want to go on to
eternal lives and learn how to become Gods and goddesses, the
opportunity is here. If you do not want it, then for goodness
sake, don't just hang around and make us think you are saints
and you want blessings from the hands of the Priesthood, because
you will find blessings received thus become cursings upon you
sometime or another.
We had better start thinking deeply and thinking quick,
because the day of restitution is drawing close to an end for
most of us. We do not have very much time left to repent of our
sins and shortcomings and prove to the Lord that we are willing
to accept that which He has for us, and do something about it.
Let us serve God and keep His commandments, everyone of us.
Let us begin to get down on our knees and cry for deliverance
that the Lord might deliver us from the hands of the enemies of
righteousness. The Lord has said, "After the testimony of the
elders, then I will preach My Own sermon." I am afraid He has
started now to preach His sermon. This beautiful world of ours
is in a sad way, because it has rejected the prophets and
martyred them. It has rejected the testimony of the elders and
persecuted the saints. Let us not be among the persecutors.
Let us be among the saints of God, and let us try to see if He
will do what He said He will do. He said, "I will protect My
saints if I have to send fire from heaven to do so." And He says
He is a man of His word.
But what is a saint? You can't come to meeting today and
go out and serve the devil tomorrow, then come to meeting and
hear the word of God next Sunday and keep on going that way
until your life is out and feel like you have had a good time.
What will you receive in the end? Let us take these things
under consideration, my brothers and sisters. Let us see what
we need to do to bring ourselves out from under the condemnation
that God placed upon us way back in 1832. He told us we would
remain under that condemnation until we repented. We are no
further advanced today than the people were when Joseph was
speaking to them, when he
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received the revelation and gave it to the people. The Church
of Jesus Christ has made great strides in gathering wealth, but
what have they done about their salvation? Let us think a
little more about our salvation and not quite so much about how
well off we are in a financial way.
Now, I pray God will bless us with wisdom, knowledge, and
understanding, and that we will become a God-fearing people and
that we will commence now to pray to Him night and day for
deliverance from the hands of the enemy, for the enemy of
righteousness is right among us. He is working every day to
destroy the minds of this people. Let us not allow him to get
the upper hand of us, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
1120
A SERMON GIVEN BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, OCTOBER 12, 1975,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
I am grateful for the health and strength we enjoy, my
brothers and sisters, for the privilege of being together under
such favorable circumstances, for we find our people are greatly
blessed this year. The Lord has opened the way for us to obtain
fruit and garden stuff. He has been kind to us, and we should
be the most grateful people on the earth.
I trust that the few moments I speak to you, the Lord will
come to my assistance and give me the proper words to say. We
can count our blessings day after day, and this proves to us one
thing--that the Lord is willing to go all out to pour out His
blessings upon those who seek to serve Him and keep His
commandments. At the same time, He allows us to be tried and
tested.
We have heard a lot said today about loving the Lord and
loving our neighbors as ourselves. These are necessary
commandments in our lives, and we should not cease to strive
night and day to perfect them and to bring them about in our
homes and in our everyday walks of life wherever we are. We
should have enough of the Spirit of the Lord upon us that we can
go and come in peace and safety--even among those who would like
to see us destroyed. The Lord requires that we keep on striving
every moment of our lives to try to bring about His purposes in
the earth.
We think about the United Order; we think about the
Celestial Law, and how they ought to be lived and complied with.
There are other things that need to be brought into order in our
lives that are just as necessary as these higher laws. Unless
we know the first ordinances of the Gospel and how to comply
with them, it does not do us much good to think about Celestial
Marriage or how to live the United Order. We have a lot of
little things in the home--close to home--that would put us a
long way ahead if we could just bring ourselves into submission
enough to not overlook them and seek for these greater things.
I would like to bring to your attention a few of them if I can.
We live here in an isolated spot in the earth, in the
nation--out away from our neighbors. We came here so that we
could live close to the Lord and get His blessings upon us, that
we could raise our children in schools that
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would be more desirable to our hearts, that we might raise up a
generation of people that the Lord could use.
My attention has been drawn to the fact that a good many of
our children are kept at home, and that brings down the daily
attendance of our schools. We keep them out of school, and then
we wonder why they are not graduating with greater marks in
school. We should see to it that they are in school, because
every day you allow them out of school, you are allowing them to
be taught in a different way than what you anticipated in the
first place. Unless you are capable of teaching them in the
home and bringing up their grades, you are not preparing
yourself for the United Order.
Now you might think this is far-fetched. It isn't. We
come here to learn how to keep the commandments of God, and one
of the commandments of God is to be cooperative in our attitudes
in the things that we do. If we are going to have schools that
we can depend upon to teach our children as near correct as
possible and bring them out of the world, then it is up to us to
make it. If we cannot cooperate with the teachers and bring
them along, we are not preparing ourselves for the United Order.
In unity there is strength. When we fall down in our efforts to
bring about a better condition, we fail.
We have had to carry on a program this summer during the
vacation days to keep our unemployed children busy, and they
have done a wonderful job. They have made it possible for the
school to build four more rooms on to this school. I am
grateful for the effort that was put forth by the mothers to get
their children off to work in the mornings. We are not only
grateful for that, but we are grateful for the labors of the
children and the way they worked. They have come here and set
an example to us. Now, let us see to it that they get a fair
chance in the school. Let us not keep them out. Let us see
that they get in there, encourage them to get their lessons, and
let us make men and women out of our children. Let us encourage
our children to be frugal and saving in their habits whether
they have a job all the time or whether they have a job once in
a while. If they get a little money, teach
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them that they should learn to save it to buy some of the
clothes that they wear, shoes and stockings, and dresses and so
forth. Let them learn while they are young to be
self-sustaining in all things, and I believe it is a correct
principle.
I think we ought to teach our children to be saving in
their habits. All these things will go to work for us to help
us make every project that we have in this community go. It has
first got to start in the home. The father and mother have to
have it in their hearts. Then the children will follow their
fathers and mothers. It does not make any difference what
subject we get on, it always reverts back to what Uncle Rich
says every now and then, "The Gospel is true whether we believe
it or not." The Gospel is to get our people--people who have
segregated themselves from the rest of the world--to apply to
their lives the blessings of eternal salvation. For that is
what it amounts to. It all amounts to our eternal salvation,
even the little things in life that we learn tend to bring us up
and put us on our feet and show us the road. Once we get on the
road, let us stay on it. Let us not allow anyone to divert our
minds from that which we know to be true. These are all
principles of salvation and principles of the Gospel.
Let us try with our might to rid our lives of the evils
that beset us, and let us become a God-fearing people. Let us
fear God rather than fear man. Man might destroy the body, but
he can't do anything to the spirit. So let us keep our spirits
right, and let us train them right. Let us take the smallest
child in our midst and commence training it when it first comes,
and then keep on training it. Let us see if we can raise a body
of men and women that the Lord can use in His great work, for He
has got to have them. He has to bring them up from somewhere.
We have the opportunity if we will apply to our lives the simple
things of life and set them in the right direction.
Now, I pray that God will bless us with a knowledge of what
is right and wrong. Let us discard the wrong and hold fast to
the right. Let us apply it to our lives. Let us overcome these
faults and failings we have and help to bring to pass our
eternal salvation.
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Now I do not wish to talk any longer, but I ask God's
blessings upon us that we might hasten to prepare ourselves
against the day of visitation when we are being tested and
tried; for every day is a testing period of our lives. Let us
pass the tests as they come along. Let us not lay aside this
one and that one and think we can overcome it later, because it
is just like paying our taxes or anything else. If we put off
paying our taxes and use the money for something else, it is
pretty hard to get it in our hands again. Paying our tithes is
the same thing. So, let us go down the road and serve God and
keep His commandments, I humbly pray in the name of Jesus
Christ, amen.
1124
A SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, OCTOBER 19,
1975,
SUNDAY, IN SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
I trust that the Lord will bless me this afternoon with
words of encouragement for us. I know we are striving to
prepare ourselves for a great work, and I have found throughout
my life that the Lord is very lenient with us. He is striving
with us day by day to bring us along and build us up to be used
in His work, especially this young generation of our time. The
spirits of these men are very important to our Father in Heaven.
He loves His children. He sent them here for a purpose--to
prepare themselves for a glorious resurrection. That is what
our great work is today--the work of preparation.
Every once in a while, we have men come to us and ask us if
there isn't something they can do to help push the work along a
little faster. Can't you use us for something? In my perusal
of the scriptures, I find that this has been the cry throughout
the generations of time: "Prepare yourselves for that which is
to come." Preparation for an eternal salvation is a lifetime
work. No man has got it made until he has been sealed up unto
eternal life and had his calling and election made sure. No
woman has got it made until she has been called up and told by
the proper authority that her calling and election is made sure.
Every day is a testing day for every individual, and
eternal life comes to those who endure to the end, who are
faithful every day of their lives, who strive with themselves to
overcome their weaknesses and imperfections that they might not
embarrass the Lord or His angels if He were to send them to our
homes. Our homes should be heavenly places to live. We should
live without tribulation or trials. We should live at peace in
our homes daily and cease to strive one against another and to
cause feelings to arise in our bosoms that cause us to complain
against someone else. We should do what the Lord has asked us
to do. First, love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, might,
mind, and strength; and then learn to love our neighbor as
ourselves and be at peace with one another. This should be the
kind of a home that we live in daily. If the Lord wanted to
send one of His angels, he wouldn't be embarrassed by the
conditions of the home.
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Talk about having something to do! We have a job cut out
for us, each one of us, and especially the father of the home or
family. He has all he can do to take care of and bring that
family along and build them up like the Lord would like to have
him do it. If the Lord puts His finger on him and calls him
into a certain job, then he should go to and do the job, but he
shouldn't neglect his family in order to do so. Joseph Smith
had the greatest job of all men in this dispensation. He saw
the Father and the Son. He conversed with them. He saw angels
and he conversed with them, But he was reprimanded if he didn't
teach his children correctly.
So, we have an all-day job, my brothers and sisters, to
rear these large families we have, for they are large. And it
is a great wonder to me that we are able to take care of them in
this day in which we live. We do not need to worry about having
some-thing to do. Even if a man only has a wife and one child,
he has an all-day job, day in and day out, to keep those three
people in the line of their duty and see to it that they commit
no sin or displease the Lord in anyway.
The Lord is willing to strive with us day in and day out,
year in and year out, and walk along with us and help us to do
His will and keep His commandments. Let us not get weary in
well doing. Let us go down the road and do the best we can each
day. At night, let us lay down and think over what or how we
could improve our lives the next day and then strive to improve
them.
We have to make a living. We have to go to work. We have
to get up in the morning and go to work--work for a livelihood
in our day. We have to keep bread on the table. We have to
have something to go with it. And in our day, we have to have
something to buy it with, or we have to make it ourselves and
preserve it. So, we have a job to do to even live. We have a
job to do to keep ourselves in line with that which the Lord has
instructed us to do, to improve our lives, to clean up our minds
and our hearts and live so that we can be counted worthy sons
and daughters of our Father.
Let us go to, my brothers and sisters, and keep the
commandments of God. Let us apply to our lives the knowledge
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that we have of good and evil. Let us stamp out of our lives
everything that is displeasing to the Lord, that in the end we
may be counted worthy of having the approbation of our Father in
Heaven placed upon us in a way that we can be sealed up unto
eternal life.
Now, I pray that we can keep on striving with ourselves to
come along. I notice among our young people that there is a lot
of anxiety as to what they can do to help themselves overcome
their weaknesses and imperfections. These are the trials and
tribulations of everyday living, and these are the things we
have to work with. Fathers and mothers should watch continually
over the actions of their children and keep them in the right
way, that when they become of age, they can start off in life on
the right foot, that they can go on and become fathers and
mothers of righteous men and women. So, we have got an all-day
job, each and everyone of us.
I pray that God will bless us with wisdom, knowledge, and
understanding, and with a determination to seek to strive to
please Him and to bring ourselves to a condition that we can
have hands laid upon us and be sealed up unto eternal life, I
humbly pray in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
1127
REMARKS GIVEN BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, NOVEMBER 2, 1975
SUNDAY, IN SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
I feel, my brothers and sisters, that we have been well
paid for being here this afternoon. We have had an outpouring
of the Spirit of God and have had many testimonies borne to
convince us that the Lord is still working with us and that He
is trying to prepare a people. This word "preparation" is
some-thing I cannot get out of my mind. I have gone back
through the scriptures to try to find out what has been taught
in other dispensations. I find that as far back as we have any
record, we have been told by the Lord to prepare ourselves for a
glorious resurrection. That is the object of our being here.
We cannot all be called into high places. We cannot all be
called into positions of trust, as far as leading the people is
concerned; but, we can set an example--each member of the
Priesthood, each member of the family of the Priesthood can set
examples that can be followed by others in the preparation of
our lives, that we might all be counted worthy of exaltation in
the Celestial Kingdom of our God.
That has been the cry throughout the ages of time. Enoch
was commanded to prepare a people, and he worked for three
hundred years to prepare a people that could be counted worthy
of the approbation of our Father. Since that time, this has
been the great cry throughout the ages of time. The Prophet
Joseph was commanded to preach nothing to this generation but
repentance--repent of our sins and prepare ourselves for a
glorious resurrection.
Let us go to and take note of the things that have been
told us this afternoon and think upon them. Let us push the
trash out of our minds and let these other things take their
place that we might have pure minds. This is what the Lord
wants. He wants us to purify our minds and hearts that we might
be worthy of these great and glorious blessings; because, they
are great and glorious. If we can take these bodies back and
present them to our Father and say we have done our best to
clean them up and to bring them back to Him as pure as He gave
them to us, then we will be counted worthy of exaltation.
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I pray for these things, my brothers and sisters, and for
the hastening on of the preparation of a people that the Lord
can use in the redemption of His work, I pray in the name of
Jesus Christ, amen.
1129
SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, NOVEMBER 3,
1975,
HOME DEDICATION OF ELDER BRUCE WIGHT, SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
I am grateful for this opportunity of being here in Brother
Wight's home. He has a lovely home here and the Lord has
blessed him and blessed his family. I have seen a miracle
performed in the Wight home through the blessings of the Lord.
The Lord loves him--loves him for the effort he is putting forth
to prepare himself for a greater work. We have a lot of other
men in our society that are striving to prepare themselves
against the day of visitation, as the Lord calls it, when He
visits the earth with destruction. He has said that He would
send fire from heaven, if necessary, to protect His saints. We
know He can do this because of the history we have of what took
place when He visited the Nephite people upon this continent.
All we need to do is go back into history and read the
instructions that Christ gave the people after the great
destruction came and killed off the greater part of the
inhabitants of this goodly land.
We should take under consideration the word "dedication"
and find out the full meaning of it, and then read the
instructions that Christ gave the Nephite people. We will find
that we have a lot of work to do to come up to the mark as He
has designed that we should. He has plainly told us that His
work is not like man's work. It is different altogether. Man
is full of the evils that come into the earth. We want to
remember that when Lucifer was cast out of heaven, he was cast
down to this earth. He came here with a host of angels. He
came here for the express purpose of destroying all that he
could destroy. In order to get the full meaning of the word
"dedication" we should think upon it and see what it means and
then apply it to our lives.
We cannot hope to keep all evil out from a home, but we can
cast it out if we are striving to keep the commandments of God.
If we are trying to teach our families correct principles and
how to live, when evil comes in, it can be cast out again.
I tell this incident because it is so outstanding in trying
to keep our homes in a dedicated condition: A few years ago my
telephone rang. A voice said, "This is so and so, and I would
like to come up and visit with you and have a talk with you."
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I did not know who he was, but I thought maybe it was somebody
that wanted to be instructed in our way of belief. So, I told
him to come in, and I listened to him. I sat him down on the
chair that I had there by my desk--the arm chair. He conversed
for a few moments, then he began to turn and twist in his chair.
He said, "What is the matter in here? I can't get out of this
chair. I want to know what is the matter in here." He said, "I
came here with a full determination to beat the hell out of you,
but I can't get up out of this chair." So I walked around in
front of him and walked over to the door and opened it. I said,
"Well, you can go out now." He walked over to the top of the
stairs and turned around and said, "I will be back in a few
days, and I will beat the hell out of you." I said, "You go down
the stairs where the air is fresh and you will feel better." He
went down the stairs and out the door. It has been six or seven
years ago. He hasn't been back since. So, this is what I mean.
We cannot hope to keep all evil out of our house, but we can
cast it out afterwards. By imploring the Lord in our family
prayers that night, we rededicated the house, and told the Lord
the incident and asked Him to help us to keep that kind of
spirit out. They do not feel at home there.
I have had other men come in that are evil minded, and they
are not at home. They will stay a few moments, but they are not
at ease, so they leave. That is why we dedicate these homes, so
that the Spirit of God can dwell there. We should never go to
bed at night without letting the Lord know that it is our
greatest desire for Him to help us to keep this house in a
dedicated condition, and do the same thing in the morning--help
us to keep it dedicated during the day. This is the way that we
get the Spirit of God and keep it.
I believe that the Lord is pleased to a great extent with
the effort that is being-put forth by you people to prepare
yourselves for the great work that He has for us in the future.
He has got to have trained men; He has got to have trained women
to carry on His work. Women are just as important in the work
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of the Priesthood as men are. They have got to clean up their
minds and their hearts and learn to love one another. Men have
got to do the same thing. We have to learn to love our
neighbors as ourselves. So, let us keep on striving. Let us
get the Spirit of God and keep it with us, I humbly pray in the
name of Jesus Christ, amen.
1132
REMARKS GIVEN BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON NOVEMBER 9, 1975,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
I am grateful for the privilege of being here, my brothers
and sisters, and being able to hear what I have heard. I just
want to remind you again of the passing of Brother I. W.
Barlow. His funeral will be at twelve o'clock, Tuesday. From
the looks of things, the funeral will be rather short, because
of the many funerals that are being taken care of that day. The
building is not very large, and if all of his posterity is
there, it will just about take the entire main room to hold
them. He had a large family--a large posterity. That is what
you are going to see from now on in the midst of this people
when men pass away, their posterity is very large.
I am grateful for the life and labors of that good man. It
may look to some that he had lost his way and pulled away from
the Priesthood, but he has been one of the great supporters of
this Priesthood work. He had the privilege of associating with
John W. Woolley, Lorin Woolley, Leslie Broadbent, John Y.
Barlow, Joseph Musser, Charles F. Zitting. Up to the present
time, I heard him bear a strong testimony of the calling of John
W. Woolley, who was well acquainted with John Taylor and with
the work that he performed. He has borne a firm testimony of
the truthfulness of this work.
We have been informed that he called his family around him
a short time ago and gave them to understand his position with
this Priesthood. "When I pass, " he said, "I want you to
understand this, that you let loose of me. As long as I live,
you have control over me and my condition, but as soon as I
pass, I am transferred to the Priesthood Council. They have
full control. I want this understood, and I want it carried
out. You lose jurisdiction over my body until I am laid away.
I don't want to have any bickering or anything said about the
disposition of my body."
If this report is true, then I. W. Barlow was a
Priesthood man. He understood fully where his loyalty stood.
He left a testimony to his posterity. This is true. Every man
that holds the Priesthood, his family loses jurisdiction of his
body when he
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passes away. The Priesthood of the living God takes over. When
we lay them away, we dedicate them to the Lord and to the day of
their resurrection. They are brought forth and put in their
proper position. This is the order of the Priesthood.
So, let us take notice of what we have heard today. Let us
prepare our lives against the day of visitation. Let us be
prepared, that we can have the approbation of our Father in
Heaven placed upon us when we are called home. May God bless
you, amen.
1134
SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, NOVEMBER 11,
1975,
AT THE FUNERAL SERVICE OF BROTHER IANTHUS WINFORD BARLOW,
HELD AT LARKIN MORTUARY, IN SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
BORN: JANUARY 3, 1883 DIED: NOVEMBER 8, 1975
My dear brothers and sisters and friends, I stand before
you in deep humility this afternoon. I trust that the Lord will
put words into my mouth that I might speak according to His
will.
I first met Ianthus Barlow in 1934. That was about
forty-one years ago. Since that time, I have had many
experiences with him. I believe in the same religion that he
did. I dedicated my life and labors to the building up and
establishing of this work. Quite early in my acquaintance with
John Y. Barlow and Ianthus W. Barlow, I began to understand
the magnificence of this great order of Priesthood. I began to
delve deeply into the principles of the Gospel of Salvation. I
have believed it all my life. I was born and raised under the
new and everlasting covenant; but until I met these men, I was
like all other men, I was dilatory in my efforts to seek out the
real kernel of eternal life. I went from one job to another and
worked at about all the manual labor jobs that you can labor at
to make a living--from a pick and shovel to the driving of the
mail. I had a four-year contract driving the mail. At the end
of that contract, I met up with these men. Since that time, I
have worked at jobs here and there. My greatest job was to be
at the elbow of John Y. Barlow until he died.
I learned to love this man, I. W. Barlow. I loved him
for the integrity of his heart. In the First Section of the
Doctrine & Covenants, you will find something like this: This
Gospel of the Kingdom is unto all men. It makes no difference
where they are or who they are, it is unto all men. This, I.
W. Barlow knew. He knew that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of
God. He knew that God had spoken and that all men had to turn
their hearts towards an eternal salvation sometime or other.
For the Lord has said that every knee shall bow and every tongue
confess that Jesus is the Christ.
Early in the work of the Prophet, a young man by the name
of Oliver Cowdery came to offer his services to him. The Lord
was kind to this man and called him to the great work of
assisting the
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Prophet in his work of translating the Book of Mormon. At one
time, after they had been translating for sometime, Oliver was
skeptical in his mind as to whether Joseph was telling him the
correct translation or not, so he went to the Lord and asked
Him. The Lord answered him something like this. He said,
"Oliver, you know you have sought me many times, and I have
answered thee through the power of My Spirit." He goes on to
tell him that if it hadn't been for His answering him by His
Spirit that he wouldn't have been there. That is what led him
to Joseph Smith.
There isn't a person under the sound of my voice that was
led to this meeting other than by the Spirit of God. Whether
you believe it or not, you were led here by the Spirit of God.
He goes on to tell Oliver that no one can read his thoughts or
knows what is in his heart except God. And this doctrine,
Ianthus Barlow knew. He rehearsed it to me many times in one
way or another.
I would like to leave this message with this people: Seek
for the Spirit of God to direct you. Let the Spirit of God
direct your actions day and night. Apply to your lives the
principles of righteous living and do what the Lord has
said--don't let your left hand know what your right hand doeth,
or in other words, keep your counsels. Why do I say that?
Simply because the degree of salvation that you and I get
depends upon this person. What I get depends upon me, upon how
I keep the commandments of God. It is nobody's business how I
keep them, where I keep them or anything else. I might teach
what I know to other people.
The instructions to the Prophet Joseph Smith, I find, go as
far back as time lasts. Whenever the Lord has been asked, "What
shall I tell this people?" The answer has been the same, "Preach
nothing but repentance to this generation, " meaning the
generation in which they live. Alma said this, "This is the day
in which you should prepare to meet your God, " to learn how to
serve God and keep His commandments. This is the day we should
prepare to meet our God, the day in which you and I live.
I have heard men speak evil of Ianthus Barlow. I have
heard men say that he has apostatized. But I knew better. I
know what is in the heart of this man, some of it, because he
told it
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to me. He tried to teach me, along with John Y. Barlow and
others, Joseph Musser, Charles Zitting, Louis Kelsch, LeGrand
Woolley. LeGrand Woolley was a boyhood friend of mine. There
was only one and a half years difference between the age of
LeGrand Woolley and myself, raised in the same town--Kanab.
My brothers and sisters, the Gospel is true. Joseph Smith
is a Prophet of God, and what he taught pertains to your
salvation and mine. This is an individual responsibility for
every man, to work out his salvation in fear and trembling
before the Lord our God. Ianthus W. Barlow believed this
principle. Some thought he was this way, and some thought he
was that way; but my faith in this man never waivered, because I
knew what he believed.
I have nothing in my heart but good to think or say about
the life and labors of Ianthus W. Barlow who we revere today in
these services. I have great respect for his large family. We
have in this mortuary today a great congregation of the
relatives, the direct descendants of a great man. You can take
this day and look at what this man has done. Then go into the
scriptures, go to the Church History, and see what has been
prophesied by the early servants of God. Then see what is going
on today around us, when every effort is being made that can be
made to curtail such a blessing as we see here.
May God bless the life and labors of this great man. May
God bless his family from the greatest to the least. My words
are not going to save or condemn men. They might help them
along the way to put into their thinking correct principles if
they want to believe, but the Lord has given us our agency. We
come here, and we can be taught the principles of righteous
living, but unless we do something about it, what good does it
do us? He has told us somewhere along the way that every man
will be responsible for his own acts in life. So, let us go to.
I want you to know that my great love goes out to all who bear
the name of this good man.
I have nothing in my heart but love towards my fellowmen.
Whether they love me or whether they don't, that does not make
any difference. God has told me, that as for me I am to forgive
all men; but, He says, "I will forgive whom I will." "Leave
judgment
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to Me, for judgment is mine, " saith the Lord. Think it over,
my brothers and sisters. Let us go down the road, work out our
salvation, and have it said of us when we pass on as this good
man has had it said of him: He has earned his reward and has
gone to inherit it. So, where we go or what station we attain
to in the Celestial Kingdom of our God depends upon how you and
I live. There is no doubt in my mind but what most of you will
go to the Celestial Kingdom. When you get there, then it will
be determined which station you attain to.
Now, I pray that the Spirit of God will settle upon Aunt
Cleo and her family, and all the sons and daughters of Ianthus
W. Barlow. I want you to know that I have at heart the same
station to attain to when I meet your father.
I pray that God will bless us in the remainder of these
services and on the way to the cemetary. I hope that we can
drive carefully that no harm or accident of any nature will
befall us, that we might go and come in peace and safety. I
bless all who desire a blessing at the hand of our Father, and I
will ask Him to grant the blessing that you desire in
righteousness. I do it humbly in the name of Jesus Christ,
amen.
1138
SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, NOVEMBER 16,
1975,
SUNDAY, IN SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
The Lord is kind to us, my brothers and sisters, to allow
us to be gathered together again and be instructed by His
servants to try to be prepared against the great destructions
that lie before us. I stand before you in deep humility, my
brothers and sisters, for I know and realize to some extent the
condition that the people of this wonderful state of ours are
in. I pray that the Lord will bless me with words that I might
say something the few moments that I speak that will be
encouraging to us to keep on striving.
I find, through my studies of the scriptures, that God
thinks a lot of His children. He is very lenient and
long-suffering. He is very kind and considerate, yet He has
said to His servants time and time again, "My word is sharper
than a two-edged sword, and it cuts both coming and going, but I
must be obeyed." He tells us very plainly time after time that
we must work for the blessings we receive. He has told us time
and again that He cannot use an unclean vessel.
We have heard many things this afternoon if we were
listening to the voice of those who have spoken. We have heard
many words of encouragement. We have heard many words of
chastisement, and all these go together in order to bring up a
people that the Lord can use in His great and glorious work.
The Lord is very kind to us.
I have been acquainted with this work all my life. I was
born in it. I was tutored and trained as a child in the same
doctrine that I hear today--keep yourself clean from the blood
and sins of the generation in which you live. Go out on the
streets of the cities, go out on the highways or wherever you
go, you hear the name of God taken in vain; you see corruption
of every kind going on. Yet, the Lord expects us to be able to
see all this and clean up our bodies and our minds and prepare
them for a glorious resurrection, that His work might be
continued, that His name might be glorified. All the words that
we have heard today are only to encourage us to be assistants in
the glorification of our Father's work, for His name cannot be
glorified in filth; but it can be
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glorified in righteous living. Zion cannot be redeemed only
upon the principles of the Celestial Kingdom. and in the
Celestial Kingdom you will find no sin. I can remember when I
was growing up, mingling with young men and older men, too, if
you didn't participate in the evil practices that you see young
people participating in because they saw their older brothers
and older men doing the same thing, such as taking the Lord's
name in vain, swearing, slang language, use of tobacco, and all
these other evils that go on--if you refused to participate in
it, you were sneered at, laughed at, and lots of us couldn't
help but be taken in. All these things are going on among us
right today among our own people. They still go on, and they
will go on until a people purifies themselves.
The Lord's work cannot progress without our overcoming
these things. We have a body of men and women who are clean
minded and have clean habits, and they are determined to present
themselves before the Lord in a respectable manner. This is
what the Lord is working for and looking for; and the sooner we
prepare ourselves, the sooner He can accomplish His work.
The word of the Lord to the Prophet Joseph Smith says
something like this, this was way back in 1836, "I will redeem
Zion now if I can find people enough to do My work." So, He told
Joseph, "Go find five hundred faithful men who can stand the
trials and tribulations that they have to pass through--without
murmuring." But Joseph had to come back and tell Him he couldn't
find that many. So, the Lord came down a few hundred, and He
finally told him to gather up the strength of Zion and go up and
He would redeem Zion anyway if they could go up without
murmuring. He had to cause an affliction to come among them and
take them away, a lot of them, because of their disobedience.
How many times are we going to be tested and tried this way
before we can get a proper number of people that the Lord can
work with? I believe we have a lot of young men today that are
preparing for this work, or they are trying to prepare
themselves for it. But we have got to have them. The Lord is
going to get them somewhere. We have been told that a people
would come out of
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the Church and prepare themselves for it, and I don't know where
else to look for them only here among this order of the
Priesthood.
What a glorious opportunity we have, my dear brothers and
sisters. Let us go to with our might and work with ourselves;
clean up our minds, get rid of everything that reminds us of the
world; put where we can look at them the things that will remind
us of what we have to do in order to clean up our minds and
bodies, our surroundings, and let us let the Spirit of the Lord
work with us. Let us take Him in as our partner. He will help
us, He is not very far off.
I have found in my short life that the stories we hear of
Elijah and Elisha are true. Let us go back into the history and
read them, for they are true, Elisha, the record tells us, found
that he was surrounded by the enemy. He was inside the fort
with a few others, and his servants looked out and saw that he
was surrounded by his enemies. He wasn't afraid, He took his
time to prepare himself and got ready to leave the fort. He
went over and opened the door and walked out. His servant tried
to get him to be mindful that he was surrounded. He said, "That
doesn't make any difference, there are more behind me than they
have behind them, " and he walked out, and the kings fell back.
They could see more than anyone else could see. The Lord gave
them a vision of what Elisha had behind him. So, he went out
and said, "Follow me, you kings, and I will lead you to safety."
And he led them down among the armies of the Israelites. When
they found they were surrounded by the armies of the Israelites,
they had to give themselves up. They were safe all right, but
they were in the hands of God's army.
The Lord has many armies in the earth. Just last week we
heard the report of a great airplane which got ready to leave
the runway and something went wrong. It caught fire and burned
up. However, the Lord gave them long enough time to get the
passengers all out. But what caused it? One of the armies of
the Lord--a flock of birds flew by in front of the motor and
were sucked in and caused one of the motors to fail and explode.
A few years ago I read another account. Two army officers
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took off at the airport in a jet. They took off across the
country, and the last report anyone got from them was that they
had run into a flock of birds. That was the last they heard of
it until they found the jet. The birds flew in front of them
and wrecked them.
The Lord has the grasshopper army. I saw another army one
time when I was growing up. It was out in Wyoming. I went to
the field one day. I had to go a little over a mile from town.
After I got outside of town, I began to see worms on the ground.
Pretty soon it looked like the whole ground was moving off. I
didn't know where it was coming from, but there was a strip of
land half a mile wide where the worms were so thick they were
crawling over one another. They were called "army worms"--the
size of a good big tomato worm. Every color of the rainbow was
in that bunch of army worms. I wondered where they were going
and what they were doing, but I found out. They were going
through a field of lucerne. Every once in a while you hear of
those army worms somewhere in the country. I made a trip to
Phoenix from Colorado City one day. There weren't very many of
them, but for a little ways along the road, we saw grasshoppers
that were eight inches long, some of them. Those are the kind
that do damage to crops. Another time, we were on our way to
Mexico. When we got over the border on to the Mexican side,
every once in a while we found a flock of those large
grasshoppers, and the people complained about them.
There are lots and lots of ways that the Lord has of
tormenting His people, or trying His people. I don't think the
Lord torments His people, but I believe he allows them to be
tried in these different ways. I think every person is tried
every day to see what he will do with the time he has on his
hands, and I don't think there are very many of us that entirely
please the Lord every day. We should look around us. We should
take stock of what we are doing; and wherein we see we are doing
things that are not exactly right, we should correct it right
quickly. Since the Lord has told us that He is the only one
that can read our minds or our thoughts, He is telling us a
mouthful. He is telling us to think good thoughts, and in this
way we hedge up the evil one. It is
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when we open our mouths and let the evil powers know what our
thoughts are that we give him a chance to work on us. And he
will work on us, because that is his job here in the earth--to
work on the weak points of the faithful men and women and try to
destroy them if he possibly can.
The Lord has granted us the power of repentance, the
principle of repentance; and this means a lot to us. What is
repentance? Repentance means to cease to do wrong and never
commit it again. Repent of your sins and be baptized and have
hands laid on you for the gift of the Holy Ghost. If you only
thought of those few words for the next month and put them into
practice in your lives, you would all be better men and women,
everyone of you, including Brother Johnson that is speaking.
The greatest sermon that was ever preached was, "Repent and be
baptized for the remission of your sins and have hands laid upon
you for the gift of the Holy Ghost." Think it over.
I pray the blessings of God upon us, each and everyone,
that we might hasten to prepare ourselves against the day of
visitation when the Lord is pouring out His judgments upon the
wicked, and I pray for this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
1143
REMARKS GIVEN BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, DECEMBER 7, 1975,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
It is good to be here, my brothers and sisters, and to be
instructed as we have been this afternoon. I have been very
much interested in the words that have been spoken. I trust
that the Lord will pour out his blessings upon us that when we
are brought together we might be instructed by those who speak
to us.
We are living in a day when great stress covers the earth.
Everyday the Lord is trying to bring up a people that He can
use. I hope that we can go from this meeting and be built up in
our determination to serve the Lord and keep His commandments.
We want to remember that He said, "Pray always" that we might be
protected from the evils in the day in which we live. The Lord
is not pleased with the actions of His children. He is going to
have to cleanse the earth, so that His Kingdom can rise and go
forth. It is for this reason that the servants of God are
laboring so diligently, so hard to bring up a people that can be
used in the redemption of Zion. We are living in the time of
the redemption of Zion and the ushering in of the Millennial
Reign.
I pray that the Lord will bless us with wisdom, knowledge,
and understanding, and that He will plant in our hearts a firm
determination to get close to Him and to clean up our lives, put
our houses in order that we might be able to accomplish what He
has for us to accomplish. I pray the blessings of God upon the
sick and afflicted among us. We have many defects in our
children that are causing us great stress at the present time.
The Lord has been kind to us to provide ways and means to take
care of these defects among our young children.
I hope that we will hasten to bring ourselves into a
position where the Lord can pour out His blessings upon us
without the help of physicians, which can be done. It has been
done among this people, and it can be done again, if we will
draw in the wanderings of our minds and center them upon the
revelations of God and apply to our lives the instructions He
has given so plainly to us, He has told us that He has explained
His Gospel so plain that a child could understand it. The
Gospel is simple. It is simple to those who will obey the
commandments of God. But it
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will be perplexing to those who try to pull away from the Lord
and try to go the way of the world.
We want to remember that the Spirit of God is the spirit of
peace. The spirit of evil is the spirit of unrest. The reason
the nations of the earth are in the condition they are is simply
because they have rejected the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They
have perverted the ways of the Lord and have brought into
existence perverted religions, trying to find the short way to
our Father in Heaven.
Let us draw in the wanderings of our minds and center them
upon the principles of salvation and apply them to our lives.
Let us commence to learn how to cry night and day for
deliverance from the enemies of righteousness, that we might be
prepared against the day of visitation when great tribulations
cover the earth.
I pray God to bless us all in the name of Jesus Christ,
amen.
1145
SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, DECEMBER 14,
1975,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
I am grateful, my brothers and sisters, for the privilege
of being here this afternoon. I don't know when I have enjoyed
a meeting more than I have today. I trust that the few moments
I speak to you, the Lord will put words into my mouth so your
time and mine will not be wasted.
I know we have come here to be instructed by the Spirit of
God. Let us continue that spirit during the remainder of this
meeting. When these brethren were speaking, my mind went back
to the instructions which the Lord has given us through the
mouths of His prophets, "Preach nothing but repentance to this
people." Repentance has been the key word throughout the history
of time. Adam was commanded to preach repentance to his
children. In the beginning, we are told that the Lord asked for
a plan to be devised whereby He might send these spirits that He
had created to be tutored and trained. One said, "Send me. I
will go down, and I will give them their agency, let them serve
whom they will. I will teach them the principles of
righteousness and how to purify the bodies they receive and
bring them back in a purified condition so that they can be
useful to them during the ages of the eternities." The other
said, "Send me, I will save them all. I will go down and teach
them the way of salvation and bring them all back that not a
soul be lost, but give me the honor and the glory." Because the
plan of the first was accepted, the other rebelled. We are told
that he was cast down to the earth with his followers. They
were not permitted to receive bodies. So, they were cast down
here. When Adam was placed in the Garden of Eden, he found
Lucifer there ready to tempt and try him, to see whether he
would be faithful in all things whatsoever the Lord commanded
him to do.
From that day to this there was nothing for the Lord to do
but send His servants abroad in the earth and preach repentance
to the children of men. This is the plan of salvation. Every
man and woman is being tested and tried every day of their
lives. We were all permitted to come into this world with
enough knowledge of good and evil to know the difference when it
is taught to us. The Lord has said that He permitted every
person that was born into
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the world to be born with enough of the Spirit of God to know
the difference between good and evil. So, we are left without
excuse, especially those who have been permitted to go into the
waters of baptism and be baptized for the remission of their
sins. They have no business doing wrong. Even the little boys
and the little girls that have arrived at the age of twelve
years are old enough to get the Spirit of God and keep it with
them. It has been demonstrated so with the evidences before us.
Joseph Smith was only a fourteen year old boy.
We are told plainly in the Book of Mormon that Mormon, at
the tender age of fifteen years, went before the Lord and asked
Him if he shouldn't go and teach repentance to the people
because they were falling away in iniquity. For two hundred
years, they had all things in common and served the Lord and
kept His commandments; then they began to break away. This
little boy wanted to go among them and preach repentance. The
answer was, "No, They won't do what I say, and they won't do
what you say." So, what did he do? The first thing his people
wanted him to do was to lead their armies--when he was only
fifteen years old. The record says that he did lead the armies
of the Nephites. Although he was wounded many times, he still
led the army. He was one of the last to be slain, the record
tells us, in one of the last battles between the Nephites and
the Lamanites.
We have no excuse, my dear brothers and sisters, to prolong
the day of our repentance. A lot of repentance has got to be
done among our people--people who know that Joseph Smith was a
prophet of God, and that the Lord left leaders here to lead us
and guide us, to instruct us through His Holy Spirit how to
purify our lives and bring our bodies back to Him in a purified
condition. The Lord is kind to us. He is long-suffering. He
teaches us from week to week, month to month, year to year, as
long as we live; and if we will come and listen to Him, He will
teach us. But what good does it do if we don't do something
about it?
I am grateful for the progress of this people. A long time
ago, many, many years ago, I heard this same doctrine taught to
the people. I heard the servants of God pleading earnestly for
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the people to repent of their sins that the Kingdom of God might
rise. What did the Lord say? He placed the whole Church under
condemnation because they treated lightly the things they
received. And He told them that they would remain under
condemnation until they repented.
Our children grow up and see the actions of their fathers
and mothers. They take license for wrong-doing. We still have
to continue to preach repentance, because of the waywardness of
our fathers and mothers, our brothers and sisters. The time is
soon coming upon us when we are going to have to pray night and
day for deliverance. The Lord has plainly told us to draw near
unto Him while it is yet day, because soon it will be night, and
He won't be where we can find Him--when great destructions come
to the earth, or the country immediately around us where we
live. Are we going to be justified in calling upon the Lord in
mighty prayer? Are we going to learn how to find Him while it
is yet day and call upon Him in mighty prayer for forgiveness of
our sins and shortcomings, and repent of them that we might be
found worthy of His blessings when we call upon Him to help us
out of our troubles? He is not very far away if we learn how to
draw near unto Him. This can be done. Men and women have done
it, and it can be done again and again and again. We all have
access to the Spirit of God, through the dictates of the Holy
Ghost that has been given to every person that has gone into the
waters of baptism and come out and had hands laid upon them for
the Gift of the Holy Ghost.
I pray that we will hasten, my brothers and sisters, to
prepare ourselves against the day of visitation when God is
pouring out His judgments upon the wicked, for this is certainly
a wicked generation in which we live. All you have to do is
listen to the news, pick up a paper, and read the paper. All
you can find there is corruption. We don't have the sermons of
the prophets of God any more in our daily papers. We used to
get them where we could read them a little now and then, but we
don't have that anymore. So, let us hasten to prepare ourselves
against that day. The Spirit of God has left the nations of the
earth, and they are all in turmoil. Before long they will be
fighting one another. He
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says, "You will hear of wars and rumors of wars in foreign
lands, but little do you know the hearts of men in your own
country." And this is verily true.
My brothers and sisters, let us get the Spirit of God and
keep it. Let us not cease to pray from this hour on. Let us
ask God for forgiveness of our sins and shortcomings and apply
true priciples to our lives, Let us stamp out the evil that is
among us. Some may think that we are just speaking to hear
ourselves talk, but this is the message of the Lord to us. I
pray that we can draw in the wanderings of our minds and receive
the instructions we are taught from Sunday to Sunday and be
prepared against the day of visitation. Amen.
1149
SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, DECEMBER 21,
1975,
SUNDAY, IN SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
I am grateful to be here, my brothers and sisters, and hear
what I have heard. I trust that the few moments I stand before
you the Spirit of God will rest upon me and you might be edified
by my remarks.
We are a blessed people--very much blessed--to have the
opportunity of gathering together as a body as I see before me
this afternoon to hear a little of what the Lord requires of us.
The Lord has said, "Stand ye in holy places, and watch the arm
of the Lord made manifest." Again, He says, "My Spirit shall not
always strive with man. " So, He is a man of feeling. He is a
man of yearning over His subjects, His children. He says, "Every
person that will draw near unto Me, I will own and bless. " Let
us be among that people.
We talk about getting the Spirit of God and keeping it. We
can't hide ourselves under a bushel. We have to come out in the
light and mingle with our brothers and sisters. This, we have to
do. When the Spirit of God settles upon us, we will be peaceful;
and when we begin to get unrestful, dissatisfied with our
surroundings, dissatisfied with the people we live with, then we
should begin to look at ourselves and to say to
ourselves--wherein have I sinned? The Lord says that He is
willing to forgive our sins. He is willing to forgive us if we
will repent. He has instituted ways to make covenants with Him.
There are many covenants that have to be made by the
children of men, and the most simple covenant we make is the
ordinance of baptism. We go down into the waters of baptism and
are baptized for the remission of our sins; and we automatically
covenant with Him that we will sin no more. We come up out of
the waters of baptism and have hands laid upon us for the gifts
of the Holy Ghost; and many say, "Now I am saved. I have been
baptized, and now I am saved, " But this is only the beginning.
We have to keep sacred the covenants that we made. We have to
repent of our sins, for the Lord says that He is willing to
forgive us if we will sin no more. But it is when we commit sin
again that our former sins come back upon us. Then it is hard
to get the Spirit of God and keep it.
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We don't need to cease to labor in order to keep the Spirit
of God. We can work day after day from daylight till dark and
then some, and still keep the Spirit of God upon us, He says.
"Pray always that My Spirit might continue with you." He doesn't
mean for us to kneel down always and praise His name and ask His
forgiveness. We have to work, and while we work, let us pray
from time to time. Let us not let that evil false and delusive
spirit creep in and say, "You are working too hard, There is no
use for you to pray to that man; you don't know who you are
praying to, you can't see Him." If we will listen to the
whisperings of the Spirit of the Holy Ghost, we know He is
there. We know He is tangible, and He goes from one place to
another and visits His subjects.
The Spirit of God is a wonderful thing. The Spirit of the
Holy Ghost is a wonderful thing. God said, "Let us go down and
take the materials that exist and create a world. "It was by the
word of God that the world was brought into existence. It was by
the word of God that the day was created. It was by the word of
God that the night was created. It was by the word of God that
you and I were created. These bodies that we have came into
existence by the word of God. He has told us plainly that every
person that is born into the world has enough of the Spirit of
God upon them that they might discern the difference between
good and evil. He created the trees and the grass and the rocks
and the mountains. He brought them into existence and gave the
vegetation life that it might increase and grow. He created the
animal kingdom and gave them life that they might grow and
increase upon the land. He said to His children, "You must be
baptized for the remission of sins, and then I will give you
access to the gifts of the Holy Ghost." So, the Spirit of God is
a creator. The mission of the Spirit of the Holy Ghost is to
bear testimony to those whom the Lord has created that this is
true.
Christ was sent here to establish His Church and to bring
the Gospel of the Kingdom of God into the earth and put it in
the hands of His children. This He did in the meridian of time.
This has been done from time to time throughout the generations
of time.
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Then, in the latter days, two men came--God the Father and the
Son, and they visited a little boy, a pure spirit that knew no
sin, It was through that incident that you and I are here today.
This Priesthood Council is only trying to keep alive this
sacred knowledge that God lives, and that He rules the universe.
It might look like He has forsaken His children because of the
condition of the world, but it isn't God who has forsaken
us--the children of our Father have sinned against Kim and
pulled away from Him. He has sent His servants to the earth
among His children to preach repentance to them, but they won't
listen.
The servants of God today are trying their best to get a
people to prepare themselves against the day of visitation when
the Lord is pouring out His judgments upon the wicked, when He
is trying to prepare the earth for the Millennial Reign. It
will be the time when He gathers in all the righteous. All who
can be saved will be saved. Those who will not listen to the
voice of the prophets or the elders of Israel will have to be
sloughed off. They will have to be destroyed. The Lord says He
hates to destroy His children. He says, "I am jealous of the
workings of Mine hands."
We are living in a day when great wisdom, in an earthly
way, rules the earth. We are trying to get a people to humble
themselves before their Father in Heaven. He has said that the
time would come when we would cry day and night for deliverance.
So, let us settle down to business. Let us listen to what we
hear from Sunday to Sunday. We have had enough given to us
today; and if we will go home and look up that which has been
read to us, we will find that they are not our words. They are
the words of God to us. Let us go and look them up and see
wherein we can better our lives.
The Lord says that He cannot use a liar. He cannot use the
boys and girls who commit adultery. They have got to repent of
their sins, or they will have to be cast out from among the
people of God. The Lord has many ways of removing people.
I have noticed through the short time that I have lived
upon the earth that God can move men easily and quickly. So,
let us not tempt Him, you who are doing wrong in secret places.
You think you are in secret, but you are right in the open in
the eyes
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of our Father, for He says that He is the only one that can read
our minds and our thoughts. So, let us hasten, my brothers and
sisters, to bring ourselves to a point where we can get the
Spirit of God and keep it. Let us clean up our lives. Let us,
each individual, strive carefully day by day to rid ourselves of
the evils that are within us. For we know, we are old enough to
know, we have been taught enough to know, the difference between
good and evil.
The Gospel is true. Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God.
Brigham Young was his successor in the line of Priesthood. John
Taylor and Wilford Woodruff, John W. Woolley, Lorin Woolley,
Leslie Broadbent, John Y. Barlow, Joseph White Musser, Charles
F. Zitting and the Council you see before you today are also
successors in the line of Priesthood. So, let us go to and obey
the counsel that we get from Sunday to Sunday and apply it to
our lives. Let us see if we can become the people that God can
put His finger on, and that He can gather out enough to man His
work in the redemption of Zion and the establishment of it in
the earth. I pray for these things humbly in the name of Jesus
Christ, amen.
1153
SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, DECEMBER 28,
1975,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
I am grateful for this privilege, my brothers and sisters,
of being here this afternoon and hearing what has been said.
Time is slowly passing on, and our people are at least trying to
do the things they have been instructed to do. We have a lot of
things to overcome in our lives before we are prepared for the
day of the Lord to come. We are just about to enter into a new
year, and every year brings us nearer to the time that the Lord
has set for the redemption of His people. So, let us make up
our minds at this time of the year to be just a little more
faithful, a little more determined to clean up our minds, our
homes. Let us keep our homes in a dedicated condition. I
believe the Lord meant what He said when He said, "Stand ye in
holy places and watch the arm of the Lord made manifest."
We have had six thousand years now of preparation to
prepare the souls of men for a glorious resurrection. We are
right at the door of the Seventh Day of the Lord. What does
this mean to us since the Lord has said that He took six days to
create the earth and the inhabitants of it, and He rested on the
seventh day? What does He mean? A great work has got to be
done during the Seventh Thousand Years. In one sense of the
word, it doesn't sound like rest. But when we look at it in
another light, He was speaking of the earth. We have had six
thousand years of turmoil upon the earth; so the earth must rest
from turmoil, at least, part of it will. Where the Saints of
God dwell there will be peace, and wickedness will be shut out.
So, to me it means this, that the earth will rest from
wickedness.
There will be a time of rejoicing in the great work of our
Father in our genealogical connections from father to son back
to our great Beginner, our First Parents. This work has got to
be done, and it is going to take a lot of time to do it. So if
we want to be partakers of the various work that has to be done
during that time, we must do something about our salvation while
we live, while we have an opportunity. Some of us are growing
old, and our time is running out. We can't put off till
tomorrow what we ought to do today. We must get busy and do the
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things that the Lord has asked us to do to straighten up our
lives, that we might be prepared against the day of visitation
when the Lord is visiting the earth with destruction, that we
might be able to stand during the day of preparation.
There is a great work to be done even in our day. I find
that temptations come to us every day. You and I are tempted to
do things that would throw a block in the way of gaining our
salvation. I very often think of the words of the Prophet when
he tried so hard to get the people to straighten up their lives
and live according to the teachings of Christ. There are only a
few people on the earth today who actually know what is meant by
living according to the teachings of Christ. What is meant by
living according to the teachings of Christ? Some people think
that if we can do something for someone else to make them happy,
we are doing the work of Christ; if we can relieve them of some
problem they have, we are doing His work. This is all good.
But in order to do the work that Christ has asked us to do, we
have got to do just what the Priesthood has been trying to get
us to do for as long as I have been acquainted with it--learn to
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, might, mind, and
strength. And the second commandment is like unto it, love thy
neighbor as thyself; and clean up our minds, cease to do evil,
and put on the armor of Christ.
I can remember back in my early boyhood time when my mother
was trying to get me ready for Sunday School, Primary, Mutual
Improvement Association, to go to meeting and listen to what was
said. I have listened to these sermons all the day long, from
my earliest recollection, and it still goes on. The reason for
this is because many young men and women are growing up, and
there are old men and old women growing up. So there is a need,
my brothers and sisters, of being reminded from week to week and
from month to month, that we might do something about our
eternal salvation.
The Lord is kind to us. He grants us the privilege of
repentance. We repent today, and tomorrow we sin again. But
this
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is not repentance. He says, "I will forgive you if you sin no
more." I am anxious for you to understand that when He says He
will forgive us if we will sin no more, He means it. His word
is His deed. It is sharper than a two-edged sword. When He
says, "Repent, " He means, "Repent, and sin no more." So that is
what we need to do. We need to make up our minds today that we
will go down the road and sin no more, and do the things that
the Lord has commanded us to do to bless His work, bless His
servants with the necessities that they have to have in order to
consummate the Kingdom of God. These are not idle words. The
things that you have heard today are not idle words.
We have heard some experiences of men. We see around us
experiences every day. I have men come to me and tell me that
they have been working, but they can't get any money for their
work. This is the way the world is. We go out and work for the
Gentiles, and if they want to pay you, they will; but if they
don't, they won't. The Lord is trying to fetch up a people that
will be honest in their hearts as Brother Timpson has been
trying to drive into us--be honest in our work. Our men should
be honest in their operations. It doesn't make any difference
what it is. If they hire men to work for them, they should sit
down and bargain with them and let them know what they expect
when they get through. We hire men to come and help us out, and
we don't have any means to pay them; but we don't tell them
about it until after the work is done. We know nothing about
their needs, their necessities.
The Lord has instituted a storehouse where if the people
would support it, it would be ample for the people to live upon.
But I find here and there families that are suffering because
they haven't been able to collect their wages. I know it
happens, because we are a poor people. We can't afford to work
for nothing; our families cannot exist on nothing. I am
grateful for the opportunity from time to time to lay aside a
little for a rainy day, or when we don't have that which we
need, that we might have something to subsist upon. We have
some things in our
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storehouse today, and if there is any in our midst who do not
have that which they ought to have to feed their families, you
ought to see Uncle Fred and see if something can be done.
So let us go to, my brothers and sisters, and keep the
commandments of God. Let us clean up our minds. Let us learn
to love one another, cease our faultfinding and our criticism.
Let us live according to the teachings of our Savior, and let us
be a self-sustaining people. There aren't any among us who are
able to work and who have a job from time to time but what could
spare a little means to put into the storehouse, that we might
have something to take care of the needy. I find that the
storehouse is a wonderful asset to our people. I am grateful
for the support that we get from day to day where it helps to
take care of the needs of our people. Let us cease our
criticism, our faultfinding and all that is evil among us. Let
us rid our society of all evil, and let us cease to do the
things that Brother Timpson spoke about. Let us clean up our
houses, clean up our surroundings. Let us make our homes places
where angels would not be ashamed to tread if they were sent
among us. Let us bring ourselves into a condition where we can
control the elements. We are going to have to be able to do so
if we exist.
The time that we live in is one time that the holy prophets
have wanted to live in, although they knew not the conditions
that we would have to go through. You and I do not know what we
have got to go through before we leave this stage of existence.
But I want to be prepared to meet it. I want to be prepared so
that the Lord can lift me up, if needs be, while the judgments
of God go over the earth; because there are billions of men,
women, and children upon the earth that will have to be
destroyed before the Lord can do His work during the Seventh
Thousand Years. If our reckoning of time is correct, it is not
very far off; and we do not have very much time to clean up our
lives and to be prepared against the day of visitation that the
Lord has spoken of. Let us make up our minds today to not let a
minute go by but what we do something about
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our preparation. For the Lord has been very lenient with His
people from time to time throughout all the ages of the world.
He has brought the Gospel and established it among the people so
that they could gather to it from all parts of the world. They
could gather to it and be instructed how to clean up their lives
and how to learn to love their neighbor as themselves and to
love the Lord with all their heart, might, mind and strength.
Let us give the Lord another chance, or let us take hold of
the opportunities that the Lord has granted to us for another
chance. The Lord has said that we would cry night and day for
deliverance. When is this time coming upon us? Do you know?
Do I know? No. We do not know when it will be, but His word is
His word, and He said it. So, let us be prepared against it.
If it is in our day, let us be prepared to meet it. Let us do
what the Lord has asked us to do, and let us be prepared, I
humbly pray in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
1150
SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, JANUARY 4, 1976,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
I feel very grateful, my brothers and sisters, for being
here today and for partaking of the wonderful feast that we have
listened to. I pray that the few words I speak will be
-dictated by the Spirit of God, that His work might continue.
After hearing what we have heard, I can't help but think of
the song we sang, "How Firm a Foundation." If we would take this
song and memorize it and refer it to our minds from time to
time, it would be a great help to us. "How Firm a Foundation,
Ye Saints of the Lord."
I am grateful for the testimony of President Musser today,
for it is one of great importance to us. He has tried to
convince us that this is a great foundation of the principles of
the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is the system that the Prophet
Joseph tried to establish in his day. President Young tried to
establish it in his day. President Taylor tried to establish it
in his day. And it has been handed down to us from generation
to generation. President Barlow made the remark that this work
would not advance as God would like to have it advance until
this system of marriage was instituted among our people.
I tried for some years before I became acquainted with
President Barlow or President John W. Woolley to get into the
principle of plural marriage, because I had it in my heart. I
was born in the principle, and I believed it. In fact, I told
the young lady that became my legal wife that if the time ever
came that I had the opportunity to enter into it, I would enter
into plural marriage, even though I knew that the Church had
done away with it. And I wanted her to know it before I took
her to the temple and had her sealed to me. She stood true and
faithful to me throughout our married life.
This Gospel is true, my brothers and sisters. Joseph Smith
was a true prophet of God. He saw the Father and the Son and
communicated with them and received his blessings through them.
He established this work never again to be thrown down or given
to another people, but to be continued in the land; and it is
being continued. And, although all hell may strive to destroy
it,
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it shall not fall, because it has been prophesied of throughout
the generations of time. And what the Lord says, He means. He
will provide a way whereby it will continue in the earth.
Lucifer has tried to do away with it many times, but it has
continued throughout the generations of time. From Adam until
our day, somewhere upon the earth, the Gospel of Jesus Christ
has been in operation in the lives of many people.
The principles of salvation are the same yesterday, today,
and forever. And we have had some of them explained to us
today. There are many principles of salvation that pertain to
our eternal exaltation. It is up to you and me to search them
out as President Musser has. Search them out of the scriptures
and apply them to our lives and prepare ourselves against the
day of visitation when God is cleansing the earth and preparing
it for the Millennial Reign. For He has promised us a thousand
years of peace when the earth would rest, as He told the old
Prophet Enoch. He has only taken him away for a while, then he
and his people will come back and help to redeem Zion. Not only
him, but the ten tribes of Israel will come back and every body
of people that has been taken away, or led away by the Lord,
will come back and take their place. This land upon which we
live will be far greater populated than it is today.
I read a report the other day that only fourteen per cent
of the surface of this great nation that we live on holds the
people that dwell upon the earth, two hundred and fifty million
people. They occupy only fourteen per cent of the land. But
our nation, they claim, is over-populated. They are trying to
do away with the law of progress. They are trying to devise a
plan whereby they can keep the spirits that God had created from
coming to the earth that they might obtain bodies like you and I
have and purify them, that they might take them back into the
presence of our Father in a purified condition.
So, it is no wonder that the Lord is going to have to sweep
the land clean, that the Kingdom of God might rise upon it.
This is going to be done in your day and my day; some of us,
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anyway, will live to see it. If we live right, we will all see
it. If we don't live right, we will be taken away and
destroyed, and we will have no part in the Redemption of Zion.
I want to take part in it; and I would like to see this people
who have gathered around the servants of God in this day, I
would like to see them all, prepare themselves that they might
know that Jesus is the Christ and that Joseph Smith was a true
prophet of God. For these are truths that we must know, and we
must know them to a point where we will do nothing in our lives
to displease Him, our Father in Heaven, again; but do all that
we can to please Him and to purify our lives and our minds. Let
us get out of our minds the dross that is in them.
We research too much about the masterminds of the nations
of the earth trying to find some more truth to put into the
Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Lord has put before us enough to
keep us busy every moment of our lives to prepare ourselves for
an eternal exaltation.
I pray that God will bless us with wisdom, knowledge, and
understanding and with a firm determination to go to now and
prepare ourselves. Let us get the Spirit of God and keep it
with us, that we might be able to control the elements, that we
might continue to exist in this goodly land we live upon. We
know not what the Lord has in store for us in the near future,
but let us be prepared for whatever He allows to come to pass in
our paths.
Let us commence to pray night and day for deliverance from
the powers of Satan. For he is not very far away. He is trying
his best to destroy that which the Lord has given to us. Let us
see to it that he doesn't do it. Let us hang on to that which
the Lord has blessed us with, and let us do all we can to
sanctify it. Let us do all we can to save these women that the
Lord has placed around us; exercise patience and long-suffering,
teach them the truth, teach them the Gospel. I pray that God
will bless us with wisdom, knowledge, and understanding and
bring us up to a point where we can be acceptable in His sight,
I pray in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
1161
REMARKS GIVEN BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, JANUARY 11, 1976,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
The Prophet Joseph started this work. Now it is our
business to carry it on, and the labor of preparing a people to
carry it on in honor has fallen upon our shoulders. This is our
responsibility at this time, to finish the work that the Prophet
Joseph started.
When the Lord spoke to him, He told him to join none of the
sects of the day for they were all wrong, but if he would be
true and faithful to what He was about to give him, He would
establish His true Church by him. He would call him to lead
that work. So he proved himself true and faithful and set-the
little ball rolling.
Now it is our duty and our responsibility to see to it that
a people is prepared to carry it on.
We will have Uncle Fred lead us in a verse of:
"COME LISTEN TO A PROPHET'S VOICE"
Come listen to a prophet's voice and hear the word of God
And in the way of truth rejoice and sing for joy aloud.
We've found the way the prophets went
Who lived in days of yore;
Another prophet now is sent this knowledge to restore.
1162
SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, JANUARY 25,
1976,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
It is good to be here, my brothers and sisters, I trust the
few words I speak may be dictated by the Spirit of God, for I
only want to try to build up the faith that will be enduring.
We live in a time when the holy prophets have spoken about and
especially our modern prophets. Heber C. Kimball spoke about a
famine, a terrible famine that was coming upon the people.
"What are we going to feed them when they come, " he said, "when
the people flock into these mountains by the millions." I don't
know what is going to drive them here. I do know that we are in
a precarious condition. We have been warned and forewarned of
the condition that would come upon the people to destroy the
wicked. Christ spoke about it in His day when He was visiting
the Nephite people. Joseph Smith spoke about it in his day. It
has come on down to our time. The Lord has been prompting His
servants to warn the people to repent of their sins and to
hasten to prepare themselves against the day of visitation when
He is visiting the earth with destruction, for great is going to
be the day in which you and I live.
We have just witnessed one of the driest winters that we
have ever had. We have had a little storm now and then, but not
enough to deposit moisture in the ground, or to put moisture in
the mountains, that it might flow down to us in the springtime.
So we are in a precarious condition at the present time. The
words that have been spoken here today are not idle words.
Our people are going to be forced to their knees to cry
night and day for deliverance. The Lord has warned us and
fore-warned us of these conditions, and they are upon us now.
We seemingly have plenty of money floating around the country to
take care of the needs of the people. How long will it last?
This year is our election year. What is going to happen before
another year rolls around? No one knows, but this we do know,
that God has told us that if we would repent and turn unto Him,
He would take care of us in our times of need. He has also told
us that if we waited until the last minute, He would be hard to
find. So we should have been trying years ago to prepare
ourselves
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for that which is just ahead of us now.
A committee of scientists got together the other day and
reviewed the condition of the United States. They claim we are
in the throes of a great drought as far as they can figure.
They have seen little droughts last a year or so, but this one
has them puzzled. The United States has sold and committed
themselves to sell the wheat crop of this nation to other
nations. According to the statistics that were given by these
scientists, our wheat bins are empty. And if we raise any wheat
this year, it will have to go to satisfy the demands of other
nations.
How do we know how soon we will be called upon by our
leaders to ration our food stuffs in order to supply the demand
that has got to be met. This little place here has a lot of
people in it, a lot of young people, a lot of babies here to be
fed. Our barn is full of hay today, but what will it be next
fall, unless we get a lot more moisture than we already have.
Our reservoirs are empty. How far will the water go, what
little -we have, and how long will the stream of water that runs
out of the canyon hold up under an extended drought? One
apostle said that our streams would dry up; rivers would dry up.
Joseph Smith saw these things coming upon us, told us about
them. The Lord placed the whole Church under condemnation,
because they treated lightly the things they had received; and
they would have to remain under that condemnation until they
repented. I don't know of a people who have fully repented yet.
Brother Moyle said once that the people who were Latter-day
Saints were the best people on the earth, and that there had
never been a time since the days of Christ that people have been
better prepared to meet the Lord than the Latter-day Saints.
But the Lord took him within a week's time because, he had
treated lightly the commandments of God.
We know and our leaders know that this people have not come
up to the mark. We have been tested and tried. The Church has
been tested. I don't know what would happen today if a demand
was made upon us to raise a lot of foodstuff to send out of our
community to help a starving nation, because other nations were
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starving to death. This condition is fast coming upon our
nation. I had a rumor come to my ears the other day that the
Church is depleting its great storehouse to satisfy the call for
foodstuffs to go over seas. I remember well when the first
world war came. The Relief Society had some three million
bushels of wheat stored. Conditions came that they needed some
wheat to feed the nations of the earth. They made the demand
upon the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to turn the
wheat loose. So they had to do what they were commanded to do.
And we are in the same condition today. If a quota is given to
this place to deplete our storehouse, what are we going to do
about it? We have a little food stored. It isn't enough to
carry us over a two or three year, or four or five year drought
period. Nobody knows how long the period will last.
Joseph saw the conditions such in the United States that
even men were killing their sons; sons were killing their own
fathers; mothers killing their daughters, and daughters killing
their mothers. So intense was the scene that he asked the Lord
to close it.
I would like to get into the minds of our people here that
we are living in perilous times, a time when great stress is
going to cover the earth; and our own nation is going to be
brought to its knees.
All the talk that they give about raising billions of
dollars is going to have to stop. The next budget isn't quite
as big as the last one, but it only lacks a little of being. I
can't help but think of what the Prophet Joseph said. He was
speaking to his people one day and said, "I wish I could tell
you a hundreth part of what the Lord has shown me, but I cannot
do it. There are people here who would take my life if I were
to tell you." Brigham Young said the same thing. The Lord says,
"Surely I will do nothing but what I reveal it to my servants,
the prophets." He also says, "Whether I speak by my own mouth or
whether it is spoken by my servants, it is the same." When He
has servants here to direct the people, we had better sit up and
take notice of it--and serious notice!
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President Barlow said that wealth would be our next great
test, and it certainly has been. There has never been a period
of time when so much money has been spent as has been spent
since the days of President Barlow.
My dear brothers and sisters, it is time that we were
crying unto the Lord night and day for deliverance, because we
are going to have to have His help. Our time is fast running
out. For there will be a day when we feel that we can wait a
little longer then turn over a new leaf and praise God and keep
His commandments; but we will find that He is going to be hard
to find--real hard to find. We should have started when we were
young men and young women to repent of our weaknesses and
imperfections that we might have been able, at the present time,
to command the elements, and they would obey our commands.
Today we pray for rain storms, and we get a wind storm. Then we
condemn the Lord for not answering our prayers.
Let us repent of our sins. Let us repent of every weakness
that we have. Let us commence to get the Spirit of God and keep
it. I mean keep it! We should never, not one of us, ever do a
thing that would displease the Spirit of God again, that He
might be permitted to have a chance to help us over our days of
trouble, because they are coming upon us faster than we can even
imagine and will be upon us before we know it.
I pray that God will bless us with wisdom, knowledge, and
understanding, and with a determination to serve Him and keep
His commandments and to draw near to Him. My humble prayer is
that we might be permitted to call His blessings down upon us
when we need them. I ask for these things in the name of Jesus
Christ, amen.
1166
SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, FEBRUARY 1,
1976,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
I am grateful, my brothers and sisters, for the health and
strength I enjoy, for the many blessings we enjoy that the Lord
has blessed His people with in this day and hour. I trust that
the Lord will put words in my mouth that I might try to
encourage you a little. This law of repentance is unto all men.
The Lord chastises those whom He loves. He blesses those who
will draw near to Him and keep His commandments.
I have been greatly disturbed in my feelings the last week,
especially, because of the condition of our people. The Lord
has blessed us with men who have been called by revelation to
lead us and guide us and to encourage us to overcome our
weaknesses and imperfections and draw close to Him that He might
be found in our days of trouble. Over the many years that I
have been able to understand the things that the Lord has tried
to get us to do, I find that it is a true principle that He is
trying to bring out of the world the true blood of Christ that
has been scattered throughout the generations of time.
When Adam was placed in the Garden of Eden, He was placed
there and told to teach his people repentance, his sons and
daughters, and to get them to resist the powers of evil that
they might be found worthy of an exaltation in His kingdom. He
is still working. The same spirit that motivated Adam motivates
the people today. The same conditions exist. People have to
labor with themselves to overcome, and to know how to combat the
evil spirits that are rampant in the earth, and to prepare
themselves against the day of visitation. We will find that
Adam had a hard time. After a few years of existing here, he
found that his sons and daughters were prone to do evil. Very
few of them accepted his teachings and prepared themselves to
become saints. Adam knew Enoch, the great prophet Enoch. The
same charge was given to Enoch that was given to Adam: Preach
nothing but repentance to the people.
We are told that Enoch had success after three hundred and
eighty years of hard work to bring up a people that were worthy
of salvation. How many? We don't know. We don't have the
record
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to tell us how many Enoch took with him, but we do know that it
took him a long while to prepare a people that the Lord was
willing to allow him to take with him when he was translated.
He was a righteous man. However, during the last years of
Enoch, he so keenly felt the weight of his calling, and the
anxiety for his people and how the world at large was going, and
how hard it was to keep a people converted, he cried to the Lord
and told Him that he felt the weight was heavy. He said, "I
hear the earth groan under the weight of wickedness, " in his
time.
The Lord promised those good men that all who would prepare
themselves would be saved, but those who would not would have to
suffer destruction. We can bring it on down through time to our
own day. The conditions are the same today as they were then.
We are human beings. We act alike. We have to labor for our
living. We have to barter one with another in order to exist in
the earth. But from time to time, we have noticed that when a
people was out of order and they would not repent when the Lord
sent prophets among them, they had to suffer for their
disobedience.
We have the record of the Jaredite people. We have a very
small portion of the record, but enough of it to tell us what
took place. Although there were great men among the Jaredite
people, men of great faith, they weren't able to hold a people
converted to the fact that they had to live in a saved condition
in order to save themselves. In all the history, from the
beginning until now, we have had the same temptations, the same
promises, the same rewards offered, the same condemnation
offered to those who would not yield to the principles of
righteousness.
I think it was mentioned some time ago here that the
Prophet Heber C. Kimball prophesied of a great famine coming to
this nation. He was asking the people to save their wheat,
raise wheat and store it, save it, for the time would come when
they would need it. But through the disobedience of the people,
through the inability of our people to grasp the idea that
Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, that Brigham Young and John
Taylor were his
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successors and that they, too, tried to bring the people to
repentance and to preach the Gospel among the Gentile nations,
some have fallen away.
The Lord tried to save what pure blood He could, called
Israel. He tried to redeem Israel get them to purify their
lives so that He would be willing to bless them; but, Satan
finally overpowered the teachings of the prophets. The same
thing is taking place today. The spirit of evil has been able
to overpower the teachings of our Savior, teachings of Joseph
Smith, the Prophet. After the many manifestations that were
given of the existence of Christ, the Lord, and our Father Adam,
we still have a hard time getting people to pray night and day
for deliverance, that the Lord might be able to save us from the
great destruction that He has promised to these Gentile nations.
He has plainly told us in the Doctrine & Covenants that He would
make a full end to all nations. In our day we have seen nation
after nation go out of existence. But the people have not
accepted the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They have martyred the
prophets. They have persecuted the saints because of their
beliefs. There have been many times throughout the generations
of time when God has shown forth His hand in protection of
people.
After the children of Israel spent three hundred years in
Egypt doing slave labor for the Egyptians, their cries were so
great going up to the Lord for deliverance that the Lord
provided a deliverer, that little boy named Moses. The Spirit
of God worked upon him, and he went down and contended with the
Kings of Egypt. He finally obtained the release of the
Israelite people. Well, that has been a long while ago, and
people feel like this might be a fable, just a story told. It
was a real fable; it was one that actually took place. Then
when the children of Israel were delivered, they still rebelled.
They had a rebellious spirit. Whenever they would keep the
commandments of God, they were blessed; but when they would go
against the counsels of the leaders, they met with great trials
and troubles. The Lord had to come to their rescue several
times in order to save them.
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I am afraid history is going to have to repeat itself.
Since 1836, the Lord has been trying earnestly to prepare a
people that He can count on to go back and redeem Zion. There
is a lot of the blood of Israel scattered through the Gentile
nations. Joseph knew, Brigham knew, and all these prophets knew
that they were trying to bring out of the Gentile nations the
blood of Joseph. So eager was Christ to save this great and
glorious part of Israel that His instruction to Joseph Smith was
to go bear the testimony to the people of the existence of the
Father and the Son and that the Gospel of repentance was
available to them. There were a few who came out, a few
compared to the great multitude of people that were upon the
earth. At the time that the Prophet Joseph was martyred, a
great lot of people were gathered around him, many thousands of
people. He tried to do what the Savior told him to, teach
repentance to them and baptism by immersion for the remission of
sins, and all who would believe would be saved and those who
would not believe would be damned. He went so far as to show
Joseph the great destruction that would have to take place
unless the people repented, and that the blood of Joseph must
hasten to grasp the Gospel of Jesus Christ and apply repentance
to their lives.
The servants of God were charged with the task of preaching
repentance to the generation in which we live. I don't know
where there is a people who have purified their lives to a point
where the Lord can smile upon them yet. If we were the people
we ought to be, since we were taken away in 1953--if we were the
people we ought to be, if we had kept all the commandments of
God, we would be far ahead of what we are today. We were proven
at that time, and the Lord smiled upon us and delivered us out
of the hands of our enemies. But the day of persecution wasn't
long enough, it looks like. It ended too quick to really stamp
into the lives of the people who were taken away by the State a
determination to keep all the commandments of God. If they had
done it-had we kept all the commandments of God, the conditions
would have been different today. The Lord doesn't seem to bless
us as He
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would like to; but if we can hasten, if you and I can hasten to
stamp out of our lives the evil that is within us and bring
ourselves to a point where we can pray to Him continually to
clean up our minds, our lives, our hearts, then He will be able
to bless us as He would like to.
We sang a song here not long ago, "He that hath a clean
heart and a pure mind." That is the kind of people the Lord
wants, the kind of people that He is looking for. If this
people can do it, we can exist here. He has placed us in the
earth where our enemies can be shut off, we can be forgotten.
But we can still live under the direction of the servants of God
while the judgments of God are passing over the earth.
The Lord has got to have a great army, He says, of young
men who are full of faith, full of determination to serve God
and keep His commandments, young men and young women who can
clean up their minds and get rid of the trash that we have and
that we love so dearly. We love to get a magazine, now and
then, and read it. We should love to get the principles of
salvation and read them instead. "Come out of her, O ye, my
people, " said the Lord, "and be not partakers of her sins." So,
we are left without excuse, my brothers and sisters; we are left
without excuse. For the Lord has promised great blessings if we
would do right. There are great blessings in store for this
people if we will repent of our wrongdoings. Wherever we see
any sign of disobedience to the commandments of God, let us do
all we can to get rid of it. Then we can become a people that
can go down the road and serve God and keep His commandments and
be ready to be partakers in the redemption of His great work.
During the Millennial Reign, we can't have thieves among
us. There will be no thieves among us; there will be no liars;
there will be no criticism, no fault-finding, and so forth. Let
us individually start to clean up our hearts, our minds. Let us
see if we can fight down this great calamity that is showing its
head up now throughout this great nation.
Should this drought continue for another year or two,
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this nation will be in a great uproar, because the scene that
Joseph Smith saw will take place in a very short time. Our
winter is about past, and our mountains are void of snow. So,
moisture is going to be very very precious to us. If we had the
faith that we ought to have, we could get it. The Lord can
shower His blessings upon one spot of ground. He can withhold
from another spot. But we haven't thought of that. We think if
the Lord blesses the rest of the world with moisture, we would
get the same. But I have noticed over the last year that some
parts get a lot of moisture, others don't. Our adjoining states
are drier today than they have ever been since we have been
taking a history of our moisture content.
Our time is getting short. The Lord says that He wants us
to seek Him early that He might be found when trouble comes, but
he that waiteth until the last moment and then begins to pray to
God will have a hard time finding Him. So, let us be among the
early birds, and see if we can arrange our lives so that the
Lord will be pleased with us and help us over these rough
periods of time that are right at our door.
Let us repent, brothers and sisters, and do it quickly.
Let us pray night and day for deliverance that perhaps the Lord
will preserve our lives when great destruction comes to our
doors. I want to bear testimony that Joseph Smith was a prophet
of God, that he saw the Father and the Son, that Brigham Young
was his true successor in bringing the Latter-day Saints to the
Rocky Mountains. John Taylor was another faithful leader of
God's people. The Lord has left us without excuse by sending
Joseph Smith back to set up an order that would save a few
people. The Lord has said that He would save His saints if
needs be that He send fire from Heaven to do so. So let us be
among those who the Lord will protect during the days of
visitation upon this continent when He is preparing it for the
redemption of God's work. For this is the country that the Lord
has designated for the redemption of Zion. Let us get the
Spirit of God and keep it. Let us hasten to stamp out of our
lives those evils that hold us back. Let us
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purify the ground upon which we live that God can smile upon us.
Let us purify our homes and get them in a condition so that if
an angel wanted to stop in for a while, he could.
Let us do everything that the Lord has asked us to do.
Let us make up our minds that we are not going to do anything
evil again. Let us keep the promise or the covenant we make. I
pray that God will bless us with wisdom, knowledge, and
understanding, and give us the determination to be a better
people, I humbly pray in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
1173
SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, FEBRUARY 15,
1976,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
I am very much interested in the testimonies of these young
men. I am grateful for the spirit in which they were given, and
which they exhibit. I am grateful for the privilege of being
here today, my brothers and sisters, and I am enjoying the
spirit of this meeting. I hope that the Lord will bless me with
words, that I might give you the truth. He says to know the
truth, and the truth will make you free. This is very true in
all walks of life. The Lord is a man of truth. He works on
true principles. He is a Creator and uses nothing but truth.
He casts off the untruths and stuffs it down the drain. The
whole plan of salvation is predicated upon the principle of
truth- And yet, we lean the other way. A good many of us lean
the other way.
I am grateful for the day in which we live. I am grateful
for the testimony God has given me of the Gospel of Jesus Christ
and for the privilege of laboring in His work. I am grateful
for the experiences I have had all the way through my life. I
am grateful for the experience of being set down in this place,
a free man. All we had was what we stood up in and what we
needed to cover our nakedness. We had to start from scratch,
but the Lord has said that He would take care of His saints, He
would protect them if needs be that He send fire from heaven to
do so. He expects a lot from us. He expects us to overcome our
weaknesses and imperfections and to stand clean before Him in
truth and righteousness. He expects us to cease to criticize
one another. I find that one of the greatest weapons that Satan
has to put in the hands of the people is the ability to
criticize.
The Lord expects us to clean up our minds and to think pure
thoughts. The Lord says He cannot look upon sin with the least
degree of allowance, and we are told time after time to walk
uprightly before the Lord. The Lord expects us, His children,
to do something about cleaning house. This thing of preparation
is a great mission to be called upon. Each and every individual
has the responsibility of arranging his own life and casting off
all sin of any name or nature that might beset us--casting it
off and seeking the Lord in mighty prayer. If we do not do it,
the Lord
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told us what He would do. He will have to destroy us, and that
is what He doesn't want to do. He doesn't want to destroy the
people of this nation or the world, but He is a man of truth.
He says, "If they do not repent of their sins and follow Me, I
will have to destroy them." He told this to the brother of
Jared, and He told him that He would lead him to this great and
glorious land. "I will lead you to a land that is choice above
all other lands. The people who possess this land shall serve
Me, the Lord God of Heaven, or when they are ripened in iniquity
I will have to destroy them, " which He did.
He told the same thing to the Nephite people when they came
here to possess the land. As long as they would keep the
commandments of God He would prosper them and build them up, and
they would become a mighty people. Then when they began to fall
into idolatry and apostatize from the truth, the Lord told that
little fifteen-year-old boy, Mormon, (Mormon went before Him and
asked Him if he should go among the people and preach repentance
to them). He said, "No. They are willingly rebelling against
Me. If they won't do what I ask them to do, they won't do what
you ask them to do. So let them go." He is a man of truth. He
gave them their agency to work out their own salvation or their
own damnation.
There was another people that had to be destroyed. They
weren't all killed off. He left them in the earth for a future
purpose, and we will soon see the hand of the Lord in the lives
and labors of these benighted Lamanites. I go out in the cities
and travel on the highways, and I see a people that is trying to
go back and live like the Indians.
The Lord is about ready to clean house. How long He will
let us preach to the people, trying to get some to prepare
themselves to be used in the redemption of Zion, I don't know.
I don't know when He will tell us it is enough unless we step up
to the line and do a better job than we have done in the past.
He said He has to have a large army to man His work, and I
believe Him.
Oh, what a glorious opportunity our people have of becoming
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the people that the Lord can use in the redemption of His great
and glorious work. But these principles have been taught for
over a hundred years. We might rake up another audience as
large as the one that is here today that claim to believe in the
Priesthood, for the Lord has set it up in our day, but that is
only a little handful of people compared to the many millions in
the earth. The elders of Israel have been all over the world in
the last hundred years preaching repentance--repent and be
baptized and have hands laid upon you for the gift of the Holy
Ghost. Many have been gathered in--have come to Zion, or to the
body of the Saints. I wish we could call it Zion and be
truthful about it. But Zion is the pure in heart, those who
have prepared themselves against the day of visitation, those
who have rid themselves of all wickedness and become saints. We
should have millions by this time that could say that they know
that Joseph Smith is a Prophet, but we only have a little
handful of people that can do it and be truthful about it.
The Savior said, "He that saith he loveth me and keepeth
not my commandments is a liar." We can say it in another way.
Those who say that they believe in the Priesthood Council as the
Lord has set it up at the present time, and still continue to
delve into and partake of the superstitions of the Gentiles, are
not telling the truth. So let us bring ourselves to a little
more humility and commence to be truthful in our efforts, in our
actions, as well as by word of mouth.
Anyone can say--I am a man of truth, or I am a woman of
truth. Brother Guy preached a sermon sometime ago and said we
were all liars--we say one thing and do another. So let us
cease to do this. The servants of God are going to have to
continue to preach repentance as long as we do what we are doing
today, many of us. I believe we are trying to clean up our
lives, but we are too slow about it. Repentance means to cease
to do evil and continue to do good. Let us become a people that
the Lord can use in the redemption of His work, Let us prepare
ourselves against the judgments that are fast coming upon the
earth, that we may not be caught in the middle of it and be
wiped off the earth. Let us
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keep the commandments of God. Let us come to earth. Let us get
busy and clean up our minds and hasten to do the things we have
been told to do in order to help us be better people. Let us
take stock of ourselves, each and everyone of us, and let us do
something about it.
I pray the blessings of God upon us because our time is
short today. I ask that the Lord can bless us with wisdom,
knowledge, and understanding that we might more quickly prepare
ourselves against the judgments that He is going to have to send
upon this generation of people. God bless you, amen.
1177
SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, FEBRUARY 22,
1976,
SUNDAY, IN SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
I am certainly grateful, my brothers and sisters, for the
privilege of being here and hearing what I have heard. I am
grateful for this explanation of President Musser, because this
is one of the great stumbling blocks of the saints. If we could
all catch the picture--the Lord set up His Church among the
Gentiles in order to gather out of them the Israelitish blood
there was among them. We want to remember that the House of
Joseph, part of it at least, was scattered among the Gentile
nations. In order to fulfill the covenant of the Lord to
Abraham, this was to take place, that perhaps some of the
Gentiles might be converted to the blood of Jacob and Joseph.
Christ's instruction to the Prophet Joseph Smith was to go
and bear testimony to the world that Jesus was the Christ and
that he had seen the Father and the Son, and all who would
believe his story and repent of their sins and come unto Him and
keep His commandments would be saved; and those who would not do
this would be damned, and I believe He meant it.
Since I got acquainted with this order of the Priesthood
and joined up with them, I have come to learn more and more,
year by year, month by month, and week by week, day by day, that
this was the truth--that what Brother Musser has told us today
was the truth. The thing that this people have got to do is to
purge out of their lives the Gentilism that is within us. That
is what we mean by cleaning up our hearts and minds, to prepare
ourselves against the day of visitation when the Lord is wiping
the Gentiles off the earth. He has got to clean them all off
this part of the earth in order to redeem His work, redeem Zion.
This has been the promise to the old patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob--that Israel would be gathered. We have enough people
gathered around the servants of God today to set an example
before the whole world that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true.
Many, many people have joined the Church and gone out of it
Gentiles We say, "Well, we have had hands laid upon us for our
Patriarchal Blessings, and we have been pronounced the blood of
Joseph through the loins of Ephraim." That may be true. We may
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have some of the blood of Joseph in us. But unless we can stamp
out the Gentilism that is within us and do what the Lord has
asked us to do, we are not the true blood of Ephraim. Love the
Lord thy God with all thy heart, might, mind, and strength, says
the Lord. And the second great commandment is like unto it,
Love thy neighbor as thyself. Cease to criticize. Cease to find
fault, and all these other traits that the Gentiles imbibe in,
we have to get rid of.
We have to prove to the Lord that we have pure hearts and
clean minds, for He is the only one that can read them, and we
cannot get around it. We might pull the wool over the eyes of
the servants of God and make them believe that we are saints and
that we are lovers of the Lord, but unless we have pure hearts
and clean minds, there is one man we can't pass by. We can't
get by. So let us be honest in our hearts- Let us be honest in
our minds and serve God and keep His commandments. Let us
hasten to prepare ourselves against that which is about to
transpire before us, and it is going on right now. Great
destruction is taking place in different parts of the earth.
Many thousands of people are losing their lives through the
means that the Prophet Joseph told us would transpire. The Lord
showed it to him, and so great was the scene of bloodshed that
he asked the Lord to close the vision, he couldn't stand to look
upon it any longer.
Are we strong enough to stand under such scenes and
circumstances? They are commencing to transpire. We read in
the papers every day that something new has taken place. I read
in the paper this morning that this great state of ours, the
state of Utah, carries the blue ribbon for having more divorces
than any other state of the Union. What a great and glorious
feat for a Mormon state to exhibit before the world! Have the
words of Heber C. Kimball been fulfilled when he said that if
we gave up this law of plurality that our wives and daughters
would walk the streets as common harlots? Just go down through
the state, through the city--this great city that was given to
the saints--this great Church which boasts of so many
missionaries going out in the
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world and doing such great missionary work. Just think about
it!
I hope, my brothers and sisters, that we can bring
ourselves out from under the condemnation that God placed upon
us less than two years after the Church was organized. He said
that we would remain under that condemnation until we repented.
Repent of what? Of the breaking of the law of obedience- We
haven't been able to obey the teachings of the servants of God
and to prepare ourselves to a point where we could have millions
instead of hundreds who were gathered around the Priesthood
today. We should have millions of people who have purged out
the Gentile blood and had become pure Israelites. Just read the
scriptures. They plainly tell us what has to be done. Let us
get down to business and keep the commandments of God, my
brothers and sisters, and let us do something about our lives.
These bodies of ours are more precious to us than we think
they are. We think we are just humans here in the earth--come
here to have a good time and to enjoy life. Which is true--we
did come here to enjoy life, not only this life but the life
hereafter. But we have failed in our effort to do so, to purge
out of our lives the Gentile blood that is within us.
Now, may God bless us, I humbly pray in the name of Jesus
Christ, amen.
1180
REMARKS GIVEN BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, FEBRUARY 29, 1976,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, AR1Z0NA
We were advised this morning that Sister Arleen Dutson
passed away this morning, in Iowa. Sister Dutson was one of our
friends that we had during the days of the '53 raid. She was
the wife of Brother Merlin Dutson. When our people were taken
into custody, we were put under a heavy bond. Something over
$100,000 for a bond had to be raised. We had a bonding company
to go our bonds. This didn't satisfy the courts of Arizona.
They had such a terrific case and such a great number of
"criminals" that they didn't accept the bonding company's bonds;
they had to have a chattel bond of equal, or more, value. So
Brother Merlin Dutson came to our rescue. He had property
enough to satisfy the Court and equal value in property to match
the situation, which was the first step in conquering the state
of Arizona, the courts of that State. Mr. Pyle was quite
surprised when a man could come up with that much bond for such
a vast number of "criminals."
I also want to say a little bit about our neighbors. We
had a real neighbor as long as I have known the man, Brother Ken
Gubler, of Hurricane. I guess as far back as 1934, maybe
earlier, when I first got acquainted with Ken Gubler, he has
been a friend to this people. They have never been to his
service station for gasoline but what he would let them have it,
whether they had the money or whether they didn't. Many, many
times I have stopped by his service station and filled up my
tank with gas, and he would go and get from one to half dozen or
a dozen tickets that people had got gas there and charged it to
us. I would take care of them.
He defied not only the bishop and the president of the
stake in his determination to help to serve our people, but he
defied the Federal Courts. I understand that Brother Vergel
Jessop, when he came out of jail and was put on parole was put
under Ken Gubler to keep him straight. Everytime the Federal
Court asked for a report on him, his answer to them was that the
road was so impassable between Hurricane and that place that he
hadn't been able to get out to see them; so they put it off for
another month, and the next month it would be the same thing.
Brother Gubler passed
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away, and they had his funeral yesterday.
We are grateful for these friends that the Lord has raised
up for us along the way, and we want to acknowledge them when
the proper time comes.
************************
1182
A SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, MARCH 7, 1976,
SUNDAY, IN SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
Once more I am grateful, my brothers and sisters, for the
health and strength that I enjoy and the health and strength
that you enjoy, for I take it that you are well enough to be
here or you wouldn't be here. The Lord, through the Prophet
Joseph Smith, told Oliver Cowdery that it was by obedience to
the whisperings of His Spirit that he was where he was, in the
employ of Joseph the Prophet. So I take it that we all are here
to be instructed because the Spirit of God has led us
here--brought us together, and I trust that we can take to heart
the things that we have already heard and the things that the
Lord will give to us during the rest of this meeting.
There is one thing that I want you to understand and that
is this, that whenever I am called upon to speak, the first
thing I do is ask the Lord to put into my mouth the words that
He wants me to say, for I do not want to do anything that will
detract from the Gospel of Jesus Christ--the roadway to our
eternal salvation.
In His instructions to the Prophet Joseph Smith, He told
him to go and bear testimony to the world that God lives and
that he had seen the Father and the Son, and this testimony he
bore. The Savior told him to tell the world that all who would
accept His Gospel and obey its teachings would be saved, and
those who would reject it would be damned- Now this is quite a
saying. This is something that we should stop long enough to
consider and to get into our minds that it means us. It means
every individual that has been baptized by the Holy Priesthood
and had hands laid upon them for the gifts of the Holy Ghosts
It is their privilege to know and understand the Gospel of
Jesus Christ as it was given to us through the Prophet Joseph
Smith and the presidency of Priesthood from his time until now.
They have taught the same principles of salvation that Joseph
Smith taught. In my perusal of the scriptures, I find it is the
same Gospel that Abraham taught to his people. It is the same
Gospel that Enoch taught to his people when he was preparing
them to be translated. So we do have the true Gospel taught to
us from week to week, month to month, year to year. Ever since
I have been able
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to know and understand what the Gospel meant, have been taught
the same principles of salvation. I haven't had to change from
the principles my father taught me at his knee until the present
time, and I know that this Gospel is true.
I know that Jesus Christ was the Savior of the world, and I
know that Joseph Smith was a true Prophet of God and that he did
see the Father and the Son and communicated with them. The
ordinances of the Gospel that he left with us were given
directly from heaven to us. Then why shouldn't we prepare
ourselves to become instruments in His hands in bringing to pass
His purposes in the earth.
He tells us in the Doctrine & Covenants that His army must
be very great, great in knowledge and understanding of the
Gospel of Jesus Christ, and determined within their minds to do
the things that the Lord asks them to do and be ready to go when
they are called upon to go and not have to wait for preparation
after the call comes. We should be prepared for the call every
evening, and I mean every evening. We should live through the
daytime so the Lord could shower down His blessings upon us
during the night that we might rest well. It is not our
privilege to go to bed and be uneasy from the time we lay down
until the time we wake up. It is our privilege, if we will
prepare ourselves to receive it, to go to bed at night and fall
asleep and get our rest and arise in the morning able to go
about our labors in peace--peace of mind and body, and in
spirit.
The Gospel is true, my brothers and sisters. The first
principles of the Gospel are necessary for the edification of
every child, every man and woman that is seeking for their
salvation. They should enter in at the door that they might be
prepared for further blessings. It is the same way with the
Priesthood. They should enter in at the door and be added upon
from time to time as they prepare themselves to be added upon,
that they might finally become saviors on Mount Zion, for that
is our mission.
The Lord is anxious to prepare a people that can be used in
the redemption of Zion, in the redemption of this great and
glorious work that has been going on throughout the ages of time
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since the days of Adam where it was first given to Him in the
garden of Eden. We are still teaching the same Gospel.
Methuselah taught it to his people. Enoch taught it to his
people. Noah taught it to his people, and Jared and his brother
taught it to their people. Lehi and Nephi taught it to their
people--people that inhabited this continent upon which we live.
In order to prepare this continent upon which we live for the
redemption of Zion, great destruction has got to take place.
Why? Because the people who live upon it have discarded the
Gospel of Jesus Christ and have sworn in their wrath to destroy
it. So they filled the measure of their creation in
unrighteousness, and the Lord has got to have a righteous people
to accomplish His work.
I am grateful for the many people who have accepted the
Gospel and applied it to their lives, because they are prepared
now, they are prepared to take part in the redemption of it. We
will all be there to take our place and to do our share of the
work. If I understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ right, if we
believe that in this life only we have hope, we are of all men
most miserable. I am looking for a life hereafter if I can
continue in the road that I am trying to travel. I am working
for a life hereafter. In order to get there. I am going to have
to do a lot of work between now and the day of my exaltation,
and you have got to do the same thing.
If we do not want to be destroyed with the wicked, we are
going to have to do something about it. We are going to have to
clean up our lives, clean up our minds. "Come out of the world,
oh ye, My people, and be not partakers of her sins", the Lord
says, and I believe He meant it. I believe that He meant for us
to throw out of our natures that which we have partaken of
unconsciously, because I do not think a man in his right
conscience would apply to his life any of the superstitions of
the Gentiles. The superstitions of the Gentiles have no business
in the lives of the Latter-day Saints, and we see it all around
us. We see it in our homes. There are none of us that can say
we are free, entirely free, because when we become that way, the
Lord will take us away like He did Enoch and his people. He has
many ways of taking people away.
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I know that my Redeemer lives, and I know that I have work
to do to be prepared to meet Him. I know that you have work to
do, everyone of you. Then let us work together. Let us get the
Spirit of God and keep it. Let us put into our minds every
principle of it--get it fastened there. And the spirit of evil
that creeps in once in a while, let us get it stamped out. Let
us leave no place for another evil thought to come into our
minds, because that is the kind of people that the Lord has got
to have in order to redeem His work. He says, "Zion cannot be
redeemed only upon the principles of the Celestial Kingdom, and
in the Celestial Kingdom there is no sin of any nature." So it
is very important, my brothers and sisters, that we do something
about our eternal salvation while it is our duty and privilege
to do so.
Our span of life is only a short time- We only have one
life to live to try to prepare ourselves, but that is what we
are here for. We come here to take bodies and purify them and
take them back into the presence of our Father in a purified
condition. To purify a body means for the spirit to rule the
body, for the spirit is spiritual and the body is temporal. So
it is our place and our privilege and our duty to purify these
bodies and take them back to our Father in a purified condition,
so that we can take them up in the morning of the resurrection
and be able to go on throughout the eternities of the eternal
worlds. That is what we are living for. That is the purpose of
life. It wasn't to come here and to defile these bodies by
following after the traditions of the world and to seek for
power in the world and in the governments of the land. That is
not our business. Our business is to find our place in the
Kingdom of God and stay there, and let the Lord fight our
battles. That is what He has promised He would do.
He said, "Make no further commitments to the enemy and I
will fight your battles, " and I believe He will do it. I have
tried Him in a small way a few times, and I have found that He
is there, He is not very far off; and you can do the same thing.
There is no time that I can remember in my life when we needed
the assistance of our Father in Heaven more than we do at the
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present time, because we are standing in a great and glorious
day--a day that the Lord is cleaning the earth and preparing it
for a thousand years of peace, or a Millennial Reign. This has
been spoken of throughout all the history of time, and I believe
it. I believe it is just as much my duty to be prepared for it
as it was for Joseph Smith to be prepared to do his work, or
Brigham Young to do his, or John Taylor to do his, or any other
of the prophets. It is our duty today to prepare ourselves
against the day of visitation when God is pouring out His
judgments upon the wicked. I pray that we can hasten to prepare
ourselves against the day when great destruction covers the
earth. Joseph Smith talked about it--told us what was going to
happen. You will find it recorded in the Teachings of The
Prophet Joseph Smith. He told us what would happen in the
generation that lived at that time. So we are not very far off.
It is not very far ahead of us, because we are about a hundred
and forty years since then.
Now, my brothers and sisters, let us get down to business.
Let us clean up our lives and get the Spirit of God and keep it,
I humbly pray in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
1187
A SERMON GIVEN BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, MARCH 14, 1976,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
I am grateful, my brothers and sisters, for this wonderful
privilege we have of meeting together and enjoying the spirit of
the Gospel. We have had a lot of good things told to us this
afternoon, and I trust that the Lord will put words in my mouth
the few moments that I speak that we might continue to be built
up in our determination to serve Him and keep His commandments.
Brother Hammon brought to our attention the ordination of
some of our boys to the Melchizedek Priesthood. There should
have been a lot more of our boys in that meeting this morning.
I don't know all the reasons why they were not there. Some of
them are away on jobs so that it is necessary that they be away,
but others are somewhere else.
I want to enlarge a little upon the principle of grooming
ourselves. I had a man come into my office the other day with
hair down to his shoulders. After conversing with him for a
little while, I told him that he shouldn't try to be connected
with this people unless he could properly groom himself. He
said, "What do you mean?" "In our day in which we are living
today, the length of your hair tells me that you are trying to
ride two horses, or wear two yokes." He looked up at the
pictures I had on the wall of Brigham Young and Joseph Smith.
He said, "I notice that Brigham had his hair down almost as long
as mine." I said, "I want to call your attention to something.
You see the difference in the look of the two men. The Lord
picked on a boy that was well groomed, slick-shaven, and he
continued that way throughout his life. He didn't allow his
whiskers to grow; he didn't allow his hair to grow any longer
than is necessary for him to be well-groomed. And, the reason
for it is this, Joseph Smith was tutored and trained under the
angels of heaven. I don't doubt for a moment but what Brigham
Young, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, and Heber C. Kimball were
tutored under the inspiration of heaven or they wouldn't have
been such staunch men in the Kingdom of our Father. But they
had imbibed the superstitions of the Gentiles, and this is one
of them--long hair for men." One of the prophets tells us that
it is a shame for a man to have long hair. He goes
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on to say that the woman's hair is her glory; it given to her
for a covering of her head, and there are certain ordinances of
the Priesthood that she will need beautiful hair in order to
perform. They should be well-groomed, well taken care of. But
I agree with President Hammon in not allowing it to hang loose
in the back or around the face. In my growing-up days, I have
heard the leaders of the Church tell us how they would like to
have the women take care of their hair, and I never heard any of
them advise them to let it hang loose in the back, but to have
it done up neatly. This is necessary for the women of the
Latter-day Saints. I call you Latter-day Saints because you are
the only people that are trying to keep the Latter-day Saint
principles alive, both men and women. We want to keep them in a
way so that the Lord can put His finger on us if He needs us, or
when He needs us.
The Lord is trying to prepare a people to be used in the
redemption of His work, and it is necessary that we get rid of
the superstitions of the Gentiles that we have imbibed in our
daily life, cast them off and bring ourselves to a point where
we can be acceptable unto the Lord. All we need to do is study
the scriptures, read them, and we will get out of them the kind
of a character that the Lord is pleased with.
I am grateful for the day in which we live. I am grateful
for the effort that has been put forth to gather around the
Priesthood and to come out week after week, month after month,
and listen to the words of eternal life. I am grateful for this
vast audience in this little place today. President John Y.
Barlow and President Joseph Musser would be greatly pleased to
see you gathered together. There might be some among us that
will not make the grade, but it is an opportunity for everyone
of you to make the grade if you will just put forth the effort
to do so. We still have men among us who are, I call them, not
saints. They pretend to live the law, but they are not doing
what they ought to do, and this is very grievous in the sight of
the servants of God, as also in the sight of our Father. It is
one of the things that is holding this people back. The time
will come when, if you
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won't straighten up and live as saints, we will be forced to let
you go, because this will be the law. So, let us all straighten
up. Let us cease our evil practices, and especially you married
men that are raising a family. Watch yourselves! Set an
example before your children and your wives that you know would
be acceptable to the Lord. And let us bring ourselves out from
under the condemnation that God placed upon us for treating
lightly the things that we have received.
I pray that God will bless us with wisdom, knowledge, and
understanding and give us the determination to serve Him and
keep His commandments, I humbly pray in the name of Jesus
Christ, amen.
119O
REMARKS GIVEN BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, MARCH 21, 1976,
SUNDAY, IN SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
I am grateful, my brothers and sisters, for the privilege
of being here again, and I trust the few moments I speak that
the Lord will put the words in my mouth that I should say to
you.
I have been very much gratified in the words that have been
spoken this afternoon. I am grateful for the lineage of this
work as it has been given to us, for this work is true. The
Gospel is true. It is the same Gospel that was given to Adam in
the Garden of Eden, the same Gospel that was taught by all the
holy prophets from his time until how. We have the standard
works of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints which
contains the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine & Covenants and the
Pearl of Great Price, and I am grateful to the Lord for
preserving it. Attempts have been made to try to change it, to
take out of it all the saving principles that it contains, but
the Lord wouldn't stand for it. It had to come back, and we
have it today. We can say the same thing about the Journals of
Discourses, the sermons of our early leaders. They tried to
destroy them, gathered them up and burned them at one time to
get them out of the hands of the Latter-day Saints, but the Lord
inspired His servants to get them back into circulation, and
they are back here in the original form.
This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and I bear testimony to
you that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that he saw the
Father and the Son, and he carried on the work that they placed
upon him and set up the Kingdom of God in the latter days, and
it is still rolling on. The instructions of our Father in
Heaven to His people whenever they have been in operation in the
earth have been to preach nothing but repentance to them, and
preparation. Prepare yourselves for the coming of the Son of
God. That is what we are commanded to do, to prepare a people
for the redemption of Zion.
When the Priesthood was restored to the earth, something
like this was said to the Prophet Joseph Smith: This Gospel of
the Kingdom will never be taken away or given to another people
until the sons of Levi do offer again an offering unto the Lord
in righteousness. So, it is our business, my dear brothers and
sisters, to
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encourage you to get the Spirit of God and keep it, and let it
direct you daily, hourly; yes, momently.
Let us clean up our minds and our hearts and accept the
Gospel as it was given to us by His servants. Let us prepare
ourselves that we might have some cause to call upon the Lord
for His assistance when He is cleansing this goodly land of ours
for the redemption of Zion, for the Millennial Reign, for a
thousand years of peace. While the rest of the world are
contending with one another, let us go to and bow our knees
before the Lord and pray night and day for deliverance from the
evil powers that are trying to destroy us, to destroy the faith
of our people and to bring us under condemnation deeper than we
are at the present time, remembering that the Lord placed us
under condemnation within two years after the Church was
organized. He said we would remain under that condemnation
until we repented and came unto Him. The message that the Lord
has left for you today is to get the Spirit of God and keep it
and to repent of all our sins and come clean before the Lord.
May God bless you, I humbly pray in the name of Jesus
Christ, amen.
1192
A SERMON GIVEN BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, MARCH 28, 1976,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
I am grateful, my brothers and sisters, for the privilege
of being here and seeing this room filled with people who have
come out to listen. I am grateful for the attention you are
showing us in calling you together today. I greatly feel my
weakness in standing before you, and I trust that the Lord will
bless me with words to encourage you to keep on striving, for it
is through this that we gain our salvation. We have been
instructed by revelation to strive daily; and as fast as we
repent, the Lord will forgive us of our sins. He expects us to
live up to our agreement with Him.
In the First Section of the Doctrine & Covenants, the Lord
tells us that this Gospel is unto all men, and it doesn't make
any difference who they are, where they live, whether they live
on the land or the isles of the sea or in foreign countries or
upon this land, it is the same, He says. The Gospel of Jesus
Christ is to every person upon the earth. His instruction to us
is to preach nothing but repentance to this generation; repent
of your sins and shortcomings and apply to your lives the Gospel
of Jesus Christ. He told the Prophet Joseph to bear this
testimony to the world and all who would believe would be saved,
and those who would not believe would be damned. This, He
meant.
He commanded Joseph to organize a church in 1830. Joseph
did what he was told to do. He called a few elders together and
organized the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He
gave them commandments to live. Joseph did all that the Lord
commanded him to do in setting in order the House of God. But
in 1832, we were placed under condemnation because we treated
lightly the things we had received. And He said, "You will
remain under this condemnation until you repent and come unto me
and do what I say." He says, "My work is not man's work." It is
altogether different. He says, "Repent of your sins and be
baptized in the name of Jesus Christ and have hands laid upon
you for the gift of the Holy Ghost." In doing so, you covenant
with the Lord that you will sin no more; and you will come out
of the world; and you will do the bidding of Christ, our Savior.
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This has been the cry of the servants of God ever since the
Lord and our Savior visited the Prophet Joseph Smith: Repent ye,
repent ye, and be baptized for the remission of your sins and
sin no more, and then the Lord can bless you. We have been
laboring for over a hundred and fifty years and we are no nearer
the goal of salvation than we were in Joseph Smith's time. We
are a different people, of course. The people that were with
Joseph are all gone. We are a product of their posterity, but
we are not as good, or not any better than our forefathers. If
we were, we would have the Kingdom of God, and it would be
rolling on today. We would be in the midst of the redemption of
Zion. But we are not there. We are still preaching
preparation--preparing ourselves to be used in this great
redeeming work, which will take place during the days of the
Millennial Reign, or the thousand years of peace that has been
spoken of by the holy prophets. We cannot receive these higher
blessings until we have complied with the first principles of
the Gospel. I don't know very many people who have done what
they covenanted to do at the water's edge when they were
baptized and came forth. There have been many many people who
have come and been rebaptized and rebaptized. And yet, after
all this, we still have to be preached to and be encouraged to
get close to the Lord and get His Spirit and keep it.
The Lord has had prophets upon the earth almost continually
since the beginning of time. During that time, there have been
a few who have prepared themselves for a glorious resurrection.
Out of all those who have prepared themselves for a glorious
resurrection will come the man-power of the Millennial Reign.
Why do I say this? Because the Lord plainly tells it in the
Doctrine & Covenants. I hold in my hand the standard works of
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and of the
Kingdom of God: The Book of Mormon, the Doctrine & Covenants,
and the Pearl of Great Price. In these books, we have all of
the Gospel--all that is necessary to prepare ourselves for the
Millennial Reign. In these revelations, we are told that Zion
cannot be redeemed only upon the principles of the Celestial
Kingdom, and in the Celestial Kingdom there is no sin.
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There is no evil there. The Lord has shown His hand in our
defense from the beginning of time until now.
This is the Gospel that was taught by Enoch to his people,
and then on to Jared and his people after the great confusion of
languages at the tower of Babel. This is the same Gospel that
Jared carried with his people to this continent. Lehi was told
to leave Jerusalem, and the Lord would lead him to a land choice
above all other lands. He had him take the records with him, so
He could raise up a pure people. From time to time they kept
the commandments of God, and they were blessed continually. But
they had to be destroyed. Both of these great nations had to be
destroyed because of their wickedness.
He has said that those who dwell upon this continent shall
serve the God of the land or when they are ripened in iniquity,
they will have to be destroyed. Joseph Smith told us that there
were those living in his day whose eyes would not close in death
until they would see great destructions upon this land.
Hailstorms and great winds, earthquakes, wars, and diseases of
different names and natures would sweep this land of its
inhabitants to prepare the way for the redemption of His work.
We are right on the verge of it. That is the reason the Lord is
urging us to preach repentance to this generation, that there
might be a people who have faith enough to be counted worthy of
the blessings that Brother Timpson has been talking to us about.
We are not going to receive these blessings again until we are
worthy of being called to go to the House of the Lord and
receive them. So we have got to be prepared.
We are not prepared today, unless we take a sharp turn in
the road and begin to humble ourselves before the Lord, for He
has plainly told us that we would cry night and day for
deliverance. This, I firmly believe. I believe that Christ
meant what He said, "Go teach this Gospel to the people of the
world and all who will believe will be saved, and those who will
not believe will be damned."
To believe is to do the things that the Lord has asked us
to do. It isn't to do good today, on the Sabbath day, come
together and listen to the words of the prophets, or the
servants of God,
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then mingle with the wicked and partake of their sins the next
day, then next Sunday come and repent again. This isn't
repentance. Repentance means to throw off all evil, every whit,
and let the Spirit of God take its place. He says the first
great commandment is to love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart, might, mind, and strength; and how can you love Him if
you serve Him one minute and criticize those around you the
next? You have got to come out of it, everyone of you, man,
woman, and child, and begin applying to your lives the sacred
principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and quit treating
lightly the blessings we receive from the hands of the
Priesthood. Let us be doers of the work. Let us come out of
our shells. Let us come out of the world and be not partakers of
her sins, for this is the Gospel that the Lord has left with us.
Repent ye, repent ye, He said.
This is a great day, my brothers and sisters, in which we
live. And I tell you the Lord is kind to us to shower His
blessings upon us as He has. Little do you know the sorrows and
heartaches that lie in front of you, in the near future.
Brother Kimball put it this way, "There will be a test, a test,
and who will be able to stand the test?"
When the Lord gave Joseph the vision, he saw what was going
to happen to the people before the Millennial Reign, before Zion
was redeemed. He saw the sufferings of the people. He saw
great bloodshed. To put it in his words, he said that there
would be a period of bloodshed that has never had a parallel
upon this nation. Are we prepared to meet such a condition?
This great land of ours has got to be cleansed, and a righteous
people have got to take its place. What a wonderful opportunity
you have, and I have. So let us rid ourselves of all iniquity.
It doesn't make any difference how little it is, let us get it
out of the house. Let us kick it out into the wilderness and
let it go down with the unrighteous; but let us be prepared.
For this Gospel of the Kingdom is unto all men who will prepare
themselves. What a wonderful opportunity we have to prepare
ourselves, because no place else upon the earth will you hear
such doctrine taught as you hear right here among this people.
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Now, I pray that God will bless us with wisdom, knowledge,
and understanding, and that we will hasten to humble ourselves
before the Lord and to bring ourselves to a point where we can
pray night and day. You don't have to be on your knees all the
time. You can have a prayer in your hearts; and when you have a
prayer in your hearts, the evil goes out, when you are praying
to our Father.
So let us not draw a long breath unless we can ask God to
help us to overcome our weaknesses and imperfections, that we
can hasten to become a mighty and a strong people, one that the
Lord can protect with a cloud by day and with a pillar of fire
by night. He said that He would do it if we would prepare
ourselves for it. But we have got to be prepared for it. We
have got to rid our community of all evil. So let us hasten to
do something about it, my brothers and sisters. Let us become
the people that the Lord is looking for that He might commence
the redemption of His great and glorious work in the earth, I
pray in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
1197
A SERMON BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, APRIL 4, 1976,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
We have heard the word of God given to us in great strength
today, so we should be well paid for our being here. I trust
the few moments I speak to you that the Lord will put the words
into my mouth that you might be encouraged further to get and
keep the Spirit of God. There have been many things said today
that I would like to enlarge upon and speak upon, but time will
not permit, so I will say very little regarding the things that
have been said. It is sufficient for the edification of our
people at the present time.
We are a good people. We are the best people upon the
earth because we are the only ones that are receiving such
doctrines as have been promulgated here today. You won't find
it anywhere else in the world that we know anything about. I am
grateful for the life and labors of you people. I have seen you
grow up. When the Priesthood first came to this place, we held
a meeting, a Priesthood meeting. In that Priesthood meeting
there were three men from Salt Lake City and four men from Short
Creek at that time. We have seen this work grow from this many
priesthood holders in this place to what we had here last night,
some six hundred and sixty men, holders of the Holy Priesthood.
If all these elders that were here in our meeting last
night were faithful and true in all things, if they were clean
every whit from the blood and sins of this generation in which
we live, we could call upon Joseph Smith and tell him we are
ready to go. This is what we have been working for, my brothers
and sisters, all these years. We have been working to prepare a
people that can carry off the Kingdom of God. The way has got
to be prepared. This continent has got to be clean of
wickedness. The elders of Israel have got to rid their lives of
everything that is evil, for the Lord has said that Zion cannot
be redeemed only upon the principles of righteousness, the
principles of the Celestial Kingdom. Joseph Smith plainly tells
us that we cannot be called into the Solemn Assembly and receive
our endowments until we are clean every whit. This means that
we are clean from all sin and corruption.
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The Lord is very kind to His people. He has been
long-suffering, patient, and willing to give us sufficient time
to straighten up our lives. The principle of repentance is one
of the greatest blessings that He has offered to His children,
to repent of our sins and shortcomings and make our lives clean
before Him.
Let us go from this conference and be determined within our
hearts and our minds to prepare ourselves against the day of
visitation, for it is fast coming upon this nation. Great
destruction is taking place throughout the nation, and greater
destruction is in the making. The Lord has said that we don't
know the day or the hour in which these great things will come
to pass, not even the angels in heaven know, but He alone knows
what His plans are and how He is going to work them. We don't
know anything about this great destruction that is going to come
to pass, only through what we have read in the scriptures, what
the prophets have said, what Jesus Christ told the Nephites. He
gives a little information of what would transpire in this great
day. When the fulness of the Gentiles has come in, and the
Gospel is taken away from them, then the wicked will be swept
off from the face of this land and the Gospel again taught in
its fulness to all the tribes of Israel, and the whole world, as
far as that goes. Then is when the great missionary work will
start.
The greatest missionary work that has been done since the
days of the Prophet Joseph has been the raid of 1953, when the
Journals of Discourses were republished. They were republished
by this order of the Priesthood, and they were scattered
throughout the nations of the earth. It was our privilege to
see to it that every important library in the world had at least
one set of the Journals of Discourses in it, and a lot of them
had many sets of them.
This is another evidence of falling away from the
principles of salvation. When we were trying to get the
Journals republished, we offered the Church the opportunity of
publishing them for us, and we would pay the bill; but they
turned us down, not only turned
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us down, but told every publisher in the state not to do it, for
it wasn't according to the will of the Church. So we had to go
to California to get it done. After a while, they found that we
had scattered another printing of the Journals of Discourses
throughout the country. Finally, the Church began to print them
themselves, so today the set of Journals that you get are
printed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. How
long they will allow this to go on, no one knows. This is the
greatest missionary project that has gone out to the world since
the days of the Prophet Joseph and Brigham Young and John
Taylor.
I want to bear my testimony to you, my brothers and
sisters, that this work is true, that Joseph Smith was a true
prophet of God, that he did see the Father and the Son and talk
to them. Not only that, but he was led and directed by the
angels of heaven in all his work from the time he was fourteen
years old until he was martyred. Brigham Young was his true
successor to this great and glorious work. Right here today is
a majority of the product of that great Gospel that the Lord
restored to the earth through the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Thousands of such audiences should be gathered throughout this
nation, where the servants of God would be teaching the same
things that you have heard here today. I say what a wonderful
opportunity you have, each one of you, men and women. Clean up
your minds, cease to criticize one another, cease to find fault
with your situations, and especially among the elders of Israel.
Let us go from this Conference and determine in our minds
that we are going to do something about our salvation, and let
us not let the Lord sweep us off the earth. For He has said
only those who will apply the Gospel of Jesus Christ to their
lives will be saved and those who will not will be damned. He
also says, "He that saith he believeth on my name and keepeth
not my commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him." If
this be the case, if we are not cleansed from iniquity, every
whit, says the Prophet Joseph Smith, then we will not be called
up.
This Gospel is true. What you have heard today is true.
What you heard last night is true. The Lord is kind to us, and
I
1200
REMARKS GIVEN BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, APRIL 4, 1976,
SUNDAY EVENING, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
I hope the Lord will bless me with words, my brothers and
sisters, to leave a word of encouragement to you to keep on
striving, for the Lord loves you. He loves all of His children.
It grieves Him very much to have to destroy them. He has made
it very plain to us that He is jealous of the workmanship of His
hands--the creations that He has made.
I often think of the incident of Moses in the mount when he
talked to the Lord, and the Lord showed him the generations of
time from the beginning until the end. He says, "All of these
are the workmanship of my hands." Moses wanted Him to tell him
how He operated other planets and what was on them. The Lord's
answer to him was: I am very jealous of the workmanship of my
hands, and these things that I have shown you are the
workmanship of my hands. I will tell thee only about the things
of this earth upon which you
stand.
Today we have scientists that are trying to disprove this
revelation that was given to Moses. They are trying to reach
these other planets and discover what the Lord has upon them;
but, the Lord has other things in view. If He wouldn't show
Moses, as good a man as Moses was, and as near to Him as Moses
could get, then how are we going to get a knowledge of it
through our scientific researches and so forth? We might fly so
far out into space, but the Lord has ways and means of
protecting His great work. They haven't found anything yet that
has proven that there is life there. All that I have heard that
they have brought back is the evidence of earth of some nature.
So, let us begin to believe in the scriptures. Let us
begin to recognize that the Lord is trying to persuade us
against evil--trying to get us to do something to help Him to
receive something back for the great effort that He has put
forth to create man and to place life in him and to cause that
we can communicate one with another. This is the thing that we
want to learn. We want to learn to do the same things that our
Father in Heaven has done. For He has plainly told us that as
man is God once was, and as God is man may become. So, we have
an opportunity at the present time--a wonderful opportunity of
applying to our lives the saving
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principles of the Gospel and becoming Gods and Queens and
Goddesses
in the Kingdom of our Father. This is the great science that I
would like to attain to--to a point where I have a knowledge of
creation--how to create worlds, how to create spirits and
people. We have all that is necessary for our eternal
education. He told the Prophet Joseph Smith that He was leaving
him all that was necessary to round out his salvation and to
bring him back into His presence. So, let us strive to receive
the same blessings as our Prophet Joseph attained to. Let us
hasten to prepare ourselves against that day of visitation that
the Lord has promised to this generation except they repent, and
only through repentance will we escape the judgments of God.
I have been greatly increased in my determination through
the sessions of this Conference to continue to strive to weed
out of my life the evils that exist there and to bring myself
into subjection to the Spirit of God. Yes, I would like to see
every person that has been to this Conference and heard the
brethren speak, prepare themselves. If we will just work with
ourselves and try with our might to rid ourselves of evil, there
will be no need of severe chastisement, as we receive from time
to time.
Now, I pray the blessings of God upon you--upon all those
who are striving for the advancement of the Kingdom of God and
the Redemption of Zion, and I pray that the Lord will be kind to
us and protect us from evil, from the evils of the highways when
we travel and from the evil we meet up with from day to day, and
help us to prepare ourselves so that we can demand a blessing
from His hand when we need it. Now, for these things I humbly
pray in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
1203
SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, APRIL 11, 1976,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
I am grateful this afternoon, brothers and sisters, to be
here, to hear the testimonies that have been borne. I trust
that the few moments I speak, the Spirit of God will be upon me,
and I will say what He would like to have me say.
We are living in a time when the Lord is preparing a people
for the winding up of the work just before the appearance of our
Savior. We know it will be a thousand years. During that time,
a lot of work has got to be done. It may not be a thousand
years before the Savior makes His appearance, but He will have a
house prepared to come to. We have heard the brethren talk to us
from time to time and tell us to keep our houses in order, to
get them in order and to clean up our homes, our surroundings,
so that if and when the Lord wants to send a messenger among us,
he wouldn't be embarrassed. This is what we are trying to do.
We are trying to put the capstone on the work that Joseph, the
Prophet started and have a people prepared to carry the work of
the Lord forward and establish His kingdom in the earth, that we
might be able to carry the fulness of the everlasting Gospel to
the nations of the earth and be protected in it. This has been
the great trouble thus far in this dispensation, being able to
teach the fulness of the Gospel without being challenged and
persecuted for that which we taught and tried to practice. So,
we are trying to prepare a people that can be used.
Inasmuch as the Lord has instructed us that we should teach
nothing but repentance to this generation, we can see the great
need of our people, the people around us, of getting and keeping
the Spirit of God. I have said before, and I will say again,
that the Spirit of God is the spirit of peace. Those who enjoy
the spirit of peace that is necessary for the saints to obtain
will have to be able to keep the Spirit of God upon them.
I used to hear this doctrine taught when I was a young man
growing up. I wondered why so many of the leading brethren were
men who would partake of the amusement that would come among us,
I have seen many of our leading brethren get up in meeting and
talk about preparation, preach long sermons, and then go out
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and attend the races, bet on the races, and so forth. This has
been the cause of our retardedness. This is one of the things
that has held us back. We find today the same things going on.
We find our brethren going here and there and partaking of the
evils that are rampant in the earth, the enticings of the evil
spirits. We don't seem to be able to overcome them or to bring
ourselves into subjection to the will of our Father. This is
what we have got to do. The Lord plainly tells us that Zion
cannot be redeemed only upon the principles of the Celestial
Kingdom. All these vices will be done away with and forgotten
when we get into the Celestial Kingdom. There is a greater work
to be done. We have got to be taught and trained how to create
our likeness and how to bring the elements together to build
worlds on which to put the spirits that we will be taught to
bring into existence.
When I study the scriptures and hear what the Lord has told
to the prophets about the workmanship of His hands, I wonder how
we can ever attain to that knowledge and understanding. I have
seen men come to this place and live among us for years then
leave and go out to other places. One man in particular wrote me
a letter and told me that we were on the right track all right,
but we were retarding our people because we didn't teach them
how to create man. He said, "My greatest ambition is to learn
how to split an atom, and how to become a scientist and help to
reach out and find what God has done and how to do it." I saw
the man a little later. I said: "Why don't you do the things
the Priesthood has asked you to do, that you might obtain this
knowledge that you are after? Science might learn how to split
an atom. They have been able to make a plastic man or woman,
put all the parts in them, but they can't make them operate.
So, how are you going to find out what science can't find out?"
The Lord says, "As man is, God once was. And as God is, man
may become." If man can become a God, a Creator, then we will
know all these things, but we have got to receive them in the
right course. We have got to take the right classes and be
taught by the right teachers; so that when we create something,
we can get it to move around and do the work. That is what we
are working
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for. We are working for an eternal salvation--eternally
increasing and progressing. The song tells us that there is no
end to progression and so forth.
I am grateful for this day, my dear brothers and sisters, I
hope that we can hasten to build up our faith and our
determination to stamp out of our lives all the dross that is
within us, that we might be able to be counted worthy of the
protecting hand of our Father when great distress comes in our
community and in the communities around us.
These same doctrines have been taught from generation to
generation. We had it read to us today what took place in
ancient times. It is the same thing over and over again. The
Pearl of Great Price tells us that the same Gospel of repentance
was taught to the people of Enoch's time. Wherever there has
been a generation and the Gospel has been among them, they have
had the same Gospel taught; because the people that lived at
that time had to be taught repentance. "Preach nothing but
repentance to this people, " says the Lord. We can philosophize
on how things are going to come and what the result will be and
so forth, and what we will attain to after we leave this life,
but the Lord has said, "Leave these things to me. As for you,
repent of your sins and get my Spirit and keep it and be
prepared that you might receive further instructions." We cannot
receive further instructions unless we are prepared to receive
them. So, let us be prepared that we might be partakers of the
great and glorious Millennial Reign.
I am grateful, my brothers and sisters, for the privilege I
had of meeting up with this order of the Priesthood. I am
grateful for the advancement that has been made in this place.
With all the persecution and prosecution, we still live here and
teach the same doctrine that was taught by John Y. Barlow and
Joseph Musser and others of the Priesthood Council. We still
have the Council as it was set up for us before these men left.
We will find that it will continue to be built up and men
prepared to take over the job of preparation--preparing a
people. We come and we go, and the work of the Lord rolls on.
So, let us be worthy
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of His approbation when He comes to set in order His House.
Ever since the days of John Taylor, the Priesthood has had
a hard time to exist and keep going, but there have been enough
faithful men who have been willing to prepare themselves that
the Lord might be able to use them, to keep this work alive.
Who of you knows who the next ones will be that will be called?
Let us all be prepared so that the Lord won't have a hard time
finding faithful men and faithful women to keep this work alive.
It has got to be kept alive, because the Lord has said that this
Gospel of the Kingdom was restored never again to be taken away
or given to another people until the sons of Levi offer again an
offering unto the Lord in righteousness. The sons of Levi have
got to be gathered out--gathered together and converted to the
Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Let us be determined in our minds to do something about our
salvation. It should be uppermost in our minds all the day long.
Let us not cease to pray night and day for deliverance, because
we live in a day when we are surrounded by the armies of Satan,
and he is eager to get us and call on us to serve him and keep
his commandments. So, it is up to you who you serve, whether you
serve God, or whether you serve Satan.
Let us repent of our sins and shortcomings, and let us
prepare ourselves against the day when the Lord is preparing
this earth for His work. I pray the blessings of God upon us,
that we might be able to do all things that the Lord has asked
us to do in righteousness, and that we might apply to our lives
the principles of salvation is my humble prayer in the name of
Jesus Christ, amen.
1207
SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, APRIL 18, 1976,
SUNDAY, IN SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
This is a great day, my brothers and sisters, to be
permitted to hear what we have heard this afternoon. I am
grateful for the health and strength that the Lord has given me,
to be here and to hear what I have heard. I hope that the few
moments I speak to you that it will be in accordance with the
will of our Father. For I have nothing in my heart but the
eternal salvation of each one of you and all men who will
prepare themselves for an eternal salvation.
First, I want to give an announcement. President Hammon
has asked me to announce that his boy, Daniel Hammon, has passed
away and there will be a viewing of his body tomorrow evening
from six to eight o'clock, and then he will be taken to Colorado
City for burial, where there will be another viewing Tuesday
evening. We are greatly grieved over the death of this
promising young man, but the Lord knows what He is doing. He
has allotted every man his time and every woman her time, and
when their time comes, He takes them, and nothing can change the
ways of the Lord. He says His ways never change. He says, "I
am the same yesterday, today, and forever. And I turn not to
the right or to the left, but my course is one straight and
narrow way--one eternal round." So we are called upon from time
to time to conform to the will of our Father in Heaven, whether
we want to or whether we don't.
This Gospel of Jesus Christ is a true and eternal Gospel.
It pertains to the salvation of the children of men--everyone.
For Christ said to the Prophet Joseph Smith, "Go now and bear
testimony to the world of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and all
who will believe will be saved and those who will not believe
will be damned." And that is all there is to it. He means what
He says. In the Book of Revelations, He very often makes the
statement that His word is sharper than a two-edged sword; it
cuts both going and coming, and what He says He is not ashamed
of. He doesn't have to retrace His tracks. So let us remember
that all that we have heard this afternoon is truth and is given
to us for our eternal salvation. When the Lord gives us His
word,
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He means what He says.
I very often refer to the Twenty-ninth Section of the
Doctrine & Covenants. It was given in 1830 to the Prophet
Joseph Smith and six elders. I wish you would all read it. I
would read it if I could see it good enough. I am grateful to
the Lord for His many blessings unto us, to all of you as well
as myself; and I pray that He will continue to bless you and
give you wisdom, knowledge, and understanding, that you might
discern the difference between His Gospel and the gospels of the
world, for there is no other gospel that carries the saving
principles that this Gospel carries, and we teach nothing but
what you can go to this book and find it.
What Brother Guy has told you is true, because the man was
trying to destroy something that the Lord had prepared. The
Lord prepared this book that it might not fall to the earth.
For in the days of James E. Talmage, he took this Book of
Doctrine & Covenants and took out of it, discarded, some two
hundred sections and parts of sections. There aren't two
hundred sections in here, but in some instances he took out
parts of the sections, full sections of the Doctrine & Covenants
and tried to get it before the people. He got one edition out
and took this book off the market, and then tried to display
this other book called, "Revelations of More Enduring Value." So
the Lord prepared a way whereby it might be carried on.
The Lorin Woolley story is not a lie; it is the absolute
truth, because God had to have this to prepare a people for the
redemption of Zion. The Gospel was given to the Prophet Joseph
Smith never again to be taken away from the earth or given to
another people until the sons of Levi do offer again an offering
unto the Lord in righteousness. This had to be preserved. And
if Lorin Woolley was a liar, the Lord had to have a liar to do
it and he did it, so whose business is it to condemn him.
What right did anyone have to tear this book to pieces,
these revelations to pieces? I speak this way because I have
one
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of the editions of the James E. Talmadge book, copyrighted by
the President of the Church who was Heber J. Grant, and I am
going to keep it unless somebody steals it from me. This Gospel
is true, and the Lord means every word of it. He expects you
and me to prepare ourselves for a glorious resurrection. He
expects us to prepare ourselves to be used in the redemption of
His work, for these are the latter days. We are living in a day
that all the holy prophets of ancient times wished they could
live in, because they knew what was going to transpire in this
time. There is going to have to be a great cleaning in this old
world of ours.
The Lord is trying to prepare you, everyone of you that is
under the sound of my voice today. You had better watch your
step when you leave this building and see and be careful what
you say and what you do because the Lord is going to hold you
responsible for your acts from this day on. For He has asked
this Priesthood to declare repentance to this generation, and He
is anxious that you repent of your sins and shortcomings and
prepare yourselves against the day of visitation when He is
pouring out His judgments upon the wicked. He says the time
will come when you will have to pray night and day for
deliverance. And we had better start praying night and day now,
RIGHT NOW, if we want to survive and if we want to be prepared
to meet the Prophet Joseph Smith and those who will come with
him to set in order the House of God.
None of us knows how nor where this thing is going to take
place, but I want to tell you what I believe. I believe Joseph
Smith has already been here and set in order the machinery to
redeem Zion, and this body of people that listen to the servants
of God in this day and hour had better be careful how they act
and the things they do, or God will slough you off. If you go
against it, He will slough you off, because we teach nothing but
the revelations of God to this generation. And we had better
repent of our sins and pay attention to the revelations as they
are contained in this book, the Doctrine & Covenants. This book
is printed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,
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and everyone can get one.
Now, I pray that the Spirit of God will rest upon us and
that we will hasten to prepare ourselves that we might be
counted worthy of an exaltation in the Celestial Kingdom, I
humbly pray in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
1211
REMARKS GIVEN BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, APRIL 21, 1976,
AT THE FUNERAL SERVICES OF DANIEL HENRY HAMMON,
HELD IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
I would like to make a few remarks at this moment. On the
thirteenth of this month, Brother Dan wrote me a letter
expressing his gratitude for being a member of our society and
expressed himself as to how grateful he felt for the
instructions that he had received from this Priesthood. On the
evening of the sixteenth, he called me on the telephone and
talked with me. On the seventeenth around twelve-thirty p.m.,
he passed away.
I would like to say this much to the young people, both
boys and girls, and to all the people--none of us knows when we
go out on the highway that we are going to come back without
accident in this day. We came down the highway the other day,
and we saw in one place three big trucks almost completely
obstructing one side of the freeway, several policemen around.
I don't know whether anyone was killed in it or not, but with
the entanglement that was there, it must have taken the life of
someone. We have had many accidents on the highways, and in
some instances some have lost their lives.
You boys that think you can go out and have a real good
time while you are growing up because when you get old you will
have to settle down, you had better take a different slant on
life, because when you are out doing evil--going against the
counsels of the Priesthood--is when you will have to explain the
reason why when you get over there. It won't be an easy matter
for you to give a legitimate reason for being out and partaking
of evil. You had better be on the side of the Priesthood at
home doing your chores, taking care of your mothers, your
brothers and sisters, doing something that is uplifting in the
sight of our Father. The Lord says that those who are
disobedient have to go back into the mother elements. Nobody
knows the suffering that they will have to go through, only the
ones that are partakers of that ordeal. So you had better take
stock in your hearts, you boys and girls that are determined to
go your own way and go against the counsel of your fathers and
mothers and against the counsel that the Priesthood gives you.
You had better prepare yourselves to do a little
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something for a glorious resurrection, because you might go out
tomorrow morning and you won't come back tomorrow night. You
will be in the condition of Brother Dan. Brother Dan was a
healthy boy when he left the house the other day, but he was
rendered helpless within an hour. Think about it!
Jack Knudson was a healthy man when he left his home one
morning, but from that day until now, he has been in a wheel
chair. My father was a healthy man, had a large family, fifteen
children. He was told by his Priesthood head to go and find a
new home for his family. It was while he was hunting for the
new home that he had the accident that rendered him helpless for
the rest of his life.
This is not the time, my dear young friends, to sow your
wild oats, thinking that you will reap a harvest of good oats
later on, because you don't know what time your oat field will
be laid low. You have been instructed during these services to
repent of your sins and to serve the Lord who gave you these
bodies, and gave you the intelligence that you have in order to
be here today, to be able to listen to what has been said and to
understand. No one else but a good and gracious God can do this
for you. Remember this! When it was Brother Dan's turn to
report, he reported to me while he was working away from home.
I don't think he ever came home without giving me a call and
asking for an audience.
I don't worry over Dan. I worry over you--all of you. So,
let us make the worry less. Let us hasten to get our thinking
in order and our actions in order, and let us get the Spirit of
God and keep it, I humbly pray in the name of Jesus Christ,
amen.
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A DISCOURSE DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT LEROY S. JOHNSON, APRIL 25,
1976,
SUNDAY, IN COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA
It is good to be here, my brothers and sisters, once again,
enjoying health and strength. I hope the Lord will put in my
mouth the words that I would like to say, because I only want to
say those things He likes to have me say.
I can't help but think of the grave condition that our
world is in today. When I go back over the scriptures and read
what has taken place and what the Lord has told the people by
the words of His prophets that He would have to do to them if
they did not live right, I begin to wonder what is the matter
that so many people come here who are not candidates for
salvation, and why they don't strive to do good rather than
evil. Then I sit down with the Pearl of Great Price and read
what the Lord said. When Moses went into the mount to talk to
the Lord, the Lord showed him all these creations. The record
says that Moses listened to the Lord and wanted to know what the
Lord showed him. The Lord began to tell him about the creations
of His hands. He showed him many worlds that were in existence.
Moses asked to be told something about these other planets and
what was on them. But the Lord's answer to Moses was that He
was jealous of the workmanship of His hands, and it wasn't for
everyone to know what He was doing. It was only for those who
would prepare themselves to come back into His presence. He
also told Moses that He would tell him only about the world upon
which he stood. Then He showed him many generations of time,
both before Moses' time and after and what would take place.
After the Lord finished talking to Moses, He left him for a
while; and Moses found himself in the presence of another person
who tried to show forth his power and authority. But Moses
recognized that he was teaching him different than what the
other man taught him, so Moses wouldn't listen to him. He had
to rebuke Satan. Then the Lord came back again showing forth
that there were two powers. The Lord told him about it, what
the two powers were for. He brought together the intelligences
that existed and formed the mind of man, Moses had been taught
by the
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Gods that were before him that if he would keep His commandments
and teach his people to keep His commandments, they could become
like Him. They could become formers of worlds, formers of
people, and bring together the intelligences that existed, and
form the animals that were permitted to come to the earth and
live and enjoy their creation. But to man He did something
greater; He gave him power that he could do the things that He
did, if he would prepare himself to receive it.
The purpose of our being here is to overcome the powers of
evil which will destroy us; not only our bodies, but it will
destroy our minds and our spirits. God plainly tells us that
nobody knows the suffering or the misery that men will have to
go through when they are called to go back into mother elements.
He expects great things to be in our minds in order for us to
prepare ourselves for a glorious resurrection.
It is no harder for us to gain an eternal salvation than it
is to obtain an eternal damnation, which means being destroyed
both spiritually and mortally. It is just as easy to do good
and a lot more pleasant than it is to do evil, if we will just
look at it that way. So, it amazes me when I see and read and
hear about the many billions of people that have come and gone
since the creation of this earth, since the time of Adam until
now. Yet, there are so few who we read about that gain eternal
life, and so many billions that have been swept off at different
periods of time. We have no idea how many were destroyed at the
coming of Christ upon this continent. There were many millions
of people. Many great cities were destroyed--completely
destroyed--and the people that were in them. The record tells
us that the reason Christ had them destroyed was because they
had become so wicked that He had to hide them from His face
before He could come. There were only a few left upon this
continent of the more righteous, or those that could be
converted to the proposition that Christ had come here and
visited them. The record says that all could hear His voice.
He left them the Gospel, the saving principles of eternal life,
He told them that if they would keep the commandments of God,
they could obtain eternal life. The
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record tells us that they had all things in common for two
hundred years. Then they began to fall away and set up other
churches, different churches, and so forth.
Now, at the time we live, the Lord has promised the same
thing to this generation in which we live as He did in the
generation that Christ visited when He came upon this continent.
He told the brother of Jared that He would lead him to a
land that was choice above all other lands, which is the land of
America. Anyhow, that is where He led him and established him
and told him that those who possessed this land would be a
God-fearing people or when they were ripened in iniquity, He
would have to destroy them. The record tells us that He
completely destroyed that great nation, the Jaredite nation,
because there were not enough righteous among them to save them
from destruction. Even those who did believe in the testimony
of Christ were not sufficiently converted, so they had to be
destroyed in order to give them any salvation whatever. In our
day, we have been promised the same thing. If we don't repent
and turn unto Jesus and remember His words and apply them to our
lives, we are going to have to go down with the wicked.
Joseph Smith tells us that if we ever receive an endowment,
it will be when we are called up; and we have got to be found
free from sin every whit before we are worthy of an endowment.
I wonder how many of us are. We cry to the Lord every day for
Him to open the temples to us. Some of us do, if not all of us.
But how many of us are preparing ourselves for it? The Lord had
us build temples for that purpose, but as soon as the people
were lead in there and given their blessings, they treated them
lightly. They were placed under condemnation because they
treated lightly the things they received.
We claim to be the leaders of the Holy Priesthood. Why
don't we have access to the temples that have been built? Is it
because the people have become so wicked that the Priesthood has
lost favor with the Lord? Why is it? The Church grew out of
the Priesthood. The Priesthood was organized first, then the
Church was organized. Why is the Lord preparing the earth for
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a Millennial Reign? If I were to answer some of these
questions, would you believe it or would you not?
We have been led to believe that the Gospel, in the latter
days, would come to the Gentiles, the Gentile nations. It came
first to the Jews because that is where Christ came to set up
His work, among His own people. But they rejected Him and
killed Him, hung Him on the cross. So, the next time He brought
the Gospel here, He brought it to the Gentile nations, for the
purpose of gathering out the blood of Joseph. And how many of
the blood of Joseph have been gathered out of the Gentile
nations. Christ said this to the Prophet Joseph: Go bear this
testimony to the world that God lives and that we must change
our way of thinking and live according to the way that the Lord
would teach the world through him that all the creeds of the
earth were wrong. They taught for doctrine the commandments of
men.
As soon as Joseph began to teach that he had seen a vision,
seen the Father and the Son, then persecution began to come. It
has followed the doctrine that Joseph tried to set up in the
world at that time.
The Priesthood had access to the temples until the
Manifesto of 1890 was signed, and then the Priesthood was
ostracized from the Church--cut off. The Church had the temples
in their control, and the Lord didn't see fit to build another
temple and to have it desecrated.
There will be a few who will prepare themselves by cleaning
up their minds and their bodies, so that when the Lord comes to
set up His work, He can walk through the earth and say, "You and
you, and you and you, go and help do this work." But salvation
is not for everyone. It is only for those who will prepare
themselves, who will listen to the counsels of God, and those
who will apply to their lives the principles of the Celestial
Kingdom which are purity of mind, purity of body, the keeping of
these bodies clean and free from the sins of this generation in
which we live.
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A speech was made last week before the graduating class at
the Brigham Young University in Provo, wherein the speaker told
them that the time had come now when we would have to start
cleaning up the immorality that was so rampant among the
Latter-day Saints, and he called the young people to rally to
and help bring up a body of moral people, to stamp out
immorality, or the immoral condition of our people. How are we
going to do it? How are they going to do it? That remains to be
seen just how far they can get.
My brothers and sisters, we have a glorious opportunity,
and it is up to you and me to take advantage of the opportunity
that we have and clean house and make it possible for the Lord
to have a place to come to commence His work. He has already
come and set the Priesthood in order. But we are Gentiles. We
are Gentiles, and we will remain Gentiles until we can apply to
our lives the Gospel of Jesus Christ and purify our lives every
whit so that we can be used in the redemption of God's work.
There has got to be a pure people raised up somewhere. We
want to remember that this is only one part of the earth. We
have been told that some parts of the earth have been carried
away, and what is going on there, no one knows. We don't even
know where the people of Enoch are. We don't know what he is
doing or how big a body of men he has. If we don't prepare
ourselves to receive the fulness of the Gospel, we will not be
permitted to take part in the Redemption of Zion. The fulness
of the Gospel is not altogether plural marriage; it is all the
other principles of salvation included.
Long after the Manifesto, I heard one man talking to a body
of men one time. It was after he had had a plural wife
administered to him, and he said he wished he was as sure of his
daily bread as he was of his salvation, because he had a plural
wife sealed to him. And a lot of people think that. They think
because they have plural wives around them and a lot of plural
children that they have it made. But we will find that we have
a long way to go. I find the biggest job that I ever tackled
was to love my neighbor as myself. I think that this is
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a pretty big order--to love your neighbor as yourself. You
don't find it in very many families.
Joseph Smith said that we will not be called up for an
endowment until we are prepared, and this is one of the reasons
that we are out of the temple, simply because we can't go in
there and receive our endowments according to the requirements
of the endowment. So, preparation is all we can do for the
present time. But we can prepare ourselves. The Lord has given
us the opportunity to clean up our lives, our minds and our
bodies, that they might be useful to us, both in this life and
the life to come.
Let us get to thinking deeply, everyone of us. There isn't
a person under the sound of my voice that doesn't have the
opportunity now to clean up their lives. If they will do it,
they can do it. The Lord has blessed many people who have
fallen away, when they finally have been able to fall down on
their knees and worship Him and beg for forgiveness, He has
forgiven them. And they have gone along, and He has prospered
them, and they have grown to be a mighty people, but they
weren't mighty enough to be translated, because there was still
evil among them, He had prophets among them calling them to
repentance, and that is what He is doing today.
So, let us come to earth. Let us start doing something
about preparing ourselves against the day when the Lord is
pouring out His judgments upon the wicked, when He commences to
slay the wicked on this land upon which we live, because He has
said that He would clean the land that His work might continue.
It is no joke. We can go out of here and say, "Well, I have
heard that for a long time. I have heard the same doctrine and
nothing has happened yet." But the Lord has said that He would
do it. If there are any righteous among us, He will protect the
righteous. But those who will not keep His commandments or
prepare themselves, He will have to destroy. Those who have
been connected with this Priesthood and have had the opportunity
to clean up their minds and their bodies, and they wouldn't do
it, they will have
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to suffer along with the wicked.
But those who will purify their lives, will cease to do
evil, and will apply to their lives the saving principles that
God has given us--faith, repentance, and baptism by immersion
for the remission of sins, and then keep those covenants, keep
ourselves free from sin, then the Lord can use us; and you will
have His protection when He is cleansing the earth, this part of
the earth for the redemption of Zion. Zion means the honest in
heart. And who are the honest in heart? Every man and woman
that is honest with the Lord and with themselves and they are
keeping His statutes are candidates for salvation. You can do
it without me knowing about it. You can do it without your
neighbor knowing about it, because there is no one who can read
the hearts or thoughts of men save the Lord, Himself.
Let us remember these things. Let us put them into our
lives, and let us hasten to prepare ourselves against the day of
visitation when great tribulation covers the earth, because it
is coming fast, It is on its way, and it will not stop. So, let
us keep the commandments of God, I pray in the name of Jesus
Christ, amen.
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