Come Follow Me (Insights into Alma 23–29, June 29–July 5)

I'm Taylor and I'm Tyler this is Book of Mormon Central's come follow me insights today alma 23 through 29 and will recommend a couple of the book of mormon central short essays they're called no wise number 131 deals with the meaning of the name anti Nephi Lehi and we'll talk about that in a lesson today and then number 134 talks about the meaning of the word Gershon and we think you'll enjoy reading these essays and just the interesting things that are going on in the Book of Mormon and how Mormon constructs a narrative to make key points that help us to understand the gospel of Jesus Christ okay let's dive in in chapter 23 we pick up the story these people have for 500 plus years been establishing their traditions as Lamanites they have been passing them on from generation to generation and and with each succeeding generation those stories about what happened back in the distant past they get bigger and worse as far as their perception the Nephites now you get this incredible incredible experience where a man Aaron Auer and him ngayon a couple of their brethren go down on this mission with scriptures with the story of what happened over 500 years ago and they learn about God they learn about the creation the fall and the redemption of man and they learn the stories all the way back from Lehi moving forward and they are converted now look at verse 5 in chapter 23 and thousands were brought to the knowledge of the Lord yay thousands were brought to believe in the traditions of the Nephites no longer the traditions of the Lamanites that are 500 years in the making and they were taught the records and prophecies which were handed down even to the present time now here's the key verse 6 because most of us have experienced getting caught up in a movement or getting caught up in a fad or a passing craze but look at verse six this is no passing craze with them and as sure as the Lord liveth so sure as many as believed or as many's were brought to the knowledge of the truth through the preaching of Ammon and his brother and according to the spirit of revelation and a prophecy and the power of God working miracles in them yea I say unto you as the Lord liveth as many of the Lamanites has believed in their preaching and were converted unto the Lord never did fall away that's pretty impressive retention to not have any of these Lamanites who are converted to ever follow a they have come into this covenant I'll connect ssin with God so profoundly and so deeply and powerfully that nothing can separate them from God moving forward this is this is powerful as we as we jump into this story now you'll also notice as he lists all of these these righteous people now he lists the Seven Cities of Lamanites that have now become converted to the gospel in verse nine through twelve and then notice what he says in verse 14 the Amalekites were not converted save only one neither were any of the a mule I am eula Knights but they did harden their hearts and also the hearts of the Lamanites in the part that part of the land whether wheresoever they dwelt yay and all their villages and all their cities not a single a mullah night and only one Amalekite these former Nephites that that have become dissenters they're not interested in in being converted and so it's interesting that once you leave neutral ground and join the church you leave that neutral ground forever Joseph Smith taught that to a member of the church early on I believe his name was brother Bakunin who was marveling what why are these people who leave the church why are they fighting against the she says if I were to leave the church I would just move away somewhere and just not ever talk about the church and brother Joseph said to him you don't know of what you speak because once you've left that neutral ground you can't ever get back to the neutral ground if you leave the church then you'll be an enemy of this cause and that's what we see happening here with these Amalekites and amulets now the people in verse 16 all these new converts they wanted a name so verse 17 they they picked the name the anti Nephi Lehigh's and they were called by this name and we're no more called Lamanites Taylor why would they pick a name like anti Nephi Lehi so this verse is caused confusion for a lot of people because most of us understand the word anti means against and it shows up in the Book of Mormon when we describe people who are Antichrist they're against Christ they are not friends they're not people you want to be spending time with or listening to their message very carefully so anti in the way we currently understand it comes from the ancient Greek which just means against but what's interesting here is that in when we label somebody an antichrist it's a description it's actually not a name but look at these verses and let's look at the difference here that people are actually taking a name upon themselves not necessarily a description here's what it says verse 17 came to pass that they called their names anti Nephi Lehigh's and they were called by this name and were no more called Lamanites so this is significant that there's something about the naming now what I and other scholars of study ancient languages have discovered and looked at is that very often in scriptures this shows up all over the Old Testament even into the New Testament and throughout the book of Mormon that names often are key themes or ideas within the stories and actually in the Book of Mormon most the names that we see have been demonstrated to have plausible Hebrew or Egyptian meanings which is exactly what the Book of Mormon claims of itself which is actually quite stunning last time I checked I don't think Joseph Smith started studying Hebrew until 1835 and so he wouldn't have known Hebrew or Egyptian if people claimed that Joseph Smith wrote the Book of Mormon he could not have invented Hebrew egyptian names so this is strong evidence that the Book of Mormon is what it claims to be an ancient authentic witness of Jesus Christ let's talk about what anti may mean in Egyptian the Egyptian word empty actually means he of and I might translate it a little bit differently to say belonging to so now actually look at what's going on walking away from the Lamanite name which is a designation of the group they are in there now these Lamanites have renamed themselves they have joined with the group of Nephites who have followed Lehigh's righteousness so we would call them those of Nephi and Lehi the righteous followers of the Covenant path that is their name so it's not that they're against me finally hi that is you know they didn't know Greek pretty confidently they weren't using that version they're trying to demonstrate that they have entered in to the Covenant through baptism that Lehi and Nephi taught now let's actually just finish this chapter in verse 18 they began to be very industrious people yay they were friendly with the Nephites therefore they did open to correspondence with them and the curse of God did no more follow them let's just talk very briefly about what that curse is we can go back to 2nd Nephi chapter 1 verse 20 so this is Lehi speaking to his family and these promises are for their descendants in as much as you shall keep my Commandments you shall in the land but in as much as you will not keep my Commandments ye shall be cut off for my presence so the word prosper has the meaning of having God's Spirit to do with you when you get baptized and received they get to the Holy Ghost that is prospering when you will partake of the sacrament and promise to keep the commandments and you get the blessing of always having his Spirit be with you that's prospering it's about having God's presence so the curse is to not have God's presence so when these Lamanites move in to the Nephi culture the religious culture and join the covenant they get access full access to God's presence and so they no longer are cursed to not have full access to God's presence so let's read about both what it means to have God's presence as a former prospering and what the curse is it's going to second Nephi chapter 4 verses 4 through 5 this is Lehi putting blessings on his family and their descendants the Lord God has said that in as much as you shall keep my Commandments ye shall prosper in the land and in as much as you will not keep my Commandments ye shall be cut off from my presence pay attention to that the commandments lead to having God's presence that is prospering and what's the opposite if you don't keep the commandments you don't have God's presence and therefore you don't prosper it goes on and says in verse 6 wherefore if you're cursed behold I leave my blessing upon you that the curse might be taken from you and be answered upon the heads of your parents the curse here is back here in verse 5 he says my sons and my daughters I cannot go down to my grave say if I should leave a blessing upon you for behold I know that if you're brought up in the way you should go you will not depart from it meaning if you keep the commandments you don't prosper the land you won't be cursed if you don't follow the commandments I've revealed to you you will not have God's prospering presence and that is the curse so when you wonder about the curses that we're talking about in the Book of Mormon it's all about whether you have presents or not are you in the Covenant or you're not it's pretty simple and it's pretty powerful so this sets up a real struggle in the nation of the Lamanites in the land of Nephi because you've got all these newly converted Lamanites and you've got the hardened Amalekites and amulets and other many other Lamanites who weren't converted and so all of the converted people assemble they it tells us in verse 5 of chapter 24 that they meet first in the land of Midian and then they come over to land of Ishmael where Ammon had begun this missionary effort with King Lamoni and it's here where we get this incredible speech from the the king's son who is named Antony fairly high because the king of all the lame knights has now died in the first few verses of chapter 24 and he gets up and gives this speech saying we've had some problems some problems that are so big that if we sitting here in the 21st century look back in time at the Book of Mormon what if we looked at it through this lens what if we said hmm this is this is odd that Mormon and Moroni saw our day they're writing the book predominantly for Lamanites in the latter day and for all people in the latter days they know what we're struggling with today in our damage and one of the the major major wrestles that we experienced culturally socially is addiction there are addictions all over the place in this world today and yet the word addiction never appears once in the Book of Mormon I find it interesting to read this story here of these people through the lenses of addiction and overcoming addiction wrestling with dealing with addictions and you might ask well what how in the world is addiction related here well look at some of the ways that they describe these people they were a ferocious and a blood thirsty people who delighted in the shedding of blood they delighted in warfare and in violence it's almost like they're addicted to war and to killing and to violence something seems to happen to these to these people when you put a sword or a scimitar a weapon of some sort in their hand and get them Marella it's almost like they're addicted to it and if you read chapter 24 very very carefully what we now have through that lens is a handbook for what we might be able to do in the 21st century to wrestle more effectively with addictions both for ourselves and to help loved ones and family members and associates who are wrestling with addictions because you're noticing the way this King is talking about their their delight in the shedding of blood look at what he says verse 12 now my best beloved brethren since God has taken away our stains and our swords have become bright then let us stain our swords no more with the blood of our brethren God's wiped our swords clean there they're bright they're shiny at this point let's not let's not pick them up again for fear of what might happen inside of us when we do that regardless of what our intent for picking it up is even self-defense right and he keeps talking about this washing washing those swords look at verse 15 oh how merciful is our God and now behold since it has been as much as we could do to get our stains taken away from us and our swords are made bright let us hide them away that they may be kept bright as a testimony to our God at the last day or at that day that we shall be brought to stand before him to be judged so he then invites them to bury their swords verse 16 deep in the earth not just cast them aside not just put them on a plaque on the wall as a as a memorial of what what our former life used to be but to absolutely bury them deep a a few years ago elder Dale renlund in General Conference quoted the the Shakespeare play as you like it and in there he talked about these two brothers in their younger years one of them was awful to his brother and Duke Frederick was just terrible he tried to actually have his brother killed many many years later he had experienced some things he had changed and some people some women who had known him in his earlier years recognized him and said wait a minute aren't you the one who was so so cruel and vile and and tried to kill your brother and Duke Frederick's response is very very profound as it relates to this story he said twas I but tis not I brothers and sisters when dealing with addiction or when dealing with false tradition or or patterns of negative behaviors and negative relationships I love that phrase from the pen of William Shakespeare twas I but tis not I in other words we're going to acknowledge the fact that yeah we've had struggles but it doesn't define us today my present self is not going to be held hostage to my teenage self or my 20s something self or my 30-something self nor is my 40-something self going to hold my 60-something self hostage a story of the the gospel of Jesus Christ moving forward in an individual life is the ability to change the ability to bury some things with the help of the atonement to not just bury stained swords but swords that have been made bright they're shiny when we bury them we're not burying sin they've been forgiven they've worked through a process of conversion and repentance and now we bury the weapons of our rebellion okay look at verse 19 this by the way is this is one of the for me one of the most amazing little often overlooked aspects of the entire Book of Mormon that happens quite a few times look at verse 19 thus we see that when these lame nights were brought to believe in to know the truth they were firm and would suffer even unto death rather than commit sin and thus we see that they buried their weapons of peace or they buried their weapons of war for peace did you notice what just happened I don't want to make too big of a deal of this but it's but it needs to at least be addressed thus we see that they did bury their weapons of peace makes no sense that's that's a mess up somebody made a mistake is it Mormons scratching characters into a metal plate have you ever have you ever done this where your brain is thinking through something as you write it out by hand or even type it and somehow your brain gets a head of your hand and you you write something or type something a little bit out of order and you look at it whoa that was wrong and you quickly fix it I love the fact that we have things like this in the Book of Mormon if Joseph Smith is making up the book and he's he's dictating it to a scribe and he if he says if he messes up and says thus we see that they did varied their weapons of peace he would say oh wait that makes no no sorry scratch that write it this way thus we see that they did bury their weapons of war for peace got that Oliver yes okay let's move on that's how you would do it if you're making this thing up but if you're translating an ancient record that is written on metal plates then you're probably going to translate however that's working in that process according to what was written can you picture mormon riding along saying thus we see that they did bury their weapons of peace and then him pausing going oh no I did it again because there are multiple times previous to this where similar things have happened this just happens to be the really obvious one notice that he then doesn't scratch it out or doesn't start over and rewrite the entire plate he says oh actually what I really meant to say there was or buried the weapons of war for peace and then he moves on brothers and sisters even when the Book of Mormon has a mistake so to speak even when it looks like it's wrong turns out to be right because what Mormon is showing us here what the Lord is allowing to come through the the record to us today is the fact that Mormon would have never woken up and said I want to mess up in my writing today I want to make some mistakes nobody does that he wanted to be perfect he's doing he's doing the very best he can and he is amazing reading volumes of Nephi history and making very few errors in comparison to the volume of writing that he's giving us but even when it's wrong turns out the Book of Mormons right because here it shows us a beautiful pattern and the pattern that the the unwritten message for me is Tyler when you mess up then recognize that you messed up fix it and then move on and that's exactly what Mormon does over and over and over again whenever there's a struggle with the writing he just recognizes it fixes it and moves on he doesn't wallow in the mire of his mistake and I love that for us today in the 21st century when we're struggling to be as good as we can we're going to occasionally mess up we're gonna say things wrong we're gonna do things wrong recognize it do the best you can to make it right and move on it's a beautiful pattern and there are a lot of these throughout the corner you can start finding them let me show you just one more now there are dozens of these simple ones like a man saying I will show forth my power under these my fellow-servants back in almost seventeen and they says or the power which is in me so there are little Corrections that that it's not like a mistake but it's just a oh I don't like the way that came out so I'm gonna fix it so that it it's more accurate to what happened one of the more amazing ones that he corrected is found in Elma 43 verse 38 in this in this verse listen to this we're talking about the battle between captain Moroni and Zarahemla it says while on the other hand there was now and then a man fell among the Nephites by their swords in the loss of blood they the Nephites being shielded from the more vital parts of the body did you catch that there aren't very many Nephites dying in this battle because they're shielded from the more vital parts of the body if you're real it literally that means the Lamanites are throwing vital body parts around the battlefield and notice Mormon recognizes it again and he says or the more vital parts of the body being shielded from the strokes of the Lamanites the Lord could have made it so that the wording was perfect but we see no human frailty coming through no mistakes of any kind I love the Prophet Mormon he's one of my heroes and I am so grateful that the Lord allows these things to come through because it teaches me it gives me hope that when I'm trying my hardest to do my best and I still mess up I too can recognize it repair it and move on and not have it define me I love that the that shows up throughout the Book of Mormon without drawing attention to it now they've buried their weapons of their rebellion deep in the earth to make it really hard for them to go back if they ever decide to dissent and go back on their old life and then they go out and bow themselves down as this army comes and 1005 of them are just killed while they're in the act of praising God so this army says this is really silly and that day more than a thousand and five we don't know the exact number but it says more people joined them of the Lamanites none of the Amalekites and a mule Knights they join them they throw their their weapons down and say we're done and it converts them in this very act of of of slaughtering these people over a thousand now are converted and the rest get tired of fighting against these pacifists so they say let's go fight Nephites so they leave there and they go up secretly to a place where no knee fight would ever expect them to come in which is up north in the land of M&I ha and they wipe out the city of M&I ha in one day it's that it's that same army that goes and fulfills the prophecy of Elmen mu ik and wipe out the city of a man die ha that takes you clear back to chapter Elna 16 where where that city is destroyed and now you get these crossover points in our in our timing in the book of Elma and then they keep fighting and when they can't prevail they come home and many more lame and I'd say you know this is dumb we want to go and join so there are all of these points where people keep joining these anti Nephi Lee heights and they make the the covenant with God it's powerful now you go to chapter 25 look at verse 15 it says this is describing after verse 14 they buried their weapons of war according as their brother and had and then it describes what they do to enter into that covenant verse 15 yeah they did keep the law of Moses for as speed e'en that they should keep the law of Moses as yet it was not all fulfilled and won't be until Jesus comes right but notwithstanding the law of Moses they did look forward to the coming of Christ considering that the law of Moses was a type of his coming and believing that they must keep these outward performances until the time that he should be revealed unto them so let's read that and let's just remind ourselves about the two major covenants in the Bible the Abrahamic covenant the Mosaic Covenant verse 16 they did not suppose that salvation came by the law of Moses but the Ovilus did strength served to strengthen their faith in Christ and thus they did retain a hope through faith unto eternal salvation relying upon the spirit of prophecy which speak of those things to come so significantly if you look at the two major covenants in the Bible which we have talked about during this book of Mormon year the Abrahamic covenant is God's duties and obligations to his people people of Abraham and we are all his children either by blood or by adoption you know the Abrahamic covenant the Mosaic Covenant God offers salvation symbolically through the event a my covenant for us to access that we need to step into the Mosaic Covenant at least anciently that's how it was it's all been updated through Jesus and modern day revelation the Mosaic Covenant or the law of Moses was revealed at Mount Sinai and when we hear the law of Moses sometimes we think well it's the law you're gonna get in trouble if you break it and it's interesting the underlying word here for a law actually is Torah Hebrew word that actually means instruction well that's interesting I'm sort of thinking like this legalistic like you've got to do these things it's instruction it's Moses instructions that God gave to him and it really ultimately is covenantal instructions so what the Lamanites have now done is said we are willing to listen to the covenantal instructions revealed by most from God to Moses and preserved and and continue to be taught by prophets all the way down through Lehi and Nephi al-an'am yulik we will follow those covenant instructions so that we can access the free gift of salvation that God has offered which will be fulfilled in Jesus Christ so when you hear phrases like law of Moses don't think about list the legalism think about the instruct at its an instructional manual for how to be covenant aliy faithful to God now to put this into modern-day context the law of Moses has been updated to the higher law through Jesus and so our obligations now are revealed through Jesus and through modern-day prophets so even though we learn from the law of Moses to point forward to think about Jesus we don't run around trying to keep like all the performances of like say slaughtering an animal so pay attention to living a prophets pay attention to Jesus and that keeps you on the Covenant path so as Taylor has described how these Nephites and Lamanites their approach of looking at the law of Moses we can take that same thing and apply it to today rather than looking at the law even the law of the gospel or the law of consecration or the law of tithing or the law of anything that's really important none of those laws today will save us every single one of those laws is us looking to Christ and they all serve to strengthen our faith in our Savior and our Redeemer the Lord Jesus Christ and those are all gifts that he has given us to be able to strengthen that connection with him and allow us to learn and grow and become more like him through the process of time now chapter 20 six this is a famous chapter that's often quoted because he ramen in this little meeting he he starts to get pretty excited about the successes that they've experienced among the Lamanites at which point in verse 10 Aaron kind of interrupts him and rebukes him and says Eman I fear that thy joy does carry the away unto boasting careful Ammon and he says no I'm not boasting in my own strength or in my own wisdom but my joy is full why because I'm gonna rejoice in my God look at verse 12 yay I know that I am nothing as to my strength I am weak therefore I will not boast of myself but I will boast of my God for in his strength I can do all things J behold many mighty mighty miracles have we wrought in this land for which we will praise His name forever you'll notice that in verse 15 he's describing the the Lamanite converts he says yeah they were encircled about with everlasting darkness and destruction but behold he has brought them into his everlasting light yet into everlasting salvation and they are encircled about with the matchless bounty of his love yay and we have been instruments in his hands of doing this great and marvelous work that to me is is beautiful and profound because Amin's recognizing who he is and who the missionary his fellow missionaries are and who God is and who really did the work here if you look at the word instrument and then analyze it for a minute how many of you have ever been to a really famous or popular art museum of any kind and you've walked into that art museum and you've seen paintings or sculptures or some pieces of art and your first response was WOW I wish I could see the chisels that that formed that that sculpture or I wish I could see the paintbrushes and the pallets and the paints that made that painting nobody ever does that a focus and the attention is on the artist not on the instruments and Emin says we've been instruments if you use the chisel analogy for making a sculpture the the master artist the person who's doing the sculpture is going to look at those instruments and sometimes say hmm this one's shaped a little wrong I need it to be a different shape if you're taking certain kinds of instruments to change them you put them in a hot fire and then you put them on an anvil and you bang them until they're the right shape and then you cool them off and then you can do glorious work with them brothers and sisters in the work of the Lord to be an instrument in the hands of the Lord to be picked up into the almighty hand of the Son of God to be used to do his work means that sometimes he has to reshape us sometimes he needs to clean off some edges that have that have grown dull or rough and this is never a fun experience but oh it's a necessary and a glorious experience in order to then be taken in his hand and do the work that he wants us to do and at the end rather than saying look at what I created look at what I carved out it's to give all the credit back to the master artist my life is worth very little every time I try to do what I want to do in isolation and cut off from heaven things things don't work so well for me when you give yourself to the Lord and say repeatedly Here I am take me shape me mold me make me make me what thou would need me to be in order to do the work that thou has in store for me it's a profound thing it means that you need to prepare yourself for some shaping experiences and these these brothers here they described in chapter 26 Ammon describes some of the difficulties so hard that look at verse 27 now when our hearts were depressed and we were about to turn back behold the Lord comforted us and said go amongst their brother in the Lamanites and bear with patience thine afflictions and I will give you success I know that the chances are pretty good if president eyring's talk in General Conference many years ago is a cure which I think it is he said treat everybody that you meet as if they're having they're going through serious trials and tribulations and more than 50% of the time you'll be right if that's true many of you who are watching this might currently be wrestling with a very difficult circumstance some of you might be moving through a profound trial of your faith and some of you wrestling with physical and mental and emotional and relational struggles and issues if any of that's the case for you I hope you can hear Amin's voice repeating verse 27 when our hearts were depressed and we were about to turn back behold the Lord comforted us it doesn't mean comes and takes away all those trials and struggles it just means he gives us the means to say keep trying hold on keep pressing forward even if you're holding on with the fingernail of faith you hold on with all that you've got and know that he will give you success pretty powerful no he in this chapter one other concept Ammon mentions the fact that many of their name or many of their Nephites friends before their mission had kind of made fun of them saying what you think you're gonna go among the Lamanites and teach them you think you're gonna do any good among the Lamanites seriously this reminds me of a statement one of my favorite statements from Abraham Lincoln as the story goes one of his close associates said to him I don't understand you you have the power to destroy your enemies but you insist on trying to make friends with them why don't you just destroy them it's way easier and Abraham Lincoln's wiser response was something like hmm am I not destroying my enemies when I make them my friends I love that principle as it's portrayed here it would have been way easier to go and fight the Lamanites but these men went and took 14 years and taught them and loved them and brought them into the gospel and in so doing they destroyed their enemies and they made eternal friendships and what a what a beautiful example for us today in our relationships rather than trying to destroy each other trying to find how to to break down those barriers and reestablish peace and build friendship now on to chapter 27 it gets so bad the the these missionaries realize it's all of our new converts are gonna be killed off by the Amalekites and the a mule Knights and the the angry Lamanites so they decide let's ask the Lord if we should take them to the land of Zarahemla and the answer was yes do take them and so when they go north in chapter 27 they meet Alma and there's this this incredible reunion and they find out that the voice of the Nephite people is yeah will let them come in and we're gonna give them actually some lands on which to establish when these anti Nephi Lehigh's these people who want to belong to the tribe of Nephi in the tribe of Lehi and to be part of that religious covenant making community they move into the land of the Nephites and they're given a land by the Nephites and he fights actually vacate land give it to this group of pacifists who have decided to fully commit themselves to Jesus Christ and the land gets a very interesting name Gershon and in Hebrew this word literally means I actually before I tell it to you if you have just received a land of inheritance and you want to name that land that it is a land of inheritance you might just call it inheritance and no surprise that the word Gershon in hebrew means inheritance because they have now inherited this gift from the Nephites where they can prosper in the land where they can fully experience the presence of God in their lives as they keep the commandments in the land and that's what your Shan means and I want you to think about today all of us can have church on all of us can prosper in our lands of inheritance by keeping the commandments and we will have God's presence with us wherever you live can be a land of inheritance a land of prospering a land of having God's presence if you keep the commandments and one most powerful ways of doing it is each week be very thoughtful about the Covenant you are making and renewing at the sacrament where you are promising to keep the commandments and you'll receive his presence to be with you in chapter 28 it's this major war tens of thousands of people are killed as the conflict is in increasing and then in 29 we shift away from that story and we come over to Elma notice how Elma starts this chapter he says oh that I were an angel and could have the wish of mine heart that i might go forth and speak with the Trump of God with a voice to shake the earth and cry repentance unto every people do you notice this is Alma the younger who's saying this remember what experience it was that was a turning point in his life and even in his eternal progression it was an angel who came and spoke with the Trump of God and shook the very earth on which he was standing and he's saying oh I wish I could do that for everybody but then his response in verse 3 is ah behold I am a man and do sin in my wish for I ought to be content with the things which the LORD hath allotted unto me ironically sidenote few years down the road Alma maybe gets his wish because he's gonna leave Zarahemla as if he's going over to Melek but he never shows up he may like and nobody can find him and they have no idea where he went and they say well we suppose he was taken up he may be becomes an inch hole and we don't know it's just interesting that that's his wish and perhaps God granted that wish to him I don't know he launches in verse five and six into this incredible discussion about agency moral agency our freedom to choose and to live and to be however we feel like we want to act look at verse five yeah and I know that good and evil have come before all men he that knoweth not good from evil is blameless but he that knoweth good and evil to him it is given according to his desires whether he desires good or evil life or death Joey or remorse of conscience men are free women are free they're not they're not bound down look at verse 6 now seeing that I know these things why should I desire more than to perform the work to which I have been called it's pretty profound statement people have their agency God's going to allow me in my sphere of influence to do whatever I can to be an instrument in his hands to do his work now look at verse 8 for behold the Lord doth grant unto all nations that's a hundred percent all nations of their own nation and tongue to teach his word ye in wisdom all that he seeth fit that they should have therefore we see that the Lord doth counsel in wisdom according to that which is just and true a lot of people will ask questions like what do you think about the other sacred texts out in the world or people who have elements that they're teaching that sound like there's some similarities in gospel but there are some differences too my answer to all of those questions is go back to chapter 29 verse 8 God gives to all of the inhabitants of the earth as much as they are able to bear of the gospel as many elements of the gospel as they can and there may be other things added in there that people make up but God is gonna give as much as they will possibly be able to take now look at verse 9 to finish this discussion I know that which the Lord has commanded me and I glory in it I do not glory of myself but I glory in that which the Lord has commanded me yay and this is my glory the perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance and this is my joy it sounds very familiar to what Ammon was sharing back in chapter 26 doesn't it now as we close this lesson today I want to finish with a little story to tie it all together from something that CS Lewis wrote in the voyage of the Dawn Treader which is part of the Narnia series in this in this story you have this character who is quite frankly very annoying Eustace Clarence Scrubb and for the first part of this book nobody can stand this kid and then he has an experience on one of the islands where he actually goes into a dragon's cave where a dragon has just come out and died he goes in and when he wakes up through a series of events he discovers that he has turned into a dragon he has become something he would never have wanted to become because of some internal greed and selfishness and other things he has now become a dragon and through the course of this chapter he's he's really wrestling with his identity trying to trying to figure out what happened and he really loathes the way he he now it is in his existence and he wants to be done with it one night in this story Aslan who's the lion who's our Christ figure comes to Eustace the dragon and bids him to follow him it's a moonless night but used to says there's moonlight all around the lion and it follows him and he takes him up into a high mountain a place where Eustace has never been and there is a beautiful pool and Eustace wants more than anything else to be bathed to get into that pool and feel clean there's a nice analogy here to baptism entering into a covenant with God but he knows he can't enter in as a dragon as he steps up to the water wanting to go in and seize those those horrible dragon scales they're repulsive to him and so he's the the lion Aslan says to him that he must the words are the lion said I must undress you first so used to thinks no I've got this and so he starts scratching at some of the scales and they come up any scratches a little deeper and off comes the skin and he thinks oh I'm free and he sees this dragon scaly skin on the ground and he says now I can get into the pool and he goes to get into the pool and he notices a dragon's hand still afoot and he realizes that oh maybe if there's a deeper layer so he scratches off another skin and there it's laying next to the first and he goes to get in and he recognizes he's still a dragon so he comes back and he does it a third time there's now three dragon skins and he goes to get into the pool and he's still a dragon then the said but I don't know if it spoke Eustis says you will have to let me undress you I was afraid of his claws I can tell you but I was pretty nearly desperate now so I just lay flat down on my back to let him do it his very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart and when he began pulling the skin off it hurt worse than anything I've ever felt the only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off you know if you've ever picked the scab off of a sore place it hurts like billy-o but it is such fun to see it coming away well he peeled the beastly stuff ripe right off just as I thought I'd done it myself the other three times only they hadn't hurt and there it was lying on the grass only ever so much thicker and darker and more knobbly looking than the others had been and there was I as smooth and soft and has peeled as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been and then he caught hold of me I didn't like that much for I was very tender underneath now that I had no skin on and he threw me into the water and then Eustace goes on to describe how pleasant and wonderful and amazing that swim and the queen pool was for him that new life that was given to him he was given a new opportunity to live his life as a new creature brothers and sisters we live in a world filled with struggles filled with addiction filled with with issues all around us the message to one of the strong messages to me of this book is we have hope only in Christ we can't peel the skin off of ourself we can't take the dragon off of ourself we have to submit to Christ and let him do the peeling and let him put us into the water to establish and re-establish that covenant over and over again know that he lives and know that He loves you and we leave that with you in the name of Jesus Christ amen you

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Length: 51min 59sec (3119 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 21 2020