Come Follow Me (Insights into Alma 5–7, June 1–7)

welcome to come follow me insights from Book of Mormon central today I'm a five through seven and we invite you check out our free scripture study app Scripture plus let's begin with a little little exercise wherever you may be I'll give you five seconds to do this okay and let's see let's see if you can accomplish the task I want you to get your pulse fill your heart beat ready set go you've got five seconds three two one zero okay now I'm hoping that most of you were able to find your poles if you're if you're sitting with a group and somebody didn't quite raise their hand you might want to reach over and make sure you can get their poles just just to make sure that hearts still beating now let's try something different you've got five more seconds I want you to get a spiritual pulse how's your spiritual heart doing go five four three two one zero now how did you with that one with the first exercise most of you probably without hardly even thinking about it probably just instantaneously went somewhere where you know you could feel your heart beating what did you do with the second one five seconds isn't a long time is it Alma chapter five for me has become the answer to that question Tyler how are you doing spiritually I don't know I've never found a chapter in Scripture with more pertinent questions in an interview format than Alma chapter five and it becomes this this incredible opportunity to get a spiritual EKG so you go to a cardiologist and they're gonna hook you up to a machine you can see why this person went to the cardiologist their heart's not doing very well it's not very consistent the point being when you do a physical EKG you can diagnose some things you can see what's going wrong or what's going right with your heart by going into Alma v we can create a spiritual EKG to see some things that are going really well really right and some things that are really wrong so this by the way is a terrible exercise to do in a group this quite frankly it doesn't matter what other people think about you with regards to answering the questions that we're gonna dive into an Alma chapter 5 all that really matters is you getting a one-on-one interview with the Lord through the words of Alma the younger here Alma will deliver the questions to you and then you can perfectly consider with the help of the Lord how am I really doing how is my spiritual heart my spiritual pulse how is it doing well and where is it struggling and by the time you're done you you can get all these different questions that he's asking and what we'll cover some of these as we go along and you just rate yourself on a scale from one to ten and you might end up with something that looks like like this and by the time you're done you'll be able to recognize wow the Lord has been really good to me in some of these areas and oh boy I need some help I need to work on this as I go in now before we we have to be careful here before I jump you into Alma five into the specific questions there are some people who are born into this earth life with a propensity to beat themselves up and to feel overly guilty and to never feel like they're ever ever ever going to be good enough so if that's something that you struggle with I would just say CS Lewis gave a really really profound quote regarding this effort to try to be good to try to improve listen to this no man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good a silly ideas current that good people do not know what temptation means this is an obvious lie only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is after all you find out the strength of the German army by fighting against it not by giving in you find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it not by lying down a man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later that is why bad people in one sense know very little about badness they have lived a sheltered life by always giving in we never find out the strength of the evil impulse incite us until we try to fight it and Christ because he was the only man who never yielded the temptation is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation really means the only complete realist as you work on improving your life don't beat yourself up because of the troughs in this kind of an exercise recognize that everybody has struggles there's nobody whose EKG looks like this except for Jesus himself and none of us is him yet so we're all going to have struggles and it's okay it's part of the process one other one other concept to throw out at a high level is a an idea that President Henry be hiring shared many years ago in a in a setting where he said speaking to seminary and Institute teachers he said if you want to look for major improvement in your life his recommendation was don't look for major things that you can work on improving he said find little things that get repeated often in your life and make minor incremental improvements in the way you do those things and over time whether it's for an individual or a family or an organization he says the result over time will be major improvement finding things that you repeat often do it a little bit better and you'll find that you can sometimes take your strengths to secure the opportunity to improve these these low spots of your life and just keep bringing them forward and the other thing we would say is don't get overwhelmed with all of that today just you can try some people might be able to do that but if you're like me I I'm gonna work on one thing I work really hard on that one thing and and try to improve it so Tyler and I don't always tell each other what we're gonna say before we get started so the little exercise that Tyler just gave us my immediate thought right so like many of you when I was asked to check my temperature or so I Paul sighs like I sure hope I have one and if I didn't have when I thought I might need a little help that might make for an exciting video so like many of you I just tested my wrist here but as soon as he asked about how's your spiritual how's your level of spirituality I realized this is a question and I started asking myself questions and I started thinking about temple recommend interview questions and I think about what we have going on here in Alma five it's just this whole series of questions and I want to spend just a few moments talking about what questions are why they matter and why they help us on the Covenant path so let me begin by using a different word than question it's the word doubt this word which unfortunately has become a little more popular in our world today even among some members of the church they've been encouraging that doubt is okay I'm going to offer another idea the word doubt comes from the word dual or two and let me map this out you come to a fork in the road the pathway branches you have two options so you stop you have doubt you don't take either path because you don't know and you just stop and stare and you just keep thinking and you never progress because you are stopped or the word we use in religious language is you're damned in doubt now there are times in life where the scriptures and the gospel make you very clear which pathway to take and I don't think we need to enumerate examples but there many times in life where we don't always know what the best answer is there are two goods and if you think about some years ago Elder Holland tell the story what about his son they were out driving in the wilderness and they got lost and they got to a fork in the road and they actually did not stop permanently and just wait for revelation they tried a path and gained information they asked a question and one on a quest and discovered that actually wasn't the right way and they went back the other way so what I want to encourage us is to follow the lead of Alma instead of encouraging doubt which is a form of stopping or damnation let's encourage questions that's what Joseph Smith did Joe Smith had a question and he asked and he pursued and he gained knowledge so when you get to a point your life and you're certain about what to do pursue write ask a question and gain knowledge and the power the atonement can heal us if we happen to go down a path that really wasn't the best path and we were making our best effort but we won in a quest so let's now talk about the word question so question comes from an old word that means to ask but also is related to this word a quest so I don't know about many of you but I really love good storytelling a great movie that's got this exciting quest recently I watched Lord of the Rings with my family right this incredible quest to save the world from this evil ring our evil man and I think many of us get excited about quests and that's what the whole plan of salvation is it's this quest to find a way back into the presence of God and God is asking us to ask questions and to pursue past and learn and again sometimes we might go down a path and find we've learned a lot but actually we need to be back somewhere else and the atonement actually can guide us in our questing and to avoid being stopped in the doubt of a double path and not knowing what to do so as you listen to what Alma is encouraging us to think about there's no need for you to like answer right now every single question go through maybe number the questions and find some that you find particularly useful for you right now and make a quest about it and find yourself on a path of adventure of learning and spiritual growth wonderful so as we begin this this quest through this interview process I love that perspective you'll notice that how much Chapter five has more question marks more questing than any other chapter of Scripture you're not gonna find a chapter in Bible Book of Mormon Doctrine come as pearl agree price that has more question marks than Alma chapter 5 so it lends itself to this self interview self introspection with the help of the Lord now I get it not every single question in Alma 5 is applicable to you like Taylor saying so we're gonna pick and choose the ones that are the most relevant and meaningful and insightful for where we are right here right now and where we hope to go on our personal quest let's begin he by the way setting here keep in mind Alma used to be the chief judge and the high priest of the church he was the head of both the governor and the church he gave the government to Neffe ha the chief judge seat so he's no longer the the chief judge now he's one hundred percent of his time focused on working with the people and you'll notice where he begins his efforts in Chapter five it's in Zarahemla which I think there's a principle there for us as well that he starts in the core he starts by cleansing the inner vessel first the the heart of the land and then he's going to go out to Gideon and then me like and then Ammon aha he's gonna work his way out from Zarahemla but when making improvement efforts it's nice to not worry about other things first but start at the heart go right to the core first then we'll start going outward is one one applicable way you could maybe look at the way he's organized his his missionary efforts here he begins in Zarahemla by reminding the people about the captivity of their their ancestors their fathers of the different times where they're their ancestors have been in bondage they've been in a situation where they couldn't help themselves and God came through and delivered them and so look at his one of his first questions chapter 5 verse 6 now behold I say to you my brother and you that belong to this church have you sufficiently retained in remembrance the captivity of your father's now for those of us who are sitting here in the 21st century reading Alma 5 our parents weren't in the waters of Mormons situation with Alma or in Lim hai situation in bonds our parents captivity 'z might have been very different than theirs but the reality is is everybody's family line has experienced captivity and bondage and deep intense struggle to some degree or another and he's asking a really important question of everybody to say before we start worrying about what you're struggling with have you remembered how good god has been to the people who have come before you who have laid a foundation for your faith today that's an important question oh and by the way did you notice he didn't ask a yes-or-no question these are questions that have ranges of answers have you sufficiently retained and remembers the captivity of your father's meaning it can be a degree to which you have retained in remembrance so you can go through and and judge yourself on how much have you actually worried about what your ancestors have gone through and seen looked for the hand of God in their lives which might tie some of you into this spirit of Elijah perspective that opens a whole new area of Revelation for people to have the heart of the children turn to the to the fathers to actually think about this is an important thing now he then goes on to say yay and have you sufficiently remain retained in remembrance his mercy and long-suffering towards them so there's the couplet the struggles that they've had how good god was to them have you sufficiently retained a remembrance that he has delivered their souls from hell that's important that it's not just physical release but from from spiritual bondage there are lots of other questions along here but let's cut down to verse 14 now behold I ask of you my brethren of the church have ye spiritually been born of God now this is not a question that you do in group settings you don't ask people have eyes spiritually been born of God to what degree do you think I'm spiritually born of God this has nothing to do with anybody except for you and the Lord to say to what degree do I feel like I've been born of God not just born of the flesh the next question follow-up in verse 14 have ye received his image in your countenances and the third one have you experienced this mighty change in your hearts there are a lot of times when you may have this idea that someday in the next life you're going to get to come into the presence of the Savior and see him and that is true every everybody's going to get that opportunity based on experiences here in this particular set of questions have you received His image in your countenance as an important question because it implies that the harder you try to be good to emulate Christ to live your life the way he lived his life to be the kind of person that you were really sent here to be the more that you will take on his attributes as his son or his daughter in this covenant relationship with him you will start to look more like him not physically but it's a it's a mother Teresa principle she said when asked why do you help the poorest of the very poor in Calcutta India the the very people who are ready to die why are you helping them and her answer in in one setting was she says I look for the face of Jesus in everyone I meet and she said she was never disappointed she found the image of Christ in everyone that she met brothers and sisters this is this is really important for us as we move forward your first view your first glimpses of the Savior in the gospel of Jesus Christ your first glimpses of the Savior those fleeting whoa I caught a flash of something there probably won't come in vision they'll probably come in the mirror because you will have started to receive more and more and more of His image in your countenance and again you can make these these judgments on how these questions are being answered on your own personal spiritual EKGs your own pulse and it keeps going he asks a series of questions about what it will be like for these people at the last day when they're standing at the judgment seat what is that gonna be like can you imagine what that's gonna be like when you when you haven't tried to change because he's speaking to people who are kind of struggling and the church in Zarahemla so as you work your way through verse 16 17 18 all the way down through 22 how is that gonna feel standing before the bar before the bar of God our invitation to you would be don't read this as as metaphorical or symbolic Theory answer his question engage with it literally to say huh I am gonna be standing before God and what is that gonna be like don't beat yourself up because you don't worship a God who's angry and who's vengeful and who's who's waiting for you to mess up so he can make a permanent mark in a book with your name on it that's not the kind of being he is but picture a God who's willing to work with you through through a lifetime of this process of adjusting and adapting and when you slip in some phases or some periods of your life all is not lost because you have a savior and a redeemer look at verse 26 now behold I send to you my brethren if you have experienced a change of heart and if you have felt to sing the song of redeeming love I would ask can you feel so now there may be some of you who are watching or listening who maybe in the past you felt like your testimony was stronger than it is now for some of you you're just finding your way back into the church or back into the the arms of safety of the Savior's infinite love and his infant toment and the question he's asking here is really important can you feel so now this is that the spiritual EKG is not a measure of how your heart was 20 years ago or 40 years ago this spiritual EKG is a gift that keeps on giving every time I come to Alma v in my personal study of the book Mormon I kind of get excited because it's kind of like a temple recommend interview you don't just do one of those and then you're done for the rest of your life you keep coming back to those questions and you keep answering them again and again and again as you move forward in your life now verse 27 he asks some pretty pretty deep questions when he says have you walked keeping yourselves blameless before God now nobody's going to be able answer that question say yes 100% I'm a 10 on that by the way if you mark yourself at a 10 on that and well maybe you might be lacking in humility yeah the next question is for you if you were called to die at this time within yourselves that you've been sufficiently humble so the idea being don't don't be overly hard on yourself and don't be overly generous with yourself just be honest with yourself and humble and recognize you're gonna have some ups and downs along the way here notice the second half verse 27 that your garments have been cleansed and made white through the blood of Christ who will come to redeem his people from their sins you're noticing I hope the incredible symbolism we've talked about a couple months ago the idea of the blood of Christ making your garments white your garments are cleansed through the blood of Christ nothing that stains clothing quicker than blood and nothing cleanses clothing more completely and more perfectly and more powerfully than the blood of Christ spotless stainless when you involve him and then 28 29 30 he asked some questions are you stripped of pride verse 29 you're stripped of envy 30 do you make a mock of your brother he's asking some of these really important questions for us just in the way we we live our life in the way we treat other people to say are you really worried have you arrived can you stop focusing on the gospel of Jesus Christ can you stop relying on His infinite mercy in his atonement no everyone needs him desperately in order to try to make any kind of improvement nobody is going to increase anything on their spiritual EKGs in isolation from Christ it just doesn't happen it's impossible now jumping down he gives some descriptions of what it's like to be in the fold of the Good Shepherd which is Christ I just want to point out one little concept here verse 38 behold I say unto you that the Good Shepherd death call you and in his own name he death call you which is the name of Christ and if you will not hearken unto the voice of the Good Shepherd to the name by which ye are called behold ye are not the Sheep of the Good Shepherd can we suggest that Alma 5 is a manifestation of the voice of the Good Shepherd calling you to come into his fold more fully than we ever have before it's this kind gentle Shepherd who's there to lead the people safely into the fold not to beat them up when they struggle not to injure them it's it's to heal it's to protect look of verse 39 now if you're not the Sheep of the Good Shepherd of what fold are you so you have you have two very opposite voices calling you enticing you come follow me and Alma here is saying if you're not going to listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd then it doesn't end well we've got lots of stories before and after about people who didn't try to go through this process and they they they don't care about trying to be good they want to hearken to the voice of the other wouldn't even call him a shepherd the other guy who's calling after them and he leads them down look at the bottom of verse 39 behold I say unto you whosoever denied this is a liar and a child of the devil he's kind of being pretty blunt here now look at verse 45 and we're skipping some questions obviously along the way here look at verse 45 and this is not all do you suppose that I know of these things myself behold I testify to you that I do know that these things were of I have spoken are true and how do you suppose that I know of their surety so here's Alma the younger saying I know with absolute certainty that these things are true how do you suppose that I know you and I might suspect that he would say well hello I got to see an angel and I spent three days being wracked with eternal torment and repenting and coming unto God notice how he responds here verse 46 behold I say to you they are made known unto me by the Holy Spirit of God behold I have fasted and prayed many days that I might know these things of myself this coming from a guy who saw an angel and he doesn't mention the angel and the answer why do I know these things are true how do I know of their surety it's because I fastened I prayed many days and the Holy Spirit of God has borne witness to my soul that they're true brothers and sisters there will be many times when your heart will know things that your tongue cannot tell with with exactness you can't explain everything you know to everyone we we want to have a reason for the faith that lies within us and we want to explain why we believe what we believe but there will be times when you just know something is true and it's because of a lifetime in some cases where you have fasted and prayed and you have kept wrestling and you've kept walking against that wind that opposition fighting against that army using CS Lewis's example and you've kept at it and you've gone and you've gone forward and you now know things that can't be given to other people until they go through the experience that you've gone through as well it's pretty powerful and what's interesting about what Tyler just taught is none of us can control whether we're gonna see angels I remember as a kid I really had this deep desire to see an angel partly I wasn't very mature in my spiritual life and I thought if I see an angel there's proof that God loves me but what can we control and again it's fascinating here's Alma who had one of the most incredible conversion stories ever recorded and most people don't have these experiences how does he talk about what he learned as Tyler's pointed out it's not because he saw an angel it's things that he could choose to do in control and like Alma we all have this choice back in verse 46 I have fasted and prayed many days you can choose to do that earlier we talked about incrementally doing good or more specifically regularly and consistently doing good better and as you do those things God will reveal himself we don't need to see angels although I confess I still would love to see an angel although than I think I'd be a lot more responsible I'm not sure I'm ready for that but I can't control whether I am consistent about fasting and prayer and whether I am consistently doing the things that God has laid out in the scriptures and with the Brethren in in our modern day there's many ways of looking at Alma chapter 5 and let me offer a coven ental perspective and let me put up some words on the board that we'll help you help prompt your thinking about the covenants that God is trying to remind us of and some of these verses we've already looked at and the reason I'm doing this is twofold one because covenants are amazing to talk about and learn about but also just to demonstrate you can see that when Tyler and I are teaching there are multiple perspectives to gain from the scripture and we hope that you see that there are many ways that you can learn from the scriptures not just one right way to understand something and let's go back and take a look at what Alma says in verse six have you sufficiently retained and remembrance the captivity of your fathers so there's this powerful word of remember and this word has covenants or contexts that are intended to encourage us to actually remember God's covenants this is an interesting word r-e means again and remember is like an individual or some item and God is asking you to put members together again or items together again and I want you to think about the one of the main purposes of Scripture is to contain the memories or the members of the narrative of God's covenant plan and what God asked us to do is to review those stories and to put back again those members are those elements of that story into a narrative that we can see that the salvation Ark of God's love in our lives and in the lives of our ancestors so if we think back to the Bible you have the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob this is the God you can trust who saves the Israelites from Egyptian bondage and he does this at Passover which later at the time of Jesus becomes the Last Supper and then we celebrate Easter and now we do sacrament every week which is really and acting in some ways Passover so what I want you to think about from a covenant the standpoint you are remembering the whole story of salvation at sacrament you're remembering the great deeds of deliverance that God has done for his people and in some ways this is what Alma is asking like are you taking seriously God's plan of salvation are you remembering the story elements and God doesn't just like reveal stats even though I like numbers he doesn't just layouts like stats of salvation he tells you a story of individual people and families and nations and his saving acts of grace in terms of how willing they've been to accept him and to receive him and again the Book of Mormon is full of these stories and the Book of Mormon helps us to remember each of those salvation elements that's why the story of Alma the elder going into captivity of Lynn eyes people go into captivity and Alma is saying to be on the Covenant path you need to on a regular basis put your mind into remembrance of these things so based on his foundation of how he knows these things are true watch as he no longer asks a question in this next segment but he instead of using question marks she's going to use exclamation points now I know there are no exclamation marks on the plates and any punctuation in the Book of Mormon was added by John Gilbert I get that and there aren't exclamation marks here in verse 48 but to me these are exclamation points coming from Alma the younger saying here's what I know verse 48 I say to you that I know of myself the whatsoever I shall say unto you concerning that which is to come as true and I say to you that I know that Jesus Christ shall come ye the son the only begotten of the father did you get that three names and titles Jesus Christ the son only begotten of the Father and then he gives something else he says full of grace and mercy and truth one thing that is is kind of insightful if you've already gone through the Book of Mormon and marked all of the names and titles and references to the Savior or to deity that is a remarkable exercise and if you haven't done that we would encourage you to do that the scripture plus out actually has marked all the names of deity in red and that might be a starter for you to see how thoroughly the Scriptures have God in them once you've done that then our next level of recommendation would be now go back through and don't just look for the names and the titles and the way that he's described but look for his attributes and mark those in a different way Jerry Wilson who I had for Institute many many years ago he encouraged us to take a particular color in his case was dark green and mark the attributes of God in our scripture in dark greens deep rich living color because that's who I'm trying to be like I'm trying to emulate his attributes his characteristics his perfections in my own life that's the whole point of this EKG exercises to identify where where I may be lacking a little bit in becoming more like Jesus so as you notice here in verse 48 he gives you the titles but then he gives you the attributes he's filled with grace he's filled with mercy he's filled with truth it's a different exercise when you go through your scriptures identifying the attributes of God because then it gives you a more clear target to aim for of things that I can start implementing in my own life now let's turn the page over look at verse 54 well ye persist in supposing that your better one than another yeah will you persist in the persecution of your brethren who humble themselves and do walk after the holy order of God I just have to say that the only person who was perfect didn't look down on those of us who aren't with judgment or condemnation his only looking down was with compassion with kindness with reaching with trying to sustain and wrap in the arms of his love and in the arms of his safety and mercy and His grace and so he this this last part here that he's giving the people is really focusing them on how they it's not just introspective on how you're doing in your own relationship with God it's okay now you've worked on that now how are you treating the people around you and look over 55 yeah will you persist in turning your backs on the poor and the needy and then withholding your substance from them so again if we're really trying to be more like Jesus then we have to emulate how he treated people especially those who are the most vulnerable parts of our of our society and of the population and then verse 60 now I say to you that the Good Shepherd death call after you and if he will hearken unto his voice he will bring you into his fold and ye are his sheep and he commandeth you that ye suffered no ravenous wolf to enter among you that you may not be destroyed to finish off this section I want to I want to share with you what has become one of my all-time favorite quotes ever this is this is really profound it comes from sister Patricia Holland it's in a book that was published clear back in 1997 called portraits of Eve in here listen carefully to what sister Holland says regarding who you are and your sense of self you ready our Father in Heaven needs us as we are as we are growing to become he has intentionally made us different from one another so that even with our imperfections we can fulfill his purposes my greatest misery comes when I feel I have to fit what others are doing or what I think others expected I am most happy when I am comfortable being me and trying to do what my father in heaven and I expect me to be are you sensing so far that the perspective here is I am NOT doing this spiritual cardiogram in comparison to Taylor or my wife or my parents or my siblings or my neighbors or my stake members and ward members it has nothing to do with any of them this is between me and the Lord that's it notice this for many years I tried to measure the oft times quiet reflective thoughtful Pat Holland against the robust bubbly talkative an energetic Jeff Holland and others with light qualities I have learned through several fatiguing failures that you can't have joy in being bubbly if you're not a bubbly person it's a contradiction in terms can you picture this comparing sister Holland with Elder Holland and her saying this I have given up seeing myself as a flawed person because my energy level is lower than Jeff's and I don't talk as much as he does nor as fast giving this up has freed me to embrace and rejoice in my own manner and personality in the measure of my creation ironically that has allowed me to admire and enjoy Jeff's ebullience even more oh how grateful I am for this concept that I no longer have to beat myself up because I may not be as smart as engaging as funny as thoughtful as good with people or as as all these other people that I see around me what a blessing it is to be able to focus on trying to come unto Christ and being perfected in him with my unique set of strengths and struggles challenges and and glorious gifts that God has has granted to each one of us as we've come down here so as you as you close off your chapter five experiences you study this we would hope and pray that you take this chapter very very personally and that it's very introspective and that it will seriously connect you with heaven okay now Elma finishes with the people in Zarahemla and he sets the church in order and he says okay now finally I get to go out and do some traveling because he's been holy confined to the judgement seat for all these years that he's that he's since Alma chapter one and so now for the first time he's going out to to the East City East which is Gideon and he's going to pick up the story in Chapter seven when when Alma arrives in Gideon he doesn't quite know what he's gonna find regarding the church he's he's kind of surprised when he sees hey you're doing better than the people in the church in Zarahemla are doing and it's not to compare it's the fact that Harry has come ready to teach a certain message and he's saying oh wait you you don't need that call to repentance quite the same as maybe he had needed to deliver in Zarahemla and so what you get in Chapter seven is one of these sweetest sections of the entire scripture Canon that we have available to us where Elma is able to open up and talk about some of the the deep sweet things regarding the infinite nature of Christ's atonement and his suffering for us I remember years and years ago more than two decades ago when I was a student up at Utah State at the Institute I remember watching a young sing a little fireside or a broadcast at the time from L at the time elder M russell Ballard and he said something there I don't remember his exact words but it it left a deep impression on me he said we could teach you a lot more about some of the mysteries of the universe and the mysteries of eternity he said we could talk about Kolob more than we do as general authorities but he said until we as a group collectively figure out how to have more faith in Christ and repent of our sins and and keep the principles and the ordinances of the gospel he said we're not going to talk to you about Kolob at any great length that's that's an important principle when it comes to a family or a ward or a stake or a church collectively instead of getting frustrated that maybe the leaders in your local or your general level aren't telling more big and grand grandiose doctrines maybe the message is mmm we're still struggling with having deeper faith in Jesus Christ and trusting him more and really truly repenting of our sins more fully look at chapter 7 as he launches into his his speech this is one of the most profound verses in the entire Book of Mormon chapter 7 verse 7 for behold I say unto you there be many things to come and behold there is one thing which is of more importance than they all for behold the time is not far distant that the Redeemer liveth and cometh among his people brothers and sisters far more important than worlds without number and Kolob and the deep deep doctrines and all the things yet to come in the millennium and all the things that have happened the past far more important than all of those is the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ came to this earth lived a perfect life performed a perfect a complete and infinite atonement and now sits enthroned in yonder heavens on the right hand of the Father that is of more importance than everything else we could ever ever talk about and that's why this book keeps coming back to Christ every page every chapter you can find ways to to connect with him now Elma launches into some descriptions keep in mind this is still we're about you know 80 plus years away from Jesus being born look at verse 10 behold he shall be born of Mary so over here in the new world in the Americas we have revealed the name of the mother of Jesus Mary she shall be born of Mary at Jerusalem which is the land of our forefathers she being a virgin a precious and a chosen vessel I just have to throw this out here because some people make fun of the Book of Mormon because they'll say oh come on everybody knows Jesus was born in Bethlehem and the book woman says he's born in Jerusalem look carefully at Alma's prepositions here he shall be born of Mary at Jerusalem at is not in Bethlehem is about five miles south of Jerusalem and it is the least of the villages in the region round about Jerusalem and probably the least known so here you get this this prophet speaking about the coming of Christ he doesn't say that the baby is going to be born in Jerusalem it's born at Jerusalem this won't get you into heaven but back in chapter 1 Nephi told you that his father Lehi having dwelt at Jerusalem in all his days it uses the exact same word he doesn't say in and that's fascinating because later on in the story Nephi and his brothers are outside of the walls of the city of Jerusalem and they say let us go down to the land of our fathers inheritance and get the the gold silver and precious things and bring them back up to Jerusalem in other words the dad lived somewhere around near Jerusalem in the vicinity but not in Jerusalem Jesus isn't going to be born in Jerusalem that won't get anybody into heaven it's just it's kind of sad when some people put up walls and barriers of unbelief against the Book of Mormon because some person who wants to to throw the entire book under the bus says see he wasn't born in Jerusalem he was born in Bethlehem and instead of looking carefully at what it says they just take that and then discount the entire book when you look at it really closely every attempt to discount the Book of Mormon actually becomes a sign of its truthfulness if you just keep digging down and looking at the details more fully okay now I digress here's the important thing verse 11 he shall go forth suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind and this that the word might be fulfilled this word that is really important because it's a connecter word so watch in verse 11 12 and 13 in fact you if you like marking your scriptures just circle all of the VATS there are quite a few of them here and connect them so he's gonna suffer pains afflictions and temptations of every kind and this that the word might be fulfilled so that prophecy can be fulfilled Jesus fulfills the prophecies of the holy prophets it's what he does notice this next part what is the prophecy that's being fulfilled that said he would take the pains and the sicknesses of his people now look at verse 12 he will take upon him death that so that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people okay and he will take upon him their infirmities that his bowels may be filled with mercy according to the flesh that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities now the spirit knows all things nevertheless the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of the people that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance brothers and sisters Jesus Christ suffered for not just our sins and the consequences of our sins but the pains and the and the sicknesses the infirmities it's almost as if he's saying I want to know according to the flesh how to succor my people I want to know exactly what they're going through to the point where the day will come when each one of us will get to stand in front of the Savior and he will not look with questioning eyes saying what was that like really what was it like to go through that combination of physical mental emotional struggles of mortality Jesus will not look at anybody with questioning eyes he will look with knowing eyes at every one of you he's the only one who perfectly knows what you're going through and consequently is the only one who can perfectly succour you run to you provide this foundation for you to be able to endure it well and move forward in life brothers and sisters this this life was not intended to be simple this life was intended to be a test it was intended to stretch us to make us reach and rely on heaven because we can't rely on ourselves because of our struggles along the way but we have one who perfectly understands us in fact he gets you better than you get you he knows why you're doing better than you know why you're doing it and he is the only solution we have to move forward and to try to become better and to try to treat people around us better it's only through him that we can have any hope to do any of that I love the Lord the more I read about him the more I understand his his perfection the more I understand his perfection the more I feel of his love and the more I feel of his love the more I love him and want to be like him and I leave that with you in the name of Jesus Christ amen we hope you feel how joyful the scriptures are the gospel is so invigorating and exciting and just we hope that you feel loved that you feel that God knows you and he has preserved these words for your benefit and we really appreciate you taking time to explore the scriptures with us and we encourage you to spread light and goodness throughout your life you

Channel: Book of Mormon Central

Views: 128,317

Rating: 4.8774099 out of 5

Keywords: Come Follow Me, Come Follow Me LDS, Don't Miss This

Id: sDv6Gd-qMI0

Length: 54min 52sec (3292 seconds)

Published: Mon May 25 2020