Come Follow Me (Insights into Mosiah 29–Alma 4, May 25–31)

I'm Taylor and I'm Tyler this is Book of Mormon Central's come follow me insights we encourage you to look at our website we have lots of great supplemental resources we have a free scripture study app called scripture plus we hope that these materials and resources will enhance your scripture study with the intent that you feel a greater love and peace from God in your life today mazaya 29 through Alma 4 and the big question that we're dealing with today is how do you create a society of peace and what role do people and governments play in creating a peaceful society so consider the question what would it be like to live in a society where you could guarantee that your government leaders were were wise people they made perfect decisions that would benefit the most number of people for the longest period of time without taking any of the the glory or the creditor the power just for themselves or to gratify their own pride what if you could also guarantee that those leaders before making any decision would always go to the Lord and plead for his guidance his light his direction in making those decisions that that would be an amazing amazing scenario here's King Mosiah you ready you have and he is named after his grandfather obviously King Messiah the first that we have record of and then his father King Benjamin so here's King Messiah he's he's come to the end of his life he realizes he he's not gonna live very much longer and so he's also a great student of history this is the king who translated the Jared ight record which is loaded with stories of kings one after the other after the other most of them being really really wicked in that case and the occasional really good King mixed in but he saw that he has the brass plates he knows the history of the house of Israel really well in this regard that when Moses brought the children of Israel into the Promised Land after Moses and Joshua we turned the ruling of the people over to judges until that day when the people come and say we we want to be like all the other nations they all have kings we want to be like them we want to be like the world and so Samuel the Prophet went to the Lord and said what do you want me to do they want a king and God said no Samuel give them what they want give them a king they've not rejected you as my prophet they've rejected me as their ultimate king so this is the unique perspective that these three and Nephi at the very beginning the book seemed to bring into the story that most Kings like the vast majority the highest percentage of Kings don't bring in which is God is the king of kings the king of heaven and Jacob the brother of Nephi teaches us very powerfully in 2nd Nephi chapter 10 and he's actually quoting God for he that raised it up a King against me shall perish think of King Noah for I the Lord the king of heaven will be their king and I will be a light unto them for ever that hear my words so as you read the Bible and as you read the book of Mormon this is actually one of the driving questions that creates the history of these people is them trying to figure out who's the king and Nephi through his brother Jacob reveals it it's God God is the king and all these stores that show up all over the Book of Mormon are people having conflict about law I want to be a human king and what we learn from Isaiah is that God will allow that a human King under very specific circumstances but what we also see is that God actually prefers that we empower people through agency to choose him as the king has wonderful perspective that what normally Kings do in the history of the world in the history of the house of Israel in the history of the book of ether all of the perspective that Messiah has at his disposal he's looking the saying wow this normally doesn't go well we've been very blessed in his family line in the recent history to save this this is good but he said it normally doesn't go well why because most kings take power and agency and Liberty away from the people and take it to themselves whereas those who are successful in their kingship turned to God and recognized his authority as the King of Kings Lord of lords and they act like Jesus would servant leadership and so it goes well but here's the problem he's nearing the end at the end of his life the people all want his son Aaron to be the next king and and here's Mosiah in chapter 29 saying we have a couple problems with this one Aaron doesn't want to be the king he wants to be a missionary and he's going on a mission down to the Lamanites that was already dealt with in in the previous couple chapters so he has no interest in taking the throne not not interested in politics the second thing Messiah knows from all of this history and from his own experience he knows the struggles of being a king and the temptations that a king will face that other people won't temptations to get lifted up in more pride and and get away with sin and iniquity that common people might not be able to do and he knows that his son has had a pretty rough past a man Aaron Omron him naya long with Alma the younger they had some really rough times fighting against the church caught up in sin and pride and iniquity and he's concerned that should something happen and Aaron's shift back to his old ways he would undo all the good that has been set up this is one of the the sad ironies of life it takes a lot longer to build up a society to build up faith to build up a family to build up goodness than it does to tear it down all of those things you can you can wipe out generations of hard labor to build something up you can wipe it out very quickly and he mentions it specifically look at this so go to verse go to verse 13 for starters you're in chapter 29 therefore if it were possible now you could circle the word if because that's a big if right if it were possible that you could have just men to be your kings who had established the laws of God and just judge these people according to His commandments see if you could have men for your kings who would do even as my father Benjamin did for his people ice and you if this could always be the case then he would be expedient these should always have Kings to rule over you he's saying look short of having God himself live on the earth the best form of government would be to have people like him as your leader but that's great there's no better form of government because he is going to serve you and keep all of God's laws at the forefront and it's gonna be righteous it's gonna be wonderful and what's interesting about Benjamin is that he serves the people he ministers to them now think about today in the world most countries have a prime minister we have a president United States most other countries have prime ministers you know the word minister lavrov that pen comes from a very interesting word it comes from the word - that you're less than how many world leaders do you know that actually tried to put themselves underneath to support people and serve them know I'm at the table Benjamin was this ideal leader he truly ministered to the people in fact even another word that you've probably all heard of is the word night now we think of these as powerful people in the German this word literally means to be a servant and again what Tyler is teaching here is that it's very hard for typical humans to give up their pride for power prestige and authority over others and the willingness to lower yourself and condescend so you can support others is very rare among many humans and so we have this Challenger where these incredible leaders Mosiah is realizing this is a rare thing how can we create a society where we minimize the likelihood that we will fall into a lack of peace because of a bad king like we saw all over the Old Testament all over the gyro net records and particularly with noah and aaron as you point out he's all his pride he wanted to be it was all about himself and he's not repented but what if you fell back into not wanting to be less than others and that is that's what Messiah is trying to to figure out is how do you move forward in a way that can guarantee to a higher degree of certainty that wise honorable inspired people aren't going to be replaced by prideful sinful iniquitous people will cover us 18 yay remember king Noah his wickedness and his abominations and also the wickedness and abominations of his people behold what great destruction did come upon them and also because of their iniquities they were brought into bondage so again just to really quickly recap here Messiah is it wasn't born yesterday he he understands the the complexities of this he's been he's been the king for thirty years he knows what a king goes through and and the struggles and the decisions that need to be made and he knows his history not just of the book Mormon times but of looking at King Saul King David King Solomon none of those ended well then when Israel split into the northern kingdom in the southern kingdom you've got dozens of kings between those two kingdoms and only a small small percentage of them turned out to be what you would consider a good king so he's saying look in the probabilities he's establishing a case to say we need to let God be our King and let's come up with a government system that is actually the opposite flow of what happened in the Old Testament so he's like we're gonna go from the reigns of the kings in the opposite direction and begin the reigns of the judges flipping what happened in the Old Testament so look at verse 25 this is the key verse 25 and 26 therefore choose you by the voice of this people judges that you may be judged according to the laws which have been given to you by our fathers which are correct and which were given them by the hand of the Lord so you can see his new proposal it's it's really quite simple God gave laws to the Kings that were righteous so he's referring mostly to King Benjamin and Messiah his grandfather and he's not saying this he's being very very humble but the reality is as Messiah has been an amazing King he's not going to tell you that but I will thirty years of incredible seer ship he's a seer and a king and a prophet he's all of these things amazing and he's saying look we've got really good laws and back then there is no separation of church and state right it's it's the law of Moses and these directions that have been given to him that is their law and he said so we're gonna give these now to judges and all they're gonna do is judge the people according to how they live these incredible laws that have been given by God it's pretty pretty simple the key word here is voice of the people in verse 25 you could mark it by the voice of this people look verse 26 now it is not common that the voice of the people and desirous anything contrary to that which is right but it is common for the lesser part of the people to desire that which is not right therefore this shall you observe and make it your law to do your business by the voice of the people so it's a really profound thing when you say you have power in the masses of these people to decide who your judges are gonna be and what's going to happen so he gives you this scenario so what happens if the voice of the people chooses iniquity what if more people want bad laws and we want to change the laws or change the former government he tells you well at that time God's going to deliver you with the star to destruction you're gonna have consequences for those choices this introduces for us one of the most profound aspects of all of our very existence which is this notion of agency and accountability what he's doing here for those of you who aren't very interested in politics or aren't really into the government kinds of things like it or not this is a part of our entire existence our life going clear back to heaven Satan's attack was seeking to destroy the agency of man he's he's trying to overthrow he's trying to get people to vote or to change the way they they see God and shift their focus to himself it's everything everything in leadership everything in kingship is either trying to emulate the devil to one degree or another or trying to emulate the Savior to a one degree or another and there's no perfect analogy the the point is righteous Kings act like Christ's unrighteous Kings acts like the devil and the devil takes agency from the people and takes it to himself Christ gives more what is a synonym for liberty or for agency liberty freedom and he gives it out to the people to be able to make choices but that then they have to be accountable for them this is this is clearly laid out here now look at verse 38 therefore they relinquishing their desire for a king and became exceedingly anxious that every man should have an equal chance throughout all the land in every man express a willingness to answer for his own sins one of Satan's lies and one of his greatest deceptions is that freedom is the ability to just do whatever you want whenever you want wherever you want however you want with whomever you want that's freedom that's liberty but he'll never tell you about the accountability that's attached to those choices because that's how he binds us that's how he actually takes away our agency and so we live in a world that says things like we don't need organized religion we don't need laws we don't need Commandments God isn't doing things just eat drink and be merry let's live it up that's freedom if you want to talk about freedom go interview people who are in maximum security prison and ask them what it was like to enjoy that do whatever you want mentality and now how much freedom do you have elder D Todd Christofferson wrote a great article years ago in the enzyme called moral agency and in there he has a really profound statement he says if you want more freedom if you want more agency if you want more Liberty you learn as many of God's laws as you and keep them that's how you get more freedom Jesus is the ultimate example of freedom of power of agency all of these these things that people seek and yet they seek it in the wrong direction follow Christ and what you'll do is keep to the best your ability as many of God's laws as you can which leads to more and more freedom and you're not afraid of the accountability aspects so here's this grand shift we're no longer gonna have a king telling you what to do you're gonna tell the government what to do in this context which in the u.s. people get so so concerned about who's in the White House and if we're not careful we'll be more concerned about who's in the White House then who's in my house and the reality is brothers and sisters it doesn't matter where you live in the world it doesn't matter what form of government you you live under as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints we're taught to be law-abiding peacekeeping wherever possible citizens who contribute to our societies and it matters far less in a u.s. context it matters far less who's in the White House then who's in my house and the connections that my house is making to God in this in this context to say I'm gonna see God as my king and I don't have to wonder if he's going to win the election this year in my house because as for me in my house we will serve the Lord now that doesn't mean we ignore government and our civic responsibilities if King Mosiah were here I think he would look at us and say get involved let your voice be heard if you if you live in a country or in a society where you have the capacity to vote vote be involved in peaceful reasonable meaningful ways in your government let's look again at this verse that Tyler had read back in verse 38 and as we're reading through mosaic one through Alma for you might look for the words equal inequality and iniquity in fact you can look for those throughout the Book of Mormon let's read this and I'm going to talk about why these words matter therefore they relinquish their desires for King and became exceedingly anxious that every man should have an equal chance throughout all the land now in other places in this chapters that we're going to be dealing with today there's a rise of iniquity and there's also an inequality that breaks out among the people because the laws are not obeyed or because people are trying to change the laws that have been revealed by God and it's interesting the word judges literally means the one who speaks and what are they speaking they're actually teaching the revealed laws and the voice of the people is supposed to choose those who will teach and speak the laws to them so here's where the word these two words of equal and inequality switch sides here and then I'll put this next word iniquity if you go look at the foundation of these two words the etymology these two words actually come from the same root word inequality and iniquity really are essentially the same word and when there's iniquity it creates inequality and inequality creates iniquity and you can see that pattern throughout the Book of Mormon and through other scriptures there's a cycle and what Mosiah was trying to do will say how do we establish a society where there's more equality to minimize iniquity so we might live in peace so again just watch this pattern how does iniquity drive in equality and inequality drives iniquity okay so here we go we embark on this new form of government we have our first recorded in the Book of Mormon our first recorded election where the people get to pick who are who are going to be our judges and our chief judge ends up being Elma the younger and you would think okay now you have Alma this great prophet who is sitting on the throne of judgment the chief judgment seat I guess it's not a throne that would be for the kings and you would think now everything's going to be easier for the Nephites well you turn over to Alma chapter one and you say how did how did things go in his first year on that judgment seat and he's faced with a pretty serious struggle right out of the chute because you're introduced to a guy by the name of nee hoor now normally we when we teach in in our church we we shares things and then at the very end we pull back the red curtain and say toto see the connection I want to reverse that today and I want to pull back a little bit of the red curtain at the beginning so that you understand where I'm going with this right up front I believe that the Book of Mormon is a serious lens through which we can see eternal truths past present and future I don't believe it's just a book about historical people in one day one time two thousand years ago but their stories then become this these lenses we put on and see all kinds of prophetic visions of things as they really are that's the definition of truth a knowledge of things as they really are as they were and as they are to come that's that's why I get so so Gideon so excited about the Book of Mormon is because I love looking for my story and your story and his story and his story too because what you get here in Alma chapter one is you're gonna get an another yet again variations on eternal themes and in this case an eternal premortal theme so what you have is you have nee hoor and you have Elma set up in this story nee hoor becomes a lens through which we can see the devil in a in a pre mortal context Elma becoming a Christ figure for us in a symbolic sense ok oh by the way have you noticed this this is just for fun total tangent everything about him is bad you take off the D he's the most evil character ever you take off the e he's the most vile creature thinking about him should make you ill and if you follow him you're gonna go yeah you get it have pronounced that with a British accent so from start to finish everything about this guy seems to be that and yet he started really good he started really powerful now watch what happens as nee hoor story unfolds at what it reveals about the devil in the premortal context look at verse 2 so there's a man who was brought before Elma in his first year to be judged a man who was notice mark the the adjectives here he was large noted for his much strength Lucifer up in heaven was not a nobody he was a son of the morning he was powerful CS Lewis taught the doctrine I love this and I totally agree with them when he said you don't make Devils out of rats you make Devils out of angels the higher the angel the lower the devil when he falls that's Lucifer an extremely large mighty much strength until pride set in and and this ambition started to take over look at verse 3 so he had gone about among the people can you picture more than nee hoor story can you picture the devil doing this and he was preaching to them that which he termed to be the Word of God varying down against the church declaring under the people that every priest and teacher ought to become popular and that they ought not to labor with their hands but that they ought to be supported by the people are you noticing this I shouldn't have to work I should be supported give me your work your labor to benefit me ok that's King Noah and that's wicked leaders throughout history that's the entirety of the book of ether and that's most of kings and chronicles and that's the opposite of King Benjamin and Messiah absolutely now look at this verse 4 this will sound very very familiar in a pre mortal context and he also testified under the people that market all mankind should be saved at the last day and that they need not fear nor tremble but that they might lift up their heads and rejoice for the Lord had created all men and it had also redeemed all men and in the end all men should have eternal life that's 100% wow that sounds familiar that is exactly Satan's deception Satan's lie up in heaven when I was younger I used to think man what what went wrong why did why did we pick the Lord's plan the Heavenly Father's plan when Satan promised he could save everybody it didn't take long for me to grow in my spiritual maturity through those teenage years and realize oh wait a minute if there had been a way to save everyone God would have figured that out long before Satan was born into the spirit realm of heaven and that would have been his plan so the realization that I came to the older I got was Oh Satan really is the father of all lies and deception and that was quite possibly his biggest lie of all time was I will save all of them I will lose none of them the reality being he was basically saying to us I'm smarter than than God I love you more than God and I'm more powerful than God follow me not God oh and by the way for putting me in charge my only price tag is I get all the glory I get the throne I get to be the king are you noticing how that that desire that that passion for power and the throne and the crown that you see throughout the Bible and the Book of Mormon it wasn't invented here these are just echoes of a premortal theme that keep playing out in in mortality on the earth so Satan stepping forward saying I will lose none of them and give me all the glory and I will save all of you is the biggest lie in my opinion of all of eternity the fact is Satan couldn't save you he could only take he could only do what the getting robbers did which is secretly murder and plunder and rob in order for him to get gain that's it that's all that was going on in an eternal context so now here's the key I don't think that that we were in that audience that day looking at that saying hmm that's a valid option I think we were looking saying that's a lie you see we've we fought this battle once and we want everyone who was born on this earth chose to follow God's plan and now the same techniques are being used and it's very quite frankly it's very appealing to a certain part of our mortal existence now to say huh I could I could lift up my head and rejoice I I could eat drink and be merry I could do whatever I want and I'm still going to be saved then why the world would I ever try to limit myself my desires appetites and passions based on God's commandments if it doesn't matter if the people who are living it up out in the world are gonna be saved just like I'm gonna be saved then why try let me just experience all of the pleasures of mortality that's the message now here's the grand irony nee hoor never once mentions the name of Christ he doesn't refer to the Messiah he doesn't talk about Jesus and yet we consistently refer to nee hoor as one of the three biggest Antichrist in the Book of Mormon shehram nee hoor hoor hoor and yet that middle guy knew here he never mentions Christ brothers and sisters you don't have to mention the name to be Antichrist just because core and shehram mentioned him but nee hoor doesn't doesn't mean he's not an antichrist because an antichrist is anyone who preaches any doctrine about regarding your salvation or lack of salvation and core case without mentioning Christ and the gospel of Jesus Christ and the the plan of our Heavenly Father if there's any other path to salvation other than through Christ then it's an antichrist doctrine so no he doesn't mention the name of Christ like cherem did and like Korah who's gonna do but he is one of your biggest Antichrist because he's his doctrine if everyone's going to be saved in the end all mankind should have eternal life period end of story all of a sudden there's no need for a Christ I don't need Jesus if his doctrine is true if what Satan's hot is true I don't need Jesus now here's the here's the comparison in the premortal counsel the father presents his plan and says whom shall I send because in that plan there were two problems death and sin agency is going to result in poor choices so we needed somebody to come down to help us overcome death and hell death and sin whom shall I send who is both willing and able to overcome both of those deaths for all of God's children in that moment I don't believe and by the way I have no authority for this but I don't believe for a minute that everybody in the vast Council of heaven started looking around saying that's a good question who can we put on the ballot who should he send to overcome those two deaths I don't believe that for a minute I believe with all my heart that when the father asked whom shall I send that every eye in the audience turned simultaneously unlooked at one individual and one individual alone who was probably standing right next to the father on the right hand to see what his reaction would be to that question and then in that moment I can imagine my heart just bursting with love as the Lord Jesus Christ the great Jehovah in the premortal council steps forward and says father here am I send me I will be thy son and the glory be thine forever it was elder Maxwell who said something like never has one individual offered to do so much for so many in so few words as here am I send me and you can imagine that moment being shattered when this other voice comes out here am I send me I will lose none of them and the glory be mine forever do you see the contrast Satan offering to be our King the way the world's Kings largely have acted which is I don't want to suffer I don't want any cross but I want the crown I don't want the thorns but I want the throne versus Jesus saying I will take the burden of all of you I will stand be twist you injustice I will suffer intently for you I will serve you I will minister to you but I don't want the glory I want the glory to stay with the father give God the glory don't don't give it to me but I'll do all the suffering can you can you see the the contrast that we had available to us I can imagine that in that moment we were going around preaching have faith in Christ trust Jesus he'll do what he said he'll do and you can picture the devil and his servants going around preaching a totally different doctrine a doctrine of just support me give me your money give me your your glory and I'll save you it's all good okay look at verse six nee hoor began to be lifted up in the pride of his heart underwear very costly apparel yay and even began to establish a church after the manner of his preaching are you seeing the replay are you seeing the variation on this premortal theme play out so then he comes across a guy by the name of Gideon here he is growing in his success and then he meets this Gideon who if you do the math it's been about 54 years ago roughly when Gideon drew his sword and said I'm gonna kill King Noah and goes and fights him and climbs up on the tower and has that whole interchange with Noah that was 54 years ago so if the guy was in his mid-20s then he's now close to 80 years old he's this venerable old man power used to be this big mighty man now he's older and he with stems nee hoor in this in this war of words in this debate of doctrine and instead of admitting defeat nee hoor gets frustrated draws his sword and begins to smite Gideon in verse 9 and ends up killing the guy that is what brings nee in front of Elma the chief judge is the murder of Gideon and he's he verse 11 he is pleading for himself with much boldness but Alma judges him according to the law which has been given he's not giving his personal opinion he's saying look based on the law here's what happened and nee hoor is condemned to die in verse 14 he's taken to the the hill Manti in verse 15 and there he suffered an ignominious death a shameful death and you think okay good nee hoor is gone we're good what's the next word look at the first word of verse 16 nevertheless in other words in spite of the fact that he her diet and ignominious death mmm there's something bad happening here this did not put an end to the spreading of priestcraft through the land so the doctrine of nee hoor is now going to spread and it's going to create all kinds of problems turn the page over to chapter 2 skipping a whole bunch of things here but going to chapter 2 you're now in the fifth year of elmas reign when look at this we've now Nino's gone but his doctrine isn't but wait a minute it wasn't really his doctrine was it it was his doctrine and he's not gone and his doctrine isn't gone so there's another guy that is going to come in and take the place of this devilish figure in the Book of Mormon in contrast to a Christ figure that's the same Elma and Amla sigh is that guy look at verse 1 halfway down in verse 1 there's a man being called a masai he being a very cunning man yay a wise man as to the reason of the world's being after the order of the man this slew Gideon by the sword so now you're seeing a different lens a different side to the story of what the devil did and what the devil's trying to do today he's very wise very cunning knows a lot in the wisdom of the worlds right look of verse two he had drawn away much people after him even so much that they began to be very powerful they began to endeavor to establish a Mille site to be a king over the people good grief this just keeps going doesn't it just when you finish with one guy another one's there to take his place to say we're gonna keep doing the things that that Lucifer did up in heaven to try to take away the the freedoms and the liberties and the the power of individuals and families and take it unto ourselves and bring them into bondage and destroy the agency of man that's what all of these are happening so what do you do if you're Alma you say well we're supposed to govern by the voice of the people so he says there's a big enough group who's demanding this let's let's have a vote voice of the people they have a vote is this sounding familiar again we have a vote and the vote goes in favor of Elma and the chief judge rather than this guy who's trying to overthrow the government and set himself up as a king and what do you do if you're a Masai and you lost a vote you didn't get what you wanted you're not voted in as the king what do you do if you're following this guy and you lost the vote well I'll tell you what you do you start a war and that's exactly what happens here so he he arms his people and then the Nephites prepare for war as well in verse 12 and so we have this huge civil war that's going to lead to the death on the next page of of nearly 20,000 Nephites 20,000 people are gonna die because one man wanted all the power for himself as what it really boils down to and he's promised power to people who will support him of course because that's how it always works but it's it's really because of one guy now you get verse 16 Alma being the chief judge and the governor of the people of Nephi therefore he went up with his people yay with his captains and chief captains yay at the head of his army against the amla sites to battle so I can picture this this imagery of you and me fighting with Christ in this in this very real struggle up in heaven that now you're seeing play out on the earth this battle between good and evil between freedom and captivity between Liberty and bondage and Alma prays for help and he actually is able to defeat the the amla sites the problem is is we not not only have this civil war but a huge Lane a numerous Lane and I Army comes in to the land of Zarahemla and the amla sites join with them makes you think that they've been in communication in league with these Lamanites to say hey we're doing this come and help us and we'll take over the the ruling of the Nephites from the the judges and so we have all of these struggles and all of these issues to tackle and it's coming at these poor people who are trying to be good it's coming at them all at once now if you if you turn to chapter 3 this is where Mormon the the chief of bridger he shifts into editing mode or reduction mode where he's trying to help us make sense of everything that's gone on and there's a lot of stuff in here that the worlds in the 21st century tries to superimpose our perspectives back in time on Mormon and on these people living at the time of nee horn Elma and that's that's a difficult thing to do and so there are a lot of questions here and we're not going to get into all of those but I I want to point out verse 19 Mormons commentary regarding the amla sites who were Nephites that wanted to now identify as Lamanites they wanted to shift their loyalties so to speak look over 19 now I would that you should see that they brought upon themselves the curse and even so death every man that is cursed bring upon himself his own condemnation furthers and sisters once again it matters far less who who your government leaders are then then you may be suppose what matters most is how you approach your relationship with God we can we can try to blame our problems on other people but but eventually there comes a time when we have to say I'm going to take whatever freedoms I have in my country or in my civilization my society and I'm going to be the very best citizen I possibly can under my form of government looking to God as my ultimate king and I'm going to be accountable for the agency and the liberties and the freedoms which I do have whatever level they are that's what I'm gonna that's what I'm gonna be true to I'm gonna be loyal to and and Mormon is really doing a great job of pointing that out and then my favorite verse in Chapter three is actually verse 27 for every man receiveth wages of him whom he lists ahthe to obey and this according to the words of the spirit of prophecy therefore let it be according to the truth we're gonna receive wages of whomever we list to obey it's as if it's as if two masters are giving you a blank check and you get wages from whomever you serve wherever you work they're gonna pay you both of these individuals want to pay you their wages both of them have given you a blank check you get to decide who signs your check and the check is written out all that I have is being offered to you on the one side you get all of the glorious eternal endless mind-blowing we can't even I have not seen here hath not heard it have neither has it entered into the heart of men what glorious things he has in store to share with us as joint heirs with Christ if we sign up to serve Him and obey Him and he's willing to give you everything he has what does he have weeping wailing gnashing darkness no hope nothing good bondage captivity no real freedom no agency that's what he wants to give you that's what he has and he's willing to share it all with you and so as we've as we've been covering these stories I hope you haven't gotten the impression that while we're focusing an awful lot on the devil the reason is is because the Book of Mormon reveals this sharp contrast to hopefully inspire you and me today to say wait a minute I need to pay closer attention to the the impressions and promptings that come from above and the temptations and the enticements that come from beneath knowing their source and knowing what their endgame is it will probably make it a little easier for each of us to overcome our our struggles with with sin and temptation with that perspective in mind now we shift over to chapter 4 our last chapter for today and something fascinating occurs here Elma he holds two really really important positions or offices he's the the the prophet of the people he's the head of the church and he's also the head of the government there is no separation of church and state in this in this situation he's he is the top man in both areas now here's Elma looking at his society we've come through the knee we've come through the AMEX emili´s I in the mo sites situation in the war with the Lamanites and thrown in the mix there who we've gotten through that and he's noticing that the the sin and pride and iniquity of the the Nephites is just getting deeper and deeper and deeper the human natural response might be to say oh well I'm just gonna pass more laws I'm gonna hire more police officers and build more prisons to demand that the people keep the laws of God more more faithfully more diligently I'm gonna ramp up the government pressure on being good but I think Alma recognizes that would probably be the way the devil would have tried that the means the devil would have used to get to that end which is forcing trying to constrain and so what does he do he does the opposite of what a natural man response might be which is to say the people are struggling so I'm going to give up the worldly power and I'm going to focus 100% of my time on teaching them the gospel of Jesus Christ and trying to reclaim them by increasing their faith in Christ and getting them to repent and keep the law of Moses still because we're still in that time frame but these Nephites have the gospel and I'm gonna go and not judge them anymore I'm gonna minister to them I'm gonna teach them this is the hard road this is the more difficult road this is easier I mean you you can force it right but you can't force people to come unto Christ you could force conformance to laws but you won't force them to be better people so it this brings up an interesting question and this is a fascinating thing for parents for bishops and and and church leaders to consider is how big does the book of rules have to be if you're going to try to enforce or force conformance to certain behaviors if your society is struggling how many laws do you have to have in order to keep that society as peaceful as possible the worse your society gets if this is a a measuring rod of of goodness so let's say that a society is right here on the level of goodness how many laws do those people need in order to be good the reality is is they're holding themselves accountable to God so they don't need a lot of laws for men to tell them what to do and what not to do because they're they're being held accountable to a higher order to God Himself so they're governing their own behavior a society down here doesn't care what God thinks so you as a government leader or as a government body are going to have to mandate what they can and can't do because they're not holding themselves accountable to this higher power if you look at your family and you notice that things are struggling but and and you're gonna get inspiration for your own family so this isn't a blanket statement for everybody but it's a principle to at least consider in the process what difference would it make if you went to God as a parent or as a sibling or as a trusted adult in somebody else's life and said how could I love this person and minister to this person's needs more fully in a way that would help them feel of God's love and encourage and invite based on correct principles to live their life in such a way that they start turning more to God and move on up the scale in our most recent General Conference that was quoted the concept from president Benson the world would change changes people from the outside changes their environment God changes people from the inside and then they change their environment that's exactly what's happening here with Alma and by the way it's going to be really successful in places like Gideon and Melek it's going to be somewhat successful in Zarahemla his missionary efforts and it's gonna really struggle in places like Yemen aha which we're gonna be covering in in a couple of weeks these next few weeks are going to be what happens when Alma goes around and starts teaching the people so in conclusion God is the king Jesus has offered us everything he sacrificed everything he consecrated his whole life his whole being to God and to us and he's offering to give us everything that he has if we'll just keep striving to turn to him and the forces of the the adversary forces of darkness are real knee horse doctrines aren't knee horse they were the devils and they're still alive and well today amla size ambitions didn't die with my sight because they weren't really Amla sized in isolation they were the devils and they're alive today just know that God is in his heaven Jesus is the Christ we have more hope now than we've ever had before that we can carry off this kingdom with his help triumphantly we can gather the elect out of the four corners of the world and bring them into the gospel of Jesus Christ which is the only place where they will find not only peace but where they will find freedom liberty an increased agency and be able to spread that to to our families and those that you have influence with is our greatest desire and our hope when we leave that with you in the name of Jesus Christ amen you

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Length: 55min 10sec (3310 seconds)

Published: Mon May 18 2020