15 Yea, I say unto you
come and fear not, and lay aside every sin, which easily doth beset you, which
doth bind you down to destruction, yea, come and go forth, and show unto your
God that ye are willing to repent of your sins and enter into a covenant with
him to keep his commandments, and witness it unto him this day by going into
the waters of baptism.
16 And whosoever doeth
this, and keepeth the commandments of God from thenceforth, the same will
remember that I say unto him, yea, he will remember that I have said unto him,
he shall have eternal life, according to the testimony of the Holy Spirit,
which testifieth in me.
17 And now my beloved
brethren, do you believe these things?
Behold, I say unto you, yea, I know that ye believe them; and the way that
I know that ye believe them is by the manifestation of the Spirit which is in
me. And now because your faith is strong
concerning that, yea, concerning the things which I have spoken, great is my
joy.
18 For as I said unto
you from the beginning, that I had much desire that ye were not in the state of
dilemma like your brethren, even so I have found that my desires have been
gratified.
19 For I perceive that
ye are in the paths of righteousness; I perceive that ye are in the path which
leads to the kingdom of God; yea, I perceive that ye are making his paths
straight.
20 I perceive that it
has been made known unto you, by the testimony of his word, that he cannot walk
in crooked paths; neither doth he vary from that which he hath said; neither
hath he a shadow of turning from the right to the left, or from that which is
right to that which is wrong; therefore, his course is one eternal round.
21 And he doth not
dwell in unholy temples; neither can filthiness or anything which is unclean be
received into the kingdom of God; therefore I say unto you the time shall come,
yea, and it shall be at the last day, that he who is filthy shall remain in his
filthiness.
Alma 7:15-21
After prophesying about Christ and His mission, he told the
people to “lay aside every sin.” Our sins can control us and bring us to
eternal destruction. Nephi recognized
this in psalm, “I am encompassed about,
because of the temptations and the sins which do so easily beset me. And when I
desire to rejoice, my heart groaneth because of my sins; nevertheless, I know
in whom I have trusted” (2 Nephi 4:18-19).
We must show our desire to repent and covenant with the Lord
we will live a righteous life, serve Him, and witness our commitment through
baptism.
Not only must the repentant sinner
cease sinning, he must make a positive commitment to the Savior to keep his
commandments, to walk the straight and narrow path, as he comes unto Christ.
This covenant to remember Christ always, to take the name of Christ upon
himself, and to keep all of Christ's commandments, is part of this process of
turning and coming-and therefore a crucial element of repentance. This is the
covenant that is witnessed to God and all the world by the convert through the
baptism of water. Alma articulates this plainly to the Nephites in Gideon when
he invites them to "lay aside every sin" and "show unto your God
that ye are willing to repent of your sins and enter into a covenant with him
to keep his commandments, and witness it unto him this day by going into the
waters of baptism" (Alma 7:15; cf. 2 Nephi 31:7, 13–14). It is in this
simple sense that those who repent "are the covenant people of the
Lord" (2 Nephi 30:2).
The Lord will remember those who serve Him. He will also remember Alma’s words to the
people of Gideon. Those who are remembered by the Lord will have eternal life,
Alma testifies.
The central message, to be given to
all the Nephites, is of repentance and belief in the Son of God, who will
"take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people. And he will
take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his
people" (Alma 7:11–12). Alma's desire is similar to King Benjamin's (whom
Alma quotes): to stir his people to make a binding covenant with the Lord.[1]
Do the people of Gideon believe Alma’s words? This is a question we need to ask
ourselves. We must believe in the Lord’s
words if we desire eternal life. We
cannot enter back into His presence with faith in the words of the Lord’s
servants. Remember, Alma testified the
Spirit had testified to the truthfulness of the words given to Alma.
Alma is sure they believe his words and testimony. He knows this through the Spirit of the Lord
which is in him.
Alma was concerned the church at Gideon was facing problems
similar to those in Zarahemla, where there were those who could (or would) not
make a commitment. “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways” (James 1:8).
After being among the people of Gideon, he perceives they
are on the straight path of righteousness.
This is the same path Lehi saw in his tree of life vision. “And I
beheld a rod of iron, and it extended along the bank of the river, and led to
the tree by which I stood. And I also
beheld a strait and narrow path, which came along by the rod of iron, even to
the tree by which I stood; and it also led by the head of the fountain, unto a
large and spacious field, as if it had been a world” (1 Nephi 8:19-20).
Alma also perceives they understand God cannot walk on
crooked paths and nor does He vary in His word.
During his vision, the angel told Nephi, “For he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the mysteries of God
shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost, as well in these
times as in times of old, and as well in times of old as in times to come;
wherefore, the course of the Lord is one eternal round” (1 Nephi
10:19). The Lord told Joseph Smith, “For God doth not walk in crooked paths,
neither doth he turn to the right hand nor to the left, neither doth he vary
from that which he hath said, therefore his paths are straight, and his course
is one eternal round” (D&C 3:2).
God cannot dwell in a person who serves the devil. That person is unclean and filthy and cannot
enter the kingdom of heaven. If a person
dies in sin, they will remain in sin.
The Book of Mormon has made this very clear.
“Know
ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in
you [GR in, within, among]? If any man defile [GR spoil, corrupt, deprave] the
temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which
temple ye are” (1 Corinthians 3:16-17).
“[K]now
ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye
have of God, and ye are not your own?” (1 Corinthians 6:19).
“And
now, I say unto you, my brethren, that after ye have known and have been taught
all these things, if ye should transgress and go contrary to that which has
been spoken, that ye do withdraw yourselves from the Spirit of the Lord, that
it may have no place in you to guide you in wisdom's paths that ye may be
blessed, prospered, and preserved—I say unto you, that the man that doeth this,
the same cometh out in open rebellion against God; therefore he listeth to obey
the evil spirit, and becometh an enemy to all righteousness; therefore, the
Lord has no place in him, for he dwelleth not in unholy temples” (Mosiah
2:36-37).
“Wherefore, if they should die in their
wickedness they must be cast off also, as to the things which are spiritual,
which are pertaining to righteousness; wherefore, they must be brought to stand
before God, to be judged of their works; and if their works have been
filthiness they must needs be filthy; and if they be filthy it must needs be that
they cannot dwell in the kingdom of God; if so, the kingdom of God must be
filthy also. But behold, I say unto you,
the kingdom of God is not filthy, and there cannot any unclean thing enter into
the kingdom of God; wherefore there must needs be a place of filthiness
prepared for that which is filthy. And
there is a place prepared, yea, even that awful hell of which I have spoken,
and the devil is the preparator of it; wherefore the final state of the souls
of men is to dwell in the kingdom of God, or to be cast out because of that
justice of which I have spoken” (1 Nephi 15:33-35).
“And
assuredly, as the Lord liveth, for the Lord God hath spoken it, and it is his
eternal word, which cannot pass away, that they who are righteous shall be
righteous still, and they who are filthy shall be filthy still; wherefore, they
who are filthy are the devil and his angels; and they shall go away into
everlasting fire, prepared for them; and their torment is as a lake of fire and
brimstone, whose flame ascendeth up forever and ever and has no end” (2
Nephi 9:16).
[1] Feasting
on the Word – "Know the Covenants of the Lord" – Sermons, Maxwell
Institute, accessed March 4, 2015.
No comments:
Post a Comment