0:00:00 - 0:00:25 OK. Topic is laying hold of every good thing we're in row 97. Uh This video is a series. If you haven't watched the previous videos, I recommend it. Uh They're basically ordered. So you'll get more out of it if you watch the other ones first. So laying hold of every good thing. Um Verse 19, I think in 0:00:25 - 0:00:42 the previous videos I read through everything and then I came back and commented, I think I'll do it interleaved on this one if there are no objections and since I can't hear you, that's what we'll do. Um verse 19, wherefore I beseech of you brethren that you should search diligently in the light of 0:00:42 - 0:01:02 Christ that you may know good from evil. So, so we start on this verse the last end of the last video, but it's a transition. So we're reading it again. Um Here's the key thing here. You have to search in the light of Christ because he has to reveal it to you and he already revealed to you the baseline 0:01:02 - 0:01:24 . But through searching diligently, he'll put line upon line and he'll teach you more about what is right and what is wrong about good and evil about what, uh, lead you to Christ and what leads you away from Christ about how to serve God and what does not serve God about, uh, what it means to believe 0:01:23 - 0:01:49 in Christ and what it doesn't, what it means not to believe in Christ. And if you lay hold upon every good thing and condemn it not, you certainly will be a child of Christ. Now, harkening back to a verse, we already read. Uh it is the tendency of mankind to judge that which is evil, to be of God and 0:01:49 - 0:02:11 that which is good and of God to be of the devil. The natural man is an enemy to God and the natural man does not understand the things of the spirit and the things of the spirit are the things of God. What is holy and good and beautiful and true. That's all from God. And we can only come to see it as 0:02:11 - 0:02:38 valuable and good and beautiful and true inasmuch as we come unto Christ. And what does it mean to come unto Christ? It means to know more about Him and to be more like He is. So don't condemn what is good and you will be a child of Christ and you will lay hold upon every good thing flipping this around 0:02:37 - 0:03:08 . If you condemn further light and truth, when it is extended to you, you cease to be a child of Christ, you cease to progress along the way of life and you turn away into the way of death. You turn away from good things. You, you uh go further away from God. OK? Verse 20. And now my brethren, how is 0:03:08 - 0:03:27 it possible that you can lay, hold upon every good thing? So he's gonna tell us how to do it. And now I come to that faith of which I said I would speak and I will tell you the way whereby ye may lay, hold on every good thing for behold, God, knowing all things being. So he knows all the good things 0:03:26 - 0:03:51 obviously, and he knows the best things. He also knows how to get them. He also knows how to teach you that they're good and how to persuade you to get them continuing being from everlasting to everlasting behold. He sent angels to minister unto the Children of men to make manifest concerning the coming 0:03:51 - 0:04:19 of Christ. And in Christ should come every good thing. Pause. God is from everlasting to everlasting. What does that mean? He existed before this earth was? He will continue to exist after this earth is no more. This earth is a little bubble that God made so that we could come here and get a better idea 0:04:18 - 0:04:46 of what is good so that we could lay, hold on every good thing or at least more good things, or at least things that are better than we had laid. Hold on before Jesus. Said that he came to give life and more abundantly or in other words, giving life that is immortality or more abundantly is eternal life 0:04:46 - 0:05:16 and immortality you have that or you don't, but eternal life comes by degrees. It is one and the same as how much like Christ you are. So he exists from everlasting to everlasting. This creation is a uh an opportunity for all to become more like Christ as far as they are willing to receive. And he sent 0:05:16 - 0:05:43 angels to minister under the Children of men to make manifest concerning the coming of Christ. And in Christ, there should come every good thing. So the job of angels is to minister to the Children of men, to demonstrate to them and persuade them of how Christ is and how they can become more like them 0:05:43 - 0:06:12 , him and how, why they should, why they should become more like him? Verse 23. Well, let's pause there actually, let's keep on this. So why is it that the father sent the son in the first place? So, so there is the very significant portion of his ministry which was working out the um the resurrection 0:06:11 - 0:06:41 of men paying the price for the fall of Adam. But this verse doesn't talk about that. It says focuses on Christ manifesting all things which are good. So why didn't the father come and do that himself? That's an interesting question. And it has an answer. But the short answer without getting into elements 0:06:40 - 0:07:05 melting and such. The, the short answer is that God, God's glory and his name are one and the same, his name, his character. Remember we talked about that a previous video, how he is, what he does, why he does it, how he feels when he's doing it, the things he knows all of that. You can't separate that 0:07:05 - 0:07:30 from his glory. They're one and the same, the glory of God is intelligence, right? And intelligence in the scriptures doesn't mean IQ how we use it today. Uh It is to know how God is and to be like Him. OK. So these are all tightly intertwined and the problem is the glory of God is, is everlasting, burnings 0:07:29 - 0:07:54 its fire to those who are not at the same level. And so when the Father comes here, he, it's going to be really something, it's gonna melt the elements, ok? Because that glory cannot be suppressed. And the things here won't have a way of dealing with that. But, and, and actually we, we read this very 0:07:54 - 0:08:16 thing in DNC 93. The other video, you probably didn't get it. The elements are the Tabernacle of God. And that says man is the Tabernacle of God, even temples, but the elements aren't just in men. Are they, the elements will melt the presence of the Father. So um boy, there's a lot there. I don't want 0:08:15 - 0:08:36 to go, I'm trying to keep it on moon I seven. But, but I think that that's important here because we need to understand that the reason Christ was sent was to manifest the Father. Do you know what Manifest means? It means to make something more apparent. If you are talking about Manifest, the glory of 0:08:36 - 0:08:59 God, it means to help people better understand what God's goodness is and just how good it is, how valuable it is. OK? So if you want to manifest the name of Christ, it means to help people better understand the character of Christ, how he is, et cetera. So Christ came to manifest the father. He says 0:08:59 - 0:09:20 , if you've seen me, you've seen the father because I'm doing all the same things he would do here. So it's like you're seeing the Father because because that's what I'm doing here. Now, what's the purpose of angels? Angel's job is to manifest Christ. The angel's job is to manifest Christ. And so what 0:09:20 - 0:09:50 it is, it's a big old upside down tree where you are somewhere on those branches to start down at the bottom. And then those who have come to know Him more than you are this big network and it's like tributaries into a river, you follow it up and it flows and you come closer and closer to God and eventually 0:09:49 - 0:10:16 you hit Christ and Christ takes you to the Father verse 23. And God also declared unto prophets by his own mouth that Christ should come uh incidentally, I just described to you uh an accurate representation of how Jacob's letter works and what it actually is, you could also call it the true vine, but 0:10:15 - 0:10:40 we're not getting into that just yet. And God also declared unto prophets by his own mouth that Christ should come. And so this definition of prophets obviously is people to whom God actually speaks by his own mouth. So you have angels and you have prophets and why isn't God saying these things directly 0:10:40 - 0:11:05 to the people? Well, he is in previous videos, we already talked about how his voice was unto everyone in the sense that everyone already has an understanding of right and wrong. It's not a perfect understanding, but it's the start. And how do you grow in that understanding while you obey everything 0:11:04 - 0:11:30 . You know, how did angels become? Angels go? Read? Alma 13 says they were all on the same standing in the beginning. But some of them exercise more heat and diligence in knowing God. I just described to you what that is. They took their baseline understanding of good and evil and they lived according 0:11:29 - 0:11:53 to it and they went up higher. They were true and faithful in all things and God sent them more light and truth and then they were true and faithful in all things again. And God sent them more light and truth and they went up as high as they were willing to go. In other words. They received all things 0:11:52 - 0:12:16 they were willing to receive. What about profits? Same thing. Prophets don't just, you know, Christianity believes angels are created creatures. They're not, they're not men, they're just created creatures. I guess. I shouldn't say Christianity. A whole lot of Christians believe that not all Christians 0:12:15 - 0:12:35 and Mormons believe prophets are created creatures that they just sort of sprang up out of the earth or something. And they just magically became, you know, I either from the beginning or sometime in the middle of their life or whatever the magic wand got waved and they magically became very close to 0:12:35 - 0:13:12 God. We read Maroni three. That is not the way it works. A prophet. The word prophet is not a title, it is a description and God does not ordain prophets and his disciples do not ordain prophets unless they, God actually speaks to them already. And you say, well, in scriptures, we have stories like Gideon 0:13:11 - 0:13:37 . God spoke to him out of nowhere. No, he didn't. We do not have the life story of Gideon prior to that moment. But I guarantee you, I guarantee you that if you pulled back the curtain and you saw, you would see his entire life was a continuous path where he started just like it says in Alma 13, the 0:13:36 - 0:14:05 same standing as everyone else, he just obeyed God more and he searched more. God is impartial. The scriptural phrase is no respecter of persons. He's fair. He's just, he uses the same exact rules with everybody. In other words, he acts according to the same exact laws and we receive from him according 0:14:05 - 0:14:36 to how we live those laws. His choice is to live by his law. And that choice has already been made. Our choice is to learn and live according to his law so that we can receive from him. But he doesn't change his mind. He's the same from the beginning to the end. Ok. Let's keep reading verse 24. And behold 0:14:35 - 0:15:02 , there were divers ways that he did manifest things unto the Children of men, which were good. So through many ways, he manifested what was good to the Children of men and all things which are good cometh of Christ. OK. Let's pause there. There's this phrase out there that there are many paths that 0:15:01 - 0:15:19 lead to God. And that's usually quoted by people who don't want to listen to what he's saying to them and who aren't listening to what he's saying to them. And they're using that phrase to hide and say no, I can disobey what I believe is right and wrong. And there's still a path for me to get to God 0:15:19 - 0:15:46 . Nope. But there is truth in what they're saying. Like most lies, there's something there that is true or else no one would believe it at all. Well, what's the truth? Think of a mountain with many trails to the top? There is only one top of that mountain. But there are people who start from all over 0:15:45 - 0:16:08 the place at the bottom. And what happens is in other ways. In other words, I'm sorry, there were diverse ways that He did manifest things unto the Children of men, which were good line upon line, step upon step. And the thing is, is the paths don't stay separate. There aren't many paths that lead to 0:16:08 - 0:16:38 God in the sense that they're parallel. They all converge, they converge on Christ. You cannot draw closer to God without becoming more like Jesus Christ. It's impossible. Nothing you ever do that does not make you more like Jesus, none of that is from God never is never was. That's what this chapter 0:16:37 - 0:17:01 says. The devil is the one that persuades you to not draw close to God. It says everything that invite us to do good and to persuade, to believe in Christ is sent forth from the power and gift of Christ and everything set forth by the power and gift of Christ invites you to do good and persuade you to 0:17:01 - 0:17:24 believe in Him. Everything from God will entice and invite you to become more like Him and everything that does not do that is from the devil and lead you away from Him. And even if it doesn't do so in really obvious ways, even if it were possible to stay neutral. And so it's just distracting you. It's 0:17:24 - 0:17:44 not actually making you more evil that's still evil because it's not bringing you closer and helping you to become more like him. Now, in fact, there's no such thing as neutral and there's no such thing as staying in place because you're always enticed by one or the other. And if you're not going in 0:17:44 - 0:18:05 the direction of one, you are going in the direction of the other. Alma teaches us very plainly in Alma five. He says, if you're not heeding the voice of the good shepherd, which shepherd are you heeding? Because you're heating someone. So and remember the devil operates by degrees just like God. And 0:18:04 - 0:18:24 so he continually entices you. And even if all He can get you to do is, is try to stand still. That's a step towards Him. That's just the first step. And once you take that step, your understanding will be darkened and he'll be able to persuade you to come closer to Him in more egregious ways that you 0:18:24 - 0:18:45 wouldn't have agreed to first from the beginning. But because He persuades you to stand still, he can get you to take the ne next step that much easier. The same as God. If He persuades you to take a tiny step towards him, then he can persuade you to take a larger step next. All right, where did we leave 0:18:45 - 0:19:05 off here? So divers ways that He'd manifest things unto the Children of men which were good and all things which are good come of Christ, otherwise men were fallen and there could no good thing come unto them. So, so through the fall, we have no connection to God except through Christ. And that's what 0:19:05 - 0:19:29 it's just repeating what it said in verse 22 to make manifest concerning the coming of Christ. And in Christ, there should come every good thing in Christ, every good thing comes, you can't separate it. Now this goes both ways, you can't separate it. What that means is anything you do that is truly in 0:19:29 - 0:19:55 Christ will lead you to greater good. But it also means that any good you do will lead you to God even if his name's not on it, quote unquote. I I use that in the normal use of name, not the scriptural use. So many people do things all the time that are actually the will of God, even though they don't 0:19:55 - 0:20:23 know God, even though they probably don't even believe in Him. I'm sorry, they might not believe in Him. It doesn't matter, it's his. He owns every good thing. So if you want to know more about God, find every good thing and lay hold of it and you'll draw closer to him. And that's one takeaway from this 0:20:23 - 0:20:45 , this section here. Wherefore, sorry, I will just say one more thing. This is actually a grand key to help people receive the gospel. Folks try to do this in overt explicit religious ways. And unfortunately, they even use overt explicit religious language that has no special meaning to the people they're 0:20:44 - 0:21:11 trying to persuade. It says right here that God uses diverse ways to manifest what is good to men. But preachers almost never use diverse ways to preach, they preach as if they're talking to people who already believe what they believe and people who have spent all the time they have using the words 0:21:10 - 0:21:35 and having the experiences that they've had, you have to put it into the words that these people will understand. And that's what God does for us. If he came at us immediately with exactly how he is in the fullness referring to DNC 93 we would reject him because it's so far beyond where we stand. But 0:21:35 - 0:22:00 he reaches down to where you are and he gives you a path from that point up to where he is. And he reaches down to you first through his own voice, which everyone rejects and then second through angels and prophets and teachers and priests. That's a great segue to verse 25 wherefore by the ministering 0:21:59 - 0:22:22 of angels and by every word which precede forth, proceeded forth out of the mouth of God. Men began to exercise faith in Christ and thus by faith, they did lay hold upon every good thing and thus, it was until the coming of Christ. What does it mean that man began to exercise faith in Christ and by faith 0:22:22 - 0:22:47 , they laid hold on every good thing. It means they were given reasons to believe that what they were being offered was valuable and true. That's what it means. The world defines faith. And unfortunately, most of the Christian world as believing things, you don't have reasons to believe. That's not faith 0:22:47 - 0:23:19 . That's delusion. Faith is reason. It's just distinguished between the reason that happens in your understanding and the reason that happens in your uh temporal experience. Let's say so here in life, you can be given every reason to believe in God and choose not to believe in Him. When you see Him with 0:23:19 - 0:23:42 your eyes, in the resurrection, your knee will bow and your tongue will confess that Jesus is the Christ and it won't be because of compulsion. It will be because of the evidence that you receive in that moment through what your resurrected body perceives and what is directly before you and cannot be 0:23:42 - 0:24:10 denied. So faith is to act according to sufficient reason. Unbelief is refusing to act according to sufficient reason, even after sufficient reason has been given and, and by faith, you lay hold on every good thing because God sends you evidence of the very next good thing from where you stand to come 0:24:10 - 0:24:37 up closer to Christ verse 26. And after that, he came, uh after that Christ came, men were also saved by faith in his name. In other words, the the process has not changed since his coming and by faith, they become the sons of God. So I don't know if you caught that, but they started as the sons of men 0:24:36 - 0:25:00 , the Children of men verse 22. And then they become the sons of God. What's the difference? Again? This is a big topic. But in order to be a son of God, you have to know Him and you have to follow Him. This is like the lambs spoken of in revelation. I believe it's 14 and they go everywhere, they follow 0:25:00 - 0:25:23 the Lord, everywhere. Whatsoever thing you shall ask the father. I'm sorry. I skipped over part and as surely as Christ liveth, he spake these words unto our fathers saying whatsoever thing you shall ask the father in my name, which is good in faith, believing ye shall receive, behold, it shall be done 0:25:22 - 0:25:47 unto you. Now, this promises all over the place in the scriptures. This which is good is, is unique. Uh It, it, there are versions of this. But what does it mean to ask the father in the name of Christ? It means it's according to his will according to how he is and what he wants and what he's all about 0:25:46 - 0:26:07 and what he knows and what his purpose is, which is good in faith, believing ye shall receive. In other words, you need to have reasons to believe that it's according to his character according to his will, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And so there's a, there's one dimension of this is what you know 0:26:07 - 0:26:32 about Christ because the more you know, the more accurate your model is and the things you ask will be more aligned with what he actually wants. And then the other dimension of this is you have some idea of what he wants. But how sure are you in faith, believing that you shall receive is not a question 0:26:31 - 0:26:58 of how hard can you wish it? That's not what this is about. What reasons do you have to believe that ye shall receive? And if they're rock solid and water tight, behold, it shall be done unto you. I've just given you an enormous key to understanding miracles. That's a different section. But verse 28 0:26:58 - 0:27:21 for he hath answered the ends of the law and he claim all those who have faith in him and they who have faith in him will cleave unto every good thing wherefore he advocate the cause of the Children of men and dwelleth eternally in the heavens. So what does it mean to cleave unto every good thing? It 0:27:21 - 0:27:43 means that you do everything you can to learn more about Jesus. You do everything you learn. Verse 30 for behold, they are subject unto him to minister according to the word of his command. We're talking about angels here I skip 29. Um I, I think that was a mistake. I think I meant to put it before verse 0:27:42 - 0:28:03 30. So I'm sorry about that. I'll move that now. Verse 29 angels have not ceased to minister unto the Children of men for behold, they are subject unto him to minister according to the word of his command, showing themselves unto them, of strong faith and a firm mind in every form of godliness. So people 0:28:03 - 0:28:31 ask like, why haven't I seen angels? Why haven't I seen angels? Well, have you lived true and faithful to all the light? You've already received? The answer is no, you don't qualify if you want angels consume all the light you have already and ask God for more, live your life. So that you can say I have 0:28:31 - 0:29:00 been true and faithful in all things and I desire more life and he will send you angels. And I'll tell you um those could be angels from heaven. Those could be angels from earth because he uses the ones on earth until he can't, they, they have precedents. But I don't want to get into all this. But the 0:29:00 - 0:29:27 , the main reason for that is that they can do more for you. But um if there isn't one around in the flesh, he will send you one from heaven. He does that today just like he always has. And that's what Mormon says here. And I also know this to be the case, verse 31 in the office of their ministry is 0:29:27 - 0:29:47 to call men unto repentance and to fulfill and to do the work of the covenants of the Father. So I don't know what you might expect when you ask for one, but when you ask for one, what they're going to do is come and tell you how you can be better. And so if that's not what you want, don't, don't ask 0:29:46 - 0:30:11 God to send you one because that's what they do. They call men unto repentance. They reveal two people how they are different from Jesus in ways that they did not previously know uh and to fulfill and to do the work of the covenants of the father. Well, jeez, that could be a deep topic but dealing with 0:30:11 - 0:30:35 this shallowly, God has made promises to people through the generations that he would make available certain pieces of information to their descendants. And uh by by doing that, he would make a way for them to receive certain blessings because all blessings are, are, are based on laws. So you need to 0:30:35 - 0:31:01 know the laws and live the laws to have the blessings. And so that's what that means to prepare the way among the Children of men by declaring the word of Christ under the chosen vessels of the Lord that they may bear testimony of Him. So what does that mean? Christ manifests the father. Angels manifest 0:31:00 - 0:31:33 Christ prophets manifest Christ and they also manifest angels because because angels visit the chosen vessels, right? The prophets and those people, they bear testimony of Jesus to everyone else. Verse 32. And by so doing, the Lord God prepare the way that the residue of men. In other words, everyone 0:31:32 - 0:31:56 who's not a chosen vessel of the Lord may have faith in Christ and that the holy Ghost may have place in their hearts according to the power thereof. So people get upset because oh, oh, this is a vessel of the Lord. What's special about him? Like when Alma went to visit uh those folks, was it a and I 0:31:56 - 0:32:15 , I don't remember. And they said, oh, if the Lord was gonna send us somebody, why wouldn't he descend us more, more than one witness? Who the heck are you? And it was funny because you know, he was the the, the high priest of the church. I mean, he was the top guy, right? And that wasn't good enough 0:32:15 - 0:32:46 for them anyway. Um You have to go back to Alma 13. This isn't a, an arbitrary selection. It's just people who sought God and obeyed him more fully than everyone else. So, um what's the point of this? The Lord God prepare the way that the residue of men may have faith in Christ that the Holy Ghost may 0:32:46 - 0:33:16 have place in their hearts. But can't they just go directly to God? No, no, they can't. This is a really big deal. Why? Because we already went through this. He tried to speak to them directly and they rejected him. And so people have an increment of the light of Christ, the Holy Ghost through birth 0:33:15 - 0:33:37 . And when they turn away from that, they have to lose a piece of it. And you say, well, they don't lose all of it. No, that's what a fullness of iniquity is though, by the way, and they lose all of it, but they turn away from it somewhat. And here's something very important that you have to understand 0:33:37 - 0:34:04 . When you turn away from light and truth from a certain level of light and truth. You cannot receive that same level of light and truth without first coming back through a lower level of light and truth. This is a hard and fast law. One way of phrasing, this is reject light from AAA higher messenger 0:34:04 - 0:34:39 and you will have to receive it through receiving light from a lower messenger first. And how this is put here is the residue of men have already rejected the Holy Ghost that was given to them through birth because all men sin. And the only way back is through the vessels of the Lord men and women who 0:34:39 - 0:35:07 know God better than they do. And through coming up to that, they're given access to what comes after that, namely angels and Christ himself all through the holy ghost that the holy ghost may have place in their hearts again according to the power thereof. And after this manner, bringeth the past the 0:35:07 - 0:35:32 father of the covenants which he hath made unto the Children of men, do you get it? And so all those profits, all those prophets likewise, at one point sin and alienated themselves from God. Only Christ was the exception to that. So, likewise, the prophets had to be called to repentance through s while 0:35:31 - 0:35:58 they weren't prophets yet through people who had already come up to a higher level and reconnected to God. You see, so he is Jesus is the true vine. We're given access to that vine through the atonement that Atones for the fall. But through our own choices, we cut ourselves off from the vine in this 0:35:58 - 0:36:27 life. And then it takes what Joseph Smith would call a legal administrator, but I would just call someone who has um a relationship with Christ who knows Him better than we do. It takes accessing the knowledge that they have in order for us to repent or listen to and incorporate that information to come 0:36:26 - 0:36:47 up higher into the original station we were given through the grace of God, which is access to the Holy Ghost so they can have place in our hearts. And now all of a sudden, we have this channel again where we can listen and hear the voice of God more clearly. And I'm not saying it went away completely 0:36:46 - 0:37:15 . It just was reduced in clarity and volume beyond the threshold that we need it to be so we can come up to him. We were alienated from Him if it were gone completely you, you'd actually die. So it is the actuating force in our bodies. It is our lives, but it just gets, gets uh reduced down to below 0:37:15 - 0:37:42 a threshold. And it requires the intervention of ministers from God to give us access to the information that we need to come back up to where we were. And then we're off to the races verse 34. And he hath said, uh this is the Lord God repent all ye ends of the earth and come unto me and be baptized 0:37:41 - 0:38:07 in my name. Remember what that means and have faith in me that ye may be saved. And salvation is only in and through Jesus through faith in his name. The next video is on miracles, angels, faith and salvation. And it's gonna be um related to things we just talked about. So I hope you stick around for 0:00:00 - 0:00:25 OK. Topic is laying hold of every good thing we're in I seven. Uh, this video is a series. If you haven't watched the previous videos, I recommend it. Uh They're basically ordered. So you'll get more out of it if you watch the other ones first. So laying hold of every good thing. Um, verse 19, I think 0:00:25 - 0:00:42 in the previous videos I read through everything and then I came back and commented, I think I'll do it interleaved on this one if there are no objections. And since I can't hear you, that's what we'll do. Um, verse 19, wherefore I beseech of you brethren that you should search diligently in the light 0:00:42 - 0:01:02 of Christ that you may know good from evil. So, so we start on this verse the last end of the last video, but it's a transition. So we're reading it again. Um Here's the key thing here. You have to search in the light of Christ because he has to reveal it to you and he already revealed to you the baseline 0:01:02 - 0:01:24 . But through searching diligently, he'll put line upon line and he'll teach you more about what is right and what is wrong about good and evil about what, uh, lead you to Christ and what leads you away from Christ about how to serve God and what does not serve God about, uh, what it means to believe 0:01:23 - 0:01:49 in Christ and what it doesn't, what it means not to believe in Christ. And if you lay hold upon every good thing and condemn it not, you certainly will be a child of Christ. Now, harkening back to a verse, we already read. Uh it is the tendency of mankind to judge that which is evil, to be of God and 0:01:49 - 0:02:11 that which is good and of God to be of the devil. The natural man is an enemy to God. And the natural man does not understand the things of the spirit and the things of the spirit are the things of God. What is holy and good and beautiful and true. That's all from God. And we can only come to see it 0:02:11 - 0:02:37 as valuable and good and beautiful and true inasmuch as we come unto Christ. And what does it mean to come unto Christ? It means to know more about Him and to be more like He is. So don't condemn what is good and you will be a child of Christ and you will lay hold upon every good thing flipping this 0:02:37 - 0:00:00 around. If you condemn further light and truth, when it is extended to you, you cease to be a child of Christ, you cease to progress along the way of life and you turn away into the way of death, you turn away from good things. You, you uh go further away from God. OK? Verse 20. And now my brethren, 0:00:00 - 0:03:26 how is it possible that you can lay, hold upon every good thing? So he's gonna tell us how to do it. And now I come to that faith of which I said I would speak and I will tell you the way whereby ye may lay, hold on every good thing for behold, God, knowing all things being. So he knows all the good 0:03:26 - 0:03:51 things obviously, and he knows the best things. He also knows how to get them. He also knows how to teach you that they're good and how to persuade you to get them continuing being from everlasting to everlasting behold. He sent angels to minister unto the Children of men to make manifest concerning 0:03:50 - 0:04:18 the coming of Christ. And in Christ should come every good thing. Pause. God is from everlasting to everlasting. What does that mean? He existed before this earth was, he will continue to exist after this earth is no more. This earth is a little bubble that God made so that we could come here and get 0:04:17 - 0:04:45 a better idea of what is good so that we could lay hold on every good thing or at least more good things or at least things that are better than we had laid. Hold on before Jesus said that he came to give life and more abundantly or in other words, giving life that is immortality or more abundantly is 0:04:45 - 0:05:14 eternal life and immortality you have that or you don't, but eternal life comes by degrees. It is one and the same as how much like Christ you are. So he exists from everlasting to everlasting. This creation is a uh an opportunity for all to become more like Christ as far as they are willing to receive 0:05:14 - 0:05:42 . And he sent angels to minister under the Children of men to make manifest concerning the coming of Christ. And in Christ, there should come every good thing. So the job of angels is to minister to the Children of men, to demonstrate to them and persuade them of how Christ is and how they can become 0:05:42 - 0:06:11 more like them, him and how, why they should, why they should become more like him? Verse 23. Well, let's pause there actually, let's keep on this. So why is it that the father sent the son in the first place? So, so there is the very significant portion of his ministry which was working out the um the 0:06:11 - 0:06:40 resurrection of men paying the price for the fall of Adam. But this verse doesn't talk about that. It says focuses on Christ manifesting all things which are good. So why didn't the father come and do that himself? That's an interesting question. And it has an answer. But the short answer without getting 0:06:39 - 0:07:04 into elements melting and such the, the short answer is that God, God's glory and his name are one and the same, his name, his character. Remember we talked about that a previous video, how he is, what he does, why he does it, how he feels when he's doing it, the things he knows all of that. You can't 0:07:04 - 0:07:28 separate that from his glory. They're one and the same, the glory of God is intelligence, right? And intelligence in the scriptures doesn't mean IQ how we use it today. Uh It is to know how God is and to be like Him. OK? So these are all tightly intertwined and the problem is the glory of God is, is 0:07:28 - 0:07:53 everlasting burnings, it's fire to those who are not at the same level. And so when the Father comes here, he, it's going to be really something, it's gonna melt the elements, ok? Because that glory cannot be suppressed. And the things here won't have a way of dealing with that. But, and, and actually 0:07:53 - 0:08:15 we, we read this very thing in DNC 93. The other video, you probably didn't get it. The elements are the Tabernacle of God. And that says man is the Tabernacle of God, even temples, but the elements aren't just in men. Are they, the elements will melt the presence of the Father. So um boy, there's a 0:08:15 - 0:08:35 lot there. I don't want to go, I'm trying to keep it on moon. I seven. But, but I think that that's important here because we need to understand that the reason Christ was sent was to manifest the Father. Do you know what manifest means? It means to make something more apparent. If you are talking about 0:08:35 - 0:08:57 Manifest, the glory of God, it means to help people better understand what God's goodness is and just how good it is, how valuable it is. OK? So if you want to manifest the name of Christ, it means to help people better understand the character of Christ, how he is, et cetera. So Christ came to manifest 0:08:57 - 0:09:18 the father. He says, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father because I'm doing all the same things he would do here. So it's like you're seeing the Father because because that's what I'm doing here. Now, what's the purpose of angels? Angel's job is to manifest Christ. The angel's job is to manifest 0:09:17 - 0:09:48 Christ. And so what it is, it's a big old upside down tree where you are somewhere on those branches to start down at the bottom. And then those who have come to know Him more than you are this big network and it's like tributaries into a river, you follow it up and it flows and you come closer and closer 0:09:47 - 0:10:14 to God and eventually you hit Christ and Christ takes you to the Father verse 23. And God also declared unto prophets by his own mouth that Christ should come. Uh incidentally, I just described to you uh an accurate representation of how Jacob's letter works and what it actually is, you could also call 0:10:14 - 0:10:39 it the true vine, but we're not getting into that just yet. And God also declared unto prophets by his own mouth that Christ should come. And so this definition of prophets obviously is people to whom God actually speaks by his own mouth. So you have angels and you have prophets. And why isn't God saying 0:10:38 - 0:11:04 these things directly to the people? Well, he is in previous videos, we already talked about how his voice was unto everyone in the sense that everyone already has an understanding of right and wrong. It's not a perfect understanding, but it's the start. And how do you grow in that understanding while 0:11:04 - 0:11:29 you obey everything. You know, how did angels become? Angels go? Read alma 13 says they were all on the same standing in the beginning, but some of them exercise more heat and diligence in knowing God. I just described to you what that is. They took their baseline understanding of good and evil and they 0:11:29 - 0:11:52 lived according to it and they went up higher. They were true and faithful in all things and God sent them more light and truth and then they were true and faithful in all things again. And God sent them more light and truth and they went up as high as they were willing to go. In other words, they received 0:11:52 - 0:12:15 all things they were willing to receive. What about profits? Same thing. Prophets don't just, you know, Christianity believes angels are created creatures. They're not, they're not men, they're just created creatures. I guess. I shouldn't say Christianity. A whole lot of Christians believe that not all 0:12:15 - 0:12:34 Christians and Mormons believe prophets are created creatures that they just sort of sprang up out of the earth or something. And they just magically became, you know, I either from the beginning or sometime in the middle of their life or whatever the magic wand got waved and they magically became very 0:12:34 - 0:13:11 close to God. We read Maroni three. That is not the way it works. A prophet. The word prophet is not a title, it is a description and God does not ordain prophets and his disciples do not ordain prophets unless they, God actually speaks to them already. And you say, well, in scriptures, we have stories 0:13:10 - 0:13:35 like Gideon. God spoke to him out of nowhere. No, he didn't. We do not have the life story of Gideon prior to that moment. But I guarantee you, I guarantee you that if you pulled back the curtain and you saw, you would see his entire life was a continuous path where he started just like it says in Alma 0:13:35 - 0:14:05 13, the same standing as everyone else, he just obeyed God more and he searched more. God is impartial. The scriptural phrase is no respecter of persons. He's fair. He's just he uses the same exact rules with everybody. In other words, he acts according to the same exact laws and we receive from him 0:14:04 - 0:14:35 according to how we live those laws. His choice is to live by his law. And that choice has already been made. Our choice is to learn and live according to his law so that we can receive from him. But he doesn't change his mind. He's the same from the beginning to the end. Ok. Let's keep reading verse 0:14:34 - 0:15:01 24. And behold, there were divers ways that he did manifest things unto the Children of men which were good. So through many ways, he manifested what was good to the Children of men and all things which are good cometh of Christ. OK. Let's pause there. There's this phrase out there that there are many 0:15:01 - 0:15:18 paths that lead to God. And that's usually quoted by people who don't want to listen to what he's saying to them and who aren't listening to what he's saying to them. And they're using that phrase to hide and say, no, I can disobey what I believe is right and wrong. And there's still a path for me to 0:15:18 - 0:15:45 get to God. Nope. But there is truth in what they're saying. Like most lies, there's something there that is true or else no one would believe it at all. Well, what's the truth? Think of a mountain with many trails to the top? There is only one top of that mountain. But there are people who start from 0:15:45 - 0:16:08 all over the place at the bottom. And what happens is in other ways. In other words, I'm sorry, there were diverse ways that He did manifest things unto the Children of men, which were good line upon line, step upon step. And the thing is, is the paths don't stay separate. There aren't many paths that 0:16:08 - 0:16:37 lead to God in the sense that they're parallel, they all converge, they converge on Christ. You cannot draw closer to God without becoming more like Jesus Christ. It's impossible. Nothing you ever do that does not make you more like Jesus, none of that is from God never is never was. That's what this 0:16:37 - 0:17:00 chapter says. The devil is the one that persuades you to not draw close to God. It says everything that invite us to do good and to persuade, to believe in Christ is sent forth from the power and gift of Christ and everything sent forth by the power and gift of Christ invites you to do good and persuade 0:17:00 - 0:17:24 you to believe in Him. Everything from God will entice and invite you to become more like Him and everything that does not do that is from the devil and lead you away from Him. And even if it doesn't do so in really obvious ways, even if it were possible to stay neutral. And so it's just distracting 0:17:23 - 0:17:44 you. It's not actually making you more evil. That's still evil because it's not bringing you closer and helping you to become more like him. Now, in fact, there's no such thing as neutral and there's no such thing as staying in place because you're always enticed by one or the other. And if you're not 0:17:44 - 0:18:03 going in the direction of one, you are going in the direction of the other. Alma teaches us very plainly in Alma five. He says, if you're not heeding the voice of the good shepherd, which shepherd are you heeding? Because you're heating someone. So and remember the devil operates by degrees just like 0:18:03 - 0:18:24 God. And so he continually entices you. And even if all He can get you to do is is try to stand still. That's a step towards Him. That's just the first step. And once you take that step, your understanding will be darkened and he'll be able to persuade you to come closer to Him in more egregious ways 0:18:23 - 0:18:44 that you wouldn't have agreed to first from the beginning. But because He persuades you to stand still, he can get you to take the next step that much easier. The same as God. If He persuades you to take a tiny step towards Him, then he can persuade you to take a larger step next. All right. Where did 0:18:44 - 0:19:05 we leave off here? So divers ways that HED manifest things unto the Children of men which were good and all things which are good come of Christ. Otherwise, men were fallen and there could no good thing come unto them. So, so through the fall, we have no connection to God except through Christ. And that's 0:19:04 - 0:19:29 what it's just repeating what it said in verse 22 to make manifest concerning the coming of Christ. And in Christ, there should come every good thing in Christ, every good thing comes, you can't separate it. Now this goes both ways, you can't separate it. What that means is anything you do that is truly 0:19:28 - 0:19:55 in Christ will lead you to greater good. But it also means that any good you do will lead you to God even if his name is not on it, quote unquote. I I use that in the normal use of name, not the scriptural use. So many people do things all the time that are actually the will of God, even though they 0:19:55 - 0:20:23 don't know God, even though they probably don't even believe in Him. I'm sorry, they might not believe in Him. It doesn't matter. It's his. He owns every good thing. So if you want to know more about God, find every good thing and lay hold of it and you'll draw closer to him. And that's one takeaway 0:20:22 - 0:20:44 from this, this section here. Wherefore, sorry, I will just say one more thing. This is actually a grand key to help people receive the gospel. Folks try to do this in overt explicit religious ways. And unfortunately, they even use overt explicit religious language that has no special meaning to the 0:20:44 - 0:21:09 people they're trying to persuade. It says right here that God uses diverse ways to manifest what is good to men. But preachers almost never use diverse ways to preach, they preach as if they're talking to people who already believe what they believe and people who have spent all the time, they have 0:21:09 - 0:21:33 using the words and having the experiences that they've had, you have to put it into the words that these people will understand. And that's what God does for us. If he came at us immediately with exactly how he is in the fullness referring to DNC 93 we would reject him because it's so far beyond where 0:21:33 - 0:21:59 we stand. But he reaches down to where you are and he gives you a path from that point up to where he is. And he reaches down to you first through his own voice, which everyone rejects and then second through angels and prophets and teachers and priests. That's a great segue to verse 25 wherefore by 0:21:59 - 0:22:21 the ministering of angels and by every word which precede forth, proceeded forth out of the mouth of God. Men began to exercise faith in Christ and thus by faith, they did lay hold upon every good thing. And thus, it was until the coming of Christ. What does it mean that man began to exercise faith in 0:22:21 - 0:22:45 Christ and by faith, they laid hold on every good thing it means they were given reasons to believe that what they were being offered was valuable and true. That's what it means. The world defines faith. And unfortunately, most of the Christian world as believing things, you don't have reasons to believe 0:22:44 - 0:00:00 . That's not faith. That's delusion. Faith is reason. It's just distinguished between the reason that happens in your understanding and the reason that happens in your uh temporal experience, let's say so here in life, you can be given every reason to believe in God and choose not to believe in Him. 0:00:00 - 0:23:41 When you see Him with your eyes, in the resurrection, your knee will bow and your tongue will confess that Jesus is the Christ and it won't be because of compulsion. It will be because of the evidence that you receive in that moment through what your resurrected body perceives and what is directly before 0:23:41 - 0:24:08 you and cannot be denied. So faith is to act according to sufficient reason. Unbelief is refusing to act according to sufficient reason, even after sufficient reason has been given and, and by faith, you lay, hold on every good thing because God sends you evidence of the very next good thing from where 0:24:08 - 0:24:35 you stand to come up closer to Christ verse 26. And after that, he came, uh after that Christ came, men were also saved by faith in his name. In other words, the the process has not changed since his coming and by faith, they become the sons of God. So I don't know if you caught that, but they started 0:24:35 - 0:24:59 as the sons of men, the Children of men verse 22. And then they become the sons of God. What's the difference? Again? This is a big topic. But in order to be a son of God, you have to know Him and you have to follow him. This is like the lambs spoken of in revelation. I believe it's 14 and they go everywhere 0:24:58 - 0:00:00 , they follow the Lord, everywhere. Whatsoever thing you shall ask the father. I'm sorry, I skipped over part and as surely as Christ liveth, he spake these words unto our fathers saying whatsoever thing you shall ask the father in my name, which is good in faith, believing ye shall receive, behold, 0:00:00 - 0:25:46 it shall be done unto you. Now, this promises all over the place in the scriptures. This which is good is, is unique. Uh It, it, there are versions of this. But what does it mean to ask the father in the name of Christ? It means it's according to his will according to how he is and what he wants and 0:25:46 - 0:26:06 what he's all about and what he knows and what his purpose is, which is good in faith, believing, ye shall receive. In other words, you need to have reasons to believe that it's according to his character according to his will, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And so there's a, there's one dimension 0:26:06 - 0:26:30 of this is what you know about Christ because the more you know, the more accurate your model is and the things you ask will be more aligned with what he actually wants. And then the other dimension of this is you have some idea of what he wants. But how sure are you in faith? Believing that you shall 0:26:30 - 0:26:55 receive is not a question of how hard can you wish it? That's not what this is about. What reasons do you have to believe that ye shall receive? And if they're rock solid and water tight, behold, it shall be done unto you. I've just given you an enormous key to understanding miracles. That's a different 0:26:55 - 0:27:19 section. But verse 28 for he hath answered the ends of the law and he claim all those who have faith in him and they who have faith in him will cleave unto every good thing wherefore he advocate the cause of the Children of men and dwelleth eternally in the heavens. So what does it mean to cleave unto 0:27:19 - 0:27:42 every good thing? It means that you do everything you can to learn more about Jesus. You do everything you learn. Verse 30 for behold, they are subject unto him, to minister according to the word of his command. We're talking about angels here I skip 29. Um I, I think that was a mistake. I think I meant 0:27:41 - 0:28:00 to put it before verse 30. So I'm sorry about that. I'll move that now, verse 29 angels have not ceased to minister unto the Children of men for behold, they are subject unto him to minister according to the word of his command, showing themselves unto them, of strong faith and a firm mind in every form 0:28:00 - 0:28:30 of godliness. So people ask like, why haven't I seen angels? Why haven't I seen angels? Well, have you lived true and faithful to all the light? You've already received? The answer is no, you don't qualify if you want angels consume all the light. You have already and ask God for more, live your life 0:28:30 - 0:28:59 . So that you can say I have been true and faithful in all things and I desire more light and he will send you angels. And I'll tell you those could be angels from heaven. Those could be angels from earth because he uses the ones on earth until he can't, they, they have precedents. But I don't want to 0:28:59 - 0:29:26 get into all this. But the, the main reason for that is that they can do more for you. But um if there isn't one around in the flesh, he will send you one from heaven. He does that today just like he always has. And that's what Mormon says here. And I also know this to be the case, verse 31 in the office 0:29:25 - 0:29:45 of their ministry is to call men unto repentance and to fulfill and to do the work of the covenants of the Father. So I don't know what you might expect when you ask for one, but when you ask for one, what they're going to do is come and tell you how you can be better. And so if that's not what you want 0:29:45 - 0:30:09 , don't, don't ask God to send you one because that's what they do. They call men unto repentance. They reveal two people how they are different from Jesus in ways that they did not previously know uh and to fulfill and to do the work of the covenants of the father. Well, jeez, that could be a a deep 0:30:08 - 0:30:33 topic but dealing with this shallowly, God has made promises to people through the generations that he would make available certain pieces of information to their descendants. And uh by by doing that, he would make a way for them to receive certain blessings because all blessings are, are are based on 0:30:33 - 0:30:57 laws. So you need to know the laws and live the laws to have the blessings. And so that's what that means to prepare the way among the Children of men by declaring the word of Christ under the chosen vessels of the Lord that they may bear testimony of Him. So what does that mean? Christ manifests the 0:30:57 - 0:31:32 father. Angels manifest Christ prophets manifest Christ and they also manifest angels because because angels visit the chosen vessels, right? The prophets and those people, they bear testimony of Jesus to everyone else. Verse 32 and by so doing, the Lord God prepare the way that the residue of men. In 0:31:32 - 0:31:55 other words, everyone who's not a chosen vessel of the Lord may have faith in Christ and that the Holy Ghost may have place in their hearts according to the power thereof. So people get upset because oh, oh, this is a vessel of the Lord. What's special about him? Like when Al Alma went to visit uh those 0:31:54 - 0:32:14 folks, was it a and I, I don't remember and they said, oh, if the Lord was going to send us somebody, why wouldn't he descend us more, more than one witness? Who the heck are you? And it was funny because, you know, he was the, the, the high priest of the church. I mean, he was the top guy, right? And 0:32:14 - 0:32:46 that wasn't good enough for them anyway. Um You have to go back to Alma 13. This isn't a, an arbitrary selection. It's just people who sought God and obeyed him more fully than everyone else. So, um what's the point of this? The Lord God prepare the way that the residue of men may have faith in Christ 0:32:45 - 0:33:14 that the Holy Ghost may have place in their hearts. But can't they just go directly to God? No, no, they can't. This is a really big deal. Why? Because we already went through this. He tried to speak to them directly and they rejected him. And so people have an increment of the light of Christ, the Holy 0:33:14 - 0:33:36 Ghost through birth. And when they turn away from that, they have to lose a piece of it. And you say, well, they don't lose all of it. No, that's what a fullness of iniquity is though, by the way, and they lose all of it, but they turn away from it somewhat. And here's something very important that you 0:33:36 - 0:34:04 have to understand when you turn away from light and truth from a certain level of light and truth, you cannot receive that same level of light and truth without first coming back through a lower level of light and truth. This is a hard and fast law. One way of phrasing, this is reject light from a higher 0:34:02 - 0:34:38 messenger and you will have to receive it through receiving light from a lower messenger first. And how this is put here is the residue of men have already rejected the Holy Ghost that was given to them through birth because all men sin. And the only way back is through the vessels of the Lord men and 0:34:38 - 0:35:06 women who know God better than they do. And through coming up to that, they're given access to what comes after that, namely angels and Christ himself all through the holy ghost that the holy ghost may have place in their hearts again according to the power thereof. And after this manner, bringeth the 0:35:06 - 0:35:31 past the father of the covenants which he hath made unto the Children of men. Do you get it? And so all those profits, all those prophets likewise, at one point, sin and alienated themselves from God. Only Christ was the exception to that. So likewise, the prophets had to be called to repentance through 0:35:31 - 0:35:58 s while they weren't prophets yet through people who had already come up to a higher level and reconnected to God PC. So he is Jesus is the true vine. We're given access to that vine through the atonement that Atones for the fall. But through our own choices, we cut ourselves off from the vine in this 0:35:58 - 0:36:27 life. And then it takes what Joseph Smith would call a legal administrator, but I would just call someone who has um a relationship with Christ who knows Him better than we do. It takes accessing the knowledge that they have in order for us to repent or listen to and incorporate that information to come 0:36:26 - 0:36:47 up higher into the original station we were given through the grace of God, which is access to the Holy Ghost so they can have place in our hearts. And now all of a sudden, we have this channel again where we can listen and hear the voice of God more clearly. And I'm not saying it went away completely 0:36:46 - 0:37:15 . It just was reduced in clarity and volume beyond the threshold that we need it to be so we can come up to Him. We were alienated from Him if it were gone completely. You'd, you'd actually die. So it is the actuating force in our bodies. It is our lives, but it just gets, gets uh reduced down to below 0:37:15 - 0:37:42 a threshold. And it requires the intervention of ministers from God to give us access to the information that we need to come back up to where we were. And then we're off to the races verse 34. And he hath said, uh this is the Lord God repent all ye ends of the earth and come unto me and be baptized 0:37:41 - 0:38:07 in my name. Remember what that means and have faith in me that ye may be saved. And salvation is only in and through Jesus through faith in his name. The next video is on miracles, angels, faith and salvation. And it's gonna be um related to things we just talked about. So I hope you stick around for 0:38:07 - 0:38:07 that.