Brethren, I have a firm testimony and know beyond a doubt that True Doctrine changes behavior. The goal today in hearing and receiving the word of the Lord is to change our behavior. If we go from here and choose to remain the same and not change according to what we have heard we will have denied the Savior access to our hearts so that he can change us and make of us better men. So I pray that the Spirit of the Lord will be here that I may teach better than I am able to teach and that you may receive better than you are able to receive.
The courage to live righteously comes through the relationship we develop with Jesus Christ and how we choose to partake of his atonement. President David O. McKay has said (Page 172) “He who should be our guide is the most courageous of all men. ‘In Jesus we find bravery at best; courage at its loftiest; heroism at its climax.” True heroism defends the right and faces disaster without cringing.”
Discussion: Brethren, how often do we cringe or shrink? What are some ways in our everyday lives that we may shrink rather than defend the right?
One cannot partake of the atonement and become perfected in Christ without repentance. The Book of Mormon was written to persuade all men everywhere to believe in Christ and Repent. A prophet named Amaleki in Omni 1:26, pleas with us in these terms, “And now I would that ye should come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel and partake of his salvation and the power of his redemption. Yea, come unto him and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him and continue in fasting and praying, and endure to the end and as the Lord liveth ye shall be saved.”
Even more compelling is the final admonition of the prophet Moroni before he closes his record to us, he pleas in Moroni 10: 30 – 33: “And again I would exhort you that ye would come unto Christ, and lay hold upon every good gift, and touch not the evil gift nor the unclean thing. And awake and arise from the dust, O Jerusalem; yea, and put on thy beautiful garments, O daughter of Zion; and strengthen thy stakes and enlarge thy borders forever, that thou mayest no more be confounded, that the covenants of the Eternal Father which he hath made unto thee, O house of Israel, may be fulfilled. Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God. And again if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins that ye become holy, without spot.”
President David O. McKay helps us understand how to apply this doctrine, he says, “The world’s hope and destiny are centered in the man of Galilee, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. In your moment when you are fighting out the battle of the day, will you look introspectively and see if you really believe that? [A writer] once asked this question: ‘Is Jesus only a legendary figure in history, a Saint to be painted in the stained glass of Church windows,…not to be approached and hardly mentioned by name, or is he still what he was when he was in the flesh, a reality, a man of like passions with ourselves, an elder brother, a guide, a counselor, a comforter, a great voice calling to us out of the past to live nobly, to guide bravely, and keep our courage to the last.’ What is he to you my fellow laborer?”
Brethren I testify in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that He is indeed our Greatest Hero. A modern song about him says the words, “Never a better Hero, never a truer man…All that he did, follow and live, they’ll be never a better way.” I testify that there is no better, there is no other way nor name given under Heaven whereby we can be saved and exalted only in a through the Lord Omnipotent. I know that the gospel is not a fairy tale or a dream. It is a miracle and can be everyday in our lives to give us courage by the power of the Holy Priesthood and through the atonement of Christ to have the courage to live righteously.
President Howard W. Hunter has said, “We must know Christ better than we know him. We must remember him more often than we remember him. We must serve him better than we serve him. Then will we eat the bread of life and drink water springing up unto everlasting life. What manner of men ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you even as [He] is.”
Bruce R McKonkie, said it this way, “Our problem is to do more than learn about God and religion. It is to have the mind of Christ – to think what he thinks, say what he says and ultimately do what he does. We must live the kind of life that Christ lives. We must become like him and his resurrected Father and thereby have everlasting glory in the Eternal realm.” Every time I partake of the sacrament, feel the Holy Ghost, hold an infant, experience nature, love or feel love from someone, every time I go to the Temple, read scriptures, pray, ponder, go to church, serve others or receive service, officiate in / receive / or witness an ordinance of the priesthood, etc. I experience Jesus Christ and come to know him better.
Elder McKonkie further challenged us to build a relationship with Jesus Christ in his last talk before he died, he pleaded, “Many of us have a superficial knowledge and rely upon the Lord and his goodness to see us through the trials and perils of life. But if we are to have faith like Enoch and Elijah we must believe what they believed, know what they knew, and live as they lived. May I invite you to join with me in gaining a sound and sure knowledge of the Atonement. We must cast aside the philosophies of men and the wisdom of the wise and hearken to that Spirit which is given to us to guide us into all truth. We must search the scriptures, accepting them as the mind and will and voice of the Lord and the very power of God unto salvation. As we read, ponder, and pray, there will come into our minds a view of the three gardens of God—the Garden of Eden, the Garden of Gethsemane, and the Garden of the Empty Tomb where Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene. In Eden we will see all things created in a paradisiacal state—without death, without procreation, without probationary experiences. We will come to know that such a creation, now unknown to man, was the only way to provide for the Fall. We will then see Adam and Eve, the first man and the first woman, step down from their state of immortal and paradisiacal glory to become the first mortal flesh on earth. Mortality, including as it does procreation and death, will enter the world. And because of transgression a probationary estate of trial and testing will begin. Then in Gethsemane we will see the Son of God ransom man from the temporal and spiritual death that came to us because of the Fall. And finally, before an empty tomb, we will come to know that Christ our Lord has burst the bands of death and stands forever triumphant over the grave. Thus, Creation is father to the Fall; and by the Fall came mortality and death; and by Christ came immortality and eternal life. If there had been no fall of Adam, by which cometh death, there could have been no atonement of Christ, by which cometh life. And now, as pertaining to this perfect atonement, wrought by the shedding of the blood of God—I testify that it took place in Gethsemane and at Golgotha, and as pertaining to Jesus Christ, I testify that he is the Son of the Living God and was crucified for the sins of the world. He is our Lord, our God, and our King. This I know of myself independent of any other person. I am one of his witnesses, and in a coming day I shall feel the nail marks in his hands and in his feet and shall wet his feet with my tears. But I shall not know any better then than I know now that he is God’s Almighty Son, that he is our Savior and Redeemer, and that salvation comes in and through his atoning blood and in no other way. God grant that all of us may walk in the light as God our Father is in the light so that, according to the promises, the blood of Jesus Christ his Son will cleanse us from all sin. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.”
Discussion: Brethren, What are some of the ways that you experience the Savior Jesus Christ and build your relationship with him?
We can go forward as President McKay and so many other witnesses of Christ have said partaking of his atonement that we may have the courage to live righteously. “For God hath not given us the Spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner. But be thou a partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God.” “Cry out and shout thou inhabitant of Zion for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.”
President McKay encourages us, “In the words of [one writer]:… ‘Two ways lie open for you – one leading to an ever lower and lower plane, where are heard the cries of despair…; and the other leading to the highlands of the morning where are heard the glad shouts of humanity and where honest effort is rewarded with immortality.’…In making the choice…God give you clear vision, clear seeing, strong wills, courageous hearts. Having chosen wisely, may you walk with heads erect, with countenance open indicating that you have wronged no one. Even though the tasks of life become heavy and sorrow weighs upon you, may the light of Christ beckon you on still undismayed.”
Discussion: How can we change our behavior going forward to better partake of the Atonement of Christ and have the courage to live righteously?
Brethren, I know each of us struggles with some things. I know we struggle to do our part in developing a relationship of Jesus Christ. Yet I testify in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that if you forsake your sins, lay your will on the alter of God and seek the Savior ye will surely find him and the power and peace of the gospel which will ensure you peace and happiness is this life and eternal life in the world to come.
Instead of focusing on the reactive elements of the atonement solely through repentance we must choose to be proactive in this relationship and humble ourselves to partake of the atonement and thereby gain the courage to live righteously. Alma teaches in Alma 32:16: “Therefore, blessed are they who humble themselves without being compelled to be humble.”
I testify that the key to repentance, the key of the knowledge of God, the key to exaltation is found in knowing the Lord Jesus Christ and cultivating our individual relationship to Him daily. If we truly develop this relationship I testify that our knowledge of righteousness and ability to overcome temptation would be magnified an hundredfold. Yet when we sin our godly sorrow would be convicting, our confession would be sincere, our fear of the Lord would be instinctive, our desire to change would be the most powerful compulsion in our entire being, our repentance and humbling before the Lord would be immediate, our choosing to right the wrongs through restitution would be relentless and our striving to put off the natural man and become a saint through the atonement of Christ would burn in our hearts like unquenchable fire.
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