#11 "Press Forward with a Steadfastness in Christ"

#11 Press Forward with a Steadfastness in Christ"
2 Nephi 31-33

2 Nephi 31:1-3 Nephi tells us these are the last words he would write. He's leaving us. Just as Lehi had his last sermon and chose to write about the plan of salvation, Nephi chooses to write about the "doctrine of Christ". In my minds eye he gives us some key points of doctrine that help us refine our worship. (And I hope you wore your waders because we are going to get pretty deep here!)

31:5 He speaks 1st of Christ's baptism why? Baptism gets us started into the church, it is where we received the 1st 'key' to return again to Lord's presence. The key that puts all the wonders we are eligible for in motion. Awesome things can happen to us but not until after this 1st step was taken.
The reason for that is in verse 6.
31:6 "did fulfill all righteousness" -Joseph F. Smith said,"to fulfill all righteousness is to fulfill the law"
I looked up righteousness in Topical Guide (TG) 3 of the 1st definitions are: 1-God's Perfection 2-Standard of God (the law of God) 3- Godliness
These aren't new to us but then we are looking at the srface definitions. Let's "refine" these definitions.
An institute teacher I had defined that as this: Righteousness isn't doing good versus doing bad, it is doing Gods will for us.
Abraham 3:24-25 backs this up. "We will prove them herewith to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord God shall command them."
So let's go back and put this definition into our 3 points of righteousness.
1-God's Perfection- perfection in TG says "potential to be like God" Now the definition of Doing God's will? Does Nephi know a little something about this definition of righteousness? He Chose chopping off Laban's head (God's will) than doing the thing He thought was right.
Therefore if we are to follow Christ in Righteousness, not just by being baptised, but everything, how does that change the way you look at every choice we make in this life?
We can't look at our options of just good and bad we have to look at them from God's perspective. Is the choice we want to make in accordance to His (God's) will for us?

Now 2- Standard of God- the standard of god is His law by which we will be judged.
So if we put our definition of Righteousness with it: Standard of God by which we will be judged is whether we did Lords will for us or not. To illustrate, go back to Nephi's experience with Laban. What if he didn't do Lords will? He would've been held accountable for that choice and any consequences that would've followed. That is Huge!!!
Put it now into your life-when the Lord's will is that we keep our baptismal covenants and do all that is asked of us by our Bishopbrics as well as prophets, then we need to do it. For example, say we are asked to take a particular calling or speak in church, and doing so not only helps us to keep our covenants, but is the Lord's will, (our leaders are inspired with our names to do particualr things from the Lord) shouldn't we do what they ask? We will be judged by the choice we made to follow Lord's will. WoW! if that doesn't make us rethink our quick answers of 'NO' I don't know what will.

Let's get to 3rd point-Godliness-we know godliness is acting like God would. So our defintion fits here nicely right? It isn't about good and bad choices it is about doing God's will for us. When we do that we become Like God. Christ showed us the 1st step, by being baptised, then He continued to do Lord's will fulfilling all righteousness (God's will) for His Life. Do we follow that ultimate example? I know we do our best to be perfect each Day!!

*Nephi continues to tell us the doctrine of Christ
31:12 Nephi tells us also of the Holy Ghost. If we do step 1 (be baptised) we get a blessing(Holy Ghost). "Wherefore" if we have the H.G. it makes it easier for us to follow Him and "do the things which we have seen Him do"
31:13 with H.G. we can do the things in v.13 He promises us that we can speak with the tongue of angels-What does that mean exactly? That if we have H.G. we can speak with the tongue of angels
32:2-3 explains it. Angels speak to us through the H.G.! If we follow Christ in Righteousness (doing Lord's will) we get the H.G. Through the H.G. Angels will speak to us telling us (at end of verse) "ALL things what we should do!" Angels speak Lords will!
*Boyd K. Packer says,"The Holy Ghost speaks with a voice that you feel more than you hear. It is described as a 'still small voice' "

32:6 "behold this is doctrine" He is telling us that the doctrine of Christ is Following the Lords will for our lives, in all things.
We have been given the gospel to hold to; that teaches us as we go. (example= if we keep the word of wisdom then we will be blessed with such and such) Those are our experiments on the word to 'test' His doctrine, but His doctrine is that "we follow Lords will for our Lives." How do we know His will? Angels will tell us through H.G. How do we hear them?

32:8 Prayer is the way we know. Evil Spirits teach us not to pray-why? so that we won't know God's will so we will not have godliness (become like Him)
32:9 "Don't perform anything unto Lord unless you pray"-How serious is prayer then if we shouldn't do anything unless we pray 1st.
We pray to the Father in Christ's name, we get our answers from Angels through the H.G.
and if this happens our "performance is consecrated" meaning we will have done Lords will! and that performance is for the welfare of thy soul! To Clarify: When we do Lords will the welfare to our souls is magnified and given glory.

33:1 Nephi says he cannot speak more-much to our detrement, but He tells us if we live our lives like this (living Lords will) then we can testify to others of how wonderfully our lives are taking shape.
*He tells us that the words which he had written (scriptures) tell us what to do (what Lords will is) (That is where we get our answers isn't it. He tells us the scriptures do 6 things for us.
1-persuadeth us to do Good-not just good but God's will.
2-maketh known our fathers-Which father? our ancestors but even more our Father in Heaven.
3-speaketh of jesus-We can Follow Him better when we read of Him and how He lived
4-persuadeth us to believe in Him
5-persuadeth us to endure to the end -happily not miserably
6-Speaks harshly against sin.
He continues by telling us how much charity(pure love) he has for us. But I want to end with 2 of His scriptures:
31:20 He tells us to keep hope, Pressing forward and being Steadfast in Christ.
33:15 His last words, we will be judged now by how we know his words and how we lived them. He tells us he was commanded and He obeyed and so should we.
I have a testimony that as we do the Lord's will we will be truly happy. I know that if we pray to know Lords will we can know what we are supposed to do. I know that as we live the 'doctrine of Christ' we truly can repent through the atonement and come closer to knowing the Lord's will for us. I believe the Savior loves and and just wants us to live happily. In the name of Jesus Christ amen.