“Martin’s Heart!” GET TO THE POINT™ Come Follow Me: D&C 19

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Opening Hymn: https: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxjQeqbzVq4
Intro
i. You're looking good today and it feels good to be with you.
II. Theme: "Martin's Heart"
III. Point I: Background
i. MH concerned about BOM sales, and paying off his mortgage
1. "[Martin Harris] Came to us and after Compliments he says, "The Books will not sell for no Body wants them. Joseph says, "I think they will sell well." Says he, "I want a Commandment [revelation]." "Why," says Joseph, "fulfill what you have got." "But," says he, "I must have a Commandment." Joseph put him off. But he insisted three or four times he must have a Commandment. [The following day] he got up and said he must have a Commandment to Joseph and went home. And along in the after part of the Day Joseph and Oliver Received a Commandment which is in Book of Covenants "
2. Rev. of Prophet Joseph Smith, Lyndon W. Cook
ii. Term "Commandment"
1. Book of Commandments
a. D&C 19, 22
2. Commandment
a. "Generally, a divine mandate that church members were expected to obey; more specifically, a text dictated by JS in the first-person voice of Deity that served to communicate knowledge and instruction to JS and his followers. Occasionally, other inspired texts dictated by JS were also considered commandments, even though not given in the voice of God. The term revelation, though initially used for a distinct type of text, was later used to mean a written commandment in general. A manuscript collection of JS’s revelations, started in 1831, was called the Book of Commandments and Revelations; the 1833 published version of these texts was titled the Book of Commandments. Most of JS’s revelations were written during the first few years after the organization of the church, although JS continued to dictate revelations throughout his life."
3. JSP, MRB:xxvn3:
a. "This title captures two terms that Joseph Smith and his followers used to refer to texts they viewed as divine communications. Commandment was used perhaps more frequently than revelation into the early 1830s; the latter term became standard in the mid-1830s. Usage patterns in Revelation Book 1 and some other early documents suggest that in the earliest years, Latter-day Saints may have seen subtle differences in the meaning of these terms. Commandment may have denoted communications that required action or obedience, whereas revelation may have referred to communications on doctrinal topics or “truth” more generally."
IV. Point II: Atonement
i. Christ's Nature, our nature
1. Divine sonship/virgin birth
2. Fall
ii. Repentance
1. Need for:
a. Barrier to happiness
b. You can choose, but want contradictory things: wickedness not happiness
2. Pres. Nelson emphasis
3. Repentance is a gift of the spirit
iii. Eternal, Endless
1. Image of BC  
2. Proper noun, not adjective. Type of punishment God gives
3. "express and work on hearts"
a. Enos 1:23. And there was nothing save it was exceeding harshness, preaching and prophesying of wars, and contentions, and destructions, and continually reminding them of death, and the duration of eternity, and the judgments and the power of God, and all these things—stirring them up continually to keep them in the fear of the Lord.  I say there was nothing short of these things, and exceedingly great plainness of speech, would keep them from going down speedily to destruction.
b. Words of Mormon 1:17. For behold, king Benjamin was a holy man, and he did reign over his people in righteousness; and there were many holy men in the land, and they did speak the word of God with power and with authority; and they did use much sharpness because of the stiffneckedness of the people.
c. Library and fees
4. Not universal reconciliation
a. Devil
b. Order of Nehor
c. D&C 29:29. And now, behold, I say unto you, never at any time have I declared from mine own mouth that they should return, for where I am they cannot come, for they have no power.
d. 76:112: And they shall be servants of the Most High; but where God and Christ dwell they cannot come, worlds without end.
e. 132:17 For these angels did not abide my law; therefore, they cannot be enlarged, but remain separately and singly, without exaltation, in their saved condition, to all eternity; and from henceforth are not gods, but are angels of God forever and ever.
f. Community to the point of insanity
iv. Nature of Suffering
1. Sore, exquisite, heard to bear
2. Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink
3. Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink
v. Point: Repent, no suffering, but if do not, suffer as Christ did. taste of this when HG withdraws.
V. Point III Personal duties
i. Covetousness
1. Neighbor’s wife. He had a rough marriage, wife a shrew, and deaf, divorced him
2. Property: Mortgaged farm, and to sell it to cover cost of BOM
a. Concern: covet not property
b. Pay off debt
ii. Pray: Pray always, and I will pour out my Spirit upon you, and great shall be your blessing—yea, even more than if you should obtain treasures of earth and corruptibleness to the extent thereof.
iii. Preach:
1. Gladness
2. Rejoicing
3. Our responses to member missionary work
VI. Christ Quotient
i. Atonement Quotient
1. Christopher Hitchins: finite sin and infinite punishment
a. Is sin finite?
b. Not endless in duration, but quality
2. understand the need for repentance, what the spiritual dynamics are
3. Barriers
a. pride
b. egalitarianism, prophets and bishops have no right to judge people, all sacks of mud
c. autonomy/individualism.
i. Invictus, captain of soul
ii. Christs submissiveness to will of father (not submissiveness in abstract, or categorical)
ii. Personal guidance
1. One BYU Rel Prof said never got a revelation he liked
2. See this in MH, difficult revelations, uncomfortable, not soothing words
3. But always a promise of success, if come to Christ  Christ is point
 
 
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