1) Introduction
a) Transition
from “I Nephi” and Enos saying, “I will tell you of the wrestle which I had
before God” to the third person
i)
Mormon is writing
ii) We
have a prophet’s commentary on what another prophet has said
iii) Pres.
Eyring – pay particular attention when a prophet quotes another prophet
(1) Second
Witness
b) Amazing
King Benjamin comes bursting onto the scene
i)
We know only a little about his from the Words of
Mormon
ii) Great
military leader
(1) Has
fought and won great victories over the Lamanites
(2) Has
personally carried the sword of Laban into battle
iii) Great
spiritual leader
c) Importance
of Benjamin’s sermon
i)
Reading 1 - Elder Bruce R. McConkie said that [King
Benjamin’s sermon] contained ‘what well
may be the greatest sermon ever delivered on the atonement of Christ the Lord.’
(John W. Welch, King Benjamin’s Speech: Made Simple, pp. 51, 58)
ii) Reading
2 – Jack Welch has written, “With the exception of the words of Christ himself,
no speech in sacred literature, in our opinion, surpasses that of King
Benjamin. Delivered at the temple in the city of Zarahemla around 124 BC, this
text is a treasure trove in inspiration, wisdom, eloquence, and profound
spiritual experience and insight. Little wonder that Mormon saw fit to include
this speech as he complied the most significant Nephite records into the Book
of Mormon…That oration was a landmark in its own day, and it still stands as a
shining beacon of truth and goodness in our day.” (John W. Welch, and Stephen
D. Ricks, King Benjamin’s Speech: Made Simple, p. vii)
2) Calling
the People Together
a) King
Benjamin is old and wants to call his people together for two purposes:
i)
Reading 3 – Mosiah 1:10-12
10 Therefore, he had Mosiah
brought before him; and these are the words which he spake unto him, saying: My
son, I would that ye should make a proclamation throughout all this land among
all this people, or the people of Zarahemla, and the people of Mosiah who dwell
in the land, that thereby they may be gathered together; for on the morrow I
shall proclaim unto this my people out of mine own mouth that thou art a king
and a ruler over this people, whom the Lord our God hath given us.
11 And moreover, I shall give this people a name, that thereby
they may be distinguished above all the people which the Lord God hath brought
out of the land of Jerusalem; and this I do because they have been a diligent
people in keeping the commandments of the Lord.
12 And I give unto them a name that never shall be blotted out,
except it be through transgression.
(1) Verse
10 - King Benjamin will name Mosiah as king –
(2) Verse
11 – King Benjamin will give his people a name
(a) He
will name Christ
(i) In
Mosiah 3:8, Benjamin says “8 And he shall be called Jesus Christ, the Son of
God, the Father of heaven and earth, the Creator of all things from the
beginning; and his mother shall be called Mary.”
(b) Christ
has already been named before and his name has been revealed to be Jesus.
(c) This
is the first time we learn that his mother will be called Mary
(3) Benjamin
is speaking of giving his people a name in a different way
(a) Verse
11 “they have been a diligent people in keeping the commandments of the Lord”
(b) Verse
12 “I give unto them a name that never shall be blotted out, except it be
through transgression”
(c) ASK:
What ordinance have we just participated in that involves a name?
(i) Sacrament
– take the name of Christ upon us
(d) This
is a sermon about the Atonement
(e) Benjamin
will tell his people how to take upon them the name of Christ
b) Sukkot
i)
Hebrew for "huts" or "tabernacles"
ii) Seven-day
festival falls in September or October
iii) Religious
convocation
iv) One
of its main observances is living temporarily in huts or tents, called sukkot,
resembling those in which the Children of Israel dwelt during their forty years
in the wilderness after the Exodus from Egypt.
v) The
door of the hut or tent faces the temple in Jerusalem
vi) Every
7 years, the king read the Torah to all of his people during Sukkot
vii) Two
important religious convocations in the Jewish calendar
(1) Spring
– Passover
(2) Fall
– Sukkot
(3) Schedule
is like our General Conferences in April and October
3) The
Attitude of King Benjamin – Chapter 2
a) Benjamin
begins by speaking about himself as someone who has not lifted himself above
others, a man without pride
i)
Verse 10 - I have not commanded you to come up hither
that ye should fear me, or that ye should think that I of myself am more
than a mortal man.
ii) Verses
12-15
(1) 12 I
say unto you that as I have been suffered to spend my days in your service,
even up to this time, and have not sought gold nor silver nor any manner
of riches of you;
(2) 13
Neither have I suffered that ye should be confined in dungeons,
nor that ye should make slaves one of another, nor that ye should murder, or
plunder, or steal, or commit adultery; nor even have I suffered that ye should
commit any manner of wickedness, and have taught you that ye should keep
the commandments of the Lord, in all things which he hath commanded
you—
(3) 14
And even I, myself, have labored with mine own hands that I might serve
you, and that ye should not be laden with taxes, and that there should
nothing come upon you which was grievous to be borne—and of all these things
which I have spoken, ye yourselves are witnesses this day.
(4) 15
Yet, my brethren, I have not done these things that I might boast,
neither do I tell these things that thereby I might accuse you; but I tell you
these things that ye may know that I can answer a clear conscience before God
this day.
iii) 16
Behold, I say unto you that because I said unto you that I had spent my days in
your service, I do not desire to boast, for I have only been in the
service of God.
b) Benjamin
demonstrates by his life and his teaching that he is a humble servant of God
4) The
Great Debt the People Owe to the Lord
a) As
he starts to speak to the people, King Benjamin does not congratulate them on
their accomplishments, on their prosperity, on their defeat of the Lamanites,
which would not have happened if they were not obedient
b) Reading
4 – Mosiah 2:20-22
20 I say unto you, my
brethren, that if you should render all the thanks and praise which your whole
soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and
preserved you, and has caused that ye should rejoice, and has granted that ye
should live in peace one with another—
21 I say unto you that
if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning,
and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you
breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own
will, and even supporting you from one moment to another—I
say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be
unprofitable servants.
22 And behold, all
that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has
promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the
land; and he never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if
ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you.
i)
ASK – What does it mean to be an unprofitable
servant? Is this the same thing as a
faithless or wicked servant?
ii) ASK
– In these verses, what does Benjamin enumerate that we receive from our
Heavenly Father?
(1) Created
us
(2) Preserves
us from day to day
(3) Lends
us breath
(4) Lets
us live
(5) Lets
us exercise our agency according to our will
(6) Supports
us from one moment to another.
(7) If we
keep the commandments, he blesses and prospers us
c) Reading
5 – Mosiah 2:23-25
23 And now, in the first place, he
hath created you, and granted unto you your lives, for which ye are indebted
unto him.
24 And secondly, he
doth require that ye should do as he hath commanded you; for
which if ye do, he doth immediately bless you; and therefore he
hath paid you. And ye are still indebted unto him, and are,
and will be, forever and ever; therefore, of what have ye
to boast?
25 And now I ask, can
ye say aught of yourselves? I answer you, Nay. Ye cannot say that
ye are even as much as the dust of the earth; yet ye were created
of the dust of the earth; but behold, it belongeth to him who
created you.
i)
Benjamin drives this point home
(1) God
has created you and granted you life
(2) If you
obey his commandments, he immediately blesses you
(3) “Can
ye say aught of yourselves?”
(a) You
are not even as much as the dust, because you were created of the dust and the
dust belongs to him
(b) Later
on, in Helaman 12, Nephi will say that the disobedient Nephites are less than
the dust, because at least the dust moves according to God’s will
d) ASK
– Why is Benjamin doing this? Why is he
being so hard on the Nephites?
i)
Only by seeing their nothingness, can the Nephites
understand their need for the Atonement
ii) They
are not independent from God or self-sufficient from God, they need God for
every breath. They need the Atonement
every minute of their lives.
e) READ:
Hugh Nibley has written, "Only those who are aware of their lost and
fallen state can take the mission of the Savior seriously, and before one can
embrace it in terms of the eternities it must be grasped on the level of
common, everyday reality ... For behold, are we not all beggars? ... The
essence of Benjamin's preaching is to purge the people, if possible, of their
flattering self-image as good guys." (Hugh Nibley, The Prophetic Book of
Mormon. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1986) pp. 484-485)
f) None
is good but God. If we want to
be good, we must do so by following the path that God has laid for us, an impossible
task without the Atonement.
g) Reading
6 – Brigham Young has said, “The animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms abide
the law of their Creator; the whole earth and all things pertaining to it,
except man, abide the law of their creation….We tame the animals and make them
do our drudgery and administer to our wants in many ways, yet man alone
is not tamed—he is not subject to his Great Creator. Our ignorant
animals are faithful to us, and will do our bidding as long as they have any
strength; yet man who is the offspring of the Gods, will not become
subject to the most reasonable and self-exalting principles.” (Journal
of Discourses, vol. 9, pp. 246-7 as taken from Latter-day Commentary on the
Book of Mormon compiled by K. Douglas Bassett, p. 205)
5) The
Consequences of Disobedience
a) Benjamin
warns of the consequences of disobedience without repentance
i)
READ Mosiah 2:33 - 33 “For behold, there is a wo
pronounced upon him who listeth to obey that spirit; for if he listeth to obey
him, and remaineth and dieth in his sins, the same drinketh damnation to his
own soul; for he receiveth for his wages an everlasting punishment, having
transgressed the law of God contrary to his own knowledge.”
b) Reading
7 – Mosiah 2:37-38
37 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.
38 Therefore if that
man repenteth not, and remaineth and dieth an enemy to God, the demands
of divine justice do awaken his immortal soul to a lively sense of his own
guilt, which doth cause him to shrink from the presence of the Lord, and doth
fill his breast with guilt, and pain, and anguish, which is like an
unquenchable fire, whose flame ascendeth up forever and ever.
i)
ASK – How does that work – the demands of divine
justice awaken the soul of the wicked person to a lively sense of his own
guilt?
ii) READ
– John Taylor said, “God has made each man a register within himself, and each
man can read his own register, so far as he enjoys his perfect faculties. This
can be easily comprehended.
“…Let your memories run back, and you can remember
the time when you did a good action, you can remember the time when you did a
bad action; the thing is printed there, and you can bring it out and gaze upon
it whenever you please.
“…Man sleeps the sleep of death,
but the spirit lives where the record of his deeds is kept--that
does not die--man cannot kill it; there is no decay associated with it, and it
still retains in all its vividness the remembrance of that which transpired
before the separation by death of the body and the ever-living spirit. Man
sleeps for a time in the grave, and by-and-by he rises again from the dead and
goes to judgment; and then the secret thoughts of all men are revealed
before Him with whom we have to do; we cannot hide them; it would be in
vain for a man to say then, I did not do so-and-so; the command would be,
Unravel and read the record which he has made of himself, and let it testify in
relation to these things, and all could gaze upon it. If a man has
acted fraudulently against his neighbor--has committed murder, or adultery, or
any thing else, and wants to cover it up, that record will stare him in
the face, he tells the story himself, and bears witness against himself.
It is written that Jesus will judge not after the sight of the eye, or after
the hearing of the ear, but with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove
with equity the meek of the earth. It is not because somebody has seen things,
or heard anything by which a man will be judged and condemned, but it is
because that record that is written by the man himself in the tablets of
his own mind--that record that cannot lie--will in that day be unfolded before
God and angels, and those who shall sit as judges.” (Journal of
Discourses, pp. 77-9)
6) An
Angel’s Visit
a) In
Mosiah 3, Benjamin recounts what an angel told him when he was awakened in the
night.
b)
Reading 8 – Mosiah 3:5-8
5 For behold, the time cometh, and
is not far distant, that with power, the Lord Omnipotent who reigneth,
who was, and is from all eternity to all eternity, shall come down from heaven among
the children of men, and shall dwell in a tabernacle of clay, and shall go
forth amongst men, working mighty miracles, such as healing the sick,
raising the dead, causing the lame to walk, the blind to receive their sight,
and the deaf to hear, and curing all manner of diseases.
6 And he shall cast out
devils, or the evil spirits which dwell in the hearts of the children of men.
7 And lo, he
shall suffer temptations, and pain of body, hunger, thirst, and
fatigue, even more than man can suffer, except it be unto death; for behold,
blood cometh from every pore, so great shall be his anguish for the wickedness
and the abominations of his people.
8 And he shall be
called Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Father of heaven and earth,
the Creator of all things from the beginning; and his mother shall be called
Mary.
c) Next
comes the reason why Jesus Christ will come to the earth.
d) Reading
9 – Mosiah 3:9-12
9 And lo, he cometh unto his
own, that salvation might come unto the children of men even through
faith on his name; and even after all this they shall consider him a
man, and say that he hath a devil, and shall scourge him, and shall crucify
him.
10 And he shall rise
the third day from the dead; and behold, he standeth to judge the world;
and behold, all these things are done that a righteous judgment might
come upon the children of men.
11 For behold, and also
his blood atoneth for the sins of those who have fallen by the
transgression of Adam, who have died not knowing the will of God
concerning them, or who have ignorantly sinned.
12 But wo, wo unto him who knoweth that
he rebelleth against God! For salvation cometh to none such except it be
through repentance and faith on the Lord Jesus Christ.
e) Lays
out the influence of the Atonement.
i)
Who does the Atonement save in this part of King
Benjamin’s sermon?
(1) Saved
from the fall
(2) Those
who sin in ignorance
(3) Those
who know the truth, sin and repent
f) Reading
10 – Mosiah 3:16-18
16 And even if it were possible
that little children could sin they could not be saved; but I say
unto you they are blessed; for behold, as in Adam, or by nature, they
fall, even so the blood of Christ atoneth for their sins.
17 And moreover, I say
unto you, that there shall be no other name given nor any other way nor means
whereby salvation can come unto the children of men, only in and through the
name of Christ, the Lord Omnipotent.
18 For behold he
judgeth, and his judgment is just; and the infant perisheth not that
dieth in his infancy; but men drink damnation to their own souls except
they humble themselves and become as little children, and believe that
salvation was, and is, and is to come, in and through the atoning blood of
Christ, the Lord Omnipotent.
g) Adds
little children to those who are saved by the Atonement.
7) The
Natural Man
a) READ
– Mosiah 3:19 - 19 For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from
the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the
enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a
saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child,
submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all
things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth
submit to his father
b) ASK
– What is a “natural man”?
i)
Elder Bruce R. McConkie said: “After the fall of Adam,
man became carnal, sensual, and devilish by nature; he
became fallen man. … All accountable persons on earth inherit
this fallen state, this probationary state, this state in which worldly
things seem desirable to the carnal nature. Being in this state, ‘the
natural man is an enemy to God,’ until he conforms to the great plan of
redemption and is born again to righteousness. (Mosiah 3:19.)
Thus all mankind would remain lost and fallen forever were it not for the
atonement of our Lord. (Alma 42:4–14.)” (Mormon Doctrine, 2nd ed. [1966],
267–68).
c) ASK
– How do we put off the natural man?
i)
Listen to the Holy Ghost
ii) Work
to overcome our carnal, sensual and devlish characteristics
iii) Become
a saint, through the Atonement
iv) Become
like a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to
submit
d) Reading
11 - Elder Robert D. Hales said: “What we must remember about the Savior is
that He and He alone had the power to lay down His life and take it up again.
He had the ability to die from His mortal mother, Mary, and the ability to
overcome death from His immortal Father. Our Savior, Jesus Christ, went
willingly and deliberately to His death, having told His followers that this
would happen. Why? one might ask. The answer: to give immortality to all mankind
and the promise of eternal life to those who believed in Him (see John 3:15),
to give His own life for a ransom for others (see Matthew 20:28), to overcome
Satan’s power, and to make it possible for sins to be forgiven. Without Jesus’
Atonement, there would be an impassable barrier between God and mortal men and
women. When we comprehend the Atonement, we remember Him with awe and
gratitude” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1997, 34; or Ensign, Nov. 1997, 26).
Conclusion
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