Enos 1:8

And he said unto me: Because of thy faith in Christ, whom thou hast never before heard nor seen. And many years pass away before he shall manifest himself in the flesh; wherefore, go to, thy faith hath made thee whole.

Faith in Christ, manifested by sincere and humble repentance, heals us. Not our works, not our callings, not our service, not our tithing, not our knowledge, and not our obedience. All are flawed. Only Christ is perfect. We cannot work enough, serve enough, pay enough, sacrifice enough, learn enough, or obey enough to earn our way into heaven. Not that working, serving, sacrificing, paying learning and obeying are not essential. They are simply not enough. They help change us and shape us. But only Jesus Christ, through his atonement, can make us fit for the kingdom of God. Only He can heal all the wounds others inflict on us, we inflict on others, and we inflict on ourselves. Only when we are healed are we fit to be in the Father's presence. He does not want us full of sores, He wants us perfect. Christ can make us perfect.

Enos 1:6

And I, Enos, knew that God could not lie; wherefore, my guilt was swept away.

This is the great gift of the atonement, to have all guilt removed. It is called justification. When we are justified, all stains and scars are wiped away. We do not feel guilty because we no longer have the sins to be guilty for. Now, we may sin again, and then we'll be guilty again, and we'll need to repent again and be justified again. Repentance is continuous, and so is the atonement. But whatever is justified in that moment is gone in that moment, and we can forget about it.

Enos 1:4

And my soul hungered; and I kneeled down before my Maker, and I cried unto him in mighty prayer and supplication for mine own soul; and all the day long did I cry unto him; yea, and when the night came I did still raise my voice high that it reached the heavens.

Enos was not a wicked man. He was not like Alma the Younger. He hungered and thirsted after righteousness. Nevertheless, he was aware of his imperfections. The Savior did not make Enos pray all day and night because he didn't want to forgive him. But Enos had some things to work out in his own soul before he was ready for the redemption he sought. We don't know the details of his prayers, but I suspect they were of a different quality when Christ finally answered him. We don't pray to change God's mind, we pray to change our own hearts.

Enos 1:2

And I will tell you of the wrestle which I had before God, before I received a remission of my sins.

Note that Enos did not say he wrestled with the Lord but before the Lord. His wrestle was with himself, his sins and the natural man. We do not have to wrestle with Christ to get him to forgive our sins. He is ready and willing at any moment to forgive us, redeem us, and reconcile us with God. The work is already done. We just have to wrestle ourselves away from sin.

Enos 1:1

Behold, it came to pass that I, Enos, knowing my father that he was a just man—for he taught me in his language, and also in the nurture and admonition of the Lord—and blessed be the name of my God for it.

To bring up children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord is to teach them that God will both nurture and encourage them. To nurture is to further the development of someone, to provide nourishment for growth. An admonition is a warning about behavior. So we are to nourish our children's faith in Christ and warn them when they exhibit behavior that will lead them away from faith.

“Treat your children as sons and daughters of God. Be kind. Love them. Respect them. Counsel with them. Teach them. Pray for them. Guide them and God will bless both them and you” (in Church News, 1 Nov. 1997, 2).

Jacob 7:23

And it came to pass that peace and the love of God was restored again among the people; and they searched the scriptures, and hearkened no more to the words of this wicked man.

We protect ourselves from deception by immersing ourselves in the scriptures, the Living Water.

Jacob 7:14

And I said unto him: What am I that I should tempt God to show unto thee a sign in the thing which thou knowest to be true? Yet thou wilt deny it, because thou art of the devil. Nevertheless, not my will be done; but if God shall smite thee, let that be a sign unto thee that he has power, both in heaven and in earth; and also, that Christ shall come. And thy will, O Lord, be done, and not mine.

Signs only confirm what we already believe. They do not convince or convert. We can always explain away a sign. Conversion comes through the heart and mind, not through the eye and ear.

Jacob 7:12

And this is not all—it has been made manifest unto me, for I have heard and seen; and it also has been made manifest unto me by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, I know if there should be no atonement made all mankind must be lost.

More powerful than hearing and seeing is the power of the Holy Ghost to convince us of the truth. We hear and see things all the time that are not true. The film making industry thrives on the ability to show us things that are not real. Yet despite how real the images on the screen look, we know they are the product of computers, props and engineering. The Holy Ghost, on the other hand, has the power to not just make us think something is real, but to testify to the reality. Seeing an angel is not convincing unless the Holy Ghost testifies to our hearts and mind that we have seen an angel. That is why Laman and Lemuel could see angels and hear the voice of God and still rebel. They did not allow the Holy Ghost to testify to them. Which suggests another principle about the power of the Holy Ghost, namely, that it is never coercive. He never exercises his power without an invitation. If we do not ask, he does not act.

Jacob 6:12

O be wise; what can I say more?

Jacob could not tell his people all the ways to be good, anymore than he could tell them all the ways they could sin. We need to be as inventive in our righteousness as we are in our sinning.

Jacob 6:8-9

Behold, will ye reject these words? Will ye reject the words of the prophets; and will ye reject all the words which have been spoken concerning Christ, after so many have spoken concerning him; and deny the good word of Christ, and the power of God, and the gift of the Holy Ghost, and quench the Holy Spirit, and make a mock of the great plan of redemption, which hath been laid for you? Know ye not that if ye will do these things, that the power of the redemption and the resurrection, which is in Christ, will bring you to stand with shame and awful guilt before the bar of God?

What will cause us shame and guilt before God? The verse explains the conditions under which we will be condemned. It lists rejection of God, denying the Holy Ghost, quenching the Spirit, and mocking the atonement. These are acts of open and willful rebellion, not the mistakes of a good person who gets caught up in temptation and makes mistakes. We do not have to be perfect for the atonement to work in our lives, we just have to be pointed in the right direction, listen the best we can to the Spirit, keep our hearts humble and willing, and lean on Christ in faith. It's not as hard as we sometimes make it out to be.

Jacob 6:5

Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I beseech of you in words of soberness that ye would repent, and come with full purpose of heart, and cleave unto God as he cleaveth unto you. And while his arm of mercy is extended towards you in the light of the day, harden not your hearts.

Even before we have repented and come unto Christ, he already is cleaving to us. He is already fully committed to save us. He is stuck to us, and he cannot shake us off. We tear ourselves away from him every day, however. And so the constant call to constant, wholehearted, sincere repentance. Our actions are never perfect, but our hearts can be right. A soft heart is a humble heart, even a broken heart, a heart that can be molded by God into a heart full of charity.

Jacob 5:22

And the Lord of the vineyard said unto him: Counsel me not; I knew that it was a poor spot of ground; wherefore, I said unto thee, I have nourished it this long time, and thou beholdest that it hath brought forth much fruit.

The Lord knows when we are placed in difficult circumstances and a challenging environment. He does not abandon those whom he tries. Rather, he nourishes and supports them all the more.

Jacob 5:18

And he said unto the servant: Behold, the branches of the wild tree have taken hold of the moisture of the root thereof, that the root thereof hath brought forth much strength; and because of the much strength of the root thereof the wild branches have brought forth tame fruit. Now, if we had not grafted in these branches, the tree thereof would have perished. And now, behold, I shall lay up much fruit, which the tree thereof hath brought forth; and the fruit thereof I shall lay up against the season, unto mine own self.

The Lord says many times in this allegory that he manages his vineyard "for mine own purposes" and gathers the fruit "unto mine own self." The Lord's work and glory and his whole purpose is to "bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." Thus, whatever he does in his vineyard is to serve his primary goal to save us. He may do some digging, pruning, and dunging along the way, and even some cutting. It may be unpleasant or painful, but it is for our best interests that he does these things.

Jacob 5:13

And these will I place in the nethermost part of my vineyard, whithersoever I will, it mattereth not unto thee; and I do it that I may preserve unto myself the natural branches of the tree; and also, that I may lay up fruit thereof against the season, unto myself; for it grieveth me that I should lose this tree and the fruit thereof.

Many times in this chapter the Lord of the vineyard says he is grieved at the prospect of losing his beloved tree, meaning his people. Daily we cause the Lord grief and disappointment because we fall short of our potential. We cut ourselves off from the gifts God has in store for us. Yet like a good gardener, he is patient. He digs about us and prunes us and nourishes us in the hopes that we will eventually produce some usable fruit. We need to stop resisting his attentions and let him work in us and through us.

Jacob 4:14

But behold, the Jews were a stiffnecked people; and they despised the words of plainness, and killed the prophets, and sought for things that they could not understand. Wherefore, because of their blindness, which blindness came by looking beyond the mark, they must needs fall; for God hath taken away his plainness from them, and delivered unto them many things which they cannot understand, because they desired it. And because they desired it God hath done it, that they may stumble.

The pure gospel is not complex or obscure. Truths are not hidden in footnotes of long-forgotten talks. We do not find truth by speculating. It is not locked up in scholarly texts. It is in plain sight. It is in every scripture and every conference talk. All we need are eyes to see and ears to hear. If we read the scriptures, and not just books about the scriptures, we will find what we need. The commentary and explanations we need will be given to us, not by religion teachers, but by the Holy Ghost. The first four principles of the gospel plus enduring well to the end takes a lifetime to master. All other questions are superfluous.

Jacob 4:13

Behold, my brethren, he that prophesieth, let him prophesy to the understanding of men; for the Spirit speaketh the truth and lieth not. Wherefore, it speaketh of things as they really are, and of things as they really will be; wherefore, these things are manifested unto us plainly, for the salvation of our souls. But behold, we are not witnesses alone in these things; for God also spake them unto prophets of old.

Manmade truth is transitory, but real truth is absolute. Real truth does not change. God sees things as they really are, and he will tell us how they really are if we will listen.

Jacob 4:11

Wherefore, beloved brethren, be reconciled unto him through the atonement of Christ, his Only Begotten Son, and ye may obtain a resurrection, according to the power of the resurrection which is in Christ, and be presented as the first-fruits of Christ unto God, having faith, and obtained a good hope of glory in him before he manifesteth himself in the flesh.

Many consider the power of immortality to be the greatest power in the universe. Men have sought means to possess it through magic, voodoo, and the fountain of youth.  Today men seek it through medicine and technology.  It is a power, however, that God reserves for himself. I am confident man will never crack the resurrection code or find the immortality gene.

God will not let it happen because immortality without salvation is a curse. He blocked the way to the tree of life, the symbol of immortality, until Christ could perform the atonement and Adam had time to repent. To live forever in our sins cut off from God and condemned to an eternity of guilt is no life at all. Resurrection and redemption work hand in hand. Together with the very creation of life itself and the Fall, they are the pillars of God's plan of happiness. And Christ is at the center of it all.

Jacob 4:11

Wherefore, beloved brethren, be reconciled unto him through the atonement of Christ, his Only Begotten Son, and ye may obtain a resurrection, according to the power of the resurrection which is in Christ, and be presented as the first-fruits of Christ unto God, having faith, and obtained a good hope of glory in him before he manifesteth himself in the flesh.

Christ has the power of resurrection. He proved it by his own resurrection.  He has promised to use his power on our behalf.  We must nevertheless have faith in his word.  Just because he had the power to resurrect himself does not prove that he can resurrect others, nor does it assure us that he will use his power for us. Therefore, we cannot let go of our faith and take the general resurrection for granted.

Jacob 4:10

Wherefore, brethren, seek not to counsel the Lord, but to take counsel from his hand. For behold, ye yourselves know that he counseleth in wisdom, and in justice, and in great mercy, over all his works.

We should spend less time telling God what we want and how to solve our problems and more time listening to what he wants and how he wants us to solve our problems. He is a lot better at running the universe than we are.

Jacob 4:7

Nevertheless, the Lord God showeth us our weakness that we may know that it is by his grace, and his great condescensions unto the children of men, that we have power to do these things.

Weakness serves a useful purpose in our lives. Not only does God show us our weakness, but according to Moroni, God gave us our weakness to begin with. That weakness is mortality, which challenges us with a fallen natural in a fallen world, where the natural man is ever present in us. When we see our true plight, we can appreciate that anything good we may do is only by God's enabling power, which is called grace. How grateful we should be for that grace, and for the loving atonement, which frees us from the eternal consequences of our weakness. How unfair it would be for God to give us weakness and then condemn us forever because we are weak! The atonement covers our weakness and enables us to repent and eventually overcome weakness without having to suffer forever for past mistakes. When we eventually get it right, God will not hold us accountable for our many stumbles along the road of imperfection. Christ has paid the debt, and we are the eternally grateful beneficiaries.

Jacob 4:6

Wherefore, we search the prophets, and we have many revelations and the spirit of prophecy; and having all these witnesses we obtain a hope, and our faith becometh unshaken, insomuch that we truly can command in the name of Jesus and the very trees obey us, or the mountains, or the waves of the sea.

We are not born with unshakable faith. It becomes unshakable through exercise and experience and patience. It is a growing process that requires opposition and even pain. While we are growing, we may be tempted to think our faith is insufficient or even dead.  But with patience we will see the glorious results.

Jacob 4:4

For, for this intent have we written these things, that they may know that we knew of Christ, and we had a hope of his glory many hundred years before his coming; and not only we ourselves had a hope of his glory, but also all the holy prophets which were before us.

Lehi was directed to leave Jerusalem, so his family could grow in knowledge of the coming Messiah without the foolish and stiff-necked traditions of the Pharisees and Scribes getting in the way. The Nephites had all the same scriptures as their Jewish brethren, but they had one thing more: the gift of prophecy and revelation. They could understand what the Jews refused to comprehend. The Jews could have known as clearly as did the Nephites about Christ, but they refused to see with their eyes and hear with their ears.