Gospel Diamond Dust

This book of inspirational speeches given by W. Cleon Skousen during a lifetime of speaking, writing, and research contains some of the fascinating gospel "diamonds" that Brother Skousen has discovered and shared with thousands of audiences. Some of the speeches which have been included are his well-known "A Personal Search for the Meaning of the Atonement," "Palestine in Prophecy," "Building Balanced Children" and "Prophecy and Modern Times."

Fourteen other fascinating speeches talk about the Savior, the Church, the Youth, the Old Testament, the Book of Mormon and latter-day prophecies. In these speeches, Brother Skousen will cover a subject in a few brush strokes that would normally fill many volumes, making it possible to quickly grasp a larger picture of God's plan of happiness for the human race. (352 pages)

Excerpt from "Gospel Diamond Dust - The Sermon on the Mount":

The "Constitution" of the Gospel

It's important to understand that the Sermon on the Mount is the "Constitution" of the gospel. It explains how the Kingdom should be run and how our personal lives should function and operate. It was just for the disciples and just for the Apostles, and it has to be read in that context or it isn't understood.

At the temple in Jerusalem Jesus recruited, proselyted, and called the people to repentance. He told the Pharisees and Sadducees that they were hypocritical and not living according to the commandments that they were ordering the other people to live.

But it was not so up here. The Sermon on the Mount was not a missionary speech; it was given to the disciples to tell them how to live a life acceptable to God. There's been quite a bit of confusion about the Sermon on the Mount as it was given, because Matthew simply recorded it without designating which part of it was given to the Apostles and which part of it was given to the general audience.

It wasn't until we got the Book of Mormon that we found that some of the commandments in the Sermon on the Mount were not given to the general membership of the Church. They were given only to the Apostles.