The Word of Truth Ministries
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It was during the prophetic era of Elisha that Samaria was suffering a famine, and four leprous men were sitting outside the city when the Syrian army surrounded and encompassed Samaria, for it was not permitted that they should enter the city because of their leprosy. The famine, however, was severe, and these leprous men realized that they would surely die if they remained where they were. They reasoned among themselves their status and an appropriate response to that status:
They decided to take a chance and go into the Syrian camp seeking food that they may live. Their reasoning was sound, for it was the reasoning of desperate men who wanted to live and were willing to face death. But these men represent something greater than themselves. They were poised there and acted as they did as a lesson for Christians today--indeed, they were ministering to us, as Peter suggests. [1 Pet. 1:12] On the note of the Old Testament being a lesson for Christians, the Apostle Paul writes to the Roman Church, saying, “…Whatever things were written aforetime were written for our learning….” [Rom. 15:4] He becomes even more expansive and profound in his discussion of the things written aforetime. When discussing Abraham’s two sons, Ishmael by Hagar, and Isaac by Sarah, he says that these things were merely an allegory—an event or circumstance, occasionally fictional, used to show or highlight some greater truth. Paul's statement is profound and far more expansive than we normally realize. The events of the Old Testament were examples, allegories, situations structured and carried out for our good, for our learning, and for our instructions that through patience and comfort of the scriptures Christians might have hope and knowledge of how to conduct themselves. To that end, Jesus tells us to search the scriptures, for in them ye think you have eternal life and these are they that testify of him. [John 5:39] Hence, the Old Testament was merely a shadow of Christ; an allegory; a representation; a token of Christ—his person, his life and death, and his church (the saints in Him). That is why the true minister of God must carefully, spiritually, and regularly study the things of God that he may be able to correctly interpret God’s word, if that minister is to properly feed the church of God, which He has purchased with His own blood. [Acts 20:26-28] Please make a note of this truth: the wrongly interpreted word of God is not the word of God, but the word of that wrong interpreter. God is not bound by a wrong interpretation of what He has said. He is bound by the correct interpretation of His word. Yet many are binding God’s people to incorrect interpretations of God’s word that satisfy their needs and avarice desires--they make merchandise of God's people. [2 Pet.2:3] This is one of the reasons Paul said prove all things and hold fast to that which is good. [1 Thes. 5:21] Many things of the old we need to learn from, but not to do, and often the actual doing of many of them will take us away from grace and place us under the law. [See Tithe Giving?] And to the surprise of many, there are Christians, according to God’s word, who have gone under the law and away from grace—I refer to more than those who want to keep the Sabbath and observe certain eating customs. Yet, many Christians who have fallen from grace have been wrongly conditioned into a certain blindness to truth that precludes them from seeing that fact. These are those to whom my words come as a shock to their frame of reference, their routines, their church religiosity, and to their tradition that is honored more than the word of God. [Gal. 5:4] Jesus said that the whole of the Old Testament was merely a shadow of him. They of the Old Testament had only a shadow; we have the express image that cast the shadow. They of the Old Testament were, in fact, only a shadow of a greater truth than themselves; the prophets of the old and all of them were used by God to minister unto us! [1 Pet. 1:2] They were merely a shadow, but the tall figure that cast that shadow was Christ! Look at the profound words of Paul as he speaks about the old being merely an allegory. Look at our great, before the foundation of the earth, importance we are to God. Paul’s statements about the old being an allegory and about it being written for our learning are suggestive of the depth of our (Christians') standing with and importance to the eternal God of gods. Consider the words Jesus spoke about John the Baptist: "Of men born of a woman, there is not arise a greater, but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater that John the Baptist." [Matt. 11:11] Of the Old Testament and all up until Jesus, John the Baptist was the greatest of that class, but of those born into the kingdom of God, the very least one of that class of twice-born men is greater than John the Baptist because the entire class of truly born again people is higher than those merely born of women--everyone up to the church age. [John 3:3-5] To illuminate this further, take a class of middle school students; they are in a class of non-college students but between elementary and high school students. The middle school children are higher than elementary school children in their standing and knowledge. And the high school children are higher than both the elementary students and the middle school students. And suppose there is a system that has the highest grade earner as the top student in his/her class—the valedictorian—that person, then, is the highest of all those students in that particular level of schooling. That student is John the Baptist. Now college is a different level of learning, student expectations are completely different, and one in college, say with a “C-“ (the very low average student) is higher than the highest of high school students. The class of education is different, the rigor of study is greater, the challenges to the mind are greater, the self-discipline is greater, the complexity of the material is greater. This is a higher class of educational focus. This "C-" student is the kingdom of God’s least Christian. We are twice born men; those who are not born again are only once born men. So we are higher. But more than that Paul’s words project and suggest a magnificence of our personhood in Christ. He suggests that the old were merely used by God to highlight and make clear to us the things of God. We are so important to God that He took an entire people, He took nations, and the circumstances of those people and nations to use as educational instruments for us. The only importance of those people and nations was as guides and educational tools for us, His body, the church. Our sonship is by far more distinctive, more perfect and greater than that of Adam; he was a made son of God; we are begotten sons of God. Christ begets us, and Christ was begotten of God--the Eternal Spirit fused with the flesh of Mary to form Jesus and live inside of him; likewise, the Holy Spirit begets us and lives inside of us. This is a higher class than that of Adam’s class. We are begotten sons of God and exercise the powers of God; we are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, Paul says, if so be that we suffer with him that we may also be glorified together with him. Not only do we exercise the powers of God here but in the world to come we will exercise greater powers. That is why Paul said, “I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” [Rom. 8:18] I would that modern Christians had the same reckoning, but the world has called many away from God unto riches and the things of this life! So in Paul’s view of the old as just an allegory, he saw the glory of God that was manifested in us. But those of old did not understand or think that they were an allegory and that God had a more important people: those begotten of him who will reign with him! The prophets who prophesied about us knew not the glory that has been and will be revealed in us. The prophets and even angels desired to inquire into this matter but were prohibited. [1 Pet. 10-12] Yet King David, who was also a prophet, inched near as he asked, “What is man that thou are so mindful of him?” [Psa. 8:4] He perceived something, but could not understand the magnificence that God had planned for those whom He would purchase with His own blood and beget of His Spirit. That was a thing too high for his comprehension. Knowing that the old is a lesson for us to learn by that we may run well this race set before us, we see that the four leprous men outside Samaria in 2 Kings 7 must therefore instruct us in some way also. Our failure to take this knowledge and use it wisely is a rejection of God. [Hos. 4:6] And indeed many Christians have done just that as carnality abounds. God’s people are destroyed and rejected by God because there is a vast Culture of Ignorance that is overlaying many churches. Ministers and members have turned their ears from the truth and have turned them unto fables. They love lies and liars and hate God’s truth that is contrary to their traditions, customs, doctrines, ways, lives, their notions, etc. But the psalmist said, “Let God be true and every man a liar.” Instead, many will not seek to prove all things and hold fast to that which is good. [1 Thes. 5:21] Many actually think they have the good word of God when, in fact, all they have is dry and moldy bread that deceived the Israelis and is now deceiving many in the church. [Joshua 9:5] That bread, however, in not the true bread that came down from heaven. These ministers' bread is the concoctions, misinterpretations of God’s word, and their own self-serving machinations that lead to temporary riches and vainglory, but permanent perdition for them and all who follow them! The leprous men outside the gates of Samaria were hungry for food, for there was a severe famine in Samaria. But when there is a famine in one place, it does not mean that famine is everywhere. Of course, there is a famine in most churches today. The famine is for hearing from God and of hearing God. Listen to the sermons being preached by the ministers today, whether bishops, evangelists, or teachers; they are usually sermons of dry and moldy bread because most ministers in the American Christian church have gone away from God’s word in their lives and their ability and willingness to correctly interpret what God is saying, and God’s inspiration and anointing have left them. I am aware that these words are viewed by many as harsh, but they are true--thank God, I have no vested interest (certainly no financial interest) in anything but the truth. I have never been supported by a church (though I have pastored several), and I am sure that over the space of my long 40-year ministry, I have received no more than $700 that was quickly put back into the ministry. Like Paul, I have worked on jobs and businesses to supply the necessities for my house, and God has blessed my labor. Indeed, many ministers and the church members that these un-anointed ministers lead have developed a certain sensitivity against God’s truth. Everything offends them unless it comports with their corrupt misinterpretations and pernicious teachings. One poor and very sad brother did not want me to use the word “chastise” while talking with him—it was a offensive word; he did not like that word. He wanted to prescribe the words I use when talking to him, lest, no doubt, I offend his weaken sensitivities. Of course, “chastise” is a perfectly good bible word used many times in scripture. But this form of spiritual and mental insanity projects the gross Culture of Ignorance that overlays most of the American church world today. And some even threaten bodily harm at the hearing of truth. That is one of the ways the Christian world has been turned upside down. The main way is their blindness because of sin. As these leprous men were hungry, so are the people of God hungry and dying from the sour milk and dry and moldy bread feast of the misinterpreted word being served to them by men and women whom they love, but by men and women who do not love and obey the word of God. They no longer feel that we must live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Yes, they mouth the idea that they are Apostolic, but their lives and teachings are devilish. Most of these so-called Apostolic Faith people and others will not reason the word any longer, not even with other Apostolic saints who know the truth, because they are wolves in sheep's clothing whether they know it or not. And because they will not reason the word of God they have no real grasp on that which they are support to know. And their very lives and eternal salvation do depend on knowing it correctly. But instead of getting a correct interpretation of God's holy, eternal and settled word, they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves among themselves in their limited knowledge of God's word and think they are safe. They are not safe, and they are unwise! Only in the multitude of counselors is there safety, but they will not allow themselves those counselors. [Prov. 11:14; 2 Cor. 10:12] How tragic that these unwise souls will exchange the poverty of this world, which in their blindness they reckon to be riches, for the real glory and riches that is to follow. But their minds are deceived with a strong delusion because they have not received the love of the truth, and they will be eternally lost from the right ways of God. [2 Thes. 2:11] But even more tragic is the fact that they take souls with them in their pernicious downward travel, as they defy the word of God and rationalize or excuse away their offense to God's word. These were the people who once ran well but now the call of this world has hindered and stopped them. The leprous men reasoned among themselves even as this present crop of poorly trained and blind ministers should do. Maybe if that were done some true bread would be supplied to God’s people. These four leprous men asked themselves a pregnant question: Why should we sit here until we die? Maybe if we explored to find food, there would be food. And if we fail to explore but just sit hungry, we will surely die. Finding the truth takes diligently searching for it because Satan, the world, and man’s own carnality war against God’s harsh on sin truth, peradventure it is heard and some decide to do God’s word. The act of doing God’s word is dangerous. Study what Jesus said about the truth: “You will know the truth and the truth will MAKE you free.” [John 8:32] Being made free does not mean that one is free of physical or emotional dangers. Jesus said that truth will set a man at variance with his house; sometimes truth will get you stoned; and it will always bring a change to the comfort level of those who prefer living in comfort rather than living on the high road of God. [Mat. 10:34] I get e-mails from people over the nation and the world who have read or heard this truth and decided to engage it with the assumption that all will love truth because all say they love the truth. And as they start engaging the truth, they see that most people will cling to their traditions, their truths, and their comfort levels, rather than accept the naked, unvarnished and unfiltered truth of God’s word. The leprous men reasoned that moving to achieve their goal may be hazardous, but sitting still was deadly; so they chose life and the hazards of true life.
But, oh the joy to actually know that you can pray and get the attention of God; to know that your eyes are open to God’s truth; to be resolved that whatever God’s word says, that you will do; to be able to say that you are wedded to God’s truth and not your own; to be able to say and mean it, "If I am wrong and you show me by a correct interpretation of God’s word, I will change and live that correct interpretation because I want to and will obey every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." That is the way to live the truth of God! And nothing else is the way. And when that life is lived, you will have a tranquility that passes all understanding, knowing that you are safe in the perfect will of God. These courageous leprous men moved, and they found food enough and to spare because they were courageous. God does not respect the fearful and unbeliever. They will have their part in the lake. [Rev. 21:8] Holding to carnal notions, comforts, customs of this life is not worthy to be compared with the glory that is going to follow and be revealed throughout all eternity. To hold to a lie and believe what is comfortable for you means that you will never enter into that city that is to come. Let us not fool ourselves, narrow is that gate leading to that city of God and not nearly as many as we supposed will be saved, especially from this present age; we have corrupted ourselves with this life, and God is killing the parents and their children with death/carnality of this world. [Rev. 2:23] I will take Jesus for mine; you can have the world and all its transitory comforts, I will take Jesus for mine! And I have reckoned the things of this life cannot even be measured against the glory that is to follow. I have committed myself wholly to God, to being as Jesus was down here, to being perfect down here that I may be more perfectly used by God down here and the world to come; I have committed myself to doing God’s word and being God's word, even as Joshua did, wholly. For this you must be of a different mind, and the vast majority of church members who go to church regularly are only social creatures who are partially committed to God. That is not enough. You must obey him wholly! Every word! I am not an old man, nor a young man who has not experienced life and its sufferings; I am not trying to do anymore than please God as perfectly as any of God’s creatures and allow Him to use me perfectly--even as Job was used of God perfectly as a parable to us of Christ's suffering and the glory that would follow; I am not dying or ill with diseases. I am committed to God and the truth of God. That means that I move into the adventures of God. There is such a beauty and spiritual excitement to actually go on God’s assignments, of being able to speak and God makes your word stand, of being talked to in dreams, revelations, and through his spirit, and just to know that you are in the perfect will of God so that He uses you. If there is a downside to truth work it is this: truth work is hard work; often the very people who claim they want truth will despise it and you, God's messenger, when it is given. Most of God’s people had given place to backslidden ministers rather than to God’s true ministers and had done horrible things contrary to his word—during the time of these four leprous men, the famine was so severe that some of God's people gave over to cannibalism. Historically, God’s backslidden people have always hated His true prophets, and they do today. So to have "Christians" not accept God’s true word is standard fare. Through the theme scripture in this message, God is surely implying that His people are leprous and hungry—they are in their sins--and need to muster the strength and courage to stop sitting comfortably in their sins, lest they die in them. Jeremiah was one of the prophets God’s sinful people horribly abused for his truth work, and he is relevant now. God moved on him to cry out against a sinful people who claimed that their lying prophets were the true prophets of God. But his ministry was really to us.
Instead of sitting in our own ways as many of God’s people are doing, God is saying, stand in the many false and man-centered ways and see, while asking Him for the opening of your understanding to see the old Apostolic faith once delivered to the saints--Jude said you have to contend for it. And to the many Apostolic Faith people who have clearly deceived themselves in many things and long ago left that faith once delivered to the saints, Acts 2:4 and 38 are just baby steps; that is not the whole gospel, even when you include the Godhead/Divinity of Christ. Many once-truth-loving ministers and members have deceived themselves by thinking that if they have the new birth correctly and the Divinity of Christ correctly (which most of them do not, as I hear their confused godhead explications that only compare scriptures--it takes a little more than that to explain the complexities of God) that they have the whole truth. They do not! There is much more to salvation and the things that saints need to know and be than these few miniscule truths of God. Many Acts 2:38ers are going to be lost because they have rejected knowledge as Jeremiah and Hosea stated, and God has rejected them. We were supposed to build on the truth, but they have sat in their ways rather than stand and walk in God's way. And when you sit, you fail God. Furthermore, many Apostolic Faith Christians who once had the spirit and a small portion of truth assumed that being born again was the end product of salvation until Jesus came. Being born again is not the end product or process; it is the beginning. From that new birth, one is to go on to perfection so God can use us more perfectly. [Eph. 4:11-16; Heb. 6:1-4] Sadly, however, many once-saved and true believers have now accepted the ethos of the world concerning perfection, namely this, “Ain’t nobody perfect.” That is what the world says and believes, but God’s people are supposed to use the new birth to grow into Christ and be perfect as God defines perfection while down here on this earth. [Mat. 5:48; Eph.4:11-16; Heb. 6:1-3; 1 Pet.2:2] I am aware that many of you are grimacing at such a claim, but you are not a true believer in Christ if you think this is strange. Being born again is not being perfect; it is being placed in a position where one can become perfect as Jesus commanded us to be.[1 Pet.2:2] Also, living holy is not being perfect. The Bible, especially the writings of Paul primarily and Peter also deals with perfection extensively—what it is and how we achieve it; from thought to speaking and idealizing. It is the intent of God for every born again saint to grow to perfection in word, thought and deed. But this is not taught by most ministers, and even living holy, (the base requirements foe every saint) is a past doctrine once taught and once lived in most of these churches, even as many still babble in tongues while they wade in sin knee-depth! Most of the church world is in such a low moral state that many ministers with their congregations and many church members have gone so far away from God that God has given them over to reprobate minds and having a strong delusion they believe lies and are damned, even though they are still in the church and in the ministry. But Paul said this would happen--backsliders are staying in the church today even though they are of reprobated minds. [Acts 20:28-31; Rom. 1:28; 2Thes. 2:9-12]But for those who have not been turned over to Satan with reprobated minds and are not doing whatever comes to their minds and using flawed reasoning to make others accept their ungodliness as church norm, the ungodliness that is pervading ministers and the church world is, I assure you, not the norm of God! You are in the wrong church among the wrong people. And if you were saved there, there is no reason you need now die there! Come out from among them and be separated, says God. Let me highlight this point of sinners attempting to make others think that sin is the norm for saints today. I teach in a discipline that Black men rarely teach in college, and I am in a college with few Black male teachers. And since this is true, a young Black male student in my class said to me, "Dr. Jones, you are a fish out of water." By that statement he meant that I was rare. I inquired of the basis of such an assessment, and his answer was this: "You are a Black professor teaching ****and you have a PhD. You don't see that much." This young man was an inner city youth and most of what he had seen in the ghetto were people like him--streetwise youths who had very little hope of ever fulfilling real laudable dreams they may have. The problem with his statement was that his sampling pool was too limited to actually measure whether I was unique or normal. Since I had a greater understanding of the actual state of affairs of Black America, I assured him that I was not some rare and exotic bird. Black America is divided into two major segments: the 27% underclass and the 73% working, middle, and upper class. He was of the 23% and I am of the 73%. Most of the people I know are people from that 73% and are like me; to them I am not rare but the norm, (statistically and clinically) but since he is of the underclass he ventured to measure me by standards that do not fit. He only knows a small portion of Black America, those from where he comes. Hence his assessment of me was convoluted because it was based on his limitation of sight. Yet he thought it was correct until I assured him that the majority of Black America looks like me. Elijah was of a similar mind one day as he ran from Jezebel. And God asked him what he was doing in that place of fear and cowardice; Elijah rationalized that he was the only true prophet left, but God assured him that his measurements were wrong. He had seven thousand saints in light who had not turned over to the spin of Satan or to this world; [1 Kings 19:18] they are saints who are true to God and desire the words of God more than their necessary food. [Job 23:12] These are true saints of God who are not only living godly lives, they are also perfecting themselves according to the methods and word of God. You need to join that narrow way of God and trim your lamps with good works and rid yourself of spots, wrinkles, blemishes and all such things. Do not allow yourself to be measured by a man, but only by God's word. Paul stated that those who measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves by themselves are not wise. The only standard is God's word. You were saved to grow into him. Without the new birth you could never become perfect, but after being saved you are commanded to go unto perfection. Everyone born again is born holy because he is born of God and is a son of God from birth. Furthermore, if you are born again, Christ has taken on your sins and given you his righteousness. Therefore, you are holy from birth, and since you are so equipped, the next step is to grow into the express image of him--look like Christ, talk like Christ, think like Christ, behave like Christ, and be all that Christ is; grow into him. As a son, you must grow up into your father's image so that to see you is to see him. That earthly reality is to show us the spiritual truth about our perfection! To not grow into and go on unto perfection is to sit, when God has said walk in the way of God. So come out from among those blind leaders, ministers, supposed-Christians who say, "We will not walk therein." They are the blind leading the blind; they do not love God's word; most have made a mockery of it. Theirs is the way to perdition; they will sit around until they die and take you with them! [Isa. 6] [5,271 words]
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2006 The Truth of God