The Word of Truth Ministries

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As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby.
1Pet. 2:2
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Going to the Next Step: Perfection

The Bible says to all, Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. [Acts 2:38] To obey that command is to also do what Jesus told Nicodemus he had to do: be born again of water and the spirit. [John 3:3-5] And without obedience to that command, one has not been born again according to the scriptures. [See our discussion on Being Born Again]

But to be born again is the first step. It is the step that turns us around from the direction we travel into the direction of God. But the direction of and to God is not a path that man knows. It is a path that man has to learn, even as we learn to walk naturally. [Isa. 55: 7-9; 59:2-16]

Because we are foreigners and strangers, alienated from the life of God and the fellowship of the saints as well as the household of faith we must learn this new way and this new behavior that being a saint requires. [Eph. 2:12] Second, because many of us are gentiles by nature, we must adapt to and develop the new nature that we have after being born again.

Indeed, being born again is crucial, essential, mandatory for being reconciled to God after we are known of God. [John 3:7] Yet, being born again is just the start--a good start but just a start. Sadly, many have died sinners even after being born again.

That is one of the major lessons of Israel's flight from Egypt into the wilderness. For 40 years they lingered in the wilderness after being delivered out of Egypt's prison, which was a type of sin. And during that time in the wilderness, they sinned and turned to other gods; they behaved according to their own lusts and desires; they had Aaron to make them idol gods; they were out of Egypt, but in another type of sin. And in that sin, they died as fools and spiritually blind.

To them the wilderness was their Promised Land. And because it was, God suffered them not to go beyond their self-defined boundaries. They limited themselves through ignorance and a failure to see that the deliverance from Egypt was only the first step. There was still the Promised Land to be attained. The scriptures teach that the things of old were written for our learning. [Rom. 15:4] If we are so adrift from the reality of God that we will not see the history and mistakes of our spiritual progenitors, we, too, will die as fools. These things were written for our learning so that we would not make the same mistakes they made.

I am saddened to report that many have cleaved to ignorance and to the commandments of men so strongly that they have limited themselves by the limitations of others. That is the effect of adherence to a cult of men and not to the word of God. [Hos. 4:6; Matt. 15:6]

Jesus Name people used to say that we have the whole truth and that we love the truth more than our necessary food. [Job 23:12] Those days and that truth are seeming gone in most churches. Now, many Jesus Name people have become like all other denominations--they adhere to a truth that fits their fancy, and if it does not fit their fancy, they will misinterpret it; they will ignore it; or they will kill the messenger for telling the truth of God instead of their truth. [Gal. 4:16] Often, I kid with my wife, saying to her, "Tell me the truth I want to hear." But although I kid with her, my kidding is, for many, their doctrine. The Bible teaches us that we should buy the truth and sell it not. [Prov. 23:23]

When we were baptized, after we repented of our sin, and when we receive the Holy Ghost of God, we had bought the truth. It is a truth that will allow us to make other purchases from the storehouse of God. But many have taken that truth and redeemed it for material possessions and carnal commodities. As a result, they are stuck in their tracks, unable to get out of the wilderness, after haven't gotten out of Egypt. Think about it!

The Bible said that Joshua and Caleb were the only ones of the group delivered from Egypt to enter into the Promised Land and that is because they were of another spirit from those who were once saved but died in the wilderness. That other spirit had them to follow God fully. And today, we must be of another spirit also. [Num. 14:24] A spirit that elevates the word of God in our lives above the fear and reverence of man; a spirit that makes us follow God fully--totally. This is one of the greatest sins among holiness, especially Jesus Name Christians that I have seen--once saved, they fail to follow Him fully.

I have seen large men submit themselves unto tiny, Napoleonic driven men as if they were children, and those who demand such submission act as if they were their parents. They teach submission, not growth into maturity. And they teach a teaching that is contrary to the Word of God. The submit yourselves unto me teaching is flawed doctrine. The Bible says, submit yourself unto the elders. But this statement assumes that the elders are following Christ fully. When once godly men cease being Godly, those men should not have the submission of the saints. Furthermore, the Bible also says prove all things; do not simply take their words for it. Prove it by the word of God! [1 Thes. 5:21] Submit yourselves unto God does not mean that one becomes a child and becomes foolishly led by foolish men. There are Leadership requirements and behaviors set forth in God's word--no bully pulpit allowing one to browbeat another; let the Word of God be the guide. Submitting does not mean becoming a child and fearing men.[Eph.4: 14] The Bible says submit ourselves unto God. [Malachi 3:6; James 4:7]

The Bible does teach submission, but not to the extent it is carried by insecure ministers today. If they were good parents in the Lord as they so forcefully assert and demand that you adhere to their assertions, they would prepare their children for adulthood. No child of normal bearing stays with his parents throughout his adulthood--he grows up! It is the normal cycle of life that God planned for a man to leave his father and mother and to cleave to his own wife; establish his own house. [Gen. 2:23-24] A child is properly taught to grow up and then to grow/go away and create his own house. And every parent wishes his child well and wants his child to be greater than he is.

This is the normal parenting process, and these are natural lessons of life and of scripture. They are reflective of the invisible things of God.[Rom.1:20] One can always tell when a parent knows little about the parenting process. That parent will never allow anything he has said to be questioned because he is afraid and insecure. But when a child grows up naturally and is not abused, that child will always question that which the parent has said; he will challenge his parents with his greater knowledge and strength. That is the only way the strength of the child is attested and certified. The proud parent who has not been an abusive parent will feel the pride and joy of his child's strength, for it is his strength. And there is a certain beauty in that strength. And it is a strength that the child will need to navigate through life. I speak spiritually as well as naturally.

It is the role of a parent to teach and guide children in the ways they should go [Prov.22:6]--children grow unto adulthood so that they can have their own homes, make their own mistakes and triumphs. Each one must wrestle with his own windmill, and all windmills can take one up into the heavens of God or down into the dust of hell. That is the nature of windmills.

However, the teaching of many pastors today is a teaching that cripples and binds; oppresses and suppresses the will and maturity of those who would grow. Resultantly, we have in the church children after 20-50 years. Such children are, I assure you, malnourished and arrested in their development. They have not gone to the next step!

The Apostle Peter clearly says that once we are born again, we should desire the sincere milk of God's word that the newborn can grow. [1Pet. 2:2] God's plan is for natural development. We are completely saved once we are born again, but there is more that God has for us. He does not want us to stay as babes in Christ. Peter's words are that we may grow thereby!

We need the sincere milk of the word as babes. But if we receive that sincere milk, we will add to ourselves and want heavier food. This is natural and spiritual. Any other process is unnatural. Paul chided the Corinthians about their carnality and lack of growth. In 2Cor. 3:1-9, he said that he could not speak to them as spiritual, but carnal, even as babes. Assumptive in this chiding is the fact that they should not be children and carnal. They had strife, envying, division between one minister and another; they were jealous, and they walked as men. There was no growth in them. God wants us to grow unto perfection. [Matt. 5:48]

Also, in Hebrews 5:10-14 the writer says that he has many things to say but hard to be said because they are tired of hearing the Word of God. Babes of long standing [Christians who have been in the church for 15-30 years and are still children] become tired of hearing God's Word, much like children are impatient with hearing the admonitions of parents. When, after long standing, they should be teachers, they need others to teach them the very first principles of the Word of Faith.

When one is a babe of long standing, he/she is totally unskilled in the Word of God. This is one of the reasons many have been subdued by ungodly men who hide behind the cloth and are not really men of God at all. But because they have kept their flocks babies, ungodly ministers are not challenged. And that is the way they want things to be because they cannot stand a Word of God challenge. In so keeping them babes, ungodly men make merchandise out of them.

It is a worthy axiom: God creates gods; Satan creates demons; weak men create and surround themselves with weak men; strong men beget men of strength. Ministers and pastors who keep their congregations children are invariably weak men and leaders. These types of weak leaders can never attract and keep strong men around them because they cannot stand questioning; they require gullibility of those around them.

They too are children and should not be leaders. The Apostle Paul told Timothy that he should study to show himself approved unto God, a workman that needed not be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth.[2 Tim. 2:15] Notice that Paul said that the minister has to STUDY to show himself approved of God.

Notice also, that he said one has to show himself approved of God a workman that needs not be ashamed because he is rightly dividing the word of truth. Many should be ashamed because they are not capable of rightly dividing the word of truth--they are babes in Christ and need that one would teach them again the first principles of God. Yet they stand as ministers of God, but with nothing to say--they have just been in the way for many years. They have never walked in that way, only stood in it because they have never found it. [Jer. 6:16] And in all of this, the saints of God are not fed the precious Word so that they may grow unto perfection.

The scripture says that we [believers] must leave the principles of the doctrine of Christ and go on unto perfection. [Hebrews 6:1-5] In this scripture God states his goal for our lives. That goal is not merely to be saved; God wants believers to go on unto perfection. That is the next step of our salvation. A step that has been missing too long.

Over 25 years ago, God revealed this next step to me, and I preached it to the saints of God for many hours and repeatedly. Since my Godly calling, God has always richly blessed me with his anointed word. As a result of that blessing, it was rare that I preached the same message to the same people of God. Yes, some of the same scriptures and always the same doctrine was taught, but the messages of God came so strongly and so quickly, that I would preach a message once and move on--trying to declare all that God had given me to His people. [Acts 20:27] But when God gave me the Perfection message, I lingered on it, I repeatedly taught it, preached it, repeated it because God demanded that I do so. It is the missing message of this church hour.

A few weeks back, I visited a pastor who had heard that message of perfection some 25 years ago. That pastor stated openly to his congregation a truth that few pastors are strong enough to say: "Dr. Jones was preaching a message over 20 years ago that many of us are just now coming to; and many will never come to." But the message is God's, not mine! God was gracious enough many years ago to allow me to perceive that he has greater things for us than merely being saved. [Heb. 11:40]

But the message is missing in our churches because too many teachers and pastors have believed the world's message and not God's message. The result is that there are blind leaders of the blind. One cannot be sighted without God's word. The message of the world is blindness. And their message concerning perfection is this: "Ain't nobody perfect." This is the message Christians, in large part, have bought into. It is a lying prophecy. And their prophets run even now, but I have not sent them, says the Lord. [Jer.7:4-8; 14:14]

And this no one is perfect lie has polluted the people of God. But I still hear Jesus saying be perfect, even as your father in heaven is perfect. [Matt. 5:48] I simply will not believe the world's lie or those who are unwilling to fully follow Jesus! He would not demand that which we cannot be; yet he has commanded it and made provision and wherewithal for our achieving his command. Perfection, however, is not defined as the world defines it. This is a major flaw in Bible analysis. Many men use worldly standards in defining and understanding spiritual things. But the Bible teaches us that we compare spiritual things with spiritual things. [1Cor. 2:13]

God has amply said in his word that he wants us to be perfect. [Matt. 5:48; Heb. 6:1-4] Paul writes to the Colossians that as many as be perfect be of the mind as he outlined. [Phil. 3:15] Furthermore, he also writes the Ephesians that God has given the ministries in the church for the perfection of the saints! [Gal 4:11-16]

God has always demanded that his people be perfect. He told Abram to walk before him and be perfect. [Gen. 17] But notice that God did not use Abraham unto he had given his commandment to be perfect. God uses perfect saints differently than he does newborn babes in Christ. God wants babes to become adults so he can use them. He certainly uses perfect saints differently than he uses carnal saints, if he uses them at all.

When Job was perfect, then God used him to project what He would do to Christ, a perfect man approved of God, in whom the fullness of the Godhead resided. [Job 1& 2; Acts 2:22; Col. 2:9] Many have attempted to find fault with Job's perfection after seeing what God did to him, in their feeble attempt to justify God. God needs no man to justify His behavior to man or anyone else--yes, the judge of all the earth will do right, but whatever He does is right [Gen. 18:25] for He has determined the standards, and it is up to us to try to understand His standards. The consistent problem many saints and certainly the world has is a failure to understand the power of God and/or the sovereignty of God. [Rom. 9:18-24]

God also used Job to fulfill an adventure with Satan. That was and still is God's right as sovereign Lord and creator. [Job 1:6-12]

God uses perfected men in a way that is different than He uses ordinary men who are not fully following God. [Num. 14:24] There are many ordinary men in the church who are wandering around in the wilderness and will never make it to the Promised Land because they have lost the spirit of God, having substituted for it materialism. To go with God, one has to be of another spirit that will follow God fully, and that spirit seems strange even to the people of the church.

Isaiah described God's use of these perfect men as doing His strange work and His strange act. [Isa. 28:21] God's behavior with Job is viewed as strange to many, even as it seemed strange to Job's friends, because too many have placed God in their self-painted portrait; but it is not really God's portrait. It is the same as the atheist who declares that he will not believe in a God who allows a little child to die, a world to be aflame with war, etc. He places his standard on God and therefore cannot see God in His majesty and power, and never in His sovereignty. And because of this type of flawed reasoning, many attempt to find fault with Job's perfection even after God declares that Job is perfect.

God is high above all principalities and powers. He is GOD alone and reserves the right to do as he will. And the scriptures teach that He is beyond our finding out. Yes, He has revealed His secrets to His servants the prophets, but He has not revealed all of himself to any man. God is more complex than man can ever imagine or fully understand. He is GOD in His glory! GOD in His majesty--the LORD of Lords, the King of kings. He is El Shaddai!

God is calling for and demanding that we go to the next step. That is the step that God can glory in our lives. And we must always remember that man and all things were made for the pleasure of God. [Rev. 4:11] If it is God's good pleasure to adventure a notion with Satan, as He did in Job, that is why we were made. If you find that strange, I submit Rom. 9:10--20-22. God is sovereign and plans events in eternity then brings them into time by His own right hand.

Job was only representative of what God would do with one more righteous and more perfect than Job--Jesus, the very Word of God. He took the man Jesus who was perfect and perfectly approved of God and slew him on a tree in what appeared to be His strange work and His strange act. Indeed, it was strange to most of those gathered, even to his disciples. When the soldiers came to take the Lord, Peter cut one of their ears off in defense of the master. [John 18:10] When Jesus foretold of his crucifixion, his disciples tried to rebuke such talk, and knew not that if he had not gone to Calvary there would be no salvation.

During the events of Calvary few understood the beauty and profound significance of that moment and that place. [I have spoken elsewhere of Grasping the Significance of the Moment] In the midst of that confused time of pain, agony, loss, and trauma, men's understanding fainted and turned to fleshly thoughts of rescue and avoidance. Even the man Jesus asked to have the cup taken from him as he came face to face with his hour and his moment in Gethsemane. [Mark 14:36]

Oh how sweet is Calvary; there Jesus died for me! And thank God that in the midst of that montage of misery, Jesus kept his eyes on Calvary; He kept God's goal for him and for us; his is the beauty and majesty that adorned sweet Calvary.

How many there recognized that Jesus was using Calvary's cross as an altar upon which he laid down his life for us? How many there recognized that as God had shown in Eden, Jesus was our coats of skin that God gave to Adam and Eve reflecting what He would do to Jesus for us? How many there recognized that Calvary was Jesus at his most beautiful, loving, and self-effacing moment? How many there recognized that Calvary was the message Job projected? How many there recognized that in all this great confusion and perplexity God was never confused or perplexed about what He was doing and how He was doing it? How many there recognized the wisdom and supreme logic of God's human justification exhibited in that hour, that moment of man's bafflement and disarray?

Can't you now see God smiling there at Calvary as by one man he justifies many, and Satan did not have a clue! He thought he had scored a victory, when, in fact, that was his moment of utter defeat? How sweet is the beauty and wisdom of God! We men of little minds try vainly to set limits for God, thank God, we cannot!

God has better things for us, but we must go to the next step to get them; we must go to the next step that God may obtain the pleasure he wants to get out of our lives. We must make our calling an election sure. [2Pet. 1:10] Let us go on unto perfection. [Heb. 6:1] If we fail to go on unto perfection, we become arrested in our development. God is saying that as newborn babes we must leave the principles of the doctrine of Christ and we must go on unto perfection--that is the purpose and plan of our new birth.

If you have been getting no words, no messages, no dreams, no visions, no anointing from God, you have not gone to the next step; if the heavens seem like brass and are shut up against your prayers, it may be you have not gone to the next step; if you fear questionable men who hold the truth in unrighteousness, you have not gone to the next step; if you stand in their council of men of lies and fast actions and loose behavior and perceived their lies and slight of hand with the word of God, you have not gone to the next step. If after 15--on years in the church you are still using milk, you have not gone to the next step!

And if you cannot live a holy life but fall every time a temptation is upon you, you certainly have not gone to the next step; if you cannot live free of sin a week, a month, a year, not only have you not gone to the next step, you need to go to the first step--salvation from sin! Perfection presupposes that you can live above sin. That is what being saved is about!

If you are a liar, a thief, an abuser, a fornicator, you simply need to be saved!!! And nothing I have said about perfection is written to you. You are not even a babe in Christ; you are outside of Christ. It doesn't matter what your title is in the church; it doesn't matter what type of church you are a member in, you are simply unsaved. You may have been saved once, but if you cannot live above sin, you are not saved now. Christ saves his people from their sins.

Finally, if we fail the perfection message, we will fail in understanding the Word of God, we will never come to the unity of the faith, and we will be driven into confusion and stagnation rather than clarity. The Apostle Paul expressly stated that we should no longer be children but that we should grow up INTO him. [Eph. 4:15] We must take on the identity of Christ. That is the goal for our lives. And if we do not achieve that goal, we will never make it out of the wilderness. Those who go to the Promise Land are those who go on unto perfection and grow up into him. [Heb. 6:1-6; Eph. 4:11-17] These are they who have another spirit; a spirit to fully follow Jesus.

Notice Daniel 7: 13-27 in which Daniel sees one like unto the Son of Man coming to the Ancient of Days and power was given to this Son of Man. If we fail to understand the perfection of the saints message, we will fail to understand this scripture and our minds will be in disarray.

In this passage of scripture, it seems as if the Son of Man is Jesus going to God. It is and it isn't. Jesus is God--the Ancient of Days. He therefore is not going to himself, but he is. How is this seeming paradox resolved and understood?

The Apostle Paul said that we must grow into him--INTO him. We are now the light of the world; we are now the salt of the earth; we are now Jesus in the earth. He said that we should occupy until he comes. Then we are to be the bride of Christ.

My wife and I made a commitment when we got married some 25-years ago that when I am not at a place with her, she represents me. Of course, we meant this and that has been one of the reasons the foolishness of some ministers who try to tear a wife away from a husband to be a member of his church has never had standing in our lives. She is mine, not the pastor's, not some minister's, but mine. All that I am and I am not, she is; she has my name and my very identity. And I am happy to say that she is proud to have my identity.

As a Christ-centered marriage is, God has styled the church. In Ephesians 5, Paul writes about marriage in details, but in verse 32, he states: "This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church." This scripture has been a saving grace to many marriages, certainly mine. We cannot put our marriage in abeyance or dissolve it when times get hard. It is a God sanctioned marriage; it is a God-centered marriage; it represents Christ and the church. That is the reason God has given such strong admonitions about who, how, when, and the conditions of marriage. This is one of the most important institutions God has in demonstrating the church's relationship to himself. Hence, marriage is more than an arrangement of convenience for two peoples. A marriage represents the very essence of who we will be with Christ when this cauldron of tears we call life has ended.

What Daniel saw in his night vision was not Jesus coming to God, it was Jesus the Church, his bride who has taken on his likeness so that it appeared like him. We are that church that Paul says in Eph. 5:26-27 Christ will present unto himself without spot, blemish or any such thing. We are the church that has as Paul said in Eph. 4: 15 grown up into him. We are the church to which Jesus said in Matt 5: 48 be perfect as God in heaven is perfect. And the scripture teaches that Christ is the express image of God. What Daniel saw was that bride after the honeymoon [1000-year reign of Christ on the earth] now the wife of Christ having his identity. Therefore we look like Jesus, who will have then pulled off his veil of flesh and will put on his bride--His Christ/Anointed.

In short, Daniel saw the church in its glorified state coming to Jesus-God. Notice Daniel 7:14, then verses 22 and 27. The Son of Man who came to Jesus/God and was given power, but in verse 22 the saints are given that same power, and in verse 27 the saints of the most high God are given that power and dominion. One power, one gift, one God, one bride of Christ!

I will close this sermon by saying, the the next step is perfection; it is a step that we must take and God has given us the methods and steps to perfection. We will never be included among those who are sanctified and going to meet the Ancient of Days, however, unless we take The Next Step.

[I will be teaching and writing on the steps and processes to the perfection of God.]

If you recognize a tendency in our sermons of late to touch the leadership harshly, that is not accidental. God has moved upon me mightily to proclaim that there is too much sin and corruption in Jesus Name leadership. The leaders need crying against! The Cost of Truth speaks to that special burden which God has placed on me.

May the grace of God open your hearts and minds to His truth.[]