For I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the lands; and I will bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you and bring it about that you walk in My statutes, and are careful and follow My ordinances. And you will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God. Moreover, I will save you from all your uncleanness; and I will call for the grain and multiply it, and I will not bring a famine on you. Instead, I will multiply the fruit of the tree and the produce of the field, so that you will not receive again the disgrace of famine among the nations. Then you will remember your evil ways and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves in your own sight for your wrongdoings and your abominations. I am not doing this for your sake,” declares the Lord GOD; “let that be known to you. Be ashamed and humiliated for your ways, house of Israel!” (v. 24-32)

Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which has been born of the flesh is flesh, and that which has been born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it is coming from and where it is going; so is everyone who has been born of the Spirit.” (John 3:5-8)

God created the heavens and the earth for a purpose. And when the purpose is met, everything will pass away. Yet God and His words will remain. And everything that is united with God and His Son by the Holy Spirit will also remain. The purpose of the creation is His one and only kingdom, His people. When interpreting John 3, some ministers and theologians think “the spirit” is men’s spirit. It is wrong. It indicates the Holy Spirit as we read and understand Ezekiel 36:24-32.

Christ washed the disciples’ feet in John 13.

Peter said to Him, “Never shall You wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no place with Me.” Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, then wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet; otherwise he is completely clean. And you are clean—but not all of you.” (John 13:8-10)

Earlier, I mentioned that Christ prepared for the coming of the Holy Spirit. Christ is often referred as water and bread. Christ is also the Word. Christ washes all filthiness, but a person does not become a child of God unless the Holy Spirit enters the person. Although John does not say anything about Judas Iscariot having his feet washed by Christ, there is no doubt that Judas’ feet were also washed by Christ. But he was not an elect child of God. In fact, Christ referred him as a devil. God chose him to be a devil. Judas killed himself before the Spirit came to God’s chosen people on the day of the Pentecost. On the top of all the sins Judas committed, he added the sin of rejecting the Holy Spirit by not believing what Christ had said in John 16:7 and killed himself. That was his destiny. Christ’s words were meaningless to him. This is the end of a reprobate. Other disciples did not do anything to deserve the Holy Spirit. God saved them from falling away and gave them the Holy Spirit. Sola Gratia.

It is the Holy Spirit who activates and applies the words of God to a chosen child of God. Even though someone reads and studies the Bible everyday, the words of God do not save the person until the Holy Spirit comes. Going to church and learning about God from youth may benefit a person who he or she receives the Spirit later. But faith and the knowledge of God cannot be possessed by human efforts. In my experience, I saw only the abominations and wrong teachings about God in churches in my youth.

We understand that God chose Judas to be a devil from the beginning. It is not that Christ chose the twelve and unfortunately one fell away. The Greek word “kai” means both “and” and “but”. It is not up an individual person to decide his/her own salvation. Saints do not choose to believe in God. We are chosen to believe in Him. In a church, we have a mixture of the elect and the reprobate. People want to think that all or most of them are children of God. But we do not know. By looking at how churches are doing around the world, it is clear that there are few who are chosen to be saved (Matthew 22:14). Still, it is God’s will that only a small number of people are saved and built into His kingdom. It is marvelous in our eyes.

Jesus answered them, Did not I choose you the twelve, and one of you is a devil? (John 6:70)

A stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone. This came about from the LORD; It is marvelous in our eyes. (Psalm 118:22-23)

Up until now, the understanding of the Holy Spirit has been little. During the Reformation, the focus was Jesus Christ. It was God’s will because there is a certain process we need to go through for learning. You would not teach your kids algebra before they learn numbers. In this new reformation, the understanding of the Holy Spirit will become clearer and deeper.

I feel sad because there are few ministers who really understand the works of the Holy Spirit. They think all truths were revealed during the Reformation and try to remain in the 16^th and 17^th century. They consider the Confessions more important than the Bible. They read many theology books and pretend to know God, but their own words deny that they have the knowledge of God. They like to speak about human ideas and philosophies about God. God did not give the knowledge to the learned. God trained Calvin and Luther, who had a high level of education. But they were useless until they received the Holy Spirit. God gave the Reformers a certain knowledge to make them separate from the Roman Catholic church. As God willed to separate the Northern Israel and the kingdom of Judah in the OT, He willed to separate the Protestant church from the Roman Catholic church. The two systems were used for spreading the good news to other nations outside the Europe. But most of those who boasted about having the knowledge of God did not receive the knowledge. God pities His chosen children outside the Europe who were enslaved by superstitions and idols for a long time. They believe in God because of the words of God and the Holy Spirit. But the rest regardless of their ethnic origin continue to do evil.

The doctrine of election must be handled carefully. Otherwise, the church system produces many hypocrites who think they are chosen by God and superior to others. That tradition or brainwashing is still continued in their descendants. They think whatever they do is acceptable in the sight of God. They think God is pleased with their worship. They think they do enough good deeds to earn God’s favor. They speak proudly of their ancestors who murdered people in need. They are no different from their ancestors. When the Pharisees claimed that they were children of God, Christ said they were children of the devil, who was a murderer from the beginning. From my experience, most people in the Reformed churches have the Dutch and/or the English ancestors. Most of them think they have a better knowledge of God and are superior to others. They do not like people with different ethnic backgrounds coming to their churches. They do not give their children to non-Europeans for marriage. They think they inherit faith from their biological parents, and want to keep their bloodline. They live in their own world separate from the world and say that they are different from the world. They admit that God saves those from different nations. But they do not know that they have become the Pharisees.

You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies. (John 8:44)