Welcome back, my friend. Let’s close our study of Chosen as a Child of God by discussing the term “whosoever.”
By our worldly (Satanic) standards, the popular human philosophy is that the will governs the man, but as we’ve seen in the Word of God, it is the heart and mind which dominate the center of our being.
Let me recap the first two lessons so we have a reference point to move on.
The Sovereignty of God can be defined as follows:
- God has total control of all things past, present and future.
- Nothing happens that is out of His knowledge and control.
- All things are either caused by Him or allowed by Him for His own purposes and through His perfect will and timing.
- He is the only absolute and omnipotent ruler of the universe and is sovereign in creation, providence and redemption.
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. Romans 8:28-30 (NIV)
- God chose whom He would adopt as His children because he wanted to and has every right to do so. It’s as simple as that.
- Because of our sin, the total Depravity of Man and Woman makes it impossible for us to believe in God on our own. Why? Because 9 “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? Jeremiah 17:9 (NLT)
Jesus was very clear when He talked about the depravity of man as it relates to the heart of the lost.
For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts of lust, theft, murder, adultery, wanting what belongs to others, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, pride, and all other folly. All these vile things come from within; they are what pollute you and make you unfit for God. Mark 7:21-23 (TLB)
- Our will, yours and mine, is only free in one direction, namely, in the direction of evil.
- To the chosen, God sends His Holy Spirit to work His miracle and change our deceitful and desperately wicked heart of stone.
- The Holy Spirit regenerates our heart of stone and gives us a new heart so that we can willingly accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
- The Holy Spirit makes Christ irresistible to us, so it is not by force or obligation that we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, but through the desire of our heart.
- It is the strongest motives of the heart and mind that determine the actions of our will. It is not our “free-will” that determines the motives of our heart and mind.
With the review of the first two lessons on Chosen as a Child of God fresh in our minds, let’s look at the one scripture most often quoted by those who believe that Salvation is offered to everyone on earth simply because of the word “whosoever.”
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that WHOSOEVER believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16 (KJV)
This is a verse often used by individuals I refer to as The Single Verse Grenade Throwing Bible Expert whom I will address later in my lesson.
Let’s start at the beginning. Why did Jesus make this statement and to whom did He say it? In Chapter 3 of the book of John, Jesus is talking to a man named Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader who was a Pharisee. Nicodemus waited until the dark of night to approach Jesus so he wouldn’t be seen by anyone.
Jesus immediately begins to address the question Nicodemus didn’t even ask although I believe Jesus knew why Nicodemus truly came, which was to find out how to be saved.
Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.”
He goes on to say; “Men can only reproduce human life, but the Holy Spirit gives new life from heaven; so don’t be surprised at my statement that you must be born again!” John 3:6-7 (TLB)
This is completely outside of the realm of understanding for Nicodemus.
“How are these things possible?” Nicodemus asked. Jesus replied, “You are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don’t understand these things? John 3:9-10 (NLT)
Nicodemus was a Jewish religious leader, a Pharisee, yet he didn’t understand what Jesus was saying to him. Why?
Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God. 2 Corinthians 4:4 (NLT)
Just like you and me, Nicodemus was born a sinner and the total depravity of his soul made it impossible for him to understand, or even want to understand, for that matter.
In lesson 4, Chosen as a Child of God Part 2, we learned how an individual is Born Again. To the chosen, God sends His Holy Spirit to work His miracle and change our deceitful and desperately wicked heart of stone. The Holy Spirit regenerates our heart of stone and gives us a new heart so that we can willingly accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior. The Holy Spirit makes Christ irresistible to us, so it is not by force or obligation that we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, but through the desire of our heart.
So it is only the chosen who will believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior through the power of the Holy Spirit with the regeneration of their heart of stone with a new one.
Viewing John 3:16 in the old way, we read:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that WHOSOEVER believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16 (KJV)
We should actually be reading John 3:16 as follows:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever BELIEVETH in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16 (KJV)
The emphasis isn’t on the word “whosoever”, but on “believeth.” If it is only the chosen (elect) of God who will be able to believe because of the work of the Holy Spirit, then they are the “whosoever” spoken about in John 3:16
But some will come to me—those the Father has given me—and I will never, never reject them. For I have come here from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to have my own way. And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them to eternal life at the Last Day. For it is my Father’s will that everyone who sees his Son and believes on him should have eternal life—that I should raise him at the Last Day. John 6:37-40 (TLB)
You can see by this example if you just believe and listen to only one verse out of a book or chapter you can easily be swayed to believe anything someone tells you. Your friends and family may say that there are other verses in the scriptures that show a man’s “free-will” defines who becomes a believer and who doesn’t.
I hope you will be as diligent as the Berean Jews and find out for yourself what is true and what is make believe.
My friends, you truly need to read and understand the Bible. You can’t rest your beliefs on the ingrained preconceived notions of what the verse says by someone in authority without checking to see if what they say is true.
Yes, you will be treading on sacred ground, questioning someone who is a religious leader or has a degree in Theology. But who cares? Don’t forget they’re just sinners like you and me. It is your responsibility as a child of God to understand the Bible, what it’s about and who it was written for so that you will not fall into Satan’s trap of believing anything your told.
Reading and Understanding the Word of God
If you are not by now reading and studying the Word of God on a daily basis, you will never truly know and understand who God truly is. This is the one and only divinely inspired instruction manual for living the true Christian life and a must read book for all of God’s chosen children. If you are not letting your roots of faith grow down and draw up nourishment from Him through His Word, then how can you say that you are maturing in your faith?
We are commanded to go on growing in the Lord, and to become strong and vigorous in the truth we’re taught in His Holy Word, the Bible. If you’re still just grabbing a verse here and there and hoping it’s enough to get you through today, I can tell you, you do not understand who God is and all of the wonderful truths and blessing His Holy Word, the Bible has in store for you.
Do you want more and more of God’s kindness and peace? Then learn to know him better and better. For as you know him better, he will give you, through his great power, everything you need for living a truly good life: he even shares his own glory and his own goodness with us! And by that same mighty power he has given us all the other rich and wonderful blessings he promised; for instance, the promise to save us from the lust and rottenness all around us, and to give us his own character. 2 Peter 1:2-4 (TLB)
Trust the LORD completely, and don’t depend on your own knowledge. With every step you take, think about what he wants, and he will help you go the right way. Don’t trust in your own wisdom, but fear and respect the LORD and stay away from evil. Proverbs 3:5-7 (ERV)
If you are not seeking your wisdom and knowledge from God to guide you, then the only thing you have left to depend on is your own worldly (Satanic) knowledge and wisdom as your guide. With the result being a thought process that is no different than the lost souls you live and work with on a daily basis.
Could this answer the questions you may have as to why your personal life just doesn’t seem to be changing, and the new person you thought God planned for you to become now that you’re a Christian just isn’t showing any signs of life yet?
Listen to what the Apostle Paul had to say about the Berean Jews when it came to studying the Word of God.
That very night the believers sent Paul and Silas to Berea. When they arrived there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth. As a result, many Jews believed, as did many of the prominent Greek women and men. Acts 17:10-12 (NLT)
A strong, deeply rooted understanding of the Bible is the only way you’re going to be able to discern the truth. If you’re not searching the Scriptures day after day like the Berean Jews did to fact check whoever you’re listening to concerning God, how do you know if what their saying is true or false?
You may be listening to Godly men who are ordained ministers or priests or someone who has a PhD in Theology after their name and that’s great. But, did you ever ask yourself if the person you’re listening to or reading about has accepted Jesus Christ as their personal savior?
Then there are what I call the Single Verse Grenade Throwing Bible Experts. These are friends or family members who know only enough about the Bible to make them dangerous to listen to. These are individuals who have memorized two or three verses from the Word of God and who then throw them into any discussion about God and let them explode the conversation into confusion and misunderstanding.
If pressed, these individuals are unable to explain the true meaning of what they just quoted or where the verse is found. They simply walk away in a huff and say, “well that’s what I believe and you’re not going to change my mind.”
What makes you think Satan isn’t crafty enough to use these religious individuals to disrupt and distort God’s Word keeping the lost from finding the truth about Jesus Christ?
Listen to what the Apostle Peter wrote to the Jewish Christians scattered throughout Asia concerning false prophets and teachers.
And remember why he is waiting. He is giving us time to get his message of salvation out to others. Our wise and beloved brother Paul has talked about these same things in many of his letters. Some of his comments are not easy to understand, and there are people who are deliberately stupid, and always demand some unusual interpretation—they have twisted his letters around to mean something quite different from what he meant, just as they do the other parts of the Scripture—and the result is disaster for them. I am warning you ahead of time, dear brothers, so that you can watch out and not be carried away by the mistakes of these wicked men, lest you yourselves become mixed up too. 2 Peter 3:15-17 (TLB)
I am amazed by the fact that the Berean Jews didn’t believe what the Apostle Paul, a man handpicked by God and taught the scriptures by none other than Jesus Christ Himself said until they checked the Word of God to find out whether he was speaking the truth.
Yet for some of us we simply accept what we’re told if the person telling us has an official religious title or college degree. My friends, if you are not taking what they’re saying and checking the Bible for yourself, you truly have no idea if what they are teaching is grounded in the Word of God. Do you?
I believe the Church, the body of Christ, has failed miserably when it comes to reading and studying the Bible. As Children of God, we should be ashamed of ourselves for not reading and studying our Father’s only book.
Make it easy on yourself
Pick up a version that’s a little easier to understand and read. I recommend the New Living Translation. This is the Bible we send out to our followers when they request a Bible. There’s also the Good News Translation, The Living Bible, and the Easy-to-Read Version Bible.
There is a wonderful online resource you can use entitled, Bible Gateway, (www.biblegateway.com). This website has 202 different online Bibles written in 72 different languages. You can compare different Bible versions from The King James Version to The New International Version to the ones I’ve mention above. What you will find is the essence of the message in each one is the same. This is why I so often quote my scriptures from the Living Bible or the Easy-to-Read versions because they speak in the language we use today.
There will certainly be those legalists in your life that will tell you it has to be the King James Version or nothing. If you’re like me, I struggle with understanding a language that was used over 400 years ago. I believe God our Father would want you and me to read and understand what He has written rather than just carrying around a version that’s acceptable to your legalistic friends and not read it.
My dear friends, I apologize for going on about reading the Bible (it won’t be the last time), but it’s important. It is really the only thing in the life of a Christian that is that important. Without reading and understanding the Bible, you remain wide open for Satan to confuse your mind like he did Eve.
Remember, Satan was the brightest and most beautiful angel in God’s realm before falling to pride. So he knows all the scriptures and how to distort every one of them for his own purposes. He sends out his evil minions throughout the world to whisper these distorted scriptures into the ears of believers who are not grounded in the truths of the Bible through their own studies.
Understanding the God of the Universe
The LORD says, “The wise should not boast of their wisdom, nor the strong of their strength, nor the rich of their wealth. If any want to boast, they should boast that they know and understand me, because my love is constant, and I do what is just and right. These are the things that please me. I, the LORD, have spoken.” Jeremiah 9:23-24 (GNT)
As a child of God, is this your heart’s desire? Do you really know and understand who the God of the Universe is in a personal and intimate way? Yes, he is your Loving Heavenly Father, He is your Lord and Master, He is your Teacher, Guide and Protector, but He is so much more. In the coming months, we will study and learn together all of the wonderful attributes of our God. It is my heart’s desire that one day you will be able to boast to those around you, that you know and understand who the God of the Universe truly is.
Until next month, my friends, may His mercy, peace and love be multiplied to you.
Your Journey to Eternity
