In Matthew’s Gospel beginning with the fifth chapter we find Jesus, having gone out into the countryside, has been followed by great multitudes of people from the neighboring areas who had either seen or heard about His ministry of healing sick people of every kind of physical and mental disease and affliction. Beginning with verse three He addresses the masses concerning the character traits that His true saints would manifest during the coming seven church eras that would take place between that time and His return to earth to establish His Father’s kingdom. He would later each of the eras, pointing out their strengths and weaknesses. This episode is described in the second and third chapters of the Book of Revelations. Read those chapters. Relative to this series, carefully read Christ’s message to the final (Laodicean) church era which is recorded in chapter three, verses 14 through 22. Here He characterizes the modern day (Laodicean era) church. Notice how He condemns her and why. Today we see her influence as she sends out her deadly, God-defying false gospels throughout the world. I call this vile, rebellious false church the Catholic/Protestant Religious System. Believing herself to be at one with God, She calls herself “the church.”

Beginning with chapter five verse three Jesus proclaims the “blessed are’s” in which He speaks of those who would do what He commands them to and thereby exhibit the character traits He prescribes. He talks to the people about personal humility, about being sorry for past sins, about intensely desiring righteousness, about being merciful and pure in heart (mind). Beginning with verse 10 He warns salvation seekers about the persecution that would come on those who become truly righteous. He notes that only they would inherit the kingdom of God which was then and is still located in heaven. (Upon the arrival of Christ that Kingdom will be brought down to earth). In verses 11 and 12 Jesus tells those who would follow in His footsteps that they would be reviled and persecuted and would have all manner of evil spoken against them falsely because of their obedience to Him. They were to rejoice in their ill treatment, for their reward would be equally as great as that of the prophets who had suffered the same treatment, and for the same reason–they were lights in a world of religious darkness. Darkness hates light (Jn. 3:19:20).

In verses 13 through 16 Jesus describes those who would obey His Law (vs 17) as the salt of the earth and the light of the world. These saints would serve as His representatives to the Satan-dominated world in which they lived. The righteous lives lived before the world would bring glory to Him and His Father. In verse 17 He identifies the issue that would separate the holy from the unholy. That issue was His Ten Commandment Law. He knew that there would arise religious leaders who, having been deceived, would deceive others into believing that God had “nailed it to the cross” on which His Son would die. Knowing this, Jesus made certain that everyone knew that He had not come to earth to destroy the Law, but rather to fulfill it–to obey it to the fullest. In verses 18-20 He assures the multitudes that no part of the Law would be changed as long as heaven and earth stood, and that one’s righteousness would depend on his obedience to it. Satan’s prophets have successfully turned the church masses against this foundational teaching. God’s true church obeys His Law, Jesus Himself being her example. In this way they show their love for Him, as did Jesus (Jn. 14:15; 15:10/ 1 Jn. 2:5).

In the following verses Jesus goes into detail about the characteristics that His true disciples would exhibit. Then, in chapter seven, verse 13 we find Him warning the people that not everyone who seeks salvation will attain it. He points out that there is a radical difference between those who go through the motions of churchivity and those who do what He tells them to do. Read Friends of Jesus. Key word–Friends. Not even His hand-picked disciples were guaranteed salvation. In verses 13,14 He warns the people that the vast majority of salvation seekers would not enter into His strictly controlled church and follow His specific commands that lead to eternal life. He prophesied that the salvation-seeking masses would adamantly refuse to enter His church and walk His way, but would eagerly enter Satan’s wide gate and walk his broad way to destruction, all the while believing that they were on the path to paradise. Read Bait and Switch and Who Are God’s People? Key words–Bait and People respectively.

Why would the vast majority of salvation seekers enter the wrong gate and walk the wrong path? Jesus tells us in verses 15-20. Here He explains that heaven seekers are lured away from God’s singular, strict, no exceptions way that leads to the Kingdom of God. As Jesus warned in Matthew 24:4,5, Satan’s false prophets would come as ministers of the Biblical God, would deceive the masses and lead them away from the Lord’s Truth and therefore away from Him. They would present smooth things, lies and deceits to the people, as did their ministerial ancestors in the days of the prophets (Isa. 30:10). Today church pulpits and the airwaves are filled with salvation whores who offer an “only believe and repeat after me” way to instant salvation and rebirth. This is the “fruit” they offer.

We are to judge church leaders by their fruit. In order to judge their fruit we must know what is the “fruit” God requires for entrance into paradise. This requires the study of His Scriptures as He commands in Second Timothy 2:15. Note in 3:16,17 that all Scripture (Old and New Testaments) is inspired by God and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction and for TRAINING IN RIGHTEOUSNESS. One must know, believe and obey God’s Word in order to attain righteousness from God, without which one cannot be saved. Righteousness is the opposite of sin. Sin is the breaking of the Law (1 Jn. 3:4). With this in mind, read First John 3:1-10.

The problem is that the church masses are lazy. Like Adam and Eve, they are looking for the easiest way into God’s kingdom. By keeping them ignorant of God’s Word, Satan’s workers have filled his counterfeit churches with people who not only do not know God’s Truth, but adamantly reject it when it is shown to them in their own Bibles. By rejecting the Word of the Godhead they openly declare that they DESPISE BOTH THE FATHER AND THE SON–so said Jesus in Luke 10:16. As Jesus warned, those who hate His (and His apostles’) message persecute those who believe God’s Word and obey it. Millions have been martyred for believing and obeying God. Others will die in the future for doing the same thing. Jesus has some harsh words for those who claim to be His messengers but who lead the ignorant masses to their deaths. In verses 20 through 23 He informs such church leaders that He has never known them spiritually because they are workers of iniquity (Lawlessness). These are they who have destroyed God’s Law by which He rules His true saints. These hirelings not only walk the path of Adam and Eve, they lure others into coming along with them.

According to the Apostle James (2:10), to break one of God’s commandments is to break the entire Law. Having convinced their disciples that the Law was nailed to the cross, Satan’s ministers easily lead their congregations to substitute Satan’s sun god day (Sunday) sabbath for God’s Holy Day (Saturday–Isa. 58:13) Sabbath as we are commanded to observe in commandment #4. God promises to pour out His wrath on those who lead people to sin, as well those who follow their instructions. Read “I Did Not Send Them.” Key word–Send.

Beginning with verse 24 Jesus addresses those who believe and obey what Satan’s false prophets tell them. In this passage Jesus contrasts His true saints to Satan’s counterfeit saints. God’s disciples have built their spiritual house on The Rock which does not change. Those in Satan’s citadels of sin have built their various houses on sand that can be formed into anything one desires. The outcome of man’s sandy foundations is the two-headed, multi-bodied religious monster that today calls itself “Christianity.” Their hundreds of different churches shows that they are all built on sand, each different from all of the others. Each has its own god, own savior, own truths and own plan of salvation. Jesus Christ will totally destroy that old whore and her harlot daughters upon His return. A symbolic representation of this religious system is symbolically presented in Revelation 17:1-5.

This world-encompassing, disease-carrying old (Catholic) whore and her harlot (Protestant) daughters have infected the vast majority of salvation seekers with their false gospels and false promises. Jesus warned us about her, and she has lived up to His warning. Sadly, He noted that only a “few” salvation seekers would enter His “My way or the highway” church and walk His “no options” path to salvation (Mat. 7:13,14). Many, He lamented, would be called to do so but would refuse to answer His call (Mat. 22:14). The few who do so will rise to meet Him in the air upon His return, descend to the Mount of Olives with Him, then enter Jerusalem where He will create the Kingdom of God on earth. It is there that Father and Son, along with their Very Elect saints, will live forever as they reign over, first the earth for 1000 years, then the entire universe forever. Read The Kingdom of God and God’s Very Elect: Future Caretakers of the Universe. Key words–Kingdom and Caretakers respectively. L.J.