But Be on Your Guard

Mark 13:9-13 ESV

“But be on your guard. For they will deliver you over to councils, and you will be beaten in synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them. And the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations. And when they bring you to trial and deliver you over, do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit. And brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death. And you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.”

Liars and Manipulators

We read in Mark 12:13-27 that some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians came to Jesus to try to trap him in his talk. And so they “sweet talked” him, at first, to try to gain his confidence, but Jesus knew it was a trick. And he did not fall for it. So he answered them wisely in a way they could not answer. And then some of the Sadducees came to him and they tried to trick him, too, I believe. And Jesus responded to all of them wisely so that they would not be able to trick him nor to trap him in his words.

And we read in Mark 12:38-40 how Jesus warned against the scribes who like to walk around in long robes and who like to have the best seats in the synagogues, but who devour widows’ houses and for pretense make long prayers. And you can read much more on that subject in Matthew 23:1-39, where Matthew went into much greater detail with regard to the hypocrisies of the Pharisees and the scribes. For they put on a show of righteousness on the outside, but inside they were full of all kinds of evil.

And then, beginning with Mark 13:5 through verse 23, Jesus told some of the signs of the end of the age, and then of the signs of the nearness of his return (see Mark 13:5-37). And he told them to be watchful that none of them would be led astray by false christs and by false prophets and false teachers and false apostles and anyone who might teach them lies that might lead them to reject the truth and to believe the lies, instead. And we have such liars and deceivers in abundance in American Christianity today.

And that brings us up to this evening’s passage beginning in Mark 13:9. We are to be on our guard, if we are followers of Christ, for liars and deceivers and manipulators and tricksters and all sorts of evildoers and those who twist the Scriptures to make them say what the Bible does not teach, as a whole, are all over everywhere, it seems. And many of them are smooth talkers and charmers who love to provoke and to lay traps for people to fall into and who love to attempt to bait people into meaningless discussions.

And many of them do give off an outward appearance of sincerity and of being teachers of truth and righteousness. And some or many of them have gained much popularity among the people, drawing people to themselves by the thousands and by the millions. But so many of them are liars and deceivers who are teaching lies, and not the truth, and who are leading many people to their deaths but on the promise of heaven when they die. For they are false teachers giving off the appearance of being of God.

Christian Persecution

These same liars and deceivers are among those who also will lie about us and will persecute us who are following Jesus with our lives. For so many of them are teaching a diluted and an altered gospel message intended to appease human flesh and in order to not offend the people of the world. So, if we are teaching the truth of the gospel, and especially if we are refuting the lies, they will come against us in many different ways. But the goal is to silence us and/or to destroy and to stop us from speaking the truth.

In America, Christians (or those giving lip service only to God) are not largely being persecuted to the severity of what this passage details with regard to physical suffering such as beatings and such. But that doesn’t mean some of us are not being persecuted. For if we stand on the truth of God’s word, and if we do not adhere to the watered down and diluted gospel message which is permeating the American church, we will be hated and persecuted and ostracized and cast out as unwanted and unwelcome.

And if we are not surrounded by people of like faith, then we may have zero to very few friends and people who want to be with us and with whom we can share in genuine Christian fellowship. For it appears that the vast majority of American Christians have now bought into to the diluted and altered and twisted gospel message that has gained enormous popularity in the American Christian culture. They like it because it makes no demands of them to forsake sins, obey God, and live holy lives pleasing to God.

And finding a fellowship of genuine believers in Christ who have not sold themselves out to the government and to church denominations and to the world and to big business and to marketing schemes and to a false and diluted and altered gospel message, and to a false persona of who God is and who Christ Jesus is, is a challenge, needless to say, and in some cases is a near impossibility in the American church culture of today in which we now live as Americans, particularly in some locations more than in others.

Thus, again, if we are standing on the truth of the gospel as Jesus taught it, and as his NT apostles taught it, and if we are standing up against the lies, and if we are refuting them, we are going to be opposed. And we may even be cast out of some church congregations or small group fellowships or kicked off of certain “Christian” websites and discussion groups which are now adhering to the diluted gospel and who are rejecting the true gospel.

And our family members may even turn against us and oppose us and turn on us and treat us spitefully or in hate or in disapproval and rejection and disagreement as well as may our “brothers and sisters” in Christ. But we are not to fear the lot of them nor what they might do to us or say about us or to us, for our lives are in the hands of the Lord, and he will direct our paths, and he will give us the words to say in response if we will listen and if we will heed his counsel and if we will not respond in fear nor in retaliation.

For Our Nation  

An Original Work / September 11, 2012

Bombs are bursting. Night is falling.

Jesus Christ is gently calling

You to follow Him in all ways.

Trust Him with your life today.

Make Him your Lord and your Savior.

Turn from your sin. Follow Jesus.

He will forgive you of your sin;

Cleanse your heart, made new within.

Men betraying: Our trust fraying.

On our knees to God we’re praying,

Seeking God to give us answers

That are only found in Him.

God is sovereign over all things.

Nothing from His mind escaping.

He has all things under His command,

And will work all for good.

Jesus Christ is gently calling

You to follow Him in all ways.

Men deceiving: We’re believing

In our Lord, and interceding

For our nation and its people

To obey their God today.

He is our hope for our future.

For our wounds He offers suture.

He is all we need for this life.

Trust Him with your life today.

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