"No one can break into a strong man's house and take away his belongings unless he first ties up the strong man; then he can plunder his house.

"When a strong man, with all his weapons ready, guards his own house, all his belongings are safe.

But when a stronger man attacks him and defeats him, he carries away all the weapons the owner was depending on and divides up what he stole.

As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, "Hurry and do what you must!"

At that time you followed the world's evil way; you obeyed the ruler of the spiritual powers in space, the spirit who now controls the people who disobey God.

But you belong to God, my children, and have defeated the false prophets, because the Spirit who is in you is more powerful than the spirit in those who belong to the world.

The seeds that fell on rocky ground stand for those who receive the message gladly as soon as they hear it.

The seeds that fell among thorn bushes stand for those who hear the message; but the worries about this life and the love for riches choke the message, and they don't bear fruit.

"But my people would not listen to me; Israel would not obey me.

So I let them go their stubborn ways and do whatever they wanted.

Yes, they burned like an oven with their plotting. All night their anger smoldered, and in the morning it burst into flames.

He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief. He carried the money bag and would help himself from it.

Jesus and his disciples were at supper. The Devil had already put into the heart of Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, the thought of betraying Jesus.

But there was a man named Ananias, who with his wife Sapphira sold some property that belonged to them.

Peter said to him, "Ananias, why did you let Satan take control of you and make you lie to the Holy Spirit by keeping part of the money you received for the property?

Simon saw that the Spirit had been given to the believers when the apostles placed their hands on them. So he offered money to Peter and John,

But Peter answered him, "May you and your money go to hell, for thinking that you can buy God's gift with money!

Repent, then, of this evil plan of yours, and pray to the Lord that he will forgive you for thinking such a thing as this.

(No doubt there must be divisions among you so that the ones who are in the right may be clearly seen.)

The Wicked One will come with the power of Satan and perform all kinds of false miracles and wonders,

And so God sends the power of error to work in them so that they believe what is false.

is swollen with pride and knows nothing. He has an unhealthy desire to argue and quarrel about words, and this brings on jealousy, disputes, insults, evil suspicions,

and constant arguments from people whose minds do not function and who no longer have the truth. They think that religion is a way to become rich.

But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and are caught in the trap of many foolish and harmful desires, which pull them down to ruin and destruction.

For the love of money is a source of all kinds of evil. Some have been so eager to have it that they have wandered away from the faith and have broken their hearts with many sorrows.

These people really did not belong to our fellowship, and that is why they left us; if they had belonged to our fellowship, they would have stayed with us. But they left so that it might be clear that none of them really belonged to us.

For some godless people have slipped in unnoticed among us, persons who distort the message about the grace of our God in order to excuse their immoral ways, and who reject Jesus Christ, our only Master and Lord. Long ago the Scriptures predicted the condemnation they have received.

For even though you know all this, I want to remind you of how the Lord once rescued the people of Israel from Egypt, but afterward destroyed those who did not believe.

One of the heads of the beast seemed to have been fatally wounded, but the wound had healed. The whole earth was amazed and followed the beast.

Everyone worshiped the dragon because he had given his authority to the beast. They worshiped the beast also, saying, "Who is like the beast? Who can fight against it?"

All people living on earth will worship it, except those whose names were written before the creation of the world in the book of the living which belongs to the Lamb that was killed.

"Listen, then, if you have ears!