did John's right to baptize come from God or from human beings?"

They started to argue among themselves, "What shall we say? If we say, 'From God,' he will say, 'Why, then, did you not believe John?'

He offered rest and comfort to all of you, but you refused to listen to him.

That is why the LORD is going to teach you letter by letter, line by line, lesson by lesson. Then you will stumble with every step you take. You will be wounded, trapped, and taken prisoner.

The meaning of every prophetic vision will be hidden from you; it will be like a sealed scroll. If you take it to someone who knows how to read and ask him to read it to you, he will say he can't because it is sealed.

If you give it to someone who can't read and ask him to read it to you, he will answer that he doesn't know how.

Then I thought, "These are only the poor and ignorant. They behave foolishly; they don't know what their God requires, what the LORD wants them to do.

I will go to the people in power and talk with them. Surely they know what their God requires, what the LORD wants them to do." But all of them have rejected the LORD's authority and refuse to obey him.

I answered, "Who would listen to me if I spoke to them and warned them? They are stubborn and refuse to listen to your message; they laugh at what you tell me to say.

The LORD said to his people, "Stand at the crossroads and look. Ask for the ancient paths and where the best road is. Walk in it, and you will live in peace." But they said, "No, we will not!"

Then the LORD appointed sentries to listen for the trumpet's warning. But they said, "We will not listen."

But the invited guests paid no attention and went about their business: one went to his farm, another to his store,

while others grabbed the servants, beat them, and killed them.

He came to his own country, but his own people did not receive him.

Yet you are not willing to come to me in order to have life.

When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy; they disputed what Paul was saying and insulted him.

But Paul and Barnabas spoke out even more boldly: "It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken first to you. But since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we will leave you and go to the Gentiles.

When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul gave his whole time to preaching the message, testifying to the Jews that Jesus is the Messiah.

When they opposed him and said evil things about him, he protested by shaking the dust from his clothes and saying to them, "If you are lost, you yourselves must take the blame for it! I am not responsible. From now on I will go to the Gentiles."

So they left, disagreeing among themselves, after Paul had said this one thing: "How well the Holy Spirit spoke through the prophet Isaiah to your ancestors!

because this people's minds are dull, and they have stopped up their ears and closed their eyes. Otherwise, their eyes would see, their ears would hear, their minds would understand, and they would turn to me, says God, and I would heal them.' "

The seeds that fell among thorn bushes stand for those who hear; but the worries and riches and pleasures of this life crowd in and choke them, and their fruit never ripens.

As it was in the time of Noah so shall it be in the days of the Son of Man.

It will be as it was in the time of Lot. Everybody kept on eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building.

That is how it will be on the day the Son of Man is revealed.

Jesus saw that he was sad and said, "How hard it is for rich people to enter the Kingdom of God!

In the days before the flood people ate and drank, men and women married, up to the very day Noah went into the boat;

yet they did not realize what was happening until the flood came and swept them all away. That is how it will be when the Son of Man comes.

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.

They will turn away from listening to the truth and give their attention to legends.

Demas fell in love with this present world and has deserted me, going off to Thessalonica. Crescens went to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia.

Let no one become immoral or unspiritual like Esau, who for a single meal sold his rights as the older son.

Do not love the world or anything that belongs to the world. If you love the world, you do not love the Father.

Everything that belongs to the world---what the sinful self desires, what people see and want, and everything in this world that people are so proud of---none of this comes from the Father; it all comes from the world.