A man who remains stiff-necked after much reproof will suddenly be shattered beyond recovery.

But My people would not listen to Me, and Israel would not obey Me. So I gave them up to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices.

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or empty pride, but in humility consider others more important than yourselves.

But because of your hard and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

I can do nothing by Myself; I judge only as I hear. And My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.

For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance is like the wickedness of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He has rejected you as king.”

The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery; idolatry and sorcery; hatred, discord, jealousy, and rage; rivalries, divisions, factions, and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Be sober-minded and alert. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid.

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the keeper of the vineyard. He cuts off every branch in Me that bears no fruit, and every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes to make it even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. Just as no branch can bear fruit by itself unless it remains in the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me. I am the vine and you are the branches. The one who remains in Me, and I in him, will bear much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing. . . .

This is the vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Listen, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the LORD has spoken: “I have raised children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against Me. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s manger, but Israel does not know; My people do not understand.” Alas, O sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children of depravity! They have forsaken the LORD; they have despised the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on Him. Why do you want more beatings? Why do you keep rebelling? Your head has a massive wound, and your whole heart is afflicted. . . .

You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit, just as your fathers did.

Then they will not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, whose heart was not loyal, whose spirit was not faithful to God.

But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder; they stopped up their ears from hearing.

But the seed sown on good soil is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and produces a crop—a hundredfold, sixtyfold, or thirtyfold.”

But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder; they stopped up their ears from hearing. They made their hearts like flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD of Hosts had sent by His Spirit through the earlier prophets. Therefore great anger came from the LORD of Hosts.

For I knew that you are stubborn; your neck is iron and your forehead is bronze.

The LORD also said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and they are indeed a stiff-necked people.

Listen to Me, you stubborn people, far removed from righteousness:

Yet they did not listen or incline their ear, but they followed the stubborn inclinations of their own evil hearts. They went backward and not forward.

Do not be like the horse or mule, which have no understanding; they must be controlled with bit and bridle to make them come to you.

and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

“Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted over the earth.” The LORD of Hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah

But they would not listen, and they stiffened their necks like their fathers, who did not believe the LORD their God.

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as you did in the rebellion, in the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers tested and tried Me, and for forty years saw My works. Therefore I was angry with that generation, and I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known My ways.’ So I swore on oath in My anger, ‘They shall never enter My rest.’” . . .

So why did you not obey the LORD? Why did you rush upon the plunder and do evil in the sight of the LORD?” “But I did obey the LORD,” Saul replied. “I went on the mission that the LORD gave me. I brought back Agag king of Amalek and devoted the Amalekites to destruction. The troops took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of the things devoted to destruction, in order to sacrifice them to the LORD your God at Gilgal.” But Samuel declared: “Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obedience to His voice? Behold, obedience is better than sacrifice, and attentiveness is better than the fat of rams. For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance is like the wickedness of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He has rejected you as king.”

Hear, O Israel: Today you are about to cross the Jordan to go in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than you, with large cities fortified to the heavens. The people are strong and tall, the descendants of the Anakim. You know about them, and you have heard it said, “Who can stand up to the sons of Anak?” But understand that today the LORD your God goes across ahead of you as a consuming fire; He will destroy them and subdue them before you. And you will drive them out and annihilate them swiftly, as the LORD has promised you. When the LORD your God has driven them out before you, do not say in your heart, “Because of my righteousness the LORD has brought me in to possess this land.” Rather, the LORD is driving out these nations before you because of their wickedness. It is not because of your righteousness or uprightness of heart that you are going in to possess their land, but it is because of their wickedness that the LORD your God is driving out these nations before you, to keep the promise He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. . . .

They keep saying to those who despise Me, ‘The LORD says that you will have peace,’ and to everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart, ‘No harm will come to you.’

Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, so that in due time He may exalt you.

Children, obey your parents in everything, for this is pleasing to the Lord.

“Son of man,” He said to me, “stand up on your feet and I will speak to you.” And as He spoke to me, the Spirit entered me and set me on my feet, and I heard Him speaking to me. “Son of man,” He said to me, “I am sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against Me. To this very day they and their fathers have rebelled against Me. They are obstinate and stubborn children. I am sending you to them, and you are to say to them, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says.’ And whether they listen or refuse to listen—for they are a rebellious house—they will know that a prophet has been among them. . . .

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

And if after all this you will not obey Me, I will proceed to punish you sevenfold for your sins.

You admonished them to turn back to Your law, but they were arrogant and disobeyed Your commandments. They sinned against Your ordinances, by which a man will live if he practices them. They stubbornly shrugged their shoulders; they stiffened their necks and would not obey.

He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God. But Zedekiah stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the LORD, the God of Israel.

“As for the word you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD, we will not listen to you!

But they and our fathers became arrogant and stiff-necked and did not obey Your commandments.

Because you refused my call, and no one took my outstretched hand,

And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore you, secure you, strengthen you, and establish you.

Such punishment is specially reserved for those who indulge the corrupt desires of the flesh and despise authority. Bold and self-willed, they are unafraid to slander glorious beings.

For I know how rebellious and stiff-necked you are. If you are already rebelling against the LORD while I am still alive, how much more will you rebel after my death!

They are darkened in their understanding and alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts.

Who gave Jacob up for spoil, and Israel to the plunderers? Was it not the LORD, against whom we have sinned? They were unwilling to walk in His ways, and they would not obey His law.

Yet they would not obey or incline their ears, but each one followed the stubbornness of his evil heart. So I brought on them all the curses of this covenant I had commanded them to follow but they did not keep.”

Therefore you must say to them, ‘This is the nation that would not listen to the voice of the LORD their God and would not receive correction. Truth has perished; it has disappeared from their lips.

They refused to listen and failed to remember the wonders You performed among them. They stiffened their necks and appointed a leader to return them to their bondage in Egypt. But You are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in loving devotion, and You did not forsake them.

They failed to keep God’s covenant and refused to live by His law.

do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, in the day at Massah in the wilderness,

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Nevertheless, the king’s word prevailed against Joab and against the commanders of the army. So Joab and the commanders of the army departed from the presence of the king to count the troops of Israel.

Then all the men of his city will stone him to death. So you must purge the evil from among you, and all Israel will hear and be afraid.

Honor your father and mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

May I never enter their council; may I never join their assembly. For they kill men in their anger, and hamstring oxen on a whim.

But these people have stubborn and rebellious hearts. They have turned aside and gone away.

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.

He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters.

Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

Do not lift up your horn against heaven or speak with an outstretched neck.’”

This is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘I witnessed what the Amalekites did to the Israelites when they ambushed them on their way up from Egypt.

Nevertheless, the people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We must have a king over us.

And when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the LORD killed every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both of man and beast. This is why I sacrifice to the LORD the firstborn male of every womb, but I redeem all the firstborn of my sons.’

Then the LORD passed in front of Moses and called out: “The LORD, the LORD God, is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness,

“O Lord,” he said, “if I have indeed found favor in Your sight, my Lord, please go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, forgive our iniquity and sin, and take us as Your inheritance.”

He will be a wild donkey of a man, and his hand will be against everyone, and everyone’s hand against him; he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.”

For Israel is as obstinate as a stubborn heifer. Can the LORD now shepherd them like lambs in an open meadow?

I have surely heard Ephraim’s moaning: ‘You disciplined me severely, like an untrained calf. Restore me, that I may return, for You are the LORD my God.

This is what the LORD says: “Stand at the crossroads and look. Ask for the ancient paths: ‘Where is the good way?’ Then walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it!’

I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

She is loud and defiant; her feet do not remain at home.

and if My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.

In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and carried away the Israelites to Assyria, where he settled them in Halah, in Gozan by the Habor River, and in the cities of the Medes. All this happened because the people of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They had worshiped other gods and walked in the customs of the nations that the LORD had driven out before the Israelites, as well as in the practices introduced by the kings of Israel. The Israelites secretly did things against the LORD their God that were not right. From watchtower to fortified city, they built high places in all their cities. They set up for themselves sacred pillars and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree. . . .

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control.

As soon as night had fallen, the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now the Bereans were more noble-minded than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if these teachings were true.

Now the Bereans were more noble-minded than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if these teachings were true.

Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and stiffen your necks no more.

If there is a poor man among your brothers within any of the gates in the land that the LORD your God is giving you, then you are not to harden your heart or shut your hand from your poor brother.

The LORD also said to me, “I have seen this people, and they are indeed a stiff-necked people.

O LORD, do not Your eyes look for truth? You struck them, but they felt no pain. You finished them off, but they refused to accept discipline. They have made their faces harder than stone and refused to repent.

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion. A land in rebellion has many rulers, but a man of understanding and knowledge maintains order. A destitute leader who oppresses the poor is like a driving rain that leaves no food. Those who forsake the law praise the wicked, but those who keep the law resist them. Evil men do not understand justice, but those who seek the LORD comprehend fully. . . .

Blessed is the man who is always reverent, but he who hardens his heart falls into trouble.

A man who remains stiff-necked after much reproof will suddenly be shattered beyond recovery. When the righteous flourish, the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule, the people groan. A man who loves wisdom brings joy to his father, but a companion of prostitutes squanders his wealth. By justice a king brings stability to the land, but a man who exacts tribute demolishes it. A man who flatters his neighbor spreads a net for his feet. . . .

As God’s steward, an overseer must be above reproach—not self-absorbed, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not greedy for money.

Cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.

Now do not stiffen your necks as your fathers did. Submit to the LORD and come to His sanctuary, which He has consecrated forever. Serve the LORD your God, so that His fierce anger will turn away from you.

For the time will come when men will not tolerate sound doctrine, but with itching ears they will gather around themselves teachers to suit their own desires.

Remember Your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Overlook the stubbornness of this people and the wickedness of their sin.

Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will surely help you; I will uphold you with My right hand of righteousness.

Be doers of the word, and not hearers only. Otherwise, you are deceiving yourselves.

Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good conduct, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.

But when the judge died, the Israelites became even more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods to serve them and bow down to them. They would not give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.

For no word from God will ever fail.”

Jesus declared, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’

You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its savor, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.

These are the words of Agur son of Jakeh—the burden that this man declared to Ithiel: “I am weary, O God, and worn out. Surely I am the most ignorant of men, and I lack the understanding of a man. I have not learned wisdom, and I have no knowledge of the Holy One. Who has ascended to heaven and come down? Who has gathered the wind in His hands? Who has bound up the waters in His cloak? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His name, and what is the name of His Son—surely you know! Every word of God is flawless; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him. . . .

Of David. Do not fret over those who do evil; do not envy those who do wrong. For they wither quickly like grass and wilt like tender plants. Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Delight yourself in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in Him, and He will do it. . . .

For no such prophecy was ever brought forth by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Now faith is the assurance of what we hope for and the certainty of what we do not see.

Now faith is the assurance of what we hope for and the certainty of what we do not see. This is why the ancients were commended. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous when God gave approval to his gifts. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead. By faith Enoch was taken up so that he did not see death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. . . .

As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.