But they will not go much further, for their foolishness will be obvious to everyone, just like it was with Jannes and Jambres.

For there will be a time when people will not tolerate sound teaching. Instead, following their own desires, they will accumulate teachers for themselves, because they have an insatiable curiosity to hear new things.

And they will turn away from hearing the truth, but on the other hand they will turn aside to myths.

At my first defense no one appeared in my support; instead they all deserted me -- may they not be held accountable for it.

who must be silenced because they mislead whole families by teaching for dishonest gain what ought not to be taught.

Such testimony is true. For this reason rebuke them sharply that they may be healthy in the faith

They profess to know God but with their deeds they deny him, since they are detestable, disobedient, and unfit for any good deed.

In this way they will train the younger women to love their husbands, to love their children,

They must not slander anyone, but be peaceable, gentle, showing complete courtesy to all people.

But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, quarrels, and fights about the law, because they are useless and empty.

Make every effort to help Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way; make sure they have what they need.

They will perish, but you continue. And they will all grow old like a garment,

and like a robe you will fold them up and like a garment they will be changed, but you are the same and your years will never run out."

Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to serve those who will inherit salvation?

"There your fathers tested me and tried me, and they saw my works for forty years.

"Therefore, I became provoked at that generation and said, 'Their hearts are always wandering and they have not known my ways.'

"As I swore in my anger, 'They will never enter my rest!'"

And to whom did he swear they would never enter into his rest, except those who were disobedient?

So we see that they could not enter because of unbelief.

For we had good news proclaimed to us just as they did. But the message they heard did them no good, since they did not join in with those who heard it in faith.

For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, "As I swore in my anger, 'They will never enter my rest!'" And yet God's works were accomplished from the foundation of the world.

but to repeat the text cited earlier: "They will never enter my rest!"

and then have committed apostasy, to renew them again to repentance, since they are crucifying the Son of God for themselves all over again and holding him up to contempt.

And those of the sons of Levi who receive the priestly office have authorization according to the law to collect a tithe from the people, that is, from their fellow countrymen, although they too are descendants of Abraham.

The place where they serve is a sketch and shadow of the heavenly sanctuary, just as Moses was warned by God as he was about to complete the tabernacle. For he says, "See that you make everything according to the design shown to you on the mountain."

"It will not be like the covenant that I made with their fathers, on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not continue in my covenant and I had no regard for them, says the Lord.

"For this is the covenant that I will establish with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and I will inscribe them on their hearts. And I will be their God and they will be my people.

"And there will be no need at all for each one to teach his countryman or each one to teach his brother saying, 'Know the Lord,' since they will all know me, from the least to the greatest.

So with these things prepared like this, the priests enter continually into the outer tent as they perform their duties.

They served only for matters of food and drink and various washings; they are external regulations imposed until the new order came.

For otherwise would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers would have been purified once for all and so have no further consciousness of sin?

These all died in faith without receiving the things promised, but they saw them in the distance and welcomed them and acknowledged that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth.

For those who speak in such a way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.

In fact, if they had been thinking of the land that they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.

But as it is, they aspire to a better land, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

By faith, when Moses was born, his parents hid him for three months, because they saw the child was beautiful and they were not afraid of the king's edict.

By faith they crossed the Red Sea as if on dry ground, but when the Egyptians tried it, they were swallowed up.

Through faith they conquered kingdoms, administered justice, gained what was promised, shut the mouths of lions,

They were stoned, sawed apart, murdered with the sword; they went about in sheepskins and goatskins; they were destitute, afflicted, ill-treated

(the world was not worthy of them); they wandered in deserts and mountains and caves and openings in the earth.

And these all were commended for their faith, yet they did not receive what was promised.

For God had provided something better for us, so that they would be made perfect together with us.

For they disciplined us for a little while as seemed good to them, but he does so for our benefit, that we may share his holiness.

For they could not bear what was commanded: "If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned."

Take care not to refuse the one who is speaking! For if they did not escape when they refused the one who warned them on earth, how much less shall we, if we reject the one who warns from heaven?

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls and will give an account for their work. Let them do this with joy and not with complaints, for this would be no advantage for you.

Do they not blaspheme the good name of the one you belong to?

Look at ships too: Though they are so large and driven by harsh winds, they are steered by a tiny rudder wherever the pilot's inclination directs.

Is anyone among you ill? He should summon the elders of the church, and they should pray for him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord.

They probed into what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating when he testified beforehand about the sufferings appointed for Christ and his subsequent glory.

They were shown that they were serving not themselves but you, in regard to the things now announced to you through those who proclaimed the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven -- things angels long to catch a glimpse of.

and a stumbling-stone and a rock to trip over. They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

and maintain good conduct among the non-Christians, so that though they now malign you as wrongdoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God when he appears.

In the same way, wives, be subject to your own husbands. Then, even if some are disobedient to the word, they will be won over without a word by the way you live,

when they see your pure and reverent conduct.

Yet do it with courtesy and respect, keeping a good conscience, so that those who slander your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame when they accuse you.

after they were disobedient long ago when God patiently waited in the days of Noah as an ark was being constructed. In the ark a few, that is eight souls, were delivered through water.

So they are astonished when you do not rush with them into the same flood of wickedness, and they vilify you.

They will face a reckoning before Jesus Christ who stands ready to judge the living and the dead.

Now it was for this very purpose that the gospel was preached to those who are now dead, so that though they were judged in the flesh by human standards they may live spiritually by God's standards.

So then let those who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to a faithful Creator as they do good.

For if these things are really yours and are continually increasing, they will keep you from becoming ineffective and unproductive in your pursuit of knowing our Lord Jesus Christ more intimately.

But false prophets arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. These false teachers will infiltrate your midst with destructive heresies, even to the point of denying the Master who bought them. As a result, they will bring swift destruction on themselves.

And in their greed they will exploit you with deceptive words. Their condemnation pronounced long ago is not sitting idly by; their destruction is not asleep.

especially those who indulge their fleshly desires and who despise authority. Brazen and insolent, they are not afraid to insult the glorious ones,

But these men, like irrational animals -- creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed -- do not understand whom they are insulting, and consequently in their destruction they will be destroyed,

suffering harm as the wages for their harmful ways. By considering it a pleasure to carouse in broad daylight, they are stains and blemishes, indulging in their deceitful pleasures when they feast together with you.

Their eyes, full of adultery, never stop sinning; they entice unstable people. They have trained their hearts for greed, these cursed children!

By forsaking the right path they have gone astray, because they followed the way of Balaam son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness,

For by speaking high-sounding but empty words they are able to entice, with fleshly desires and with debauchery, people who have just escaped from those who reside in error.

Although these false teachers promise such people freedom, they themselves are enslaved to immorality. For whatever a person succumbs to, to that he is enslaved.

For if after they have escaped the filthy things of the world through the rich knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they again get entangled in them and succumb to them, their last state has become worse for them than their first.

They are illustrations of this true proverb: "A dog returns to its own vomit," and "A sow, after washing herself, wallows in the mire."

and saying, "Where is his promised return? For ever since our ancestors died, all things have continued as they were from the beginning of creation."

For they deliberately suppress this fact, that by the word of God heavens existed long ago and an earth was formed out of water and by means of water.

speaking of these things in all his letters. Some things in these letters are hard to understand, things the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they also do to the rest of the scriptures.

They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us, because if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But they went out from us to demonstrate that all of them do not belong to us.

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to determine if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world's perspective and the world listens to them.

Dear friend, you demonstrate faithfulness by whatever you do for the brothers (even though they are strangers).

They have testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God.

For they have gone forth on behalf of "The Name," accepting nothing from the pagans.

So also Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring towns, since they indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire in a way similar to these angels, are now displayed as an example by suffering the punishment of eternal fire.

But these men do not understand the things they slander, and they are being destroyed by the very things that, like irrational animals, they instinctively comprehend.

Woe to them! For they have traveled down Cain's path, and because of greed have abandoned themselves to Balaam's error; hence, they will certainly perish in Korah's rebellion.

These men are dangerous reefs at your love feasts, feasting without reverence, feeding only themselves. They are waterless clouds, carried along by the winds; autumn trees without fruit -- twice dead, uprooted;

to execute judgment on all, and to convict every person of all their thoroughly ungodly deeds that they have committed, and of all the harsh words that ungodly sinners have spoken against him."

These people are grumblers and fault-finders who go wherever their desires lead them, and they give bombastic speeches, enchanting folks for their own gain.

For they said to you, "In the end time there will come scoffers, propelled by their own ungodly desires."

I know your works as well as your labor and steadfast endurance, and that you cannot tolerate evil. You have even put to the test those who refer to themselves as apostles (but are not), and have discovered that they are false.

But I have a few things against you: You have some people there who follow the teaching of Balaam, who instructed Balak to put a stumbling block before the people of Israel so they would eat food sacrificed to idols and commit sexual immorality.

Look! I am throwing her onto a bed of violent illness, and those who commit adultery with her into terrible suffering, unless they repent of her deeds.

But you have a few individuals in Sardis who have not stained their clothes, and they will walk with me dressed in white, because they are worthy.

Listen! I am going to make those people from the synagogue of Satan -- who say they are Jews yet are not, but are lying -- Look, I will make them come and bow down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you.

In a circle around the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on those thrones were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white clothing and had golden crowns on their heads.

Each one of the four living creatures had six wings and was full of eyes all around and inside. They never rest day or night, saying: "Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God, the All-Powerful, Who was and who is, and who is still to come!"

the twenty-four elders throw themselves to the ground before the one who sits on the throne and worship the one who lives forever and ever, and they offer their crowns before his throne, saying:

"You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, since you created all things, and because of your will they existed and were created!"

They were singing a new song: "You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals because you were killed, and at the cost of your own blood you have purchased for God persons from every tribe, language, people, and nation.

You have appointed them as a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth."