They did not understand that Jesus was talking to them about the Father.

I have come with my Father's authority, but you have not received me; when, however, someone comes with his own authority, you will receive him.

Whoever is willing to do what God wants will know whether what I teach comes from God or whether I speak on my own authority.

And so they were not able to believe, because Isaiah also said,

"God has blinded their eyes and closed their minds, so that their eyes would not see, and their minds would not understand, and they would not turn to me, says God, for me to heal them."

Evil people do not know what justice is, but those who worship the LORD understand it well.

Such people are too stupid to know what they are doing. They close their eyes and their minds to the truth.

May those who are wise understand what is written here, and may they take it to heart. The LORD's ways are right, and righteous people live by following them, but sinners stumble and fall because they ignore them.

But these nations do not know what is in the LORD's mind. They do not realize that they have been gathered together to be punished in the same way that grain is brought in to be threshed.

no one who is wise or who worships God.

Many of his followers heard this and said, "This teaching is too hard. Who can listen to it?"

So he told me to go and give the people this message: "No matter how much you listen, you will not understand. No matter how much you look, you will not know what is happening."

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.

"How stubborn you are!" Stephen went on to say. "How heathen your hearts, how deaf you are to God's message! You are just like your ancestors: you too have always resisted the Holy Spirit!

And so people become enemies of God when they are controlled by their human nature; for they do not obey God's law, and in fact they cannot obey it.

Those who obey their human nature cannot please God.