Book of Luke - Ch. 23, Vs. 33-56 (12/27/2020)

The Crucifixion and the Thief's Prayer in Luke 23

Isn't it wonderful that we still have the technology to reach out and touch one another, even in times when we can't actually come together and meet. Most gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day and thank you for all our many blessings.

We thank you for giving us the technology to reach out and touch one another and communicate to one another. And we know that it is better when we can get together in person, but it is good when we can get together no matter if it's virtual.

Bless us and keep us, go with us through the services this morning. Keep us in thy will and teach us the lessons you want us to know. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Okay, we are still in the midst of Luke 23.

And we would, I'd like to begin by reading a part of what we did last week, last Sunday. And I'll begin with Luke 23, verse 33. And I'm gonna parallel three, actually four, Luke, Matthew, Mark, and John.

And we're gonna go through the last few hours of Jesus' life and a couple of hours after his life, after his death this morning. So here we go. And when they were come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified him and the malefactors, one on the right hand and the other on the left, then said, Jesus, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.

Now, this is a man hanging on a cross talking about the people that actually have just crucified him. And he says, forgive them for they know not what they do. And they parted his rammets and cast lots and the people stood beholding.

And the rulers also with them derided him saying, he saved others, let him save himself if he be Christ, the chosen of God. And the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him and offering him vinegar and saying, if thou be the King of the Jews, save thyself.

And his superscription also was written over him in the letters of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew. This is the King of the Jews. And one of the malefactors which were hanged, railed on him saying, if thou be Christ, save thyself and us.

But the other answered, rebuking him saying, dost thou not fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds. But this man hath done nothing amiss.

And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, verily I say unto thee, today, thou shalt be with me in paradise. Now that was what we did last Sunday.

And that's where we left off with Jesus promising the second thief on the cross that he would that day, not later, but that day be with him in paradise. Now I'm going to go to Mark to help establish a timeline.

I'm going to go to Mark chapter 15, verse 22. And they bring him into the place Golgotha, which is being interpreted the place of the skull. And they gave him to drink wine mixed with mire, and he received it not.

Now Jesus refused the drink at this time, but he's going to drink later. But right now he wants to keep his mind clear. Mire was a narcotic that was used to deaden pain, but also you would lose a lot of your ability to think.

And Jesus still had many things left to do, many things left to say before he died. And when they crucified him, they parted his garments, casting lots upon them, what every man should take. And verse 25, and it was the third hour and they crucified him.

Okay, so the crucifixion happened at 9 a .m. in the morning. That's approximate. The day began at sunrise. And the sunrise was at about six o 'clock. So the third hour was about nine o 'clock. And the superscription of his accusation was written over the king of the Jews.

And with him, they crucified two thieves, the one on his right hand and the other on his left hand. And the scripture was fulfilled, which says he was numbered with the transgressors. And they that passed by reeled on him, wagging their heads and saying, thou that destroyest the temple and buildeth it in three days, save thyself and come down from the cross.

Likewise, also the chief priest mocking said among themselves with the scribes, he saved others, he cannot save himself. Let Christ the King of Israel descend now from the cross that we may see and believe.

Do any of you really think that they wanted to see and believe or they wanted to sit and ridicule? And they that were with him, they that were crucified with him reviled him. So at this point, both thieves are reviling Jesus.

It's only later when one of them is going to repent and asked to be for Jesus to remember him. Now we're gonna go back to Luke 23, picking it up at verse 44. And we'll be about three hours later in time.

Jesus is now hung on the cross for three hours. From nine to noon. And there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. And that's 3 p .m. So he was crucified at nine. He hung on the cross until 12.

At 12, it turned dark. And it stayed dark until three. Now there are Bible scholars, and I use that term loosely, biblical scholars who try to describe this darkness to some sort of natural occurrence.

There's always that group of scholars that are not in it to learn what the scripture says, but to disprove the scripture. And these usually choose a solar eclipse as the cause. Now this is a common ploy for scholars whose desire is to discredit the Bible.

Oh, they say, it wasn't God that created the universe. It was lots of time and chance. And it just happened by itself. They say, it wasn't the Red Sea. It was the Reed Sea. And it wasn't any more than maybe knee deep.

So the Israelites waded across it. So I guess the miracle was that all the Egyptians drowned. And in keeping with the season, they say it was not a supernatural light that led the wise men to Jesus. It was a nova.

Well, that's what it was last year. This year, the common theme is the Christmas star. Many of you heard of the Christmas star? It's not a star at all. It's a rare extra close conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn.

They come close together often, but only about 800 years, every 800 years, do they come as close as they did this past, this Christmas. So the 21st of this month, they came extremely close together. And that was the last time it was this close together was about 800 years ago.

So it was a rather rare event. Make the star, made it look like almost like one star. Now, the wise men who were astronomers would have seen that. And it happened that there was one of these 800 year events near the time of Jesus's birth.

And it could have been that the star could have been the sign that the wise men were looking for. And they would have known to head east the direction indicated by the star toward Jerusalem. But the star could not have turned south and led them to the very place that Jesus was.

I want to read something to you from Matthew 2, verse nine. You don't need to go there. It's gonna be just quick and I'll be away from it. When they had heard the king, the wise men have been talking to Herod.

And he told them, the scholar said that he would be in Bethlehem. And he told them, Herod told them to go to Bethlehem and find them. So they head out and start to leave and look up. And lo and behold, the star leads them to Bethlehem, not just to Bethlehem, but to the very place where Jesus was.

Here's what Matthew 2, verse nine says. When they had heard the king, they departed. And lo, the star which they saw in the east went before them till it came and stood over where the young child was.

Now, the star couldn't have done that. There are many more examples of instances where scholars try to use something to attribute supernatural events to natural causes. But all of these assertations are easily disproven.

As is the one we're dealing with today, that the darkness was the result of a solar eclipse. 12 to three, three hours, from noon to three. That's a long time for an eclipse. That alone would rule out a solar eclipse.

It lasted far too long. I did a little research and I found in space .com an article by Joe Rale. And I'm just gonna read what he said. During the brief period of totality, when the sun is completely covered, the beautiful corona, that is the tenuous outer atmosphere of the sun is revealed.

Totality may last as long as seven minutes and 31 seconds, though most eclipses are much shorter. Now there's two things to note. First of all, even when it's in totality, you will see the sun. You won't see the disk of the sun, but you will see the halo around it, the corona around it.

And we're talking not about seven minutes and 31 seconds. We're talking about three hours. Now, I actually was present for a total solar eclipse. In March, on March the 7th, in 1970, in the Okefenokee Swamp, just outside of Waco, not Waco, Waycross, Georgia.

Just outside of Waycross, Georgia in the Okefenokee Swamp. Well, I actually went into the swamp from the west side, the less visited side to be away from the crowd because people were gathered from all over to see the eclipse.

And I wanted to see it, but I didn't want to deal with the crowd. So I went to a friend's home and we went in from Pearson, Georgia and went in from the west side into the swamp. And I can tell you this, even at the point of totality, it was no darker than twilight.

It was partially lighted by the corona of the sun that was overhead. Although I couldn't see it, there was a light overcast that was very thin. And you could see the sun through it. And you could even see the image of the sun on the water.

And that was black water, black swamp water, and it would reflect just like a mirror. So we looked at the water in order to see the eclipse. And what it looks like, it looked like the sun overhead, creating a spot of light at the center.

And then all around the horizon, it looked like sunrise, but not just sunrise in the east or sunset in the west. 360 degrees all the way around the horizon, you saw something that looked like sunrise.

And what happened? The birds began to roost, including a bunch of vultures that lit in a dead tree just up into our right. And the alligators began to boom. This was in the Okinoki Swamp. And the frogs began to croak.

And the mosquitoes began to swarm and begin to bite. It was a typical sunset in the swamp. But in about two and one half minutes, totality was over. And within 10 minutes, you would have been hard pressed to show that you'd even been in eclipse at all.

But that's not enough. My word is not enough. And the word of Joe Rowe is not enough. There's even more to preclude an eclipse. Passover was always in the middle of the first month of the Jewish religious year.

It was full moon. The month began at new moon, 14 days later, 15 days later was a full moon. So the Passover was always on a full moon. And at that time, the earth is between the sun and the moon. As a result, the shadow of the earth could strike the moon causing an eclipse of the moon or a lunar eclipse.

But the shadow of the moon could not strike the earth. It's on the wrong side. So a solar eclipse would have been impossible. This was a supernatural darkness. It marked the last three and a half years, last three and a half hours of Jesus's life as a man.

The incarnation of Jesus from his birth in the manger to his death on the cross, he lived on the earth as a man. This darkness marked the last Passover. Now, because things come in twos in the Bible, they prove themselves by twos.

There was another long period of darkness described in the Bible. This one, not lasting three hours, this one lasted three days. And this one marking the first Passover. So we have a darkness that marks the first Passover and a darkness that marks the last Passover.

The darkness that marked the last Passover lasted three hours. The darkness that marked the first Passover lasted three days. I'm gonna read to you in Exodus 10, verse 21. Exodus 10, beginning at verse 21.

Moses is dealing with Pharaoh. And the Lord said unto Moses, "'Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, "'that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, "'even darkness which may be felt.'. And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven, and there was a thick darkness over all the land of Egypt three days.".

Now, that's interesting on a couple of points. Number one, it wasn't dark. It was really dark. It was so dark that the darkness could be felt. It was a thick darkness over all the land of Egypt, and it lasted three days.

I'm thinking that maybe this period of darkness is a foreshadowing of the time between Jesus's death and his resurrection. That also was three days. So we may have another part of the gospel story written in the Old Testament.

We're now gonna go back to Luke, pick it up in verse 45, Luke 23, verse 45. "'And the sun was darkened, "'and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst.'. "'Matthew and Mark both add "'that when our Lord released His Spirit when He died, "'the veil of the temple was torn in two "'from the top to the bottom.'".

I'm quoting from Matthew version. "'Behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain "'from the top to the bottom, "'indicating that the way to God's presence "'was now open for all who would come to Him "'by faith through Jesus Christ.'".

And Hebrews chapter nine, all of chapter nine and about half of chapter 10 deal with this issue. I'm gonna pick up that passage in Hebrews 10, verse seven, and read just a little bit. Hebrews 10, beginning at verse seven.

"'Then said I,' and this is Paul quoting Jesus, "'And then said I, "'Lo, I come, in the volume of the book it is written of me, "'to do thy will, O God.'. "'Above, when He said, "'Sacrifice and offerings and burnt offerings "'and offerings for sin, thou wouldest not, "'neither hadst pleasure therein, "'which are offered by the law.

"'Then said He, "'Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. "'He taketh away the first, "'that He may establish the second.'". What Paul is talking about is the replacement of the law with grace. "'By which will we are sanctified "'through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ "'once and for all.

"'And every priest standeth daily, "'ministering and offering oft times the same sacrifices, "'which can never take away sins. "'But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sin, "'forever sat down on the right hand of God, "'and henceforth expecting "'until his enemies be made his footstool.

"'For by one offering, "'he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified, "'whereof the Holy Ghost is a witness to us. "'For after that, he had said before, "'This is the covenant that I will make with them "'after those days, saith the Lord.

"'I will put my law in their heart and in their mind, "'I will write them, "'and their sins and iniquities I will remember no more.'". Now where the remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.

Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter unto the holiest by the blood of Jesus. So now we have access to the Holy of Holies by a new and living way, for which he hath consecrated us through the veil, that is to say his flesh.

And having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart. In full assurance of the faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.

Let us hold fast to the profession of our faith without wavering, for he is faithful that promised. And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much more as you see the day approaching.

I wanted to read on down until I got to the point that it said not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. We need to assemble together. It is better than a virtual service, but a virtual service is better than no service at all.

Verse 45 of Luke. And the sun was darkened and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. And having said this, he gave up the ghost.

Now, I'm gonna read Matthew 27, verse 45, with just a couple of comments as we go, starting from the sixth hour at noon and going on until the end of the passage. Matthew 27, verse 45. Now, from the sixth hour, there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour.

That's the three hours of darkness that we just discussed. And about the ninth hour, just before the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, lama, sabachthani. That is to say, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

And some of them that stood there when they heard that said, this man calleth for Elijah. And straightway, one of them ran and took a sponge and filled it with vinegar. And put it on a reed for him to drink.

Now, you need to understand the timing of this. This is just before 3 p .m. This is just before he is going to die. So this time, he actually does take the vinegar. He drinks it. It doesn't say that in Matthew, but it will say that explicitly either in John or in Mark.

And the rest said, let be. Let us see whether Elijah will come and save him. And when Jesus, and Jesus, when he had cried out again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And I asked, and I was going to ask, what did he cry out this time?

And I will tell you now, the Gospel of John will tell us a little bit later when we read it. So when Jesus, when he had cried out again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost, and behold, the veil of the temple was rent entwined from the top to the bottom.

And the earth did quake, and the rocks rent, and graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints which arose, which slept, arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many.

Now when the centurion and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake and those things that were done, they greatly feared God. They feared greatly saying, truly, this was the son of God.

So what did they see? They saw how God comported himself, how Jesus comported himself on the cross. They saw Jesus asking God to forgive the very people that would crucify him. They saw Jesus tell the second thief that he would be with him in paradise.

They saw a lot of things. They saw the earthquake. They saw the rocks rent. They saw the dead walking. And they feared greatly saying, truly, this was the son of God. And many women, which were there beholding afar off, which followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto him, among them, which, among which was Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and this is James the lesser, not James, the brother of John, but Salome, the mother of Zebedee's children, that would be James and John, were with him.

Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus, and the Burial of Jesus

Now I'm going to John's account. This is John chapter 19, verse 23. And I'll pick it up back at the beginning of the crucifixion when the soldiers that had crucified Jesus took his garments. This is John chapter 19, verse 23.

Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments and made four parts to every soldier apart, and also his coat. Now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. And they said, therefore, among themselves, let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, for whose it shall be, that the spirit might be fulfilled, which said, they parted my rammet among them, and for my vesture, they did cast lots.

Now they didn't do that. They didn't cast lots in order for the scripture to be fulfilled. They cast lots because they had to. They had to because the scripture must have been fulfilled. It was ordained from the beginning that Jesus would be crucified and that the soldiers would cast lots over his coat.

These things, therefore, the soldiers did. Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother and his mother's sister Mary, the wife of Cleophas and Mary Magdalene. And when Jesus, therefore, saw his mother and the disciples standing by whom he loved, that would be John, he said unto his mother, woman, behold thy son.

And he said to the disciple, behold thy mother. And from that hour, that disciple took her into his own home. After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scriptures might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst.

Everything that he needed to have done to fulfill all of the scriptures that needed to be fulfilled, he had now done. So he says, I thirst. Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar and they filled a sponge with vinegar and put it on his, and put it to his mouth.

When Jesus, therefore, had received the vinegar, here's where he said that he took the vinegar, he said, it is finished. And he bowed his head and gave up the ghost. It is finished. That can also be translated paid in full.

The sin debt of all of the believers has now been totally paid for. There is nothing left to be paid. Nothing that the elect can do to add to the forgiveness of their sins. Jesus bore it all. When Jesus, therefore, had received the vinegar, he said, it is finished.

And he bowed his head and gave up the ghost. Now I'm gonna run through a timeline now that we've got all the numbers together and set it up and just look at what happened. Sunrise, well, even before sunrise.

From about three o 'clock in the morning before sunrise of the day that Jesus was gonna be crucified, the scribes and the Pharisees and the Sadducees all met and decided that they were gonna proclaim Jesus guilty of a crime worthy of death.

They couldn't announce it until after sunrise for it to have any weight. So at sunrise, the Sanhedrin announces its decision and sends Jesus to Pilate for a set of trials. Now that is at sunrise. Now, what goes on is Pilate holds a hearing, finds out that Jesus might be under the jurisdiction of Herod, sends him to Herod, who just happens to be in Jerusalem at the time.

Herod questions him and does some things to him. Sends him back to Pilate. Pilate continues the trial, tries to talk the Pharisees and the people into releasing Jesus, but fails. They take Jesus to the place of the crucifixion and at nine o 'clock, Jesus is crucified.

All of that happened in the three hours between sunrise and about nine o 'clock. So Jesus hung on the cross suffering until noon. And at noon, a supernatural darkness over the face of the land that lasted until 3 p .m.

At 3 p .m., Jesus dies, or as Mark says, he gives up the ghost. Between 3 p .m. and six, that's sunset, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus prepare Jesus for burial and put him in Joseph's tomb. Shortly before sunset, the women from Galilee observed the location of the tomb.

And at sunset, Passover officially begins. Okay, now we're gonna go back to Luke 23, verse 46. And at the time of about 3 p .m., the time when Jesus just cried out with a loud voice and said, Father, unto thy hands, I commend my spirit.

And having said thus, he gave up the ghost. Now, when the centurion saw what was done, he glorified God saying, certainly this was a righteous man. Now, Mark and Matthew both say that the centurion said, this man was the son of God.

Luke may have been given an equivalent expression or more likely the centurion said both things. He probably said, this was a righteous man, and he is certainly the son of God. And two of them emphasized the son of God.

And the third one, Luke, emphasized the righteous man. And all the people that came together to that site, beholding the things which were done, smote their breast and returned. That was an act of mourning.

And only Luke includes this statement of mourning. And all of his acquaintance and the women that followed him from Galilee stood afar off beholding these things. John MacArthur notes this. Matthew and Mark report that this group of people included Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, the less, Salmon, the mother of James and John, and many others.

These same women were present at his burial and at his resurrection. So these women were eyewitnesses to all of the crucial events in the gospel, the death, the burial, and the resurrection. Well, that's interesting.

Verse 50, and behold, there was a man named Joseph, a counselor, and he was a good man and just. The same had not consented to the council and the deeds of them, of the council. He was of Arimathea, a city of the Jews.

And he also himself waited for the kingdom of God. Now here's what Luke said about Joseph of Arimathea. He was a member of the council, and that was the Sanhedrin council. He was a good man and just. He had not consented to the decision of the council.

It doesn't say whether or not for certain he was there. I'm inclined to think he was there, but he didn't agree to it. He was from Arimathea. He was a follower of Jesus. Now, John is gonna add a couple of things that Luke omitted.

John adds that he was a secret disciple. He was a secret disciple because he feared the Jews. John is gonna also add that Nicodemus met Joseph, and they took the body of Jesus to Joseph's tomb, where the two of them wrapped the body of Jesus in the spices that Nicodemus brought and lay him in the tomb.

And then they left to observe the Passover. Okay, I'm gonna go to John chapter 19, verse 38, and read about Joseph of Arimathea. And after that, this Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus.

And Pilate gave him leave. And he came, therefore, and took the body of Jesus. And there came also Nicodemus, which at first came to Jesus by night and brought a mixture of mire and aloes and about a hundred pound weight.

And they took the body of Jesus and wound it in linen clothes with the spices as the manner of the Jews is to bury. So that was Luke's account of the Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea. Now back to Luke.

This man, Joseph of Arimathea, went to Pilate and begged for the body of Jesus. And of course, Pilate gave him permission. And he took it down, the body of Jesus, and wrapped it in linen and laid in a sepulcher that was hewn in stone, wherein never a man before was laid.

That was also prophesied, that he would be buried in a rich man's tomb where no man had ever laid before. And of course, Nicodemus helped in this process of putting Jesus in the tomb. And that day was the preparation and the Sabbath drew on.

It is now approaching sunset, the official beginning of Passover. Verse 55, and the women also, which came with him from Galilee, that's with Jesus, and followed after and beheld the sun sepulcher and how his body was laid.

Now here's what John MacArthur had to say about that. According to John, the Gospel of John, Nicodemus brought a hundred pounds of spices and aloes, probably obtained while Joseph was negotiating with Pilate for Jesus's body.

That's MacArthur's speculation. It's probably true. And he and Joseph wrapped the body with linens and spices. The women were from Galilee. They were probably unfamiliar with Joseph and Nicodemus, who were Judeans.

And if they had been familiar with them, would have been fearful of them. After all, both men were associated with the Jewish leaders who had orchestrated the conspiracy against Jesus. So the women were determined to prepare Jesus's body for burial themselves.

So they returned. That is to say they went home to prepare their own spices and perfumes. They had to leave Jesus's body placed in the tomb before sunset, when the Sabbath began. So they were not able to finish preparing the body.

Mark 16, verse one says that they purchased more spices when the Sabbath was passed. That is after sunset on Saturday. Then they returned Sunday morning with the spices, expecting to finish the task that had been interrupted by the Sabbath.

So here's the rest of Luke. And they returned and prepared spices and ointments and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment. And are they in for a surprise? Well, I'm gonna close it now. And we will meet again next Sunday, hopefully at church.

If anybody's got a question that you want to pass on through David or Ben and let it get to me, I'll try to answer it. If not, I'll wait a second. Don't see any, Brother Bill. Okay, then I'll end with a quick prayer.

Most gracious heavenly Father, thank you for this day and thank you for all of our many blessings. Go through the rest of the services today. Bless us and keep us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. And now back to you.

Amen.

The Star of Bethlehem and the Limits of Naturalistic Explanations

All right, that was great. That was great, Brother Bill. You know what? Let me ask you a question or two while I got you on here. Okay. With regard, a lot of our friends out there know you're a physics man in academia.

And you even helped me in the business world with some formulas and things I've needed in the past. But with regard to that star that you were talking about, tell us again what your bottom line thought on it is.

Miracle or natural phenomenon. Supernatural, miracle.

Couldn't have been anything else. There is an issue. They could have been expecting a star. They could have thought this is what they were expecting. They could have followed it. It would have headed them east.

And they could have gone to Jerusalem and talked to Herod. And Herod consulted his people and they said it was in Bethlehem. They could have known all that. The star could have led them by being to the east of them to Jerusalem.

But what it could not possibly have done is turned and led them south. Stopped right over the place where Jesus was. Now this was, it referred to Jesus as a young child. This was probably six months or a year after the actual birth.

He wasn't in the stable any longer. He was at some place in Bethlehem. They didn't have to look for it. The star stood right over the place and stopped. It was a supernatural thing. Just as supernatural as the creation.

Just as supernatural as the three day darkness that marked the first Passover. Just as dark, just as much of a miracle as the waters parting in the Red Sea and them walking across, not on muddy land, but on dry land.

The land that they walked on was dry. The nations which tried to follow them were drowned. All of these things are supernatural things. There's no way to explain them naturally because they're not of the natural world.

They're the supernatural world. They're the spiritual world. They're of God's world. And all you can do, you can disprove them easily, but you can't prove them. Yeah.

Is disprove them. Yeah. When I went to Baylor, I wasn't born again yet when I was at Baylor, but we were all required to take Old Testament survey and New Testament survey. So we had to take a Bible and I wasn't a Christian yet, but we had an Old Testament professor named Dr. Christian.

And I always tease about it because I don't think he was one, but he taught that all of the miracles in the Bible could be explained by natural phenomenon and that the Red Sea was really the Reed Sea and it was only three feet deep.

And some kid raised his hand and said, well, what a miracle. It drowned all of the horses with three feet of water. Wow. And he didn't even comment. He just went right on. But you wonder what it is that causes a goat to want to teach the Bible.

And the only explanation is in the book to me is in the book of Jude. It says, God has foreordained that there will be some people that he will put here as false teachers. And their end is the blackness of darkness forever.

And they do it because they're serving the Lord. Now, isn't that a strange thing?

That is. And I was going to actually do it backward to that. I was going to say the goats are responding to their master, Satan. And Satan's whole concept is to try to destroy things of the Bible, things of Jesus.

That's his whole goal is to destroy. He can't. He doesn't have the ability to, but he thinks he can. And they think they can. They think they can disprove the Bible. That's what they think. That's what they're there for.

They're not there to learn. They're not there to worship. They're not there to find out what the Bible says. They're there to say the Bible is not really true.

Absolutely. Well, we know that Satan serves the Lord too. And God delegates many things to him. And I agree with you that they're following their father, the devil. He put them here. Satan put them here.

Jesus said that. He said, I didn't plant the tares. He said, the devil planted the tares. And their whole purpose. But it's part of God's grand purpose, which is kind of amazing to think about. But the truth is, Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice and they follow me.