Sunday School "Clothing" June 24, 2018 Part 4

Clothing as Provision, Compassion, and Identity

Clarified in this young lady's life and I pray that she would minister to her needs, her baby's needs, and her spiritual needs. Well we pray for the town leads this morning as they are going through a rough time, Father, to have this happen and for the children.

Well we're going to, our first passage that we're going to look at in depth, it's going to be Genesis 3 verses 1 through 7, but to catch us up where we've been so far. We're going through a biblical theology of clothing.

In other words, we're going to see what the Bible has to say about clothing in every respect. What is the ultimate meaning of clothing? And this is in the same vein as last year as we did a biblical theology of food, and the centrality of food to the sacrificial system, and thus the centrality of food to the gospel as we think of Christ as our Passover lamb, as we think of the ultimate wedding feast, and so on.

And now we're talking about clothing. And again, our aim, part of our aim in this is to to think in the same way that the Bible speaks, to think God's thoughts after him. And he has described the salvation message in terms of the basic needs of all humanity.

Food, clothing, shelter. No matter where we go in this world, no matter what culture we engage with, every human being, everyone made in God's image has those three basic needs. They need to be satisfied, they need to be covered, and they need to be welcomed.

This is who we are. We're made in God's image. And so we need to understand what the Bible says about clothing, ultimately, as this enhances our ability to talk with anybody, anywhere, about the gospel, about the good news of Jesus Christ.

Also, so that we would see the glories of Christ in the everyday life that we live. If it comes to it that we can't sit down and eat a meal without thinking about whether or not we're satisfied in Christ and our anticipation of the wedding feast, that's a good thing.

If we get up in the morning and can't pick out our outfit or do laundry without thinking about our covering in Christ, that's a good thing. That these basic needs for humanity would be ultimately understood time and again, their ultimate significance revealed in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

That's what we're aiming for. And so we started off by talking about clothing as provision. Clothing as provision. God provided clothes to Adam and Eve in their shame and in their guilt. And we see throughout the Scripture the theme of God's provision in terms of clothing.

Think of Christ's admonition of his audience in Matthew 6 about a Heavenly Father who provides clothing. And if he clothes the lilies and glories that exceed Solomon's, then why are you worried whether or not he will clothe you, O ye of little faith?

So again, the idea of provision. And since God graciously provides clothing, we can't help but think of the corollary to that, that is compassion. Because clothing is a story of provision, it's also a story of compassion.

God has compassion on us, therefore he clothes us. And those invited from the highways and the byways, the previously unworthy, compelled to come into the wedding feast, were given wedding garments to wear so they would be acceptable before the Master.

And so again, we have this language time and again of provision and compassion. So last week we talked about clothing as identity. Identity. That we see in the Scriptures that we're identified often by what we wear.

Elijah could be identified instantly by his description. Oh, he was a hairy man with a leather belt. Oh, that's Elijah. Very easy to identify him. Very easy to identify different vocations, soldier, farmer, so on, by what they wear.

We also talked about how clothing became a metaphor for reputation, for character in the Scriptures. And seeing that ultimately the issues of clothing are so close to those of identity that we have this language about holiness.

The Holiness Code talked about not wearing clothing of two different types of fabrics. It talked about wearing blue tassels on the hems of the garments to remind people of the commandments of God and to show themselves as set apart under God.

That's the whole point of the two different fabrics not being mixed. Additionally, there was a language about men not wearing women's clothing and women not wearing men's clothing. Why? Because it's an issue of identity.

And as we're dealing with identity politics in our day and the transgender issues, the Bible has already spoken to that, you know, thousands of years ago. Ultimately though, as we look at the idea of our identity and clothing, Paul is thinking about the significance of clothing and its connection to identity and holiness.

And all of that was wrapped up in the Old Testament legal system. When he, in Galatians, he says, to be clothed, we are now clothed. All of you who are baptized into Christ are clothed in Christ. And then goes on to say, therefore, however else you would identify yourself is not primary, is not the way you should talk about yourself.

I shouldn't talk about myself as a young white male Christian. And no one else should put those adjectives in front of the name Christian. Anybody who does is eclipsing the glory of Christ. So consuming is the identity of who we are in Christ.

That is how we identify ourselves and not adding a whole bunch of other stuff to specify in what ways that we're victims and so on. Because clothing is so connected to identity, now we're coming to today's lesson, it's also a matter of deception.

Because the way that we dress very often identifies who we are. Think of uniforms for policemen and firemen and so on and so forth, for soldiers. Because of the way in which we dress and its connection to our identity, it can also be used to deceive.

That makes sense, doesn't it? If we are pursuing our identity in the way that we're clothed, also deception comes. Now let's read Genesis 3, 1 through 7. Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.

And he said to the woman, Indeed has God said you shall not eat from any tree of the garden. The woman said to the serpent, From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat. But from the fruit of the tree, which is in the middle of the garden, God has said you shall not eat from it or touch it or you will die.

The serpent said to the woman, You surely will not die. For God knows that in the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes, the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate and she gave also to her husband with her and he ate.

Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings. Where do we see deception and disguise in the story?

The snakes, right? Satan is a fallen angel, Lucifer in sin. He is a spiritual being. He is not omnipotent and he is not omniscient and he is not omnipresent. I get a little chuckle about people who say, Satan's been after me lately.

And I think to myself, I don't think you're that important. Something may be after you, but I doubt Lucifer himself is taking a personal interest. He's not omnipresent. He's not omnipotent. He's omniscient.

But he's a powerful spiritual being. Being a spirit, he does not have a flesh and bone body. He does not have horns. He does not have a tail. He does not have hoofs. He does not carry a red pitchfork.

We'll look later about how he's normally, how he normally appears. But for now, we can see by this we understand from the whole testimony of Scripture, we understand that he is disguised himself in the form of this serpent, in the form of the snake.

So he's disguised. Where else do we see deception and disguise in this passage? They try to cover themselves, didn't they? As soon as their eyes were open and they knew that they were naked, they decided to sew for themselves fig leaves together as loin coverings.

And what are they trying to do? They're trying to cover their shame, to cover their guilt. But in this, as we see later, when God confronts them as they're wearing their fig leaves, as God confronts them, Adam basically says, it's not my fault.

And Eve basically says, it's not my fault. That is the verbal expression, that is the verbal expression of the fig leaves that they put on. They put those on to say it's not my fault. Deflect attention away.

I don't want to be exposed. I'm going to pass on the blame. No one, no one consider me guilty. Now the reality of those those efforts, I think, is given to us in Isaiah 64 and verse 6. I'm sure this is a memory verse for some of us.

Isaiah 64 and verse 6. We like to read that for us. All of our righteous deeds are like what? Filthy rags. And in this sense, very often there is this, there is this continued instinct among humanity to sew fig leaves together and to cover shame and guilt by doing good deeds.

This is, I think, seen very often as you talk to people about their spiritual condition and their relationship with God. We're having an evangelism class, you know, down the hall, and very often the first question is, do you think you're a good person?

And usually the answer is yes. Why? Because I do this, this, and I don't do this, this, and so on. Well, those are fig leaves. That's an inadequate covering. And it's a deception, it's a self-deception, saying God and others ought to be fine with me because of my own righteousness, and yet Isaiah says these are just filthy rags.

So they are a deception, but they're in a very inadequate deception in the light of God's Word is shown upon them. Let's think of some practical things. Do people still use clothing in this way today?

We disguise ourselves in order to feel better about ourselves. That's what Adam and Eve did. Do people use clothing that way today? It's still there, isn't it? Just by observation, you see that people dress, very often people will dress in a way disguising themselves and what their life is really like.

They disguise themselves in order to feel better about themselves. For a lot of people, that's what clothing is. It's a way for them to feel better about themselves. And it begs the question, where are we finding our real identity here?

And that's from last week. Do we have any other stories in the Bible that you can think of that feature people disguising themselves, concealing themselves by what they wear? Yeah, as I began to think about this, Ms. Wiley is correct, when I began thinking about this, I began to realize that there were a lot of so-called the good guys who, for various purposes of wisdom, concealed themselves and their true identity, but their aim was for something different.

When Joseph did not reveal his identity to his brothers, he was already dressed as Pharaoh's right-hand man. We talked about that last week, the story of clothing, and the last bit about the clothing that was very explicit was that when he became Pharaoh's right-hand man, he changed clothes yet again to exhibit the fact that he was in that heightened position.

Now when his brothers came, they didn't know who he was because he looked so different, and he didn't tell them for a while as he tested them, as he investigated the reality of their repentance. He did it in a variety of ways, such as putting them in a similar situation.

Will they sacrifice one of their brothers for their own good? And they didn't. And even Judah, who had been the head conspirator before, offered himself up in the place of Benjamin. He even tested them again when he gave five suits of clothes to Benjamin versus the others to see how they would handle that.

After all, did not Israel give Joseph the coat of many colors and that sparked jealousy? He gave five suits of clothes to Benjamin but nobody else, just to see whether they were going to still be jealous or not.

And he did these things in a way to wisely test them and to see the degree of their repentance and their change. And we have examples of that, a wise discerning use. Yeah, Jacob and Esau will be our main story today.

We're going to give some some deep thought to that, but that's probably the most famous one, I think, of disguise, right? Anything else? Sure. That's a great comparison. And what happened to Adam and Eve's thinking all of a sudden, right?

Their thinking had become so muddled, so foolish. Exactly. So that's something we've got to keep in mind. Why might we disguise ourselves? Not just in what we wear, but actually what are these clothes speaking to ultimately?

Are we trying to disguise ourselves by looking good? Not just by what we wear, but also by what we do, what we say, because we want others to think well of us. Are we tempted to that consistently? We are tempted to that.

And rather than our words being carefully chosen because we want to love others rightly, sometimes our words are carefully chosen because we want them to think in a certain way about us, right? And that temptation is there all the time.

We are reminded about how much we need grace, how much sanctification we have left, because we struggle with these things. So sometimes we just disguise ourselves in order to feel better about ourselves, but also some disguise themselves in order to control others.

This is an acceleration of what we just said. Let's go to Matthew chapter 23 and we'll read verses 1 through 7. As we think about the disguise that the Pharisees were known for using, then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples saying, The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses.

Therefore all that they tell you do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds, for they say things and do not do them. They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger.

Now notice verse 5. But they do all their deeds to be noticed by men, for they broaden their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of their garments. We'll come back to that. Verse 6. They love the place of honor at banquets, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and respectful greetings in the marketplaces, and being called Rabbi by men.

So the phylacteries would be the little boxes with scripture rolled up inside that the Pharisees would wear as a very literal interpretation of what Moses commanded the people in Deuteronomy about memorizing the scripture, having it written on your forehead, and then obeying the scripture, having it written on your hand.

And instead of that, they actually had little boxes. They'd tie it around their head with scripture in there, the verse for the day or whatever. They would have that tied around. But to make sure that people knew that they were of this holy kind, these boxes got bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger.

And all of a sudden, the bigger the box, the holier the Pharisee was. And we chuckle at that, but I suppose in some sense, the bigger the Bible, the blacker the cover, the nicer the leather, we are all prone to those things.

But also notice the tassels. And you can just hear people chuckling as Jesus talks about this, but the idea of they lengthen the tassels of their garments. So they've got blues hanging all over them, because they're obeying that Levitical law.

And look how much more, they remember all the law, therefore they have all the blue tassels and Awana badges and things like that. But they've got all this spiritual bling, and the idea is that they want everyone to adhere to their way of life and their interpretation.

Look at me, see how spiritual I am, therefore everybody do what I say to do. So it's an attempt to control. And so Jesus is saying by their appearance, as well as other things, by their appearance, they're trying to exert control over the people.

It's a static commentary that when Jesus looks upon the people, he sees them scattered and harassed as sheep without a shepherd, for these Pharisees were no shepherds. They were wolves, but they were not shepherds.

And Jesus saw the true harried nature of the people. But they were disguising themselves, dressing themselves up in order to control others. One more passage about that theme, and we'll discuss it a little extra, is 2 Corinthians 11.

2 Corinthians 11 verses 12 through 15, and invite someone to read that for us who would care to. 2 Corinthians 11 verses 12 through 15. Okay, Jana. Yeah, Satan is just fine with the caricature of the red man with the horns and the hooves and the pitchfork and tail and all that.

Just fine with that, because Paul identifies the way in which Satan appears, disguises himself as an angel of light. In other words, an angel, a messenger, or an agent of God, or a messenger from God.

These angels, that's what they, Angelos is a messenger. So, he's got a message. He's got something he wants to say, disguises it in light. This is a truth. This should enlighten your life. This should guide you in your life.

And that his servants do the very same thing, disguising themselves in a way that, again, you should find their words and their messages trustworthy. Does that happen today? Does it happen today? Let's talk just a little bit.

In a couple of weeks, we'll talk a whole lot more about it in service. But, how are people dressing today, in other words, and how are people putting forth an image today in a way to control people through lies and deceptions, pretending to be servants of righteousness, pretending to be ministers of light?

Is that going on today? What does it look like? What are they doing? Right. So, we have the health, wealth, false gospel, which is nothing new. It was around in Jesus' day. After all, when Jesus, after the rich ruler departed, Jesus told his disciples, it'd be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, easier for the largest moving thing you've ever seen to go through the smallest opening you've ever seen, than for a rich man to go to heaven.

And they said, well, then who can be saved? Why do they say that? Because the rich were the closest to God. They're the ones with the most blessings. That's what they understood, that the rich were the closest to God.

And so, Jesus was just pointing out, you know, it's impossible with man, only possible with God, that we would enter the kingdom of heaven. But this health, wealth gospel is nothing new, but it's still there.

What else? And there's a minimalist movement within Christianity, isn't there? I don't need church membership or regular attendance or any kind of real study of the Bible. After all, the billboards and the bumper stickers all say, God loves me just the way I am.

So, there's no need for repentance. It's a minimalist movement, isn't there? Well, yeah. So, this is when the message is about, well, you know, in the King James, it's the gospel of filthy lucre, right?

The gospel of filthy lucre. Now, let's talk about the way that they dress. Okay, messages, but how do they look? And this is where so many people get put straight. Now, here's a good suit to put on, zeal.

If someone has a lot of zeal and is very zealous and talks about spiritual things, even talks about the Bible, talks about God, talks about Jesus with great zeal. Oh, well, they're dressed right, so they must be saying something true.

And nothing that they do say should be refuted. After all, they're zealous for Jesus. Isn't there a zeal without knowledge, though? So, we have to be careful about zeal. That's not an automatic qualifier.

Okay, how else do people dress up? Right, so, academia can be a very nice suit to wear. If you all do know the origin of the term fuddy-duddy, right? The person with the PhD and the Doctorate of Divinity is the fuddy-duddy.

That's where it comes from, the fuddy-duddy, because I have a PhD and a DD, so I'm a fuddy-duddy. That's where it comes from. Okay, so, academia. Well, I'm so serious, I have all these degrees, so you have to listen to me.

Learn it, okay? And knowledge is not bad. All treasures of knowledge and wisdom are in Christ, but also, if in another context, knowledge puffeth up. Another good King James quote. So, we have to be careful about this, right?

And just because someone is dressed in a certain way and says some of the things that we would agree with, we have to be careful about what's going on. We are warned time and again in the scriptures to be discerning and to test.

Clothing as a Means of Getting What We Want

Well, let's talk about the third point, to get what we want, and we're going to be moving to Genesis 27 here. To get what we want, we might disguise ourselves in order to get what we want. Now, Genesis 38 is the story of Judah and Tamar.

Judah, whose eldest son married a woman named Tamar, had no children. He died in the first instance of Levite marriage. The next son is to marry Tamar, but he is wicked and God kills him. The third son is not yet of age, and Judah's getting a little gun-shy about this whole idea.

His first two sons died being married to this woman. He's not very eager to give his last son to her, and as he's supposed to, as he, you know, let it kind of die away. And she is in widowhood and sees that she is not going to get the husband.

She's not going to have children, so she disguises herself to get what she wants. So, she dresses herself up as a prostitute and goes to a neighboring region, and Judah shows up, and she gets what she wants.

She gets an heir from Judah, and so this is one of those many things in the Bible that is descriptive, but not prescriptive. Not what we're supposed to do, but what actually happened, and yet God and His sovereignty champions over evil and brings about good, even the descendant, the seed, who is Christ.

But she got what she wanted. Also, think about Saul in 1 Samuel 28. Saul has had the kingdom torn away from him. The Spirit is upon another man. Samuel is dead. The Philistines are closing in, and Saul is desperate, so he disguises himself to go get what he wants.

He wants some kind of spiritual guidance, so he disguises himself to go to the last witch, the witch of Endor, and says, I call up Samuel for me, but he's in disguise because he gets what he wants through disguise.

Now, what about Genesis 27? This is a remarkable story, and again, when we think about the context, we have some familiar themes that the father seems to be playing a little bit of a favorite. He likes Esau over Jacob.

God has appointed Jacob, who will be named Israel, as the appointed heir through whom the seed will come. Isaac's wife, Rebekah, favors Jacob over Esau, and Isaac is blind. He thinks he's going to die.

He's ready to give his blessing to his eldest, and so he instructs Esau to go kill some game and prepare it in a way that he likes it. We're going to have this nice father-son time. He's going to give him the firstborn blessing.

Now, Esau has already despised his birthright. He has sold it to Jacob, so Jacob has the position but not the blessing, but Rebekah wants the blessing for Jacob as well. So, what is Rebekah's plan, and what a disguise.

He puts on his brother's clothes, and again, these are different types of clothes than what Jacob wears. Esau is a hunter. Jacob is a man of a flock. They do different things. They have different vocations, so they have different types of clothing, and so Jacob assumes Esau's identity.

These clothes also smell different because of the different types of work that they do. You can identify someone by what they do by their clothes. So, he puts on Esau's clothes. What else does he do? Well, Esau was a hairy man.

That's what his name means. Esau means hairy. They named him hairy from the time he was born, and his nickname was Red. Eat him, because he had red hair. So, he was hairy to his mom and dad. He was red to his friends.

Now, Isaac is blind. Isaac is blind, so he can't see who it is, but he certainly can feel and smell and hear. So, Jacob tries to disguise his voice. It doesn't work very well, but he does. Rebecca, after she kills the sheep and she prepares the food in the way that she knows that Isaac likes, she takes the wool and puts it on Jacob.

So, Jacob is thoroughly disguised. He is taking on the identity of Esau because he wants the blessing that belongs to Esau. Why is Esau getting the blessing? He's the eldest. He's the firstborn. He's the favored one.

Yeah, his daddy loved him the most. And Rebecca thinks, well, no, I want Jacob to have the blessing. I want Jacob to have the favor. And what's the only way that Jacob is going to get the blessing and get the favor of his father?

The only way is by taking on the identity of the firstborn. Yeah, it's absolutely right. It's absolutely right. Why in the world is this story in the Bible? What a dumb thing, Rebecca. You put your son through this whole mess, got what you wanted, and then lost your son.

So, you had to go running away from Esau, murderous Esau, and you ran away. You never saw your son again. Rebecca, Rebecca. Definitely a warning. Sure, definitely a warning. We do get to find out why.

Why was it that Jacob ran away from home? Why was it that he ended up with his uncle Laban and ended up with two wives and, wait, no, four wives and all these kids? How did that even come about? Well, this is the beginning of that story.

And we're still tracing the lineage of the seed, aren't we? But why is this story here with all the detail about how it happened? It wasn't just that Jacob betrayed his brother Esau and ran away. Why all the details?

Well, I think I think the story is here ultimately because we're given this framework wherein the swindler Jacob, the unfavored son Jacob, the one that is not favored in the sight of the father, he is only favored and blessed by taking on the identity of the firstborn.

And I think that story is here because ultimately, in a way that does not involve any deceit, this is the story of the gospel. What is the only way that us swindlers are ever going to know the favor of the heavenly father?

It is only by taking on the identity of the beloved, favored firstborn. I think that's why this story is here. And in a remarkable way, in a remarkable way, Jacob's own seed reverse engineers this whole deception.

And Christ, as the elder brother himself, actually freely gives to us his identity, his clothing, his righteousness, and puts it on us so that we would know the favor of God Almighty. And so sometimes we try to deceive to get what we want, but we always find out later, not needed.

Bad plan. God already had it in the works. You see, Jacob and Rebecca thought that he should have Esau's identity to know the blessing of God. But he didn't need Esau's identity. He needed the Messiah's.

He needed the seed's identity for himself. To help hammer that home, let's just talk about our overall theme of covered, of covering. And we'll do that by going to Zechariah 3 verses 1 through 5. Just find Matthew and go backwards.

That's the way I do it. So chapter 3 and verse 1. Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. The Lord said to Satan, the Lord rebuke you, Satan.

Indeed, the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you. Is this not a brand plucked from the fire? You may know what that is. It's a well-burnt stick covered in black soot grabbed out of the fire. So this is really messy, really messy.

And this is a description of Joshua himself, who is this high priest supposedly representing all the people. And so he was clothed with filthy garments, verse 3 says, and standing before the angel. God spoke and said to those who were standing before him saying, remove the filthy garments from him.

And again, he said to him, see, I've taken your iniquity away from you. I will clothe you with festal robes, festal robes. And I said, let him put a clean turban on his head, which is the official uniform of the priest.

We'll talk more about that, I think, next week. So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments while the angel of the Lord was standing by. It's just, there's a lot going on here.

But let's just take this image. Okay. Filthy garments. Reminds us of Isaiah. Reminds us of Isaiah. Filthy rags. The term filthy here connotes human dung and vomit. And so every young mother knows what that's like to be covered in that, taking care of sick babies.

And this kind of filth. The idea is that Joshua and all people with him are exposed, are exposed in their wickedness. In the presence of God, his glory illuminates every speck of sin. You only really truly see how filthy and dirty anyone is in the light of God's holiness.

And so in our natural pride, our instinctive sinful way of doing things, we, you know, we're looking for fig leaf. We're going to some way, try to cover, try to disguise some possible way. But instead, the answer is not disguise.

The answer is replacement. And God strips Joshua of his filthy garments and clothes him with festal robes. Splendid, splendid robes. These are totally the opposite of the, of the others. It's a, it's a reminder to me of Isaiah 61 .10.

I will rejoice greatly in the Lord. My soul will exult in my God, for he has clothed me with garments of salvation. What do these garments look like? He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness. Okay.

What does it look like? As a bridegroom decks himself with a garland and as a bride adorns herself with jewels. That's what it looks like. Each one of us can, can imagine that. And we've seen that, haven't we?

Festal garments, robes of righteousness, garments of salvation. This righteousness is what, not what Joshua offers. All he's got is clothes full of, covered in dung and vomit. But this righteousness is from God himself.

This is exactly what Paul is talking about in Philippians 3, when he at first denounces every, every scrap of clothing of identity that could have given him approval and acceptance with the people of the world.

He, he, he counts it all as rubbish. I count all things to be lost, he says, in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things. In other words, I have, I have burned my entire wardrobe.

I've only got one garment that I wear. And what does he say? So that I may gain Christ and be found in him, clothed in Christ, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith.

So this righteousness does not come out of Paul. It comes from God and is placed upon Paul. This is what it means to be justified by faith alone in Christ alone, is that we have Christ's righteousness accounted to us, which is what Paul says in Romans 4.

This is the, this is the, this is the idea of what we're talking about covered. You see, we begin reading about clothes, right? We begin reading about Adam and Eve, and they were both naked and not ashamed.

Why is that? They made the image of God. So they're covered in glory and righteousness. But in their sin, they lose that covering, recognize their shame and nakedness, and now they need a new covering.

God compassionately provides these skin of animals as the first glimpse into the sacrificial system fulfilled in Christ. And God covers us in the righteousness of Christ. And this is, this is, this is why the gospel message is, is what it is.

When Jesus comes and says, repent, repent, burn all the old clothes and believe in the gospel. There is salvation. There's righteousness that Christ is offering his own, his own righteousness to cover us.

Well, any questions or thoughts before we close out this morning? Next week, we're in, I'm intending to go on to talk about clothing as, as mediation. We've talked about the idea you can identify people in the Bible by what they're dressed like.

And even today, people are dressed in a certain way. You know what they do sometimes. Okay. Well, we're going to talk about the clothing that kings and priests and prophets and wise men wore. They all had distinctive clothing in the Old Testament.

And we're going to see how all these distinctive clothes end up being worn ultimately by Christ. And since it's a story of mediation, the lesson after that is we're going to talk about the story of the incarnation, clothes in the life of Jesus, and see those connections there.

That God works all things together for the good of those who love him who are called according to his purpose. Yes. Yes. And yeah, so absolutely. I think it follows there and all the other verses that really are a support to that testament of God's sovereignty, how he brings, you know, even Joseph saying you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.