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Song number 22. Will we give our Sunday morning service by singing song number 22? Are you washed in the blood? Again, that's song number 22. We'll be singing all the words. Have you been to Jesus with a cleansing power? Are you washed in the blood? Song number 22. Lift it up to the Lord on the first. Have you been to Jesus with a cleansing power? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you fully trusting in His grace this time? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you washed in the blood? In the soul cleansing blood of the Lamb? Are your garments not as dark and white as snow? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Song number 22. Are you walking in the door to save yourself? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Do you grasp each moment and lose it? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you washed in the blood? In the soul cleansing blood of the Lamb? Are your garments not as dark and white as snow? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you fully trusting in His grace this time? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Will your soul be ready for the Are you washed in the blood? In the soul cleansing blood of the Lamb? Are your garments not as dark and white as snow? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? All the letters. Put aside the garments that are screen placed. And be washed in the blood of the Lamb. There's a mountain flowing through the snow. And be washed in the blood of the Lamb. Are you washed in the blood? In his soul comes another land. Who art in darkness, mother, son, in fire, still we watch in the blood of the Lamb. May we start this morning with a statement. Would you pray for us? Lord, I thank you for the goodness and the mercy of all the community for your precious church and for everyone that is here to pray this blessed service today, Lord, in the holy and mighty name of God. Amen. Amen. Would you please turn your windows to song number 228? Song number 228, I'd love to tell the story of a song number 228. We have a voice for those listening. I'd love to tell the story of hearts and kings above. Oh, Jesus and his glory. Oh, Jesus and his love. I'd love to tell the story because my hope is true. It satisfies my long years as nothing else can do. I'd love to tell the story. Tell me, I think, in glory to tell the old story of Jesus and his love. I'd love to tell the story of wonderful things. And all the golden vaccines of all our golden dreams. I'd love to tell the story. It did so much for me. And that is just the reason I'm telling now to you. I'd love to tell the story. Tell me, I think, in glory to tell the old story of Jesus and his love. I'd love to tell the story. It is pleasant to believe. But it seems these sad nights have been more wonderful you'll see. I'd love to tell the story for some that never knew. The message of salvation, the guiding holy word. I'd love to tell the story. Tell me, I think, in glory to tell the old story of Jesus and his love. I'd love to tell the story for those who know it best. See how willing and thirsty to hear it like the rest. And when you see the glory by seeing the new, new storm, tell me the old story that I have lost. I'd love to tell the story. Tell me, I think, in glory to tell the old story of Jesus and his love. All right, well, good morning. It's great to see everybody out this morning here at Straight Paths Baptist Church. I almost said it, but thanks for coming out and joining us. If you need a bulletin, go ahead and slip up your hand. One will be brought to you. And as always, we have our service times there on the back side. We'll be back this evening at 5.30 p.m. and again on Thursday at 7 as we make our way through the book of Genesis. We'll be in chapter number 44 this week. We have some soul-winning times listed there as well as the salvations and baptisms and tendencies. And then don't forget, a week from this Thursday, of course, is Thanksgiving. It's hard to believe it's already here that Thanksgiving is right around the corner. It kind of sneaks up on you, but it's a great time of year. Everyone is already being a lot nicer since the weather has changed for us. It's great to see some cloud cover. It's great to see all the flannel coming out and everybody just getting ready for the holiday season. So if you'd like to join us on Thanksgiving, you're more than welcome to do that. It will be a potluck dinner, so if you're able, we do ask that you bring a dish or a dessert or both to share if you can. And the church will provide the apple pie, the pumpkin pie, and of course some refreshments as well. But we are kind of counting on those that are participating to bring a dish to pass. You don't necessarily have to, again, if you're just not able to, but don't let that keep you from, we don't want you sitting at home eating a bowl of corn flakes on Thanksgiving by yourself, crying into your milk. Come on out and join us. You don't have to. Maybe just grab a bag of Hawaiian rolls or something. I don't know. Or don't bring anything at all. That's fine. Just bring your appetite. You're more than welcome to do that. And then that's going to be, we want to have the meals here right around 4.30. Putting it at 4.30, which probably means everybody will show up at 5. But if you could get here at 4.30, then we can have time to set up and then that way people can start eating around 5 because we are going to just roll right into our evening service. So how many people are planning on joining us for this? So it looks like we've got a couple families. Okay, great. So we should probably have enough seating and everything the way it is. I don't know if I'm going to have to rent more tables but I think we should be alright. In any case, I meant, I intended to have a sign-up sheet back there but I failed to get that printed off. I'll try to get that back here this evening and you'll have Thursday and then next Sunday of course to kind of get your name on there. But our ladies here are really good about communicating. If there's one thing we know how to talk about around here, it's food. And when food comes up, you know, everyone gets together, I'm bringing this, I'm bringing that. And so I'm not too worried about that sign-up sheet or not but I will get one up. That's going to do it for announcements. Let's just go ahead and sing another song before we get into the preaching this morning. Let's sing it up now. We shall rise to be like Him forever Eternally shiners the Son We may never be preaching The treasures Or rise on the ladder of fear But the saints will at last be rewarded Made rich in He that He was then We shall shine as the stars of the morning When Jesus loved Him still by one We shall rise to be like Him forever Eternally shiners the Son We may never be preaching The treasures Or rise on the ladder of fear But the saints will at last be rewarded Made rich in He that He was then We may never be preaching The treasures Or rise on the ladder of fear But the saints will at last be rewarded Made rich in He that He was then We shall rise to be like Him forever Eternally shiners the Son We may pretend that this time the offering plate will go around. As the offering plate goes around, please open up your Bibles to Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53, beginning at verse 1. Who hath believed God before? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before Him as a tender plant And as a root out of a dry ground He hath no form nor comeliness And we shall see Him when there is no beauty that we should desire He is despised and rejected of men A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief And we hid as they were our faces from Him He was despised that we esteemed Him not Surely He had borne our griefs and carried our sorrows Yet we gave esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted But He was wounded for our transgressions He was bruised for our iniquities The chastisement of our peace was upon Him And with His stripes we are healed All we like sheep have gone astray We have turned everyone to His own way And the Lord had laid on Him the iniquity of us all He was oppressed and He was afflicted Yet He opened not His mouth He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter And as a sheep before a shear is done So He opened not His mouth He was taken from prison and from judgment And we shall declare His generation For He was cut off out of the land of the living For the transgression of My people was restricted And He made His grave with the wicked And with the rich in His death because He had done no violence Neither was any deceit in His mouth Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him He had put Him to grief When Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin He shall see His seed He shall prolong His day And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand We shall see of the travail of His soul And shall be satisfied by His knowledge And shall My righteous servant to justify Me For He shall bear their iniquities Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great And He shall divide His spoil with the strong Because He had poured out His soul into death And He was numbered with the transgressors And He bared the sins of many And made intercession for the transgressors Brother Walid, can you pray for us? Lord, most precious Heavenly Father, we thank You for this time that You have allowed us to gather We ask You to bless this fellowship, Lord God We ask You to bless the mouth of the pastor, Lord God So that He may boldly preach Your word And Lord God, we also ask You to bless our ears And our hearts so that we may gladly receive Your word Amen. Amen. So in Isaiah 53, a very well-known passage concerning the crucifixion which is what we're going to be reading about this morning when we get back into the book of Mark. We'll be going back into the book of Mark this morning in 15 as we continue on through that series, chapter by chapter, verse by verse, through Mark. And of course, chapter 15 is all about Christ's crucifixion. And you have a passage here in Isaiah, chapter 53 that is prophetic pertaining to that crucifixion. And one thing I want to point out here just as we're reading is that you know, God is not taken aback by the crucifixion. This wasn't something, of course, that came upon Him suddenly or something that caught Him off guard. Christ was fully expecting, He knew, that this is something that He was going to have to suffer through. And what's interesting is that this is something that God determined that had to happen. God the Father, you know, sent the Son to give His life as a ransom for many. If you look there in verse 1 of Isaiah 53, it says, Who hath believed to our port, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness when we shall see Him. There is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him. He was despised and we esteemed Him not. Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. So again, there it says that Christ, when He was crucified, this was Him being smitten of God and afflicted. This is something that God allowed to come to pass. This is something that He intended, that Christ, that one man should suffer for all and not the whole nation. He goes on, well we'll come back there to Isaiah 53, but it's just something worth pointing out. And I kind of came to mind because yesterday I was sharing my testimony about how I came to a saving knowledge of Christ. And one of the first things, one thing I always remember is when I was hearing the gospel and hearing it preached and hearing it explained, was when I came to the understanding that Christ willingly laid down His life. That as He said, I lay down my life that I might take it up again. No man take it from me. That's something that He willingly did. And I think that's an important distinction to make because a lot of people, even Hindus and others, they'll just look at Christ and in particular His crucifixion and they'll say, oh this is just a good example of how to forgive your enemies. This is just a good moral example of forgiveness, but it's much more than that. This is Him being smitten and stricken of God to the intent that He would bear our iniquities. That He is taking upon Himself the sins of the world. He's taking our punishment upon Him. So we have to remember that when we're reading crucifixion, Christ is willingly going through these things, purposefully going through these things for our benefit. He's suffering all these things so that we can be saved. So He became sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Let's pick it up there in Mark chapter 15. In Mark chapter number 15 we'll begin in verse 15 where we left off. It says, and so Pilate, willing to content the people, released Barabbas, we talked about that last week, unto them and delivered Jesus when He had scourged him to be crucified. So we're starting afresh here in chapter 16. We'll just read down to verse 20. And it says, and the soldiers led him away into the hall called Praetorium and they called together the whole band. And if you compare scripture to scripture, we would go to Luke, we would see that Pilate is delivering him unto what's called the men of war. So these are his soldiers, these are battle-hardened Roman soldiers that Christ is being delivered and that he's being turned over to. So that's the whole band that's getting together. That's a group of some pretty gnarly guys. And really, this is not at all what I wanted to preach about this morning, but just because we're kind of thinking about it here, when you read everything that Christ goes through here at the hands of these soldiers, you kind of understand why it is that he had to be delivered over to men of war because they do some pretty gruesome things. And there's a whole other lesson right there, the effects of war, the desensitization of war, that when people do violence unto others, it kind of becomes second nature. Obviously there's a time and place for battle, there's a time and place for war, but we can never deny the fact that it has an effect on people that are called to do that, that are carrying out that warfare. I don't think it's a coincidence that he delivered them, he didn't just get over to anybody, he didn't call the butler over and say, scourge this man or deliver him in the hand. And you don't see Pilate specifically tell them to do all these things. He's delivering over to be crucified, they take it upon themselves to do all this mockery and all this really torture of Christ. Let's read a little bit about that. It says in verse 17, And they clothed him with purple and plaited a crown of thorns and put it about his head. So plaiting is like the braiding. So they're weaving or braiding this crown of thorns and they put it about his head. So we're all familiar with that. And we here in Arizona are particularly familiar with thorns. We've all probably run into that, hopefully not, but we've probably all had a collision or two with thorns. It's kind of hard not to do here. What's the cholla, the jumping cactus? That's the nastiest one I've had to tangle with. I went to the park and sat down and sat right on one that had broken off. It wasn't like the whole plant, I didn't see it. But it was like, you know, one of the little bulbs or whatever you call it, the paddles or whatever, had somehow made its way out into the park. And, you know, I'm convinced maybe some wildlife was trying to sabotage me or something. And I sat on that and that's, you know, that's a process to get that out. Those are little barbs in there. And it's not fun, you know. And if you don't believe me, well, as lovely as that bougainvillea is out there in Bloom right now, you know, go take a header into that, right? It's filled with thorns. Everything around here is either trying to stab you or sting you in some way, shape or form. But this is so again, if you ever had even just the mildest, you know, interaction with a thorny bush or plant, imagine what's taking place here, right? He's having this crown of thorns placed upon his head. And that's obviously there's not a lot of flesh there. Everything's very close to the bone. And they begin to, you know, they put that on there and then they actually begin to beat him with a rod. And I don't know that we're going to see that necessary, yeah, verse 19, and they smote him on the head with a reed. After they put the crown and now they're hitting him with the reed that they had, you know, given him as a scepter to mock him with and they take it and they beat him with it. So again, these guys, you know, they're getting together and they're coming up with some pretty, you know, cruel mockery here. And they're spitting upon him. They're smiting him. They're bowing the knees. It says there in verse 19, we'll look at verse 18. They began to salute him. Hail, king of the Jews. Of course, they're mocking him. And they smote him on the head with the reed and did spit upon him. And which is just, you know, not necessarily, you know, being spat upon is not necessarily a physical torture, but it's very degrading. Okay. When people do that to another person, that's one of the most demeaning things you could do to somebody is to spit in their face or spit upon them. And bowing their knees, worshiped him. And when they mocked him, they took off the purple from him and put his own clothes on him and let him about out to crucify him. So again, they're putting this crown of thorns on him and, you know, just kind of not, then they're smite, they're hitting him with the reed there. And you have to kind of, and I'm going to take the time to kind of put us in this moment with Christ. I know the Bible doesn't go into, you know, real specific and great detail, but that's because it doesn't have to. You know, we don't want to just gloss over the suffering of Christ here. You know, it's good, I think, to be reminded of what Christ suffered because, again, as I started out this morning, he suffered for us. And it's easy sometimes to just read the passage and sometimes just read the words there in black and white and just kind of move along with our lives. When we read the story, we need to remember that he was smitten for us, that he was bruised for our iniquities, right, as the Bible says. So again, he's got this crown of thorns and he's being hit with the reed, you have to imagine that those thorns are then piercing his skin. You know, it's piercing the flesh of his skull and anyone who's ever had any kind of a nick or a head wound knows that those, that bleeds profusely. Anytime you have, you know, like fingers and heads for some reason seem to bleed worse than other parts of the body because they're just, there's so much is just so close to the surface, there's not a lot of depth to the flesh there. I remember when I was, you know, first started out as a locksmith up in Mesa and we had these things called Slim Jims. And I'm not talking about the beef snack, okay? I'm talking about, it was a car opening device that you would, back in the day you could slide this thin piece of metal. Who knows what I'm talking about? Why do you know about that? No, I'm just kidding. Because you got it locked out of your car, right? Okay, all right, sure. Yeah. Grand Theft Auto anyone? Yeah, so you could slide this down and then, you know, you could slide that thin piece of metal in there and unlock the door, right, from the outside. And when I was being trained on how to use this in the parking lot, you know, my supervisor came and said, hey, we're going to show, you're going on call this weekend the first time. Let's go out back and try opening up everybody's car door out here. It was people that worked there, okay? It wasn't just random people, right? But so this metal, this Slim Jim is very flimsy, right? It's just, you can just flip it and it just goes like that. And it's got a, not a sharp point, but, you know, it's a thin piece of metal. It's very flimsy. And I remember, you know, my supervisor showed me how to use it and then we kind of gone back into the shop and he's talking to me. And then he's walking and I've got this Slim Jim and I'm kind of messing around with it, talking to him, you know. And he turns around to go out and light a cigarette and I see this piece of trash in the parking lot and I think, well, I'm going to flick that trash. Just, you know, kind of almost subconsciously just kind of messing around. And I missed and that Slim Jim went, and it slapped me right here on the forehead. And I immediately just, I felt blood just start coming down. And it wasn't like a whole lot of blood, but it was, I was like just amazed. And it was in a deep cut. It was just this little nick, just this little gash that started. Now, what's funny about the story, I mean, maybe that's funny to you, right? Maybe that's, that's enough humor that all you need this morning is hear about my suffering. But what's funny is when you put yourself in the, in the place of my supervisor, because he's literally talking to me, he turns around, walks a few steps, lights a cigarette. I nick myself and he turns around, back around and all of a sudden there's just blood pouring down my face. It was literally like from, like happened in a second because he turned around, he's like, you know, like, what the, he said, I thought a bird pooped on you, you know, at first. And I'm like, no man. And it was kind of embarrassing. I have to tell him, I, I hit myself in the head with the Slim Jim, you know, like, you know, great. You know, I'm here trying to train you how to use it. He's like, that's not how you use the Slim Jim, right? So then I, but even after that, I'm going into the bathroom and like dabbing at it and the thing just bled bled. And, you know, and I, and I just bring that up to, you know, again, remind us, you know, this is a reality for Christ. That was just a little nick. He's having thorns driven into the flesh of his skull. You can just imagine the amount of blood that would have just soaked him. I mean, if it's, you know, starting here and then pouring down and he's just going to be covered in blood. And the crucifixion is a very brutal, very bloody, you know, tale in scripture. It's a very bloody story. In fact, that's, you know, some people have, you know, I've known in the past have kind of used that as a criticism. Oh, you and your bloody religion. Yeah, it is a bloody religion. There's a lot of, a lot of blood was shed in the Old Testament. I mean, think about all the, just the thousands, tens, hundreds of thousands, perhaps. Who knows how many of the animals that were just being slaughtered, wholesaled, their blood shed and sprinkled all about. And then you have the blood of Christ. Then you have the blood of martyrs. Yeah, there's a lot of blood being shed in the Bible. But without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. And what it should actually teach us is the love of God, that he's willing to go through this. He's willing to suffer these things and to allow himself to be physically tortured, allow himself to be mocked and ridiculed by these people and others, as we'll see in the story. But again, they're sitting there, they're torturing him, they're plating the crown of thorns, they're beating him. But what I want to focus on here is the clothing that's put upon him. So they clothed him with purple and I'm not going to take all the time this morning to develop, you know, how this harmonizes with the other parallel passages. But Christ at this point has, is being scourged, right? So his back is being laid open and he's being whipped. So then they're putting this purple on him and they're mocking him. And then that's being taken off of him. You can imagine just how sensitive his back, those open wounds would have been to have this clothing. You know, the robe, the purple clothing, as we see, is actually a robe. And then they put his own clothes back on him. And you can imagine just how painful even that must be to have those clothes put on and off, how sensitive an open wound is. You know, sometimes my kids will get a little bruise. They'll say, Daddy, I got a bruise. And I'll go, is it right there? And I'll push on it because I'm a dad. That's what we do. So, and not in a bad way, okay? I'm just messing with them. Ow, Dad don't do, now they know. Dad, don't show Dad the bruise, right? Because he'll, you know. Sometimes I kiss the bruises too. I'm just messing around. It's not like my dad. My dad, he was a smoker. And I remember one time I was sitting next to him. We were playing dominoes at his table and he'd be smoking. And sometimes as a joke, you know, he'd have the cigarette in his finger and he'd reach out and touch you with his pinky. And you'd go, oh, because you'd think it was the cigarette. And he did it enough times where I finally said, that doesn't, you know, I didn't flinch. Because he'd done it so many times, I said, it doesn't scare me. So he just looked at me and went, and burned me. He's like, now it will. And it did. So, anyway, at least I'm not burning my kids with cigarettes, okay? Anyway, so you can imagine just how sensitive, you know, these wounds are that he's suffering. But again, what I want to focus on is specifically the robe that's put upon him. And if you would, you don't have to keep something in Mark 15. That's all we're going to read from that this morning. But if you want to go over to Matthew chapter 27, we'll look at a parallel passage of the crucifixion here, this particular detail. And again, in John 19, I'll read to you, it describes the crown of thorns that are put on his hand. And it says there also they put a purple robe on him, right? So in Mark, they're clothing him with purple, right? And then in John, we understand that he's being, it's a purple robe in particular. That's the article of clothing that's put on him. When they say clothing him, they're putting this robe upon him. Because that's what a king would have worn. A king would have worn, you know, a robe, and in particular, purple. You know, purple was always the color of royalty and majesty. You know, today we don't give a lot, like we don't really care. What's the point of telling us the colors? Well, we see here that there's actually quite a bit of significance in the colors that are being described here. But to us, you know, these purple, the scarlet, that doesn't really matter to us. Because, you know, we live in a time where our clothes are just dyed all the time. We get all kinds of manners different, you know, our textiles are just so advanced. And we take this for granted. Back then it was actually obviously a big deal to have a dyed garment. Or to have, you know, a garment that's, you know, one piece and things like that. Clothing was a type of, you know, very valuable asset. You know, you didn't have a change of clothes for every day. You know, you had to make your clothes last. But anyway, so that's why it's the purple there, right? It's telling us that this is a very, you know, a precious garment that's being put upon him. This isn't just an ordinary garment. And it's purple because of his, that he's a king, right? That's what they're mocking him about. They're saying, well, put the purple robe on him and we'll hail him as the king of the Jews as they're mocking him. What I want to notice, I want you to notice this morning is that it's not just a purple robe. That it's also a scarlet robe. It says in Matthew chapter 27 verse 27. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers. And they stripped him and put upon him a scarlet robe, right? So scarlet is like a shade of red, okay? And then you have purple. So you say, well, what's the deal here? Why is it two different colors being described? If you want to go to Luke 23 and go to Luke 23, we'll see the answer, okay? Because if you had a, well, the thing, what I believe is that it's just, it's both colors. It's purple and scarlet, okay? If you had a garment that was both colors, you could accurately say, well, it was purple. And another guy could say, well, it was scarlet. And they'd both be right, okay? And what I like about Luke is he just kind of reminds us that, you know, it's both because it's a very precious garment. It says, inherit with his men at war, in verse 11 of Luke 23, of wars. There you go, men of war set him at naught and mocked him and arrayed him in a gorgeous robe. So it's purple and it's scarlet and it's gorgeous. It's a very, you know, that's why I believe it's described as both purple and scarlet because it's not just an ordinary garment. It's one that's both. It's just that Mark's focusing on the purple and, you know, Matthew is focusing on the scarlet. And I don't think that that's a coincidence. In fact, if you would, go back to Exodus chapter 25. Because, again, what's the point of this? Why do we even need to be told what color it is? I mean, isn't gorgeous robe enough? I mean, if he just told us, hey, it was a gorgeous robe, it was a costly robe, it was a very precious garment, whatever. It was kingly attire, right? It was, you know, soft clothing, it was a kingly raiment, whatever. The Bible could have described it so many different ways. But the narrator of scripture, you know, chose to give us these colors in particular. That it was purple and that it was also scarlet. And it could be both because it was gorgeous, okay? And this is what they're putting upon him. And I believe, you know, and I can't prove this beyond a shadow of a doubt, but this is, you know, at least my interpretation, my take on this, is that these are, these colors, this was foreshadowed in the tabernacle itself. If you remember when Moses went in the mount, he was given, you know, the plans basically for the layout of the tabernacle. And he's told very particularly, you know, how long things are going to be, how wide, how thick, how they're going to be attached, what everything is going to be made of. And all the coverings, when you pay attention to that story in Exodus 25 and elsewhere, you'll notice these colors just come up repeatedly. Purple, blue, purple and scarlet, blue, purple and scarlet, as well as others. But these are emphasized in the tabernacle, and I believe this is a foreshadowing of Christ's crucifixion. You look there in Exodus 25, look at verse 1, it says, And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering of every man that giveth willingly with his heart. You shall take my offering, and this shall be the offering we shall take of them gold and silver and brass. So there's, you know, that's going to help make a lot of the fasteners, that's going to help make a lot of the instruments that are going to be used in the tabernacle. And he also says, and blue and purple and scarlet and fine linen. So these are the particular colors of the linen, the goats' hair, the ram skins, dyed red. We can all surmise what that would be a symbol of, the blood of Christ, which I also believe is the scarlet as well. But he's saying, look, there's going to be blue, purple and scarlet and fine linen, goats' hair, ram skins and so on and so forth. If you want to go over to Exodus 26, you'll see it again in verse 1. It says, Moreover, thou shalt make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twine linen, blue, purple and scarlet, with cherubims of cunning shalt thou make them. So again, this was going to be used as a covering of the ten curtains that surround the perimeter of the tabernacle that was built in the wilderness. So you can see how that's kind of an exterior covering, right? And that's what we're seeing being put upon Christ, the purple and the scarlet. And you say, well, what about the blue? Well, I'll get to the blue in a minute. Go down to verse 13. It says, And thou shalt make a veil of blue and purple and scarlet. So the veil is another, you know, textile that's there in the tabernacle that has these exact colors in it. Fine twine linen of cunning work with the cherubim shall it be made. And thou shalt hang it upon the four pillars of shin and wood overlaid with gold. Their hooks shall be of gold and upon the four sockets of silver. And thou shalt hang up the veil under the arches that thou may bring in within the veil of the ark of the testimony. And now the veil shall divide unto you between the holy place and the most holy place. Now, again, this is very, if you know the rest of the story in Mark, this is a very, there's a lot of correlation here because when Christ is crucified and he gives up the ghost, that same veil, which is not in the tabernacle, is now in the temple, is rent in twain from top to bottom. There's a lot of symbology there as well. But again, it's just another, you know, part aspect of the tabernacle where these particular colors are being used. And then when we get into the crucifixion of Christ, the Bible's taking the time to give us those particular details that the robe that were put upon him was both scarlet and it was also purple. And it says there in verse 36, and thou shalt make it hanging for the door of the tent of blue and purple and scarlet and fine twine linen. So you can see how Christ in so many different places is represented in this, even in the tabernacle, right? This purple and blue and scarlet hanging was at the door of the tent, right? And of course, Jesus Christ said, I am the door, right? And you had to enter in through him. So there's just all this great symbology here and it just gives, you know, a testimony to the depth of the word of God. You know, if we pay attention to the details, a lot of times we can make these connections and the Bible truly is an amazing book. It says in verse 37, and thou shalt make for the hanging five pillars of Shittim wood and overlay them with gold, so on and so forth. Go to Exodus 28. We'll see it again. So we see it in the hangings of the tabernacle, right? The 10 curtains on the outside that make up the perimeter, the veil between the holy place and the most holy place, even the door, the tabernacle where the sacrifices were being brought to the priests. These are all made of this blue, scarlet and purple, which are, I believe, a foreshadowing of Christ's crucifixion itself. It's a picture of what Christ is going to do, you know, through his sufferings. We are going to be able to go through the door, through his crucifixion. That veil is rent and twain, that way to the most holy place has been made open unto us, right? That we can come boldly before the throne of God through the blood of Christ. Not only that, but it's also part of the priest's garment. If you look there in Exodus 28 verse 6, and they shall make the ephod, this is what was put upon the high priest, of gold, of blue and of purple and of scarlet. So there again, a picture of Christ who is our high priest now, right? And he became our high priest through the things which he endured. It shall have two shoulder pieces thereof, joined at the two edges, and a curious girdle of the ephod which is upon him. It shall be the same, according to the work thereof, even of gold, of blue and purple and scarlet and fine twined linen. And I'm sure there's many other, you know, connections we can make here and many other applications. The one I want to focus on this morning is the fact that this is representative of Christ's suffering in particular. With the purple and with the scarlet and yes, with the blue. Because when we read the account of that robe, that garment being put upon him, it's clearly blue is not part of that. Say, well, how is blue represented? And if you would go to Proverbs chapter 20, Proverbs chapter 20, how is blue a representation of Christ's suffering? And I would say that the blue there is actually representative of the bruising of Christ's own flesh. The wounds that he actually bore. And if you look at Proverbs chapter 20, look at verse 30, it says, the blueness of a wound cleanses the way evil. So when Christ is eventually, you know, presented, because when we read in Mark 15, we don't see the details, but when you compare it to scripture with scripture, you see that he goes through these things, is returned back. You know, he has the beating, the purple robe put upon him, all these things. And then he's brought once more before Pilate and the high priest, not the high priest, but the scribes and Pharisees, right? The council. And they say, away with this man, right? And what they would have beheld also is the blueness. At this point, Christ has been beaten. I mean, it doesn't take much to get a bruise out of somebody, right? Some people bruise easier than others. But, you know, it doesn't take much for us to bruise. Sometimes, you know, my wife will point and say, where did that come from? I say, I don't know. You know, where did you get that bruise? What did you do? I don't even know. You know, it just happens. When you're my shape and size, you just bump into things, right? When you're uncoordinated and fumbling around like me, you know, you're going to get some bruises. But think even with our kids, right? Our kids are constantly getting bruises. They're constantly, you know, falling and scraping themselves, running into things. I mean, good night. I watched my youngest get headbutted by the dog last night on accident. We were all sitting on the floor and the dog was playing with us. And then, you know, everybody, just the dog and her moved at the right moment. The dog jumped, she came into his path and boom, she got headbutted by a pug. So, I think she was more startled than anything. But the pug's fine, okay? So, anyway, but that's my point is that, you know, that's the blueness, I believe, that's being represented in the tabernacle. We have the purple, we have the scarlet, and we could even say that, you know, that represents that robe that's being put upon him. And then you'd even have the ram skins dyed red, which could be representative of the blood that would have been upon him, his own blood. And then, of course, part of the torture that he went through would have resulted in, you know, not just lacerations but also intense bruising, right? Because, again, you know, he's already been buffeted by, you know, the servants of the high priest when he's first arrested. They're buffeting him in the face. I mean, his eyes may have been swollen, he might have been, you know, bruised up already before he's even turned over to these men of war. And where they inflict even further torture upon him. And I have to imagine there was a lot of bruising on Christ's body. But notice it says there that in Proverbs 20, verse 30, the blueness of a wound cleanses the way evil, so do stripes the inward part of the belly. Now, you can apply this twofold, right? Obviously, you could take just the literal surface interpretation and apply it to corporal punishment, which is what the Bible teaches, like it or not. The Bible very clearly teaches that there are crimes, you know, civil crimes when they are committed are to be punished with physical beating. You know, you have basically financial fines. You have fines, you know, that are placed upon people as one form of punishment. Death, you know, capital punishment is another form of punishment in the Bible. But then there's also just being caned, whipped, scourged. There's many instances throughout the Bible that talk about literally beating people for certain crimes. And, you know, the Bible, and people don't like that. They don't like to hear that today because everyone's so, you know, sensitive. But the Bible says that if we would get back to this, that this would actually cleanse away evil. And, you know, a lot of people, if they understood that if they got caught doing something, that they were going to face a, you know, physical punishment, would probably think twice. And this is something that's still in practice even in many countries today where people are publicly caned, where they're beaten. So that's, of course, the first application. I don't want to preach all about that this morning. But you could also apply this to the sufferings of Christ. You know, the blueness of His wound also cleanses away evil. Not His evil, but our evil. You know, we have our evil cleansed away by the blueness of Christ's wounds. He so do stripes the inward parts of the belly. You know, that's called an attitude adjustment, right? Often the Bible talks about the bowels, you know, or the inward parts, the reins, you know, the hearts. It's talking about, you know, the seed of our emotions. It talks about, you know, our motivations, the things that move us, right? And the Bible's saying here that the blueness of a wound will cleanse away evil. So do stripes, which is talking about a literal whipping, would cleanse away the inward parts of the belly. You know, it'll change your attitude real quick, OK? But also, you know, our inward parts are changed, right? Our inward parts are cleansed. You know, we're cleansed from within by the suffering of Christ. Now, I should have had you keep something in Exodus. If you want to go back to Exodus chapter 35, we're going to look at Exodus 35 and 36. So you can see the parallel there with hopefully this morning. It's making sense. You know, again, I can't say, you know, this is what the Bible explicitly says. But, you know, I do believe that the Bible is giving us these particular details for a reason. And I'm sure there's other applications that could be made. But I think this one is definitely a valid one where you have, you know, the scarlet and the purple representing the gorgeous robe that was put upon Christ. But also the blue in the tabernacle representing his physical, you know, the bruises he would have worn that they couldn't be taken off. Now, the other application I want to make is that, you know, we have to understand, again, when it comes to the suffering of Christ, that the reason why Christ suffered is for our sake, right? He became sin for us, you know, and we might be made the righteousness of God in him. And what I want us to understand is that Christ suffered necessarily because of our sin. So in a sense, we are the ones that have contributed to the suffering of Christ. I understand we weren't the Roman centurions there that literally beat him, mocked him, and nailed him to a cross. But if we had no sin, then Christ would not need to have suffered and died. We, you know, in a sense, are actually responsible for the suffering of Christ. Obviously, it's not something he had to do. It's something he chose to do because he loved us. You know, God loves us, you know, God commended his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, right? He died for the ungodly. But it's our sin that, you know, necessitated that suffering, okay? And I think, you know, maybe this is a little bit of a stretch, but you can kind of see it here in Exodus 35 because, again, God is saying to Moses, build the tabernacle thus and use these materials and make sure these materials are these colors, right? But who did God miraculously provide those things? You know, God required that the people would bring these things, right? And I believe that's kind of a picture of that. You know, we're the ones that bring the purple. We are the ones that brought the scarlet. We are the ones that brought the blueness, right, to Christ. Just as the people in the Old Testament brought those things to the tabernacle, which I believe is symbolic of Christ. If you look at Exodus 35, look at verse 4. And Moses spake in the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, This is the thing which the Lord commanded, saying, Take ye from among you an offering. From among who? From among you, meaning the people, and offering the Lord. Whosoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it, and offering unto the Lord gold, silver, and brass, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats' hair, and ramskins dyed red, and badgers' skins, and shedomones. So he's saying, take the offering of the people. They are the ones that were to bring these materials to them. Look at verse 25. And all the women that were wisehearted did spin with their hands, and brought which they had spun both of blue, and purple, and of scarlet, and of fine linen. So it's all the people, and including the women, that were wisehearted. Go to Exodus chapter 36, verse 8. It says in Exodus chapter 36, verse 8, And every wisehearted man among them wrought the work of the tabernacle, made ten curtains of fine twine linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and cherry bims of cunning work, made he them. So obviously all the people were to contribute. And if you know the story, eventually God says tell them to stop, because they just brought more than was even needed. But it's interesting that the Bible says that it's every wise person that contributed. Every wise person acknowledged that these things were necessary for the building of the tabernacle. And we would be wise today to understand that the suffering of Christ was required because of our sins, because of our iniquities. That's really what I want to drive home this morning. Say what's the point of all this symbology? What's the point of making these connections? So that we could better understand that we played a part in the suffering of Christ. It's easy to just go, oh those nasty Pharisees, oh that mean old pilot, oh those cruel and wicked soldiers, and amen. But let's not forget the reason why Christ allowed those things to come to pass, the reason why God ordained that those things must come to pass, is because we have contributed to the suffering of Christ because of our sinful nature, and the wise would lay it to heart. And so often, even yesterday, talking to somebody about all of this, giving them the gospel, and they dismissed this. And I say that's not wise. I say, do you believe that because you're a sinner you deserve to go, well not me. And it's like, well that's not a very wise person there. You need to understand that you're a sinner, and that you contributed to the suffering of Christ in part. If you would go back to Isaiah chapter 53, where we left off. Every wise hearted man, every wise hearted woman, every wise hearted person, would say yes, I contributed the blue, I contributed to the scarlet, I contributed to the purple, to that moment when Christ was suffering. I played a part in that because of my sin. Obviously we weren't there driving nails, smacking him on the head with the reeds, spitting in his face, nor likely would we have, who knows, right? It was given unto these men of war, these hardened individuals to do those things. But nonetheless, because of the fact that we are sinners, we in a sense bring that purple, bring that blue, bring that scarlet to Christ. Look at Isaiah 53 where you are, where we left off there in verse 4. Surely hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. Why was he smitten of God? Why was he afflicted of God? For our sorrows, for our griefs. But he was wounded, it says, for our transgressions in verse 5. He was bruised for our iniquities. And I don't think, you know, Isaiah is saying just Old Testament Israel. Of course, this is prophetic. It's talking about the suffering of Christ that would come. And he's saying, you know, that hour there means all of us. Christ was bruised, yes, but why was Christ bruised? For your sins. Why was Christ chastised? Because of your iniquities. And not just yours, ours, mine, everyone's. And all I'm saying this morning is that if we were wise, we would acknowledge that. We would be reminded of that this morning. We've all read the crucifixion story. We've all heard the crucifixion story. We know how this plays out. But we need to pay attention to the details sometime. And sometimes we need to ask ourselves, why are these details here? And let God maybe show us these things. So that we can understand that we contributed to the suffering of Christ. He was bruised for our iniquities, the Bible says. Look at verse 6. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. Well, no, only really bad people have gone astray. No, all we have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord had laid upon him the iniquity of us all. So we're included in that. All means all, right? That's why the Bible says that he took upon himself the sins of the whole world. He is a propitiation for our sins and not for our sins only, but for the sins of the whole world. Every single person's sins contributed to the suffering of Christ. Just as the people in the Old Testament brought that blue, brought that purple and scarlet to the tabernacle to cover it. He says in verse 7, he was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before his shears. He is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. And this is what you see in the crucifixion story. Where Pilate's interrogating him and he answers him not a word. And he tells him, you know, you say nothing. No, you not have the power to crucify thee and to release thee. And what does Christ say to him? You have no power but that which is given you from heaven, which probably sent a shiver down his spine. He was taken from prison and from judgment. Who shall declare his generation? He was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people he was stricken. And again, this is such a crucial part of understanding the gospel. Of understanding that Christ suffered for us as individuals. He suffered for you. And he made his grave with the wicked and the rich within his death because he had done no violence. Neither was there any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to do what? To bruise him. Well, I can see where you're coming from with the purple and the scarlet. I can see that in the robe. But what about the blue? What does that represent? That represents the bruising of Christ. The blueness of the wound that cleansed away our iniquity. The bruising that was there because of God and because of our sin. Because it says it pleased the Lord to bruise him. You know, it was not that God took pleasure in it. But God saw that it was fitting. He saw that it was right. God signed off. God okayed it. God approved of the suffering of Christ. And so why would he do that? Because for God to love the whole world. And this, you know, this is a testimony to the love of God. God spared not his own son. But delivered him up. Right? And, you know, I only have one son. And sometimes I think about this. You know, would I be willing to sacrifice my one son for anybody? Would I be, you know, I don't know. I don't want to say absolutely. You know, in my flesh, you know, if it were me. And I understand. Don't take this the wrong way. It's sacrilegious or anything. But if it was my son that I was delivered up for the iniquities of everyone. You know, I would expect every single person to come running and screaming to the foot of the cross. And begging for mercy. But that's not what happens, is it? But that's exactly what God did. You know, he pleased him to bruise him. He put him to grief. And, you know, he was there to bear our iniquities, as it says. He allowed Christ to go through all these things. In fact, he deemed it. Because remember, we read it in the garden. Christ said, not my will, but thine be done. If it be possible, let this cup pass for me. And this he prayed twice. And ended up saying, nonetheless, thy will be done. Whose will? The Father's will. It was God's will that Christ would suffer this way. And to eventually die, right? But that's the love of God. That when people refuse to acknowledge their part in the suffering of Christ. When they refuse to acknowledge that they are gone astray. That they are guilty of the blood of Christ because of their sinful nature. You know, God is still patient. God still waits. God still forgives. That's the love of God. That's the mercy and long suffering of God. You know, me and my flesh, I would say, okay, if I have to do this, then every single one of you better acknowledge it instantly. You know, if I'm going to give up my own, and I'm saying, in my flesh. You know, obviously, you know, God, His ways are much higher than our ways. And His thoughts are much higher than our thoughts. But think about that. You know, Christ was delivered up to the Father, His only begotten Son. And God patiently endures while people reject it, deny it, even mock it, or just don't believe it. But nonetheless, whether we believe these things or not, He was bruised for our iniquities. Look at verse 11. He shall see the travail of His soul. Right? The Father shall see the Son's travail, and shall be satisfied. By His knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many. He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him apportioned with the great, and he shall divide the spoiled with the strong, because he hath poured out his soul unto death. He was numbered the transgressors, and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. Go to Romans chapter number five. Romans chapter number five. So what I, you know, I'm trying to get across this morning, the main point I'm trying to do, or try to make, the application I want us to walk away with is maybe not, you know, practical in the sense that it's something you can put into practice in your life and change something in your day-to-day life or whatever. It's not some habit you can go form. It's not some habit you need to go break. It's not practical, right, in that sense. But things like this, you know, we need to be reminded of. What I'm trying to do, get us to understand and be reminded once again that Christ suffered for us. You know, and I think sometimes, especially if you've been saved a long time, it kind of gets to be old news. It's kind of old hat. You know, I doubt this is news to anybody in the room. But, you know, sometimes we need to park it on this point and really let these things sink in and really think about what it is that Christ suffered and what it is that he went through. And when you read the crucifixion story, you know, fill in between the lines. What does it mean to have a crowd of thorns put upon your head? What would happen if those were then driven in with the reed? What would that look like? And I don't think that's morbid. I don't think that's grotesque. I think that's something that we need to do. Because then we would examine our own lives. Are we living lives that are worthy, in a sense, of what Christ has suffered for us? I know we never could, but are we counting the blood of Christ as an unholy thing? You know, we need to make sure that we're walking newness of life. Why? Because Christ died for us. Look at Romans chapter 5, verse 6. It says in verse 6, When we were yet without strength, look, without the suffering of Christ, without the crucifixion of Christ, we're hopeless. You know, we're dead in our sins. If Christ didn't suffer and die, that doesn't change the fact that we're still worthy of death and of hell. That never changes. It's something I find myself having to often explain to people when I'm preaching the gospel. You'll say to them, you know, do you believe that you deserve to go to hell? And they'll say, well, no. What they're thinking is, oh, because I'm believing what you're telling me. I'm saved. But then I have to clarify and say, well, yeah, I'm saved. I believe in Christ. But to this day, I still deserve to go there. This very moment, I still deserve to go to hell. I'm just not going to, praise God. And I'm not going to go because of the things that Christ has suffered for me. Because when I was out without strength, as it says here, in due time, Christ died for who? For the ungodly. And this is why, you know, it's such a wicked doctrine to teach that you have to repent of your sin that somehow you have to play a part. You have to, you know, clean yourself up a little bit, or at least be willing to, in order to be saved. Well, you know, Christ didn't, you know, die for the guy who's on a 12-step program. Christ died for the ungodly. Christ died for the worst sinner there is. And either the blood of Christ is sufficient for all sin, big and small, for every single person, past, present, and future, or it isn't. The Bible says he died for the ungodly. He goes on and says in verse 7, For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man someone even dare to die. What he's saying there is like, it's not very, you're not going to find somebody very often who's willing to lay down their life for anyone. You know, and I don't know that I would be willing to do that for anybody in this room, just being honest. Hopefully we never come to that, right? And don't, when we hear stories about that, we applaud these people. People are given, you know, congressional medals of honor when they throw themselves on a hand grenade or something. You know, when they do these courageous acts and sometimes even suffer and die in the process of doing it, that we lift that up because that's a very noble thing to lay down your own life for somebody else. You know, to take a bullet for somebody, to stand in harm's way even to the point of death, that's a very noble thing, a very courageous thing. And with the Bible saying it's a very rare thing, scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. Scarcely would, some would, you know, and some would, it's a very rare thing that anyone would ever die for anyone. But God, he goes on and says, so you can see that this is, God is contrasting himself with mankind. You know, some, you know, would scarcely die for a righteous man, some would dare to die peradventure for a good man. But God commended his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly, or Christ died for us. You know, some people might be willing to die, I might die for this guy who's a righteous guy. I might even, I might, might be willing to die for a good man. But what God, what he's saying is here that Christ didn't die for a righteous man, Christ didn't die for a good man, Christ died for sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. Christ died for people who deserve what they got coming to them. I mean, think about it, God could have just said, you know what, I'm not going to save you, and wiped his hands. And he would have been totally justified, just said, I'll just send all of you to hell. Would he not have been just in doing that? I mean, don't we all deserve to go there? But that's not the love of God. And see, sometimes we have to take the time to think about the suffering, to think about everything that Christ went through, and the fact that he went through for us for the love of God to really come through. We cannot even begin to comprehend how much God loves us. And maybe we could start to get a glimpse of it if we understood that he died for ungodly sinners. And not people, you know, who clean themselves up enough to, you know, warrant the opportunity to be saved. Look at verse 9, The blood, that's what saves. Nothing else. Just the blood. What were we before we got saved? Enemies with God. For when we were enemies, and make no mistake about it, without the blood of Christ, without acknowledging the suffering of Christ, without being saved, you are the enemy of God. Prove it. Hell. Case closed. If God sending people to hell doesn't, you know, prove the point that people without Christ are his enemies, I don't know what else does. For when we were enemies, we were reconciled good by the death of his son, much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life. He's saying, hey, if Christ's death saved us, how much more so shall his resurrection save us? You know, we are justified by his death, we are justified by his resurrection. We're reconciled by these things. Go to Romans chapter number 16. Romans chapter number 16. You know, another way to apply this bruising here is the fact that, you know, the bruises that Christ suffered were foretold not only in Isaiah 53, but all the way back in Genesis chapter 3. It says in Genesis chapter 3 verse 15, when God is cursing the ground for man's sake, when he's cursing woman, when he's putting these curses upon man, woman, and the serpent, the beast, Satan, he says to Satan, I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed, which is, of course, speaking of Christ, it, the seed, shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. So, of course, if you're going to be bruised somewhere, you'd rather be bruised on your heel than on your head, right? Because the picture there is that Christ is going to crush his head, right? But in the process of doing that, he himself is going to suffer, he's going to be bruised, right? He's going to bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. You know, he's going to crush your head underfoot, and you're both going to be, you're going to be destroyed, you know, he's going to be wounded. You know, you can walk away from a bruise on your foot, having your skull caved in as a, you're walking away from that, okay? You're dead. That's the picture there. So, this is everything that's entailed in the suffering of Christ. Not just the fact that he saved us from our sins, but that he has delivered us from Satan himself, from the power of sin, from the power of death, from the power of the devil, through his suffering. You know, and again, this all is just a testimony of the love and goodness of God, that not only did he save us from sin, but then he's given us victory over death in the grave, victory over Satan, but he's also, you know, reserved for us a place in heaven that we will rule and reign with Christ. He's exalted us. He didn't just pick us up and dust us off. He picked us up, dusted us off, and then, you know, has exalted his people. It's true. Look at Romans chapter 16 verse 17. Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause the vision and the fences, contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned, and avoid them. For they are such that serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple. For your obedience has come abroad unto all men, I am glad therefore on your behalf, but yet I would have you wise unto that which is good and simple concerning evil. And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. So, of course, Christ has bruised Satan's head under his feet, his foot, right? He bruised his heel in the process of doing it. But not only that, the Bible says that God of peace will also bruise Satan under your feet, the Romans feet, our feet, shortly, that we eventually will have, you know, defeated Satan, that he will have no more power in this world. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen. The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. You know, and again, this is everything that we have as a result of the sufferings of Christ. He didn't just bring us salvation. He didn't just deliver us from hell that we deserve. He didn't just save us in spite of ourselves. He didn't just die for the ungodly, for sinners. He's also given us power over Satan. Now, I'm not saying it's some mystical thing like we can go out and cast out devils, but what I'm saying is that, you know, this world and the lusts thereof are going to be done away with. It's all going to fade. It's all going to go away. That's why we're not to fret ourselves because of evil doers, nor of them that prosper in the way. We're not to be envious of the wicked or, you know, be anxious for what you'll be on the morrow. Look, whatever is going to happen, this world is going to happen. We know ultimately that Christ is going to rule and reign and that Satan will be bruised under our feet. He will have no more power over us. It's a very great and interesting thought that maybe I should have further developed, but that's the message this morning, you know, and again, it's a story we've heard many, many times. It's, you know, but the details there I think are significant. The fact that God takes the time to say, hey, it was a purple robe. It was a scarlet robe. And then when we compare scripture with scripture, we look at the tabernacle, we notice not only the purple and the scarlet as described there in Mark and the other gospels, but also the blue. And the blue you've got to have to kind of figure out for yourself. Where is the blue in the crucifixion of Christ? It's not in the robe that was placed upon him. It's in his actual physical body, the suffering that he endured. And then, you know, it's not just to, you know, show what Christ was willing to endure, but it's to show us the love of God. That's why he endured all these things. For the joy that was set before him, he despised, he endured the cross despising the shame and it set down the right hand of the throne of God. And he ever lives to make intercession for who? For us. And we have all of these things because of the bruising and the beating that Christ took for our sake. Don't take it for granted. It's a powerful, powerful testimony of God's love for us. Let's go ahead and close in a word of prayer. Dear Lord, again, thank you for the great love wherewith you've loved us. Lord, I pray you'd help us to love you in return and, Lord, to love one another and, Lord, that we would maybe not, Lord, hopefully never be called upon to lay down our lives such as your son has, but, Lord, that we would lay down our lives in the sense that we are to walk in newness of life. Lord, that we would say as Christ said in the garden, not our will, but your will be done in our lives. We ask these things in Christ's name. Amen. Alright, we'll go ahead and sing one more song before we are dismissed. We sing the song of the Lord. We sing the song of the Lord. We sing the song of the Lord. We sing that the first one means go home by the way of the cross. There's no way of missing, praise the Lord. We sing the song of the Lord. First we go home by the way of the cross. There's no other way of news. Life shall never get side of the gates of life. In the way of the cross I lose. The way of the cross leads on. The way of the cross leads on. Way to speak to know as I offer know. How the way of the cross leads on. Life must means no one in the blood-sprinkled land. The man hath me saved or tried. If I ever climb to the heights of God, where the soul is I hope will come. The way of the cross leads on. The way of the cross leads on. Way to speak to know as I offer know. The way of the cross leads on. If I've been there, come to the way of the world, to walk in and evermore. For my voice is loud and I see my home, where the waves at the arm, finish up strong. The way of the cross leads on. The way of the cross leads on. Way to speak to know as I offer know. The way of the cross leads on. The way of the cross leads on.