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Our scripture reading is from 
the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 

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27. 
Now at the feast, the governor 

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was accustomed to release for 
the crowd anyone prisoner whom 

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he wanted, and they had a 
notorious prisoner called 

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Barabbas. 
So when they had gathered, 

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Pilate said to them, Whom do you
want me to release to you? 

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Barabbas or Jesus, who is called
Christ, for he knew that it was 

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out of envy that they had 
delivered him up. 

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Besides, while they were sitting
on the while he was sitting on 

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the judgement seat. 
His wife sent word to him, have 

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nothing to do with that 
righteous man, for I have 

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suffered much because of him. 
Today in a dream now the chief 

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priests and the elders persuaded
the crowd to ask for Barabbas 

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and destroy Jesus. 
The governor again said to them,

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Which of the two do you want me 
to release to you? 

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And they said Barabbas. 
Pilate said to them, then what 

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shall I do with Jesus who was 
called Christ? 

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And they all said, let him be 
crucified. 

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And he said, why? 
What evil has he done? 

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But they just shouted all the 
more, let him be crucified. 

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So what? 
Pilot saw that he was gaining 

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nothing, but rather than a riot 
was about to begin, he took the 

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water and washed his hands 
before the crowd, saying, I'm 

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innocent of this man's blood. 
See to it to yourselves. 

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And all the people answered, his
blood be on us and on our 

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children. 
Then he released for them 

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Barabbas, and having scourge 
Jesus delivered him to be 

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crucified. 
This is the word of the Lord. 

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Though these words are familiar,
it once again it's good for our 

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souls to slow down and embrace 
the tension, the anxiety, the 

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friction in the city of 
Jerusalem at this time. 

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The tumultuous events that have 
been in play by God's perfect 

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design, but playing out in real 
time for all who are in all four

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of the gospel narratives. 
Jesus. 

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After the longing of spending 
the Passover with his beloved 

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disciples. 
They go into the garden at 

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night, they pray, they 
intercede, they fall asleep. 

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Jesus is in agony, sweat like 
blood. 

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In the middle of the night, as 
Jesus was was praying in 

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Gethsemane, the great crowds 
comes full of chief priests, 

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religious leaders and the 
elders. 

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They arrest him. 
One of his disciples, Jesus, 

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betrays him with a kiss. 
He's dragged away, but not 

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before the chief priest servant 
is. 

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Remarkably, his ear is cut off, 
and then Jesus feels it shackled

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and LED into a kangaroo court of
Caiaphas, the high priest, with 

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the scribes and the elders, the 
so-called religious leaders, the

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shepherds of Israel, have 
established a kangaroo court 

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from which they try Jesus, they 
spit on his face, they slap him,

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and they mock our Savior. 
And then, and then Peter denies 

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the Lord three times before the 
cock crows. 

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As the morning rises, Judas 
can't live with himself for what

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he has done. 
He takes the 30 pieces of 

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silver, throws him in the temple
and kills himself, hangs himself

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out of great disgust and guilt 
for what he has done. 

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The chief priests then, of 
course, lead him away, lead 

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Jesus away to pilot. 
And here is where Barabbas and 

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and Jesus and Pilate all 
intersect. 

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It seems chaotic. 
It seems unnerving and full of 

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fear and anxiety. 
And yet Jesus is that perfect 

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peace plan is coming full into 
play. 

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Our sovereign Lord is in control
of it all and no one else can 

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see it. 
But he knows his eyes are fixed 

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like Flint on to the cross. 
So here is Barabbas in this 

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moment. 
He is recorded in all four of 

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the Gospels. 
He's not a good man, not at all.

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In our text, he's he's said to 
be a notorious prisoner and 

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others abandoned, an 
insurrectionist, one who was 

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against the empire of Rome, a 
murderer, violent, deserving 

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punishment under Roman law, 
waiting for his crucifixion. 

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We can't imagine what it must 
have been like for him in that 

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dark dungeon cell guarded by 
Centurions. 

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But hearing the turmoil, hearing
that yelling, the crowd, and all

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of a sudden his name being 
called out a little bit later, 

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the guards come. 
He thinks this is it. 

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He's on death row. 
This is it. 

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The most horrific, barbaric, 
intentionally designed tool of a

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massive, suffering Jesus. 
It's going to be on that cross 

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that Barabbas should have been 
on. 

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And then Barabbas is set free. 
We can't imagine what he did. 

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What did he think? 
What happened when those lock 

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was turned and he was set free? 
The guilty man who expected 

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death, deserved death, now has 
life. 

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The chains are gone and he is 
free. 

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It's a picture of God's Amazing 
Grace. 

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It's unfolding right there. 
We all can see it. 

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It's it's obvious though, 
Barabbas in the real time of it 

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all and no one else could see 
what was in play, but he got we 

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could get the taste of the 
substitutionary atonement that 

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God is at work and Barabbas 
becomes this living object 

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lesson to all absolutely guilty 
deserving the cross and yet the 

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innocent is now condemned and 
the guilty is set free. 

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What was he thinking? 
Did he run to his family and 

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friends? 
Did he did he celebrate? 

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What did Barabbas do? 
We just don't know, but we do 

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know this he did not earn any of
it one drop. 

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It was all completely grace. 
Miraculous, stunning grace. 

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He did not earn 1 drop of this. 
And it makes it so clear as we 

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think about not. 
Sometimes we say that Jesus died

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for us, but we can't forget that
Jesus died instead of us. 

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We deserved that death. 
Barabbas deserved that death. 

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It wasn't just dying for us, it 
was dying instead of us. 

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What we deserved when one thing 
we do know, we don't know how he

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celebrated or what he did after 
he was set free. 

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But we do know Barabbas was 
never the same. 

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How could he? 
Everyone who intersects with 

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Jesus. 
Prominent important people to 

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commoner, unknown, faceless 
people are changed as a result 

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of their intersection with 
Jesus. 

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Every disciple, including Judas 
Caiaphas, the high priest 

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Malchus who was the servant who 
had his ear cut off and then 

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miraculously healed. 
Every Roman centurion pilot 

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pilot's wife is even mentioned. 
She knows he's a righteous man, 

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tries to warn her husband, but 
it's too late. 

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Herod Simon of Cyrene, who 
carried the cross. 

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No one. 
Whoever intersected with Jesus 

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remained the same. 
Not one. 

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They were all changed or 
rejecting Christ, doomed. 

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But they were never, ever the 
same. 

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We wonder what did happen to 
Barabbas. 

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What happened to this man? 
It is, we hope he came to 

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Christ, but history does not 
record. 

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The Scriptures do not let us 
know what then happened to 

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Barabbas. 
We do know that if he did not 

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come to Christ, he was only set 
free in the physical sense. 

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He was only released from 
prison. 

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But he didn't have a new heart. 
His heart of stone was not 

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transformed by grace to have a 
heart of flesh. 

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We do know that if he was free, 
but he wasn't transformed, He 

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may have received freedom, but 
he did not receive all the 

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riches of Christ. 
And our justification, 

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sanctification, salvation, 
future glorification, union with

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Christ, everything that we get 
to experience as a believer, the

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freedom of it all. 
If he did not come to Christ, he

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was just a man out of prison, 
but not free from the shackles 

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of sin. 
For we know that we in Christ 

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have what is called the great 
exchange. 

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We take on His righteousness. 
We give Jesus all of our sin. 

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We hope Barabbas had that. 
We hope Barabbas would 

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understand later on that he who 
knew no sin became sin so that 

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we might become the 
righteousness of God as Romans 5

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amazingly plays out. 
Therefore, since we've been 

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justified that with faith we 
have peace with God through our 

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Lord Jesus for why we were still
weak at the right time. 

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Christ died for the ungodly, for
one would scarcely die for a 

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righteous person, though perhaps
a good person one would even 

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dare to die. 
But God shows us love for us, 

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that while we were still 
sinners, Christ died for us. 

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We have now been justified by 
His blood. 

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Much more shall we be saved by 
him from the wrath of God. 

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We think of all the passages, 
the wretches of being Christ, 

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the penal substitutionary 
atonement that came. 

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We see Barabbas is the foretaste
of that is this picture of this,

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and it points to this reality 
that's very painful. 

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We, each of us, we are Barabbas.
We are the ones that deserve. 

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We are the violent criminal that
in our heart we've murdered 

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people. 
During this Holy Week, have you 

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not been more keenly aware of 
our sin and our desperate need 

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of all the ways that we have 
murdered people? 

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In our hearts we are like 
Barabbas and we have been set 

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free by Christ and deed. 
What a gift that we have. 

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So though history does not 
record, though the Scriptures 

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don't tell us what did happen 
with the freedom that came to 

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Barabbas, what is it that he 
did? 

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How did Christ work in his life 
after his freedom from prison? 

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We do not know. 
But maybe the better question 

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for you and for me is, what did 
you do with the freedom? 

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What did I do with the freedom? 
What do we as the people of God,

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what have we done with our 
freedom? 

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Thanks be to God for His Word.