We read the word of God from Matthew chapter 27. Matthew chapter 27. Why don't we read the first 36 verses. When the morning was come, all the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death. When they had bound him, they led him away and delivered him to Pontius Pilate, the governor. Then Judas, which had betrayed him when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself and brought again the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, what is that to us? See thou to that. He cast down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed and went and hanged himself. And the chief priest took the silver pieces and said, it is not lawful for to put them into the treasury because it is the price of blood. And they took counsel and bought with them the potter's field. to bury strangers therein. Wherefore, that field was called the field of blood unto this day. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, And they took the 30 pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value, and gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord appointed me. And Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, saying, Art thou the king of the Jews? And Jesus said unto him, Thou sayest. And when he was accused of the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing. Then said Pilate unto him, Hearest thou not how many things they witness against thee? And he answered him to never a word, insomuch that the governor marveled greatly. Now at that feast, the governor was wont to release unto the people a prisoner whom they would, And they had then a notable prisoner called Barabbas. Therefore, when they were gathered together, Pilate said unto them, whom will ye that I release unto you, Barabbas or Jesus which is called Christ? For he knew that for envy they had delivered him. When he was sat down on the judgment seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, have thou nothing to do with that just man? For I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him. But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas and destroy Jesus. The governor answered and said unto them, whether of the twain will ye that I release unto you? They said, Barabbas. Pilate saith unto them, what shall I do then with Jesus, which is called Christ? They all say unto him, let him be crucified. And the governor said, why? What evil hath he done? But they cried out the more, saying, let him be crucified. When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person. See ye to it. Then answered all the people and said, his blood be on us and on our children. Then released he Barabbas unto them. And when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. 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 on him a scarlet robe. And when they had plaited a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head. And they reed in his right hand, and they bowed the knee before him and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews. And they spit upon him and took the reed and smote him on the head. And after that, they had mocked him. They took the robe off from him and put his own raiment on him and led him away to crucify him. And as they came out, they found a man of serene, Simon by name, him they compelled to bear his cross. And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say a place of the skull, They gave him vinegar to drink, mingled with gall. And when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink. And they crucified him and parted his garments, casting lots that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophet. They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots. And sitting down, they watched him there. Thus far the reading of the Holy and Divine Scripture is on the basis of that passage and many others in the Word of God that we have the teaching of our Heidelberg Catechism in Lourdes Day 40. What does God require in the sixth commandment? That neither in thoughts, nor words, nor gestures, much less in deeds, I dishonor, hate, wound, or kill my neighbor by myself or by another. But that I lay aside all desire of revenge, also that I hurt not myself, nor willfully expose myself to any danger. Wherefore also the magistrate is armed with the sword to prevent murder. But this commandment seems only to speak of murder. In forbidding murder, God teaches us that he abhors the causes thereof, such as envy, hatred, anger, and desire of revenge, and that he accounts all these as murder. But is it enough? that we do not kill any man in the manner mentioned above. No, for when God forbids envy, hatred, and anger, he commands us to love our neighbor as ourselves, to show patience, peace, meekness, mercy, and all kindness towards him, and prevent his hurt as much as in us lies, and that we do good even to our enemies. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, the law of God is divided into two tables. The first table teaches how we are to behave toward God. We are to know that one true God, and we are to have no idols. We may not make images of that God, but must worship him as he commands us in his word. We're not to take his name in vain, but to use it with fear and reverence. And we are to keep the Sabbath day holy so that we, all the days of our life, cease from our evil works and rejoice ourselves in the finished and completed work of Christ. The second table teaches us what duties we owe to our neighbor. Because God saved us in love, God put upon us an abiding debt with the neighbor. That debt you can never pay off. That debt is a love debt, so that in essence, there is a requirement, indeed a debt, that you owe to the neighbor of love that you can never pay off. You can never stop loving the neighbor. You can never say about the neighbor, I've loved you enough and now my love of you is exhausted. I've paid the debt. You can never do that. God put on you an abiding love debt so that always in all instances In every relationship, you are to love the neighbor, and the Lord teaches us that in the second table. You are to love the neighbor in the relationship of authority, so that whether you are in authority or under authority, you are to love the neighbor. You are to love the neighbor in the sexual relationship, so that if you are married, You are to pay your debt. And if you are not married, you are to honor the neighbor in abstaining from lust and sexual relationships with that neighbor. You are to love the neighbor in his goods so that you mind the neighbor's dollar and cents and you expend your own dollars and cents for the good of the neighbor. You are to love the neighbor in his name so that you speak well of him at all times. But all of those things really have their root in the sixth commandment. When God said, you may not murder the neighbor, God was saying you must love the neighbor in his person. You must love that neighbor as neighbor. And if you do not love the neighbor as neighbor, you will never love the neighbor in that relationship of authority. You'll never love the neighbor with regard to the sexual relationship. You'll never love the neighbor in his goods and you'll never love the neighbor in his name. You have to love the neighbor as a person. and as a person that the Lord put in your life. And that's the positive requirement of the sixth commandment. You may not murder the neighbor, but positively, you love the neighbor as neighbor. And that's the idea of Lord's Day 40 here. in its treatment of the sixth commandment really the Lord's day comes to the heart of it, is it enough that you don't kill any man in the manner mentioned above? no so you don't hate the neighbor, you don't envy the neighbor you don't beat the neighbor with your fists or with a bat or shoot him with a gun is that enough? no for when God forbids envy, hatred and anger He commands us to love our neighbor as ourselves. And so let's consider Lord's Day 40 under the theme murder forbidden. Notice the positive command, notice the negative prohibition, and notice the forgiveness promised. When Jesus was asked what is the great commandment in the law, Then the Lord responds in a curious way. The Lord, it appears, states two commandments. He was asked, what is the great commandment? And the Lord responds, love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, soul, and strength, and love thy neighbor as thyself. And it appears as though the Lord answers with two commandments. Are there two great commandments? And the answer is no, there's only one commandment. The commandment is love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. But that commandment immediately affects your life in the world with your neighbor. And John states that connection in 1 John. If a man say he love God, and he hates his neighbor, he is a liar, and the truth is not in him." It's easy to say, I love the Lord God. I know God. I make a confession about who God is. I confess the truth. I believe the truth. You can say, I go to a true church. I sit in the pew and I listen to good preaching. I love the Lord God. and you hate your neighbor, you're a liar and the truth isn't in you. When the Lord said, love your neighbor as yourself, the Lord was giving, as it were, the test or the proof of the man's or a woman's or a child's love for God. When someone with their mouth says, I love God, and then he turns around, and he has nothing but evil to say about his neighbor. He don't have one good thing to say about him. That man's a liar. And the truth isn't in him. And there's nothing easier for the human being than to hate his neighbor who is that neighbor? Jesus was asked that one time temptingly by a lawyer who wanted to escape the teaching of Christ that you're to love your neighbor remember that it was the theology of the Pharisees love your neighbor and hate your enemies And by that, they categorize their life and the people in their lives into two categories. One is my neighbor, and that neighbor is that person that I like. I get along with him. Him and I think the same way. We speak the same things. We like the same things. We get along famously together. He has a positive influence in my life, and I have a positive influence in his life. That's my neighbor, says the Pharisee, and my enemy, Is anybody in my life who inconveniences me? He causes me trouble. He resists me when I want to do something. He has what I want. He opposes me in what I will do. And the Pharisee said, that's my enemy, and I may hate him. And so to escape Christ's teaching, love your neighbor as yourself, the lawyer said, well, who is my neighbor? Who is your neighbor? The neighbor is very simply the other person in your life. It's that simple. Doesn't matter where you are. Doesn't matter what you're doing. Your neighbor is the other person. And we can be very concrete with that. And you need to be concrete with that. If you're a husband, your neighbor is your wife. And if you're a wife, your neighbor is your husband. If you're a brother, your neighbor is your sister. And if you're a sister, your neighbor is your brother. Your neighbor is the person that you run into in the grocery store. Your neighbor is the person in your family. It's your relative, it's your kinsman, that's your neighbor. Your neighbor is simply anybody next to you in your life. When you say that I don't murder anybody and you say I love my neighbor, you can't say that I love that person that I've never met before. It's easy to love that neighbor. There's all kinds of people in the world. They'll write a nice big check for the starving child in Africa. They'll write a nice big check to build houses for people in Haiti. And they say, I love my neighbor. No, they don't. They've never met those people. And it's for certain that if they did meet them, they would hate them. The neighbor is the other person in your life. And you have to add that the neighbor is especially that person in your life who inconveniences you. He demands of you. He requires of your time, your energy, your money, your resources, your thoughts. The neighbor takes. The neighbor doesn't always give to you. The neighbor isn't always a positive influence in your life, as they say. The neighbor can be a royal pain in the neck. That other person who demands of you in your life, that's your neighbor. And Jesus said, you are to love that neighbor as yourself. That's a very curious addition that the Lord makes. Love your neighbor as yourself. And there are those who say, when the Lord said, love your neighbor as yourself, what the Lord meant was that you love the neighbor in the same way that you selfishly and self-centeredly guard your own person. That's what man does selfishly and self-centeredly. He guards his own person. He makes sure that he never loses anything. He makes sure that he always gets his own. Man does that very naturally. And so they say what the Lord meant was, in the same way that you make yourself the center of your life, you have to do that for your neighbor too. As though those things could exist together. But that understanding is impossible. The Lord isn't saying in the same way that you selfishly love yourself, that you're also to make sure that the neighbor gets his own. When the Lord said that, those two things can't exist together. You cannot make sure that you don't lose. You cannot make sure that you do not get injured and love the neighbor, that's impossible. Because the neighbor, by definition, requires of you The neighbor, by definition, takes from you. And so what did the Lord mean when the Lord said, as yourself? The Lord meant a love that is completely antithetical to man's selfish love of self. It's completely antithetical. And you can understand that If you take the word love, love your neighbor as yourself, and you understand that word love in the biblical sense of know. And so the Lord's commandment is love your neighbor as you know yourself. Who are you? And if you don't understand that, who you are, you will never love your neighbor. Who are you? Who you are is the same as who I am. You're a child of Adam. You were conceived and born, dead in trespasses and sins. By nature, there is in you no good thing. You transgress all the commandments of God and you keep none of them. You're guilty and worthy of eternal condemnation. So that all that you can say about you as you, you as yourself, is that you are a damn worthy sinner. You have no right to one breath of air. You have no right to one piece of bread. You have no right to have somebody else in your life, but you have the right to live a lonely and miserable existence in this life and to rot in hell in the fire that's never quenched in the life which is to come. That's who you are. And if you do not know that, you will never love your neighbor. Because who else are you? You're that miserable and damn worthy sinner upon whom God had mercy. He loved you from all eternity, not because you were lovable, but out of his own nature, because it was his own good pleasure, it was his own will to appoint you to eternal salvation, to give you to Jesus Christ, to give you faith, to justify you, to raise you from the dead, to put within you his spirit, to place you in his kingdom and in his covenant, to adopt you as his child, and to draw near unto you so that you draw near unto him. How often does not Christ say, as the Lord loved you, So love. How often does not Christ say, as the Lord forgave you, you forgive. And that's what the Lord means when the Lord says, love your neighbor as yourself. If you do not know who you are, you will never love your neighbor. You will hate him. You will speak evil of him, you will be envious of him, you will beat him, whether with your fists or with your words, or with your eyes, or with your attitude, it doesn't matter. You will hate that neighbor, and you will seek to remove that neighbor out of your life and to destroy that neighbor. But when the Lord enlightens your mind, and the Lord opens your heart, and you all of a sudden see who you are and you understand who you are not only as a sinner a damn worthy sinner but as a sinner who having no right to life and having the right only to condemnation a sinner whom the Lord loved and the Lord saved all of a sudden The neighbor becomes an entirely different person. He becomes the person that the Lord put in my life. That's who the neighbor is. The Lord put him there. The Lord gave you your wife. The Lord gave you your husband. The Lord gave you your parents. The Lord gave you your brothers and sisters. The Lord put you in a particular church with particular people. The Lord puts people across your path. The Lord brings people into your life. The Lord put that neighbor there. And the Lord who saved you and redeemed you, the Lord says, love that neighbor. What does that mean? to show patience, peace, meekness, mercy, and all kindness toward Him. The home, the school, and the church would be a lot nicer place to live in if that was the reality. to show patience. What does that mean, show patience with your neighbor? It means you put up with the neighbor. It means when the neighbor inconveniences you, you don't attack him right away. It means when the neighbor walks in sin, that you labor with him. You call him to repentance, you work with him. It means when the neighbor demands of you that you freely give to them. Show patience with the neighbor. Then, peace. To be at peace with the neighbor. You're not always looking for an opportunity to fight with the neighbor. You're not always in an argument with the neighbor and up in arms with the neighbor. Peace with the neighbor. that there's harmony and concord between you and your neighbor. Meekness. You know what meekness is? You're a big nobody. That's what meekness is. Moses was the meekest man on all the earth. You could do anything you wanted to Moses. Moses lost his patience one time. And you have to feel bad for Moses. They provoked him. They attacked him and attacked him and attacked him and tried him and tried him and tried him until he lost his patience one time. And that's because Moses was only a type of the meekest of all men, Jesus Christ. You read of that in Matthew chapter 27. Look what they did to him. They tried him. They beat him. They mocked him. They ridiculed him. They whipped him. They nailed him to a tree. They mocked him from the road in front of that hill shaped like a skull. They accused him falsely. They bound him. What a silly thing they did. They bound him. He let them do whatever they wanted to him. He never answered a word against their false accusations because he was a big nobody in his own eyes before God. And he was a big nobody because he was responsible for all of our murders. and all of our sin. Show meekness. When you don't have anything good to say about the neighbor, when all you can do is get in arguments with the neighbor, when all you can do is cause discord and trouble, I can tell you one thing about you. You think you're somebody, and you're not a nobody. show all meekness and mercy what is mercy? mercy is pity toward the miserable so that you see your neighbor as you see yourself he's a sinner like you are and if he's a child of God He's the object of God's mercy like you are. And so you have a tender compassion and you have a deep feeling toward that neighbor. So in all of that neighbor's needs, your thought always is, how can I help that neighbor? And all kindness. I suppose catechism means there that you do good to him. We do good, it says later on, even to our enemies. And there's where the love of the neighbor becomes the sharpest. When God said, love your neighbor, and God meant by that that's the other person in your life, that command of God extends to your enemy. And what the catechism means there, and what the Lord meant when the Lord taught us that, was not your personal enemy. That's true, you have to love your personal enemy. There might be people in your life who simply don't like you for whatever reason. They simply, they're just your enemy. They're a personal enemy, but that's not what the Lord meant. You have to love that enemy too. What the Lord meant, an enemy of yours as a child of God, that they actually see Christ in you, They hear Christ in you, they observe your walk and your confession, and because they themselves have no part of Christ, and they themselves hate Christ, they hate you too. You are to love your enemy. What does that look like? Jesus gave a concrete example. If your enemy's thirsty, give him a drink. If he's hungry, give him something to eat. But especially this, that you actually bring before that enemy, who's going to hate you even more for this, the truth. And you call that enemy to repentance. And you lay before that enemy the glories of forgiveness in Jesus Christ to those who believe. That's showing all kindness and love. I know that's not characterized that way, but that's showing all kindness and love toward that enemy. And then if you're to love the neighbor, if you're to love the neighbor, then you may not murder him. That's the negative side of the commandment. that neither in thoughts, nor words, nor gestures, much less in deeds, I dishonor, hate, wound, or kill by neighbor, by myself, or by another." The catechism shows itself there to be very astute about human nature. None of you, I've supposed, have beaten anybody with a bat. Maybe one of us, or some of us, have beaten somebody up with their fists. Nobody's probably shot anybody with a gun. And we suppose that we've never murdered anybody, but the Catechism says much different. In thoughts, you may not murder your neighbor in thought, so that in your mind, even though outwardly you smile at the neighbor, You say, oh, have a nice day today, and I wish you the best today, and how are things going with you today? And in your thoughts, you hate him. You just murdered him. You murdered him as really and truly as if you pulled out a gun and you killed him. Nor in words. Maybe your thoughts escape your tongue. That's how it happens. When you murder the neighbor with your words, you first did that in your thoughts. Those thoughts probably had a long history. And those thoughts come out into words, and with your words, you crucify the neighbor. You know how that goes. You yell at him and you scream at him. And you call him an idiot and a jerk and a retard and a dummy and a blockhead. You've murdered him as really and truly as if you pulled out a gun and shot him. And then in gestures, you can threaten the neighbor. You keep doing that, I'm gonna beat you up. You might as well hit them already. A threat of violence is violence. Do we understand that? A threat of violence is violence. That's true in a marriage, too. A husband intimidates his wife. He may never strike her, but he intimidates her. He controls her. He dominates her. His opinion is the only opinion that matters. His thoughts are the only thoughts that matter. And she better get in line. That's violence. A controlling man is a violent man. Because the threat of violence is violence. even though he may never perpetrate violence against her. That's true in the school too, a bully. A bully doesn't need to tackle somebody and sit on them or throw them down and beat them up with their hands. A bully simply can intimidate so that the threat of violence is there. And the threat of violence is violence. That I not with thoughts, nor words, nor gestures, much less in deed. And then notice that I dishonor. How often don't we do that? That we seek to destroy the neighbor in his reputation or in his place in the world. You just dishonor him. Much less, I dishonor, hate, wound, or kill my neighbor by myself or by another. Man might be a coward, so he gets somebody else to do his dirty work for him. Why don't you go tell him what I think of him? Why don't you go let him know that if he keeps going in that way, that he's gonna have to deal with me? and you give the threat of violence through somebody else, not by myself or by another, but that I lay aside all desire of revenge. And there, the catechism puts its finger on the deep root of murder. It's revenge. Remember the neighbor, who the neighbor is, the neighbor takes in your life. The neighbor takes from your time, the neighbor takes from your energy, the neighbor takes from your resources, but the neighbor takes. And that taking of the neighbor, that taking of the neighbor, as it were, draws revenge up out of the soul. And you say, I'm gonna get him back. I'll pay him back. He took from me, I'll pay him back. Lay aside all desire of revenge. And that I hurt not myself or willfully expose myself to any danger. And there the catechism points out that you can murder yourself. Why do you murder yourself? The reason is the same as the murder of neighbor. You don't know yourself. First of all, you don't know yourself as a sinner. That's why you kill yourself. You don't know yourself as a sinner, and secondly, you don't know yourself as beloved of God. Maybe all you know yourself is as a sinner, and you've never heard the joyful gospel of the forgiveness, the free and full forgiveness of sins for such terrible sinners. You've never heard it. You don't know it. You don't believe it. You might not kill the neighbor, but you'll kill yourself. What does that look like? You cut yourself. You starve yourself. You beat yourself up about how you look. How your life is. Maybe you will try to take your life. Why? You don't know yourself. You live in despair. Hopelessness You have no joy Because you don't know yourself as a sinner and as a sinner forgiven by the grace of God in Jesus Christ Don't murder the neighbor And what is that murder Really? What is murder when you when you hate wound or kill your neighbor? And when you're envious of the neighbor and you're angry with the neighbor and you have a desire of revenge, what is that murder? A murder is to take that person that God put in your life, he put that person next to you, and to take them and to remove them out of your life as neighbor. You don't let them stay in your life as neighbor. You don't let them stay in your life as neighbor who you have to love. And you do one of two things. You either dispose of them entirely. You get rid of them out of your life. In your mind, you say everything about them but that they're the neighbor. With your words, you speak to them in every other way except as the neighbor. With your heart, you loathe them. and maybe with your hands or with your words, you take them out of your life. That's to murder. Dispose of them. Get rid of them. Either in your mind or in your life. As neighbor, you will say about them, everything except this one is my neighbor whom God calls me to love. I hate this one. I don't want to be patient with him. I don't want to be at peace with him. I don't want to have meekness with him. I don't want to show mercy and all kindness to him. I hate that one. I want him gone. You know why man does that? Because man is going to be God in his own life. The murderer has a God complex. God put your neighbor in your life. God did. And when God did that, God said, I'm God. And you're going to love that neighbor. I frankly don't care who he is. You are going to love him. You're going to show patience and peace and meekness and mercy and all kindness toward him, even if he's your enemy. God said that. And the murderer says, I'm God. And I will decide who I will love and who I will hate. And as God, you better remember that as God, that's what the murderer does. The murderer displaces God is God. And as God. who alone has the power to give life and to take it as God the murderer lays hold on his neighbor with his thoughts or with his words or with his gestures or with his deeds and he kills him because he will be God in his own life and that murderer Let's understand this about the law. Maybe the Catechism don't bring that out so clearly. But you read the law. You read what Moses said. As Moses was explaining the Sixth Commandment to Israel. When Moses gave the Sixth Commandment, very simply, thou shalt not kill. But when Moses was explaining the Sixth Commandment, Moses made very clear There is no remedy for a murderer. About every other sin, every other sin, there was some sort of payment you could make. If you took your neighbor's ox, and then you felt bad about it later, you could give your neighbor four or five oxen. Maybe because you felt really bad, you gave him seven oxen. Say, I'm sorry, I stole from you. Even in the case of adultery, there was a certain restitution that could be made. You took the virginity of some man's girl, wife, you could pay a price. And maybe he would be satisfied with that. He wouldn't ask for you to be killed. you could always pay a price for everything there was no price for murders God's word very simply is the murderer shall be killed he who takes life will lose life it was lex talionis an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life and there was no substitute even if you murdered accidentally You took another man's life accidentally. The only remedy for you was a city of refuge, and they could even hunt you down. If you went out of that city of refuge, they could hunt you down. There was no restitution for murder. That's why Christ had to die. When you read Matthew 27, that's why I read it, Christ was simply murdered. That's what he was, he was murdered. He was murdered in the most sophisticated way. It's almost comical when the Pharisees won't take Judah's 30 pieces of silver and put it in the temple treasury. They might as well have done that. Those hypocrites. Christ was murdered. He was betrayed by his friend. The elders and leaders of the church conspired against him. And then they used the sword of the state to murder Christ. They mocked him. They ridiculed him. They beat him. They bound him. They falsely accused him. He was simply murdered. Murdered under the appearance of right, but he was murdered nonetheless. And then a murderer went free. I remember when I was younger, I used to get so mad about Barabbas. Barabbas, he went off, Scott, this man, this man was a notorious brigand. He was a murderer. He had no problem slitting your throat and taking whatever was on you, and he never thought about it again. And finally, Pilate's soldiers got hold of Barabbas and they threw Barabbas into the dungeon. And Pilate, as it were, to present the Jews with an obvious choice. The nation of the Jews had suffered under the hand of Barabbas. It wasn't safe to travel on the roads with Barabbas' gangs around. Pilate, as it were, presents an obvious choice. Whom will ye that I release unto you? Jesus, who is called the Christ. And you might say, Pilate, when he said that, Pilate was laying before the people this Jesus, whose mighty works you have seen, whose powerful words you've listened to, who crowds of people followed. Pilate knew all that. You know how we know that Pilate knew all that? Because Pilate said, for envy they delivered him. They were envious of Christ and Pilate knew it. They hated him because he had and he was everything that they weren't. They wanted to be kings in the church and he was the king. They wanted to be the dictators, and he was the dictator, whose word was law. They wanted to be the lawgivers, and the lawgiver came. They would love to have worked miracles, and he worked them in abundance. He was everything they weren't, and Pilate knew it. Envy. Catechism mentions it to Envy Envy is terrible. I Think that's why the psalmist said who can stand before envy Even the Son of God couldn't Envy will smile at you. Envy will shake your hand. Envy will invite you out for dinner, give you a nice glass of wine, maybe a cigar. Envy will let you sit in its living room. And envy will have a wonderful conversation with you while envy's plotting your death. For envy they delivered him. In the final judgment, we shall see how much murder was the result of envy. Murder in the family, murder in the marriage, murder in the school and in the church and in the world because of envy. Envy plots and hides all that plotting and hatred behind a very nice smile and a very pleasant demeanor. And because of all the envy and the hatred and the desire of revenge and all of the murder, all of the evil thoughts and the evil gestures, the evil words, because that all was on Christ, he died. He was killed. He was murdered because the murderer never goes free. And that's our salvation. I want you to be those who love their neighbor. Be patient with them. Be meek with them. Show all kindness to them. But that's not your salvation. In fact, we're all pretty bad at that. Like I said, life in the home, the church, and school would be a lot more pleasant if we were a lot better at loving one another. But we're not. We're murderers by nature. and that nature breaks out that nature flashes through the eyes and the mouth and the tongue and the hands and the feet that's why your love of the neighbor cannot be your salvation it's not your salvation your salvation is in Jesus Christ who loved God and loved his neighbor perfectly in your place and for your sake. Who took all your murder on his shoulders and perished beneath the wrath of God against that murder. Who established for you a perfect righteousness and a full and free forgiveness of all your sins so that the murderer goes scot-free. When I was younger, and I got so mad at Barabbas, it's because I didn't know who I was. We are Barabbas. We're Barabbas who escaped because the Son of God was murdered in our place, and that the life and the salvation of the Son of God. That is our salvation. Amen. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we're sorry for all our murders and we rejoice that we have escaped and have been justified through the death of our Lord Jesus Christ and put his spirit in us that we may have a small beginning of that new obedience to love our neighbors as ourselves and show ourselves to be thankful and the children of the highest. We ask all this for Jesus' sake, amen.