There are two parts to God's great glory. Most of the time we don't understand. It's one of those words that we toss around. What is the glory of God? There are two magnificent parts to God's glory. And I don't want you to miss this. There's the intrinsic glory. And that simply is the sum total of all His multi-faceted excellencies. God is excellent in every way imaginable. That's who He is. That's His character. We don't do anything to that. We can't do anything to that. We stumble. Ours is not intrinsic, okay? And the glory that we would have would certainly not be intrinsic. But then there's the ascribed glory. This is what, by God's grace and by God's kindness, we can do in understanding His intrinsic glory. And that is, ascribe to Him all that He is. God in His mercy and grace, those are intrinsic glory in Him, took a people who really weren't anyone special and set His love on them for the purpose of them ascribing His excellencies to a lost and dying world. We read about this in Exodus 19, verse 6. And this is what he had to say to a group of people who were not a people. They weren't a wonderful group of people. They were an insignificant group of people called the Jews, the children of Jacob, the children of Israel. And he says to them in Exodus 19, 6, And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, a nation set apart for a very specific job. God says you're going to be a holy nation, and you're going to be a kingdom of priests. Every one of you are going to be a priest. That is, you're going to be the connection between humanity and God. That's exactly what a priest is. He's the intermediate connection between humanity and God. And you're going to be this as a nation, so that as people look at you as a nation, you will connect the people who are looking at you, you will connect them to God Himself. You'll be a channel through which God's words come to man. and through which man has access to God. You see, they were to be a preaching nation, a proclaiming nation, a witnessing nation. They were to be a holy nation, a kingdom of priests. And this purpose in verse 6, though, in Exodus 19, was predicated upon verse 5. And in verse 5, it says in Exodus 19.5, he says, If you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you obey me, you keep my word, you keep my covenant, you will do exactly as I've said. As long as Israel was obedient, as long as Israel was faithful to the promise, then Israel was a priest, a holy nation, and Israel was doing what God designed, but they failed, miserably failed. Does that sound relevant to you today? That's what we're called to do. We're called to be a kingdom of priests. And we fail miserably. And God scattered them. In fact, God told them, if you don't, this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to scatter you. And He certainly did. He scattered them as a nation because of their sin. And He did so to demonstrate His magnificent glory. You see, God will get His glory. Please understand that. Sometimes we think, boy, if I sin, boy, God, oh, He's not getting His rightful glory. That's true. But God is just God enough that God will use sin in a sinless way in order to get His glory because God is all about His glory and we ought to be thankful that He is. It's the magnificence of God that He would use sin this way. And so God scattered them. And then he brought him back as a nation. And we've been studying this series of messages that Zechariah got in one night, a series of visions that God was bringing to this nation who had been scattered now for 70 years, and he brings them back for the purpose of rebuilding Jerusalem. And so in vision one, we've already talked about this. If you remember Christ riding on the red horse in the myrtle trees in a ravine. And we said there that God remembers and cares and He will restore. Christ in the middle, caring for Israel all the time, even though in their dispersion, Christ is in the midst. Then we saw the second vision. Remember the horns and the craftsmen? The enemies of God's people will be destroyed, and God cares. And for every horn, every power, God has a specific craftsman that goes against His power. God will not be outdone. His glory and praise will be seen. Then the third one that we saw last week, the measuring line. The measuring line that actually said, I can't even measure it. Why? Because the walls, it will be a wall-less city. It won't be able to hold the numbers of people that will come someday to Jerusalem. God's city will be rebuilt. And God is going to bring His people from all nations, all tribes and languages, and there's a future projection in what He was saying here. He wasn't going to do this immediately. We long for the day when God brings all of His people back to Himself. But here's the source of real hope for us today. And the biggest and the most vivid struggle for each of us here today, and was exactly for them as well, is this whole struggle of sin. Sin is vicious. Sin is so destructive. Sin divides. Sin seeks to conquer. Sin seeks to intimidate. And so God takes this vision, this next vision, and he projects a people that need this mountain, this huge mountain that he need to cross. And he comes and he says, I am going to take care of this problem. It's very much like this in our vision today. You are out mulching the yard. You ever mulch your yard before? Fresh mulch. I love the smell of that. Boy, there's just something invigorating about fresh cut grass and fresh mulch. All right? and you're out there, and you've got perhaps a pitchfork, and you've got your wheelbarrow, and you're putting that in that wheelbarrow, or you've got those big bags, they do a lot of that, you get this bag and you open it up, and it is black, and it gets all over you, and you are filthy, dirty from mulching your entire yard, and your wife is on the inside, and she's ironing a white dress. And she's got it all nice and spick and span, and she puts it on, but she can't zip it up. And you're the only one there. And so she yells out the window, hey, honey, will you come in here and zip up my dress for me? And you walk in, and you're an absolute mess from all the mulch. And you walk in, and you look at her in her beautiful white dress. How are you gonna do that? How are you going to zip up that dress without getting anything on her? Because you know at the moment you touch it, she's got mulch all over that dress. That's what we see in our vision today. This vision that we see speaks to the very issue that was really causing Israel not to be the displayers of God's glory. We see that God will cleanse the nation and He will restore them as priestly people before Him. That He would remove their defilement so that they could again serve Him. And here's the hope. True comfort comes in God's presence. We've talked about this already. When God's presence is with us, the second thing, the second vision that we saw, God's vindication of His people, true hope comes when God vindicates His people. And the third vision that God's true hope comes when God's people humbly submitting to God. But today, in this vision, vision number four, we see true comfort for God's people is found only in God's perfect work of justification by Christ alone. My friend, to you today, if there's any hope that you're gonna have in this world, you must understand this important vision, because he gives this vision to a nation, but he also gives it to us today. It's very applicable to our own world today. These people were rebuilding the temple for the purposes of worshiping God. But Zechariah's ongoing message to them was that they can't merely rebuild external walls. It's not about a religious activity. It's not about having a very beautiful external temple. What he's dealing with is that in a real sense, you must be a people whose internal insides, hearts, are being changed by the glory of God. That you're doing this because of your love for God and He's changing you. They need transformation. They need genuine heart change. And so God shows them how. And this message is not just for them. This message is for you and for me. How do we have genuine salvation in Christ alone? How are we justified? How in the world can we do anything in our filthy garments? Notice, first of all, the desperate condition. Look at verses 1 through 3. And he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord. And Satan standing at his right hand side to accuse him. The Lord said to Satan, the Lord rebuke you, O Satan. The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you. Is not this a brand plucked from the tree? Now Joshua was standing before the angel clothed with filthy garments. The vision here begins with the scene right out of a courtroom. Joshua, the high priest. This is not to be confused with Joshua who was linked with Moses. There's many Joshua's in the Bible. This one's the high priest at that particular time. And he's standing before the angel of the Lord. And we've already determined that whenever we see the angel of the Lord, this is Christ himself. He's standing before Christ The high priest is the representative of the people to God. You understand that there was this high priest and he was the intermediate between God and man. And so in a real sense what we're seeing here is that it's the people who are standing before God. It's their people that are standing before Christ. It's all of Israel. And the word standing here describes what a priest does. He stands. He serves before the Lord. It also speaks of standing before a judge. So there's two ideas here. The idea of standing before the Lord in service, but standing before the Lord as judge. And you're going to see that both of them are true. What's the desperate condition then? Well, notice, first of all, Satan is standing beside Joshua, and he's standing there as the accuser. The Hebrew language is very clear here. Literally, it says this, the accuser is accusing. And you go, well, duh, that's what the accuser does. Exactly. And it's Satan himself that's standing there, accusing Joshua. Look at this sinful bunch of people. Why on earth would you care anything about them? He is the accuser, and he has very sharp words of accusation at Joshua. But notice Joshua. How is he standing there? Joshua is clothed in filth. The Hebrew word is very clear here. Satan is right in his accusation. See, sometimes Satan lies in his accusation in order to make what seems very small and insignificant big, in order that the accusation would seem larger. But here, Satan is dead on. Joshua was filthy. Joshua had no business standing before a holy Christ. The accuser, what he says is accusing. The word for filth, listen carefully, the word for filth literally means issue forth or to go out. And it's dealing with excrement going out of the body. It's an ugly scene. The sin of God's people comes out, and it's obvious, and it's filthy, and it's defiled, and it smells. It's wretched, and it permeates the environment. This is the high priest standing as the representative of the people. The condition is very wretched. Notice thirdly, Joshua is standing before Christ. Verses 1 and 3 says this. Notice what he says in verse 1. He's at the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord. Look down at verse 3. Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. It's one thing to be utterly foul, It's one thing to be filthy. It's another thing to stand before the Christ, the Holy One of God. And twice it is stated that he stands before the Lord. That's on purpose. To highlight the contrast, because the contrast is stunning here. And every sinner stands before God in his own merit without righteousness. Stands in filth. Stands in defilement and abominable. And even the best is nothing but filthy rags, Isaiah 64, 6 says. We all stand before God in need of washing. Desperately in need of washing and it's a humbling lesson to learn Because every one of us by ourselves have no standing. And we are an abomination before a holy God in heaven. And the accuser is right. We have no right to stand there before God. Because God demands a perfect righteousness. And no man has this. You, my friend, do not have any kind of perfect righteousness that you can offer before God. Something needs to be done. The smell was horrendous. Romans says that we've all sinned and we all fall short of the glory of God. And if God doesn't do something for us, we are hopelessly lost and in need of justification. There is no phone a friend. There is no help here. Joshua stands alone, accused by Satan, and Satan is dead on in his accusation. And he stands before the Holy God. The condition is desperate. Notice secondly, notice the stunning gift of righteousness that God gives. Look at verse 2 and then 4 and 5. And the Lord said to Satan, the Lord rebuke you, O Satan, the Lord has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you. Now look down in verse 4. And the angel said to those who were standing before him, remove the filthy garments from him, And to him he said, Behold, I have taken your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments. And I said, here's Zechariah standing up going, Man, don't just take the filthy garments off, put a turban on, a clean turban on his head. Wow! This is certainly a stunning picture of anyone who has understood what it means to be justified and given a transformed heart. Notice this. Notice first of all, Joshua is chosen by God. Look at verse 2 again. The Lord said to Satan, the Lord rebuke you, O Satan, the Lord has chosen Jerusalem. Jerusalem often is used as a word for God's people. Do you remember when Christ looked at Jerusalem? And he said, and he wept for Jerusalem. And he said, how often would I have warned you, but you would not listen. He was talking about the people. He wasn't talking about the buildings, the city. He was talking about the people. God chose Joshua. Now the Lord did not rebuke Satan by pointing out Joshua's finer qualities. And he didn't read the list of Joshua's good deeds over the years and said, oh, he's done pretty good here. That's not what he did. Instead, the Lord rebukes the devil on the basis of something that the devil could not compete against, because it is the very core nature of God as the sovereign of the universe. This is why people who don't believe God struggle with this idea of his sovereignty. If you're here today and you're doubting God, what you're doubting is at the very core of the problem between you and God, that you will not believe that He is king, that He is sovereign, He rules over everything. Why? Because the essence of sin is, I want to be God. I want my definitions of life to be what gives me life. I want God and I want God my way. I want things to be my way. And what Joshua is learning here is he's learning that God is God. And God's people are reminded that He is sovereign. And so God plucks the brand from the fire all by Himself. Look down in verse 4. or excuse me, the end of verse 3. He says, is not this a brand plucked from the fire? God plucks the brand by Himself. Notice that the choice that God made is not a potential choice based on man's response. So often I hear people say this and I go, no, no, no, God didn't look down the annals of history and say, I knew He would choose me and so I'm choosing Him. No. Understand the theology that's being spoken here. Because Joshua is silent throughout the entire scene. He says nothing. And he has nothing to say because his filthy robe says it all. He's filthy and cannot do anything about it. And God, in His kind way, plucks him from the fire. And the kind gift of God's cleansing is not due to any merit of Joshua. You see, my friend, we cannot come to God on any merit of our own. Zero. You see, it is God who chooses. It is God who plucks the brand. And it could not be any more obvious. But this is how anyone can come to salvation in Christ. It's by grace alone that God sets his grace. And if it's by your own merit, it dissolves grace. If it's by your work, it takes and it dilutes grace. And this is such a powerful source of assurance, though. For any believer today, truly if God be for us, who can stand against us? The answer is, no one. When God plucks the brand out of the fire, who can be against that? No one. Because God is the sovereign God. And God chose Joshua. Notice secondly, Joshua is justified by God. Boy, how important this is. Verses four and five. Here, God does for man what man could not do. You say, what are you talking about? Well, see the picture. First of all, God takes off the filthy garments. You can't do that. You can't take sin away from you. Understand what's being said here. Please listen to me. Don't sleep now, all right? I'll give you time to sleep later. This is crucial. God clarifies exactly what He means by taking off the filthy garments when He says this, I have taken your iniquity away. That, my friends, should give us chill bumps. This is a gracious declaration of God in that He takes away our iniquity. He takes away the filthy garments. Now listen carefully. This is removal of guilt. The word iniquity in the Old Testament is a non-moral term that gives us a picture of what sin is. Some of you heard me say this before, but listen carefully. Iniquity here is this idea of missing the mark. It's a non-moral term. It's a term that's used in archery. There's no right or wrongness about it at this point. If an archer takes a bow and arrow and he shoots at the target and he misses, it's a sin. It's not a moral issue. You say, what makes it then a moral issue? It brings it into the moral realm. to that which is twisted or perverse as it describes a consequent guilt that's attached to sin. It's not the actual sin, but it's the consequence of the sin. It's the guilt. You say, what do you mean? Joshua stands before the Lord. He is not, at that particular time, in the process of sinning. but stands in the reality of his guilt. And what God says to him, what God declares to him is, I have taken away your guilt. That, my friend, only God can do. This is a legal declaration. The judge that is righteous says, I take away your guilt. You see, forgiveness is available. by God, but it's only God that can do that. It doesn't stop here though. God doesn't just take away our guilt. He says this, God puts on new garments. He puts on pure vestments. The word pure here is the word festal. F-E-S-T-A-L. Festal. And this goes back to the Day of Atonement in the Old Testament, where Aaron the high priest would offer sacrifices, and scripture says he would do this in a white linen. And as He was busy during the atonement, during the sacrifice of atonement, He would get filthy, dirty, as He was taking filthy, dirty lambs who were severed and the blood was spilt all over the place, and He would get dirt and blood and filth all over His white linen. And after the day of atonement, The high priest had been made special garments of gold and purple linen to celebrate the fact that forgiveness had taken place and to demonstrate a change of being because sins were atoned for. And so his garments were new the next day. Beautiful, white, purple, scarlet, gold linens, demonstrating that the atonement had been made. This is what it's talking about here. And I love what Zechariah says. He goes, put this turban on. Let's finish it. You see, the turban is the headdress of the priest. The final piece of that spoke of holiness declared clear back in Exodus, where they would take this, this turban, this design turban and show from the head to the toe, the sins are atoned. This filth is replaced by the radiating holiness, the garment of salvation, the robe of righteousness now imputed to us. And all the beauty and the merits of Christ God now considers to be ours. This is why I could barely, I was almost uncontrollably weeping this morning as I listened to the choir sing this verse, and can it be, no condemnation now I dread. Jesus, and all in Him is mine. Alive in Him, my living head, and clothed in righteousness divine. Bold I approach the eternal throne and claim the crown through Christ my own. Amazing love! How can it be? You know how it can be. Because God is God. And God sets His love upon us. And He takes and He says, remove those filthy robes and you take on My completely righteous robes. That's how we're justified. And I love that God proclaims the acceptance of this as the Lord rebukes Satan in verse 2. He goes, I'm not going after Joshua. Why? Because I'm going to clothe him with my righteousness. You, because of your wicked rebellion, you rebuke. I rebuke you. And then, I love what ends in verse 5. Look at verse 5. Look at the very end of verse 5. Who is standing there throughout all of this? My friend, it's Christ. It's our Savior, it's our Lord, and he's standing there. He's the one that's gonna fix this. It's Christ, our great high priest. Joshua is not the high priest. Christ is the great high priest. Notice thirdly this morning, as time is going by quickly, Christ's righteousness. You see what's happened? We've been given Christ's righteousness. Now watch, because Christ's righteousness changes everything. Look at verse six and seven with me. It changes absolutely everything. And the angel of the Lord solemnly assured Joshua, thus says the Lord of hosts, if you will walk in my ways and keep charge, then you shall rule my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you the right of access amongst those who are standing here. Oh, my friend, don't miss what God is saying here. God's precious gift of righteousness by His sovereign grace throughout Scripture is always tied to a response by man. Always. When a heart is given new life, this transformed heart begins to function within that righteousness, and service to God is what follows. And here's no different. Because notice the three things that he begins to do. First of all, he begins to walk in the ways of God, walk in my ways. Because I have the righteousness of Christ, I can now, and I'm free to walk in the ways of Christ. You see, our only hope of holiness is found in Christ alone and his perfect righteousness. Israel always struggled with this very part. They were always looking for righteousness in themselves. And we're no different from Israel. Many of you continue to look for perfect righteousness that you can kind of offer to God. Well, look, here's this good thing that I do. Look, I'm not bad. Look, look, here's what I do. And I love what Paul says in Romans 4, 4. He says, Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due. If you're all the time working to gain God's approval, then it's not grace. It's out of your works. But he says, and to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. True saving faith, my friend, only comes when you believe in Christ alone and his righteousness. That's where pure saving faith comes into play. Our attempt at self-righteousness always keeps us from genuine transformation in the heart. Why? Because it points to us inward rather to Him upward. And this is why many self-righteous church attenders are not genuinely born again. because they keep pointing to what they've done. My friend, if you are here today and your only hope is found in your paltry righteousness, you are still in filthy robes. And you need the justification of Christ's righteousness. So walk in my ways. When you have his righteousness, you can walk in his way. Secondly, you can live as priests. Notice what he says here. Keep charge, rule my house, charge of my courts. All of these terms are dealing with the priesthood. And God designed for his people to be a kingdom of priests to the other nations, as we read about in Exodus 19. And this is true for all of us today, that we are to be born again, living out that righteousness of Christ as kingdom, as living in the kingdom, as priests of His kingdom. 1 Peter 2, 9. You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. And so because we have righteousness, perfect righteousness, and we've been justified, we can live in transparency. We can live in compassion, and we can live in worship. Every day, always. Because of Christ's perfect righteousness, we get to live as priests. Thirdly, we live in the reality of heaven. Verse seven, look at the end of verse seven, what he says here. He says, I will give you the right of access amongst those who are standing there. And he says this, he says, with this righteousness, we have access to those who are standing by God. Well, who are those people that are standing there? Remember, this is a vision, what he's seeing here. It's Christ. and it's angels. And this is the good news of the gospel. A person who is plucked from the fire and chosen to walk in the ways of Christ, to live as a priest, and to live in the reality of heaven, and all of this is centered in Christ alone. And this is good news. How does this happen? It happens when we place our faith and we have His righteousness. The people that are standing around there indicate the glories of that which is unseen, and that is our eternal state in heaven. And He says, because you have the righteousness, you will live and have access to the Father. You will have access to the angels. You will have access to Christ. This is the future event. It's something that will take place when you pass from this world. or when Christ himself returns. Now, what is the result of this Christ-centered living? Please see this. Don't miss this. And this will end. We find this in verses 8-10. I love these words, verse 8-10. Hear now, O Joshua. Hear now, O Joshua. Clues us as to the pinnacle of this vision. What is the pinnacle of the vision? He goes, okay, now that you've understood all this, here it is. And what does he do? He points Zechariah to Christ. And this is the good news, that man would live for Christ alone. And how does he do this? Well, first of all, he shows us the identity of Christ as the servant, as the branch, and as the stone. You see this? Verse 8, I will bring my servant the branch for behold on the stone that I have set before Joshua on a single stone with seven eyes. What in the world is he talking about? This is all speaking of Jesus. All of these are symbols of Christ that are given throughout the Old Testament in Isaiah and Ezekiel and the Psalms. As servant, Christ served us with what we needed the most. He gave us His righteousness. He took upon Himself our sin and He served us by suffering. That's what you have the book of Mark about. Christ, the suffering servant. As the branch, this idea of the branch here is that He became man. He was the God-man. He was in the vine, but He became man. He became a branch. And this imagery throughout is talking about what Christ did when He died on the cross. He took upon Himself your sin and mine. As a man, He died. He paid the penalty. He met the justice of God's wrath. And then finally is a stone. You'll see the stone imagery come back up in Zechariah. But this is very interesting as a stone with seven eyes. Seven is the number of completion. The idea of eyes is the idea of knowing. And seven eyes means the omniscience of Christ, that in all of his knowing and all of his doing, and also the stone is used in Ephesians as he talked about as the cornerstone upon which everything is measured in life and earth and in heaven and eternity. The all-knowing Redeemer comes and does what He's asked to do and suffers and dies and grants us His righteousness and He knows all and it is all of history and all of this world is aligned to Him as the chief cornerstone. This is all speaking of Christ. Our lives should reflect Christ in all things. In every area, it's got to go back to Christ. I mentioned to our teachers this week, it's Christ, He has created all things. All things are from Him. All things are through Him. And all things go back to Him. In Romans 11, verse 36. Why? It's all about Christ. And here is no different. The identity of Christ as servant, the branch and the stone. And then secondly, the work of Christ as the final High Priest. He's the one that settles it all. He's the one that gives to us everything that we need. And it says here that Christ will in one day remove the iniquity of the land. Why does he say that? Because you understand that every day the priest had to go to work and sacrifice. Special sacrifices were given all through the year. And he says this, the perfect high priest will come and in one day take care of it all. His once and for all work covers sin. And what will be the result of his work? I love verse 10. And in that day, notice, declares the Lord of hosts, every one of you will invite his neighbor to come under his vine and under his fig tree. The vine and the fig tree are always picture of abiding rest and peace in Christ. Remember, Jonah sat under the fig tree. He was looking for rest at the very end. The vine and the fig tree always picture the idea that conflict between man and God and man with man has itself ended. And He is the ultimate Prince of Peace as the Great High Priest and as the Lamb of God who is now seated at the right hand of the Father. I love what the writer of Hebrews says this in Hebrews 10 verses 12-14. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sin, one day, Christ the High Priest. He sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until His enemies should be made a footstool for His feet. There's connectivity back to what Zechariah is saying here. For by a single offering, He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. That's our Great High Priest. That's our Christ. So not only should we live our lives, and our lives should reflect Christ in all things, but we should be constantly living in the blessed assurance of His perfect work. My friend, often the reason why we are so despondent in this world, we suffer with the ongoing anxiety and the stress of sin in our world, in our life. We stress out because of anger, because people who treat us wrong. We stress out with bitterness. We stress out at our job scenarios. And all of it can be traced back to our unbelief that God in His sovereign design places people and circumstances around us in order for us to exhibit the excellencies of His glorious grace in our hearts. And some of you are suffering undue stress in your life right now. And it comes out by the way you respond to people, it comes out by the way you handle people, and in that stress you don't love people as you ought to, you have a hard time loving your spouse, hard time taking care of the people around you, and you struggle with that inner turmoil. And it's all because We don't believe that God is God, that somehow we have to manipulate life, that somehow we have to, we have to gird ourselves up by our loins and we have to, we have to march through and we're going to get this. Well, we will never get it because the picture of our justification is that we come in filthy robes and God removes those from us. And He gives us beautiful robes of righteousness that need no perfecting by you. But because you have His perfect righteousness, you can live in confidence that there's no circumstance that has to dictate life to you. None. There's no feeling that has to dictate life to you. Why? Because you've been freed from that sin. You've been freed from that guilt. Guilt does not have to rule you. You've been freed from it. Put your deadly doing down and find your soul's peace and confidence in Christ. That means we can come and repent and turn and confess our sin, knowing that He's faithful and just. Why? Because He's already forgiven us. He's already dealt with that sin. Our guilt is no longer there. No condemnation. Now we dread. Jesus is mine and all in Him I find. I hope you're living in that victorious way of living life. and not consistently struggling with the ongoing me first syndrome of sin that does so easily beset us and overwhelm us. Pray with me this morning. Father in heaven, our hearts are so filled with gratitude. God, much of what we said today is symbolic, but it's true. It wasn't just a symbol. And what you were saying to Israel was true. And it has been accomplished, and it will be accomplished. And God, we get to believe this by faith. Oh, Father, forgive us for our unbelief. Forgive us of a small view of you. Forgive us for an inordinate, large view of ourselves and cause us to repent from our view. God, make us repenting people. God, don't let us hold on to empty, stress-filled things that just controls our very thinking to the point that we can't love you like we ought. God, I pray that in you we would find the fig tree, the vine, and that we would be so enjoying the vine and the fig tree that we would call all of our friends to it. Father, thank you for this picture. And thank you for the realities of it. You alone are God. And we place our faith and our trust in you this morning. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.