Please remain standing for the reading of the scriptures. We will be reading Revelation chapter 18. The most holy word of God. After these things, I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illumined with his glory. And he cried out with a mighty voice saying, fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, and she has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird. For all the nations have drunk the vine of the passion of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality. And I heard another voice from heaven saying, come out of her, my people, that you may not participate in her sins, and that you may not receive of her plagues. For her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. Pay her back even as she has paid, and give back to her double according to her deeds. And the cup which she has mixed makes twice as much for her. To the degree that she glorified herself and lived sensuously, to the same degree give her torment and mourning. For she says in her heart, I sit as a queen and I am not a widow. and will never see mourning. For this reason in one day her plagues will come, pestilence and mourning and famine, and she will be burned up with fire for the Lord God who judges is strong. And the kings of the earth who committed acts of immorality and live sensuously with her will weep and lament over her when they see the smoke of her burning. standing in a distance because of the fear of her torment, saying, woe, woe, the great city Babylon, the strong city, for in one hour your judgment has come. And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargoes anymore. Cargoes of gold and silver and precious stones and pearls and fine linen and purple and silk and scarlet and every kind of citron wood and every article of ivory and every article made from very costly wood and bronze and iron and marble and cinnamon and spice and incense and perfume and frankincense and wine and olive oil and fine flour and wheat and cattle and sheep and cargoes of horses and chariots and slaves and human lives. and the fruit you long for has gone from you, and all things that were luxurious and splendid have passed away from you, and men will no longer find them. The merchants of these things who became rich from her will stand at a distance because of the fear of her torment, weeping and mourning, saying, whoa, whoa, the great city, who was clothed in fine linen and purple and scarlet and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, For in one hour such great wealth has been laid waste, and every shipmaster and every passenger and sailor, and as many as make their living by the sea, stood at a distance, and were crying out as they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, what city is like the great city? And they threw dust on their heads and were crying out, weeping and mourning, saying, whoa, whoa, the great city in which all who had ships at sea became rich by her wealth, for in one hour she has been laid waste. Rejoice over her, oh heavens, and you saints and apostles and prophets, because God has pronounced judgment for you against her. And a strong angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, thus will Babylon, the great city, be thrown down with violence and will not be found any longer. And the sound of harpists and musicians and flute players and trumpeters will not be heard in you any longer. And no craftsman of any craft will be found in you any longer. And the sound of a mill will not be heard in you any longer. and the light of a lamp will not shine in you any longer, and the voice of the bridegroom and the bride will not be heard in you any longer, for your merchants were great men of the earth, because all the nations were deceived by your sorcery. And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who have been slain on the earth. Amen. If you're able, continue to stand for the reading of the text, Ezekiel 17. I'll be using the English Standard Version. Notice that as you go through different places, LORD will be spelled in all caps. Sometimes it's the word GOD that's spelled in all caps, and that means that that covenant name Yahweh, Y-A-H-W-E-H, the covenant name of Israel's God, the One who's present to be all He needs to be for them. is behind that term, even though it may use sometimes Lord and sometimes God. But let's read the text as we have it before us. Ezekiel says, the word of the Lord came to me, son of man, proclaimed a riddle and speak a parable to the house of Israel. Say, thus says the Lord God, a great eagle with great wings and strong pinions, rich in plumage of many colors came to Lebanon and took the top of this cedar. He broke off the topmost of its young twigs and carried it to a land of trade and set it in a city of merchants. Then he took of the seed of the land, and planted it in fertile soil. He placed it beside abundant waters, he set it like a willow twig, and it sprouted, and became a low spreading vine, and its branches turned toward him, and its roots remained where it stood. So it became a vine, and produced branches, and put out boughs. And there was another great eagle, with great wings and much plumage, Behold, this vine bent its roots toward him, and shot forth its branches toward him from the bed where it was planted, that he might water it. It had been planted on good soil by abundant waters, that it might produce branches, and bear fruit, and become a noble vine. Saith us, says the Lord God, Will it thrive? Will he not pull up its roots, and cut off its fruit, so that it withers, so that all its fresh sprouting leaves wither? It will not take a strong arm or many people to pull it from its roots. Behold, it is planted. Will it thrive? Will it not utterly wither when the east wind strikes it? Wither away on the bed where it sprouted? Then the word of the Lord came to me, Say now to the rebellious house, Do you not know what these things mean? Tell them, Behold, the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, and took her king and her princes, and brought them to him, to Babylon. And he took one of the royal offspring, and made a covenant with him, putting him under oath, the chief men of the land he had taken away. that the kingdom might be humble, and not lift itself up, and keep his covenant, that it might stand. But he rebelled against him by sending his ambassadors to Egypt, that they might give him horses and a large army. Will he thrive? Can one escape who does such things? Can he break the covenant and yet escape? As I live, declares the Lord, God surely in the place where the king dwells, who made him king, whose oath he despised and whose covenant with him he broke in Babylon, he shall die. Pharaoh with his mighty army and great company will not help him in war. When mounds are cast up and siege walls built to cut off many lives, he despised the oath and breaking the covenant. And behold, he gave his hand and he did all these things. He shall not escape. Therefore thus says the Lord God as I live, surely it is my oath that he despised and my covenant that he broke. I will return it upon his head. I will spread my net over him and he shall be taken in my snare and I will bring him to Babylon and enter into judgment with him there for the treachery he has committed against me. and all the pick of his troops shall fall by the sword, and the survivors shall be scattered to every wind, and you shall know that I am the Lord, I have spoken." Thus says the Lord God, I myself will take a sprig from the lofty top of the cedar, and will set it out. I will break off from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one, and I myself will plant it on a high and lofty mountain. On the mountain height of Israel will I plant it, that it may bear branches, and produce fruit, and become a noble cedar. And under it will dwell every kind of bird in the shade of its branches. Birds of every sort will nest and all the trees of the field shall know that I am the Lord. I bring low the high tree and make high the low tree. Dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish. I am the Lord. I have spoken and I will do it. This ends the reading of God's written word. You may be seated. Well, that's not exactly the kind of cozy text you expect at Christmas time and Advent. It begins in a strange way in verses 1 and 2. He says literally to Ezekiel, riddle a riddle and parable a parable to the house of Israel. Why speak in riddles? Well, we need to back up a little bit. We need to say Ezekiel, the prophet here, was taken to Babylon. There were three waves of captivity when Babylon took the people of Judah captive. There were three waves and Ezekiel was in the second wave in 597 B.C. So these group of exiles were taken to Babylon from Judah, other people were left in Judah, and Ezekiel was taken with them. And his ministry was mainly to speak to these exiles who had been taken to Babylon in 597 BC. ministry. And the Lord, back in chapter 2 verse 5, called these people a rebellious house. He does it in our text too in verse 12. A rebellious house. They stiff-armed the word of God that Ezekiel was bringing to them, and so sometimes when you have that kind of an audience and they're not very receptive to the Lord's word, you may use an indirect approach. I don't know if this was the reason for the riddle or not, but sometimes An indirect approach can be better than a direct approach. You remember in 2 Samuel 12, perhaps, that when Nathan the prophet confronted David, he didn't come in and say to him, you're a filthy adulterer and a vicious murderer. Because if you do that, people tend to get their defenses up. What did he do? Oh, he said, David, I want to tell you a story about a rich man and a poor man who had a little ewe lamb, and so on. And he came around in and he hit David before David knew he'd been hit. Sometimes an indirect approach is the way. Well, that's the way we have here anyway. Ezekiel is to riddle Israel a riddle. He's to parable a parable for them. And that's what makes this a bit strange. What was the riddle? Well, it was a tale of two eagles, all right. And this great eagle comes to Lebanon and takes the top part off a cedar and he takes a sprig off that cedar and he takes it back to the land of trade, which is where the eagle came from. Then he takes one, in verse 5, it says, one of the royal seed, or the seed of the land. He took another and planted it, and it became a vine. So he takes the top of a sprig of cedar, takes it back to his homeland, but this big eagle plants a sprig of vine in the land. Well, that vine flourished and grew and it turned toward this great eagle, and so on, for nourishment. But then, a second great eagle comes in. And this vine is attracted to this second eagle. In fact, it turns toward that second eagle and looks to it. It's sort of, you might say, transplanted and all that. And it looks to this second eagle for help. And at the end of that, you see you have the riddle in verses 1 to 10, and then you have the interpretation in verses 11 to 18. But this transplanted vine then is going to be pulled up by the roots. verse 9, it's going to wither, it's not going to thrive after it's turned to this second eagle. Now you get into verses 11 and 18 and Ezekiel explains something of what this riddle means. That first great eagle is Babylon and the king of Babylon and he came and he took away This top of the cedar is a reference to basically the last true king of Judah, Jehoiachin. You don't need to remember that particularly, but it was Jehoiachin. And Nebuchadnezzar took him captive to Babylon. And then he took someone of the royal seed of the royal house and so on. His name was Zedekiah, the very last king of Judah. You can remember that because his name begins with Z, and Z is the last letter of the alphabet, and he's the last king of Judah. Well, he places Zedekiah on the throne, and he makes Zedekiah swear an oath in a covenant that he'll be faithful to his overlord Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. But time went along and Zedekiah rebelled against Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar and he appealed for Egypt down south to help against them. to free him from his bondage to Babylon. And Ezekiel says that that's going to end in disaster. Now that's basically the riddle and then the interpretation. And you might say, what does Yahweh want to emphasize for his people Israel by riddling this riddle to them? What on earth does this have to say to them, maybe to us as well? Well, I think you can summarize it in several specific words. The first word is idolatry. You see it in the last of verse 7 where in the riddle that thine turns toward this other eagle that represents Egypt. And then of course you see it in verses 15 and 17. If you look there at verse 15. He rebelled against him, that is against Babylon, by sending his ambassadors to Egypt. This is what King Zedekiah did. That they might give him horses and a large army. Will he thrive? And then in verse 17, Pharaoh with his mighty army and great company will not help him in war when mounds are cast up and siege walls are built to cut off many lives. So all went according to Hoyle for a while, and King Zedekiah kept his oath to Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon, but then along about 588 BC, he rebelled, and he sought the help of Egypt to come up and give him help against Babylon. In a way, it seemed to work a little bit because we can read in Jeremiah and so on that when the Babylonians were besieging Jerusalem, they had to lift the siege for a while in order to deal with this Egyptian army coming up from the south. But they did that, and Egypt's army went back to Egypt, as Egypt tended to do. And it was basically no help then. So it was an empty hope. Zedekiah had appealed to Egypt. It turned out to be an empty hope. and of no good. Basically what that is, is idolatry. It doesn't seem so much like it, but it's the same pattern as occurred over a hundred years before, during the time of the prophet Isaiah. You don't need to turn to it, but in Isaiah chapters 30 and 31, The prophet Isaiah was scoring the king of Judah and so on because there was a group that wanted to appeal to Egypt for help. He said, everyone comes to shame, Isaiah 30, verse five, through a people that cannot profit them. That brings neither help nor profit, but shame and disgrace. And then he said, Egypt's help is worthless, chapter 30, verse seven, and empty. Therefore, I have called her. Rahab who sits still. Now if you'll just allow a blunt paraphrase of that when he says Egypt is Rahab who sits still. That's sort of like Big Porky who sits on her rear end. I know that doesn't sound good, but that's basically the idea. Egypt sits there and doesn't do anything to help. It was basically a bit of idolatry. And so, in chapter 31 of Isaiah, he said, Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses and trust in chariots because there are many, and in horsemen because they're strong, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel. So, later now, in Ezekiel's time, when Zedekiah appeals to Egypt, it's essentially idolatry. It's looking somewhere else for help rather than to Yahweh. Now, what's the essence of idolatry? Well, it consists of two elements. One is substitution, isn't it? Looking elsewhere than to Yahweh for aid and help. The other element is stupidity. If you're going to choose an idol, choose a good one. Not Egypt and so on. Actually, there are no decent idols, are there? Now, you notice that's what happened, not only in Isaiah's time, but now. It was essentially idolatry. That's not a big point in what Ezekiel is making here, but it seems to me it's a clear point. You're looking to a substitute. What's that got to do with us? Well, you know, idolatry is a danger with believing Christians as well. You know, the last verse of 1 John, little children, keep yourselves from idols. This is not something that you're beyond, he says. And you know, you can, idolatry is usually subtle. We don't usually see it. and I may make you angry here, but I want you to know that you can make an idol out of Reformed theology and good Reformed doctrinal teaching if you're not careful. How's that? Well, it's a very subtle thing. We're to be diligent, aren't we? For instance, about keeping our baptismal vows that we take for our children, to pray with them and for them, and to teach from the doctrines of our faith, and so on. But it can be another thing is subtly we begin to think in the back of our gray matter as we go along, that if we just oversee and control their education, and if we have family worship and prayer regularly, and if we teach the catechism to them, and even some apologetics, And if we keep those tabs on the relations with the opposite section, if we send them to an overtly Christian college, then they're going to come out of that pipeline just like they ought to be. And you see, you've done a subtle thing. You've made a shift. You begin to trust the process. I'm not against Reformed theology, hello, I believe it, and so on. But you can begin to trust the process rather than the Lord. We can place our faith in the system rather than in the Spirit. Who needs to change those children? So we have to watch it. We too can have that. Now, so idolatry is here. The second word, treachery. Treachery. You see it in... Well, verses 13, 15 and 16, 18 and 19. Look there in verse 13, it says that Nebuchadnezzar took one of the royal offspring, now that's referring to this last king, Zedekiah, and made a covenant with him, putting him under oath, and so on. And then, so he swore Zedekiah swore an oath to Nebuchadnezzar that he would be faithful to him and not rebel against him. Now, then you might say, well, that's okay, though, for him to rebel against Nebuchadnezzar, because Nebuchadnezzar, you know, is a pagan! So who cares whether you keep your word to a pagan king, right? No, no, no, no. It does matter. Here's a text in 2 Chronicles 36 and verse 13 might help. It's referring to the time when Nebuchadnezzar made Zedekiah swear this covenant. 2 Chronicles 36, 13 says, he, that is Zedekiah, he also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar who had made him swear by God. By God. In other words, Zedekiah had sworn an oath to be faithful to Nebuchadnezzar and he'd sworn that oath in Yahweh's name. So when he breaks that oath, he implies that Yahweh can't be trusted. He brings disgrace on Yahweh's reputation. That's the point being made here. Notice how Ezekiel highlights this. He says in the last of verse 15, can he break the covenant and yet escape? And then he says, verse 16, surely in the place where the king dwells, that is in Babylon, who made him king, whose oath he despised and whose covenant with him he broke in Babylon, he shall die. And then look at verses 18 and 19, describing Zedekiah, he despised the oath in breaking the covenant. behold he gave his hand and did all these things he shall not escape therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh as I live surely it is my oath he despised and my covenant that he broke there's not just some agreement with a pagan king that doesn't matter he swore that oath and made that covenant in Yahweh's name so the Lord says this is my oath and my covenant it really matters And when you break that kind of covenant, it reflects on Yahweh's reputation. It's a bit of treachery. And you're not going to escape, he says, from that. Treachery. I don't know how Zedekiah made that covenant with Nebuchadnezzar. Sometimes, you know, when they made covenants, they split an animal in two and they put the parts on either side, and you walk through between the pieces of the animal, and that was sort of saying, if I break my promise in this covenant, may what happened to this animal happen to me. That could have been part of the process, but we don't know for sure, but it doesn't really matter. And we may not be involved in such momentous kinds of perhaps political covenants and so on as Zedekiah was, but we are called, and this is where this treachery theme here comes back to us, we are called to keep our solemn promises. Why? Same reason. Lest we defile the reputation of the Lord. Lest we besmirch His name. Now, it may not be such a big deal, you know, but let's say, what if you're teaching and you sign a contract, say, to teach with a school, and two weeks before school begins, you get an offer from another school, another great eagle, huh? You get an offer from another school for substantially more pay. Now I know that sometimes there may be provisions in a contract for you to be released from a contract, but other things being equal, if you back out of that contract that you made, does it perhaps besmirch the reputation of the Savior whom you claim to serve? especially if you're known as a disciple of Jesus, and you back out of a commitment that you made, doesn't that perhaps reflect on Him? These are the things we have to be careful of. This is the essential matter, to maintain the honor and reputation of the Lord in the commitments we make, however mundane we may think they are. has nothing to do particularly with covenants, but I recall it has everything to do with the Lord's reputation. I recall Dr. James Baird, who was for a number of years pastor of First Presbyterian in Jackson, Mississippi, that he was telling a group of us one time of, I think it was when he graduated from seminary, And here were these young men in this seminary class graduating, ready to go out into ministry and pastorates and so on. And here's the president of the seminary and he's going to address them. And so you expect some encouraging, stirring exhortation. The president of the seminary made this statement. He said, gentlemen, pay your bills. What? Oh no. Pay your bills. Why? Because sometimes men of the cloth who are in pastorates and in ministry seem to think they ought to have perhaps a little bit of fudge room, you know. And they don't necessarily think that doing mundane things like keeping up with their financial obligations really matters all that much. And apparently this president of the seminary had seen this five times too often. And it was creating a blot on the reputation of the ministry and of the Lord. Gentlemen, pay your bills. You have to be careful of treachery even even what we might call treachery with a small t in our situation. Now, a third word. Prophecy. Prophecy. Here we look at verses 16-18 and especially 19-21. Now you notice that there's a segment here that becomes predictive of something that hadn't happened yet. You see it in verse 16 at the end. In Babylon, he that is Zedekiah shall die. The last of verse 18, he shall not escape for this treachery and so on. And then you notice what it says in the last of, in verses 20 and 21, what's going to happen to Zedekiah for his faithlessness and so on. Verse 20, I will spread my net over him, Yahweh speaking, and he shall be taken in my snare. And I will bring him to Babylon and enter into judgment with him there for the treachery he has committed against me. And all the pick of his troops shall fall by the sword and the survivor shall be scattered to every wind and you shall know that I am the Lord, I have spoken. Now here's a prediction. a predictive prophecy of what's going to happen shortly in Judah. Now remember, Ezekiel is speaking to a group of exiles in Babylon. They've already been taken out of Judah. But here's a prediction he makes of what's going to happen in Judah and to this king, Zedekiah. Now what did happen in accord with verses 20 and 21? Well, you can read about it in 2 Kings 25 and Jeremiah 39. What happened? Well, Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonians rather, breached the city of Jerusalem and they were able to begin to get into the city during the siege. And so Zedekiah and some of his picked troops at night went out through perhaps a secret entrance escaped from the city and tried to get away. But the Babylonian troops captured them in the plains of Jericho. And they took Zedekiah up to Nebuchadnezzar's headquarters. It was a place called Ribla. It was his western headquarters. And it was 65 miles north, northeast of Damascus. They take Zedekiah up there. Nebuchadnezzar has Zedekiah's son slaughtered before his eyes. Then he puts out Zedekiah's eyes and he shackles him in chains and has him taken to Babylon. That was what happened. That's a pretty good fulfillment of verses 20 and 21. It happened as Ezekiel had predicted. Now, what does that do? Well, when Yahweh makes a prediction of what's going to take place, and then when it takes place, it shows that Yahweh is the truth-telling God. That's what he said in the last of verse 21, you, plural, you folks, you exiles here in Babylon that I'm preaching to you, when this comes to pass, you shall know that I am Yahweh, I have spoken. That was my doing. I predicted it. I called it ahead of time. Then it happens. Therefore, that was my work. I'm the truth telling God. That's prophecy. Now, in other words, nothing is so sure as the word of Yahweh. Prophecy. That doesn't have anything to do with us, though, does it, particularly? Well, don't be so sure. You remember that if you go to the resurrection narratives in the Gospels, I'm thinking, say, of Luke 24, verses 6 and 7. You have the women there at the tomb of Jesus, and those two men say to them, why are you looking for the living among the dead? And what did the men say to them? Remember, Luke 24, six and seven, remember how he spoke to you while he was still in Galilee, saying, the son of man must be handed over into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise again. What was he saying? Jesus called it ahead of time. He told you, remember how he spoke to you. It validates it. Nothing is so sure as the word of Jesus. I think Christians in our own time need to lay hold of that because sometimes we look to other basis or other foundations for our certainty. For example, back in about 1930s or 40s and following, there was a hymn that was reasonably popular in Christian circles. I don't think it is now. But it was called, He Lives. It was written by A.H. Ackley. And it goes something like, I serve a risen savior. He's in the world today. I know that he is living, whatever men may say. I see His hand of mercy, I hear His voice of cheer, and just the time I need Him, He's always near. He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today. He walks with me and talks with me a long life's narrow way. He lives, He lives, salvation to impart. You ask me how I know He lives? He lives! Now right there, He lives. That's a high F note and you hold it. And if you have a song leader that's leading the singing and so on, He gets you to, He lives! Until you about pass out. And then, within my heart. That's how I know He lives. Within my heart. Well, there's an element of truth in that, isn't there? There is a real experiential element of fellowship with the risen Christ, isn't there, in the Christian life. But is that how I know He lives? Because He lives within my heart? No, I don't think so. The basis for believing you have a risen Lord is the Word of your Savior who said He was going to rise on the third day. The basis for believing you have a risen Lord is the Word of your Savior, not the depth of your emotion. Your life is anchored by the Word of Jesus, not by the intensity of your feelings. And we have to learn that over and over again. All that's wrapped up in, hmm, what's that word? Prophecy. So, idolatry, treachery, prophecy. I want to push you with one more. Tenacity. Tenacity. Verses 22 and 24. Now, look there in verse 22. Thus says the Lord Yahweh, I myself will take a sprig from the lofty top of the cedar So we're back at the cedar tree in Lebanon again. And we'll set it out. I will break off from the top most of its young twigs, a tender one. And I myself will plant it on a high and lofty mountain on the mountain height of Israel. Will I plant it that it may bear branches and produce fruit and become a noble cedar, et cetera, et cetera. I can't go in and expand on that anymore. But you see what's happening here in verse 22 to 24. There's no longer a Jehoiachin, he was taken to Babylon. There's no longer a Zedekiah, he was taken to Babylon in disgrace as well. And it looks like what you're going to have is a hopeless and defunct kingdom. But the point is, Yahweh's going to plant it again. He talks about planting a tender one, a tender twig. He's going to take branches from the topmost of the cedar and he's going to set out a tender one. and planet himself. That tender one in verse 22 is a figure and term for the Messiah from David's line. It all goes back to Yahweh's covenant promise, doesn't it? You remember 2 Samuel 7, 16, when he spoke to David, your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne will be established forever That was his word of covenant promise. And so, after verses 1 to 21 of our text, it looks like all is buried under exile and judgment. But Yahweh's not through. Yes, this people is going to be landless for a while. They're going to be kingless. But here is the great nevertheless of God. Even in spite of that, there is yet a future. Yahweh is not through. I myself will plant it. I will plant a tender twig. And when did that occur? Well, you remember that rather forbidding first page of the New Testament? You know, some of you call it the begats and so on, where you have the family development from Abraham and David. And then you get to Matthew 1, 12, and it talks about the deportation to Babylon. And then it says, and after the deportation to Babylon, then it has, Jehoiachin became the father of Shealtiel, and the line goes on. The line, though they're not kings as such, but it's David's royal line. The line continues until it gets to verse 16 of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, called Messiah. the tender twig that Yahweh planted. Now, this kingdom is not going to go down the sewer line of history because Yahweh is going to plant this tender twig. Now, a tender twig doesn't look like much. Not very impressive, is it? but it can be very significant. Let me pull it together this way. This tenacity of God that He's just not going to let everything go completely to pot. But He's going to fulfill His promise to David. Let me just pull it together this way. In the 1990s, we were serving in Baltimore. And there was a car, a vehicle that I noticed in this northeast section of Baltimore on one of the side streets. Every once in a while I happened to see it. It was, let's see if this was in the 90s, this vehicle probably came from the early 80s maybe at best, maybe the late 70s. It was It was a big station wagon. I think it was a Buick or an Oldsmobile. You know, those things at that time could really be crates. Well, this was a station wagon. And on the back of it, you see some of these vehicles sometimes where they specialize in bumper stickers and all sorts of stickers, and they plaster them all over the back. I deliberately don't do that to my vehicles, but some people like that. Well, this one was plaid, had all kinds of, on the tailgate, The bumper, the glass in the back, all kinds of stickers. But on this beat-up station wagon with all that crud on it, there was one sticker in the lower left-hand part of the tailgate that was very clear, it was in black and white, and it said, this is not an abandoned car. It was very helpful because you would tend to think that it was. Now what Yahweh is saying here is, this is not an abandoned kingdom. The tenacity of God. Let us pray. Oh, we thank You that we read in Your Word the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed. Thank You that You have planted that in Your Son Jesus. Thank You, O Lord, that we might serve Him. We pray that we will, that we will serve Him in His kingdom of grace and under His regime, that we would rejoice and that our lives would do Him credit. until he comes in the kingdom of glory. We pray in his name, amen.