Amen. Amen. Let us turn to Ezekiel chapter seven. The text this evening, Ezekiel chapter seven and then we'll also be reading and our text is also the last few verses of And basically, we have two points tonight. Basically, our first point is the last verses of Ezekiel 7. And our second point is the last verses of Ezekiel 17. And they are very closely related. They're both verses that have much to say about the royal house, the royal line of David, and so they're closely connected. We'll read, just for context, we'll read verses 10 and 11, and then we'll jump ahead to verse 23. starting in Ezekiel 7, page 883 in most of the new ESV Bibles. Reading verses 10 and 11. And then we'll jump ahead to verse 23. Ezekiel 7, verse 10. Behold the day, behold it comes. Your doom has come. The rot has blossomed. Pride has budded. Violence has grown up into a rod of wickedness. None of them shall remain, nor their abundance, nor their wealth. Neither shall there be preeminence among them. And going to verse 23, and we'll be looking especially at the last verses, even especially at verse 27. What we read at verse 23 now is Ezekiel 7. forge a chain, for the land is full of money crimes, and the city is full of violence. I will bring the worst of the nations to take possession of their houses. I will put an end to the pride of the strong, and their holy places shall be profaned. When anguish comes, they will seek peace, but there shall be none. Disaster comes upon disaster, rumor follows rumor. They seek a vision from the prophet, while the law perishes from the priests and counsel from the elders. The king mourns, the prince is wrapped in despair, and the hands of the people of the land are paralyzed by terror. according to their way I will do to them and according to their judgments I will judge them and they shall know that I am the Lord. And then we turn over a few pages to Ezekiel chapter 17 and we read the last three verses Ezekiel 17, 22, 23, 24. Ezekiel 17, starting at verse 22. 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 tough 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. 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. So are the green grass withers, the flower fades, the word of our Lord endures forever. Well, dear congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, for those who were here last week, we may remember that Ezekiel 7 is the first place starts to detail the sins of the people and even especially verse ten to the end of chapter seven is where Ezekiel is really starting to list off. This is why all this judgment is coming. This is why Jerusalem is as Ezekiel prophesied will be destroyed. It's not destroyed yet. Uh that's still still about 5 years away. That's Uh both of our chapters are before Jerusalem is destroyed but it's been prophesied. It's going to happen and that it's because of these sins and as the sins begin to be described, we have that language of the bloom of pride in verse ten. Pride has budded and then we looked at a number of of the sins And now we look especially at the sins of the leaders, the sins of the rulers of the people. That includes the priests, the prophets, but especially we're focusing on the king and the prince of verse 27. And then that is how it will tie in. with chapter 17 because Ezekiel 7, the last ones mentioned, the last ones condemned are the king and the prince. They're the rulers. They have a special responsibility. And that is, who are they from? They're from the house of David. And that is how we're gonna tie in chapter 17 for our second point. which we'll see is all about God's salvation through the family tree of David. So chapter 7, chapter 17 are linked together by the importance still, even now, of David's family tree, just not the kind of importance that the people of Israel were thinking of, expecting, So our theme is this, that finally there will be peace for many under David's tree. Or if we expand that just a little bit, finally, not in the way that the people of Judah are expecting, there will be peace for many under David's tree. end of chapter 7 the unjust rule under the tree of David then our second point will be to the end of chapter 17 we'll look at the coming peace under the tree of David and just a little bit something to anticipate we're not going to get to this until our very conclusion but when we're coming to Ezekiel 17 We're looking at the chapter of the Bible. Now, the chapter, we're not numbered yet, but we're looking at the chapter of the Bible that Jesus Christ was thinking of on his way to the cross. So, we're not gonna get to that as a conclusion, but just to have us anticipating where we're going. Ezekiel chapter 17 is the chapter Jesus is thinking of on his way to the cross. Well, first we're in Ezekiel 7. And what is the last sin? The sins of violence. And who is the overseer over all of this? And who's allowing all of this? Who's failing to stand against any of this? Well, the leaders. That includes the false words, the failure to condemn the prophets and the priests, and that includes the royal house over all of them. chapter twenty-two of Ezekiel gives us more details on this. If you turn there with me, Ezekiel chapter twenty-two, we're gonna read a handful of verses. Ezekiel 22, which details a number of sins. Very specifically, it goes into detail on some gross heterosexual sins in the beginning of the chapter. It speaks about profaning the Sabbath as being a specific sin, profaning the Sabbaths more than once. But listen to this language on how the leaders pervert justice and how the kings are glad to have false prophets and priests, whitewash them. their unjust rule. Listen for that language. Ezekiel 22, verse 24 to 31. Son of man, say to her, you are a land that is not cleansed or rained upon in the day of indignation. Now, Ezekiel 22, verse 25. The conspiracy of the prophets in her midst is like a roaring lion tearing the prey. They have devoured human lives. They have taken treasure and precious things. They have made many widows in her midst. Her priests have done violence to my law and profaned my holy things. They have made no distinction between the holy and the common. Neither have they taught the difference between the unclean and the clean. They have disregarded my sabbaths so that I am profaned among them. Her princes in her midst are like wolves, tearing the prey, shedding blood, destroying lives to get dishonest gain. And her prophets have smeared whitewash for them, seeing false visions and dividing lives for them, saying, Thus says the Lord God when the Lord has not spoken. People of the land have practiced exhortation and committed robbery, they have oppressed the poor and needy, and they have extorted from the sojourner without justice. And I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none. Therefore I have poured out my indignation upon them. Do you hear the language of how the leaders are using their positions of influence to say what the Lord has not spoken? They're whitewashing the sins. And the king and the prince are especially guilty of that. They are. There is a monarchy. Israel was a monarchy. The king has had great authority. And even though the kings were not religious leaders in the sense that they couldn't perform the sacrifices and such things, that was the Levites' task. Even in the religious sphere, the kings of Israel were first and foremost called to be religious reformers. Even the fact that the prophets are allowed to whitewash injustice and all of these things, it all in many ways comes back to the royal house. The injustice being upheld, the unjust rule ongoing, and all of the violence and the pain for the people that comes with that. And so, the people in general are mentioned in verse 27, but the last specifics are this, the king mourns, the prince is wrapped in despair. Notice those are both in the singular. And so, most likely, that is a reference to the king, chapter one, verse one, who is in exile, King Jehoiakim. And the prince, who most of the people call the king, but Ezekiel doesn't call him the king. Ezekiel calls Zedekiah, who is ruling in Jerusalem as the puppet of Babylon, he calls him, in chapter 12, the prince in Jerusalem. You know, just to step back, why is this important? And how is this all gonna tie together? Well, it's all gonna tie together if we're focusing on the royal line of David. That's our connection from 717. Why is this important? Because the Israelites who are still living, the people of Jerusalem, they're shouting, Zedekiah, Zedekiah, he's our man. If Jehoiakim couldn't do it, Zedekiah can. Okay, that's the attitude. That's the mindset. Okay, Joachim, he got hauled off to Babylon. He's already in exile, and that's really sad. But things have looked really bad for the house of David before. And even though Zedekiah's only there because Nebuchadnezzar took Joachim's uncle and said, here, I'm gonna put you on the throne and do what I want. Well, things have looked bad before. we're going to make it. We we still have a king of David's lying on the throne. It's going to be okay. Zedekiah is going to do it for us. So, even in the fact that Ezekiel refuses to call Zedekiah the king except in chapter seventeen when we're we're going to look at that for a second point, even that is a communication of the true prophet. He's saying, no, your your mindset is wrong. Zedekiah is not going to God has no plan for Zedekiah. God is going to do something yet through the way, even though you probably don't think that's going to happen. That's what God's actually going to do. God has no plan for Zedekiah. This is not going to work out for him. And so, the king, the prince, they're mentioned in the singular here at the end of Ezekiel. which is a hint to us, we're probably thinking of the royal king of David, who's already been hauled off to Babylon, and the royal king of David who, for now, is still in Jerusalem, whom the people are trusting in. But he is an unjust ruler. He is at the end of a line of too many rulers who have been unjust, and this is not gonna be where your salvation comes from. That is what Ezekiel communicates to the people. This is the royal house of David. But this is, their salvation is not gonna come in this way. Zedekiah is not going to stand. Even the earthly canons of David's line will be exposed. That was our language from last week for those who are here. If you're trusting, In David's earthly mind, that trust is going to be exposed. This is not going to be where your salvation comes from. You must look to me. And so, the repeated language of chapter seven is, you must know that I am the Lord. Verse four says, then you will know that I am the Lord. Verse nine says, then you will know that I am the Lord who strikes. And in the chapter, the section ends. Verse 27, I will judge them and they shall know that I am the Lord. And so, Ezekiel seven is very much bad news. We we cannot trust in any earthly institution. Not even in the earthly kings of David's house sitting in Jerusalem. We cannot trust in the things of this world and to to to bring that connection to us before we go to chapter seventeen. I think of all the things that we can trust in that we can try to find our pleasure in You know, if there was one thing that the people of God might have thought they could have trusted in, it was the earthly kings of David, sitting on the throne of David in Jerusalem, as they did for hundreds of years, 400 years. We cannot trust there, we cannot trust in anything. We cannot have our trust in our own selves or any earthly mind. It must be God alone. Now, we come to our second point. We come to chapter 17. turning over to chapter 17, our second point now, coming peace under the tree of David. A few, we're gonna give a quick overview of the chapter, and then we're gonna look at the last few verses. So the whole chapter is two visions. It's a much longer vision, including its interpretation, verses one to 21, and then a second vision, closely related, in verses 22 to 24. That first vision is one of those times. when God says everything in the language of the vision, and then he explains every part of it. So the vision is verses one to 10, and then the explanation of all of it is verses 11 to 21. In fact, verse 12, we could paraphrase it this way. God says to Ezekiel, you know, the people should really be able to understand all of the images I just gave to them, but just in case, I'm just gonna spell it out. I'm gonna tell them exactly what these pictures are. and the pictures are that you have two great eagles, very brief overview, you have two great eagles, you have one is Babylon, the other one is Egypt, and the people of Israel, especially Kings Zedekiah, is gonna try to trust in one of those eagles, the eagle of Egypt, to save him from the eagle of Babylon, but it's not gonna work. If you can't trust in the mighty eagles of this world and then that's that leads into verse twenty-two to twenty-three and twenty-four where god is repeatedly saying, I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it and sometimes he's taking the language from earlier and exactly reversing it and so whatever you thought that the eagles of this world might be able to do, you have to look to me. I'm the only one who can do it. Uh Zedekiah is going to be just show specifically that he's not even described as being part of the tree of David just for poetic effect. Uh he's described as being part of the seed of the land and there's a very specific prophecy. Look at As I live, declares the Lord God, surely in the place where the king dwells, who made him king, whose oath he spies, and whose covenant with him he broke, in Babylon, he shall die. Now, this is the only place in Ezekiel where Zedekiah is called the king. And it's immediately before Ezekiel says, he's not gonna stay in Jerusalem. Zedekiah, he's going to die in Babylon. Uh and so, all of that is is this you you you're trusting the world, the the prince who I'm only going to call it in here. He's not going to last. He's going to die. Not in Jerusalem in Babylon. Okay. So, what's what's the answer? Where's our hope? And that's what leads us to verses twenty-two to twenty-four. God gives a new And it will be through the house of David, which is pictured as this great cedar in the first few verses. But not from Zedekiah, not from Jehoiakim, not in the way you expect. I'm going to start all things over. I'm going to take one sprig – look at the language of verse 22 – God is going to take a sprig from the lofty top of the ceiling 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." What's God saying? Salvation is still going to come through the house of David. There's going to be one special twig that I'm going to take off and it's going to make its whole own tree. And that's going to be the noble cedar. Now, we step back and we see that on this Christmas Sunday, we have two Christmas sermons. This who is the tender, the little twig that is broken off to make its whole own tree. Well, that's only Jesus Christ. It is only Jesus Christ and this is uh this is far from the only time we see this language. Uh god and this language of there's gonna be this one righteous branch. You're surrounded by injustice. There's gonna be this one righteous branch from David who delivers. That is given to us many times. We're gonna turn to three different passages. I want us to also think about the time when these prophecies were given. So we're gonna go back to Isaiah chapter 11. Isaiah chapter 11. And let us remember that we're going back almost 200 years. And so really the first time we see this prophecy, it was long before we came to the Zedekiahs and the Jehoiakims and the very end of the Davidic line. Already God was saying, you really need the one righteous branch. He was saying this long ago. So here's the language of Isaiah chapter 11 there shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse was of course the father of David from the stump of Jesse and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him the spirit of wisdom and understanding the spirit of understanding, the spirit of counsel and the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the lord and his delight shall be in the fear of the lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see or decide disputes by what his ears hear but with righteousness, he shall judge the lord and decide with equity for the beef of the earth and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips, he shall kill the wicked the bells of his loins. There's this branch coming from Jesse who is the righteous branch and god preached that through his prophet Isaiah long before the house of David was even coming to its earthly end and now, let's go to somebody who prophesied really at the same time as Ezekiel Jeremiah chapter twenty-three and Jeremiah chapter twenty-three verses five and began before Ezekiel's. He was older than Ezekiel, but then Jeremiah continued to be a prophet all the way through the days of Ezekiel's prophecies as well. And so they are contemporaries. They've overlapped. It may have been that Ezekiel heard Jeremiah preaching as Ezekiel grew up. This is how Jeremiah says it in Jeremiah 23 verses 5 and 6, Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the Lord. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. This is the name by which ye shall be called. The LORD is our righteousness. The LORD is our righteousness. And then, let's turn to one more. So now this is after Zechariah chapter 3. And we're here this morning. We've already been in Zechariah chapter 3. Now we're looking at the last verses of that little chapter. Zechariah chapter 3. So now we're jumping not quite 100 years, but about 50, 60, 70 years after Ezekiel, God continues to declare the good news. One of the reasons why I want to look at these three prophecies, God wants the good news preached in every generation. God wants the good news preached in every generation. One of the ways he did that in the Old Testament was by coming back to this wonderful prophecy of the one righteous branch in the line of David that we need. Ezekiel 3, verse 8. This is how the accusation of the devil, in verse 1, will be stopped. Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who sit before you, for they are men who are assigned. Behold, I will bring my servant the branch. And notice, Zechariah doesn't have to go into detail because the people of God are paying attention. They know the prophecies that have come before. They know who the branch is, because he's already been detailed and described by the early prophets. And what does the branch do? He will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day. end of verse 9. And in that day, declares the LORD of hosts, every one of you will invite his neighbor to come under his vine and under his fig tree. So what is Zechariah doing? He's continuing the language of Ezekiel 17, that this one branch is the one who starts a whole new tree. And everyone will invite his neighbor to come under this vine and under this fig tree. Why? Because this, this is a tree of peace. This is where we pass salvation. This is where we have the shade of true comfort. Look at the language of verse 23. Look at the language of Ezekiel 17 verse 23. And on that mountain high into Israel, I will plant it. We don't have time to get into the mountain now, but we'll just say that relates to the fact that everyone's going to be worshiping together. The language of mountain is closely related to to temple and worship. On that mountain height of Israel will I plant it, and make there 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 rest." God wants to proclaim the Good News from one generation to another. and often through his prophets, he did it by coming back to this vision of the true branch of David, through whom a whole new tree would be made, the tree of peace. This is the tree for every bird, with every kind of wing. It doesn't matter what kind of sin you've made, what color your wing is, what shape your wing is, it is for each and every one of us. This is the tree. This is the shade of true comfort. This is the noble to which we must desire to come. This is true through not any earthly king, not any earthly power. Forget, forget the Babylon's and the Egypt's and all of the pleasures of this world to this very day which they represent. Forget even the royal house of David and its earthly kings. No, look to the one righteous king of that line from whom God took that twig and made this whole new tree, the one tree of peace. This is the only tree. and it is the truth of truth. Oh, this is this is the gospel. This is the good news. This is what Jesus proclaims. This is what Jesus fulfills for us. This is what the lord wants everyone to know. This is where the lord wants all of us to end. So, even the the the very pointed warnings of of Ezekiel and chapters three to 33 are mostly pointed warnings What is it for? It's because God does not want us to trust in the world or in our own strength. God wants us to repent of our sins and look to this one righteous branch. God wants us in the great peace and the great shade of this one tree of peace. Do you know this tree of peace? Do you rejoice in its shade? Are you there already together with every kind of bird as you would be rejoicing in this shade. For any who would not be made, we understand this is where God calls us to. Indeed, this is So, this is that short vision after the longer vision which Jesus was thinking of when he went to the cross. Please turn with me to Luke chapter twenty-three. So this is, we're gonna look at verse 31. What's the context? This is when they're leading him away, when Jesus could not carry the cross, because of the torture he'd already received from the soldiers, so they gave the cross to one Simon of Cyrene. They're walking to the cross. Jesus says, he begins speaking in verse 28. These are his last words. Perhaps the very last words. Sometimes we talk about the seven crosswords, the seven sayings of Jesus that are recorded from while he was on the cross, from the four different gospels. These may have been the last words before those seven crosswords. This is what Jesus said on the way to the cross. Verse 31. For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry? Okay, now turn back with me to Ezekiel chapter 17. Where does that language come from? They do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry? Which all of this is a symbol for, there's gonna be suffering, there's gonna be something very difficult. It's not going to look promising, Look at the language of verse 24 in Ezekiel. I bring low the high tree, and make high the low tree, dry up the green tree, and make the dry tree flourish. Do you see it? Jesus is saying, I am going to take the most low task in the sense of the greatest suffering, the greatest humility, the thing which does not look promising. But what happens? When the wood is created, what will happen when it is dried? After the true and righteous branch dies for the sins of others. After that, there is flourish. Jesus knew exactly what he was doing. when he went to the cross. Jesus knew exactly who he was and so when he says, I am the true true vine which could be translated. I am the true branch. He's saying, I'm the fulfillment of all those prophecies and when he says these words, perhaps his very last words before he makes it to the cross, he's saying, I am going to go and I am going to be the low suffering for all who trust in me will flourish. This is our savior. This is what he knowingly, willingly did for all who repent of their sins and trust in him. He suffered. He was loathed. so that we would flourish. Come to Jesus Christ. Dwell in his tree of peace which is established because he was low and suffered for sins so that sins could be removed. This is the shade that we need. This is the one noble cedar all through Jesus Christ, the true branch. Amen. Let us pray. Lord, God Almighty, remove all of our budding pride. Remove all of our sin. Remove any pride we would have in any of the things for places, for people of this world. Bring us to the bloom of peace. The great tree of peace, planted through the suffering and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In his name we pray.