diff --git a/.gitmodules b/.gitmodules
index 6da52c17..89f198ea 100644
--- a/.gitmodules
+++ b/.gitmodules
@@ -10,9 +10,6 @@
 [submodule "third_party/fmt"]
 	path = third_party/fmt
 	url = https://github.com/fmtlib/fmt
-[submodule "third_party/abseil-cpp"]
-	path = third_party/abseil-cpp
-	url = https://github.com/abseil/abseil-cpp.git
 [submodule "third_party/datetime"]
 	path = third_party/datetime
 	url = https://github.com/HowardHinnant/date.git
diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index c6df8ce1..4d95b285 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -16,13 +16,22 @@ option(
   "Enable substrait-cpp tests. This will enable all other build options automatically."
   ON)
 
-find_package(Protobuf REQUIRED)
-include_directories(${PROTOBUF_INCLUDE_DIRS})
-
-add_subdirectory(third_party)
+# Local files come first.
 include_directories(include)
 include_directories(src)
 
+add_subdirectory(third_party)
+
+#find_package(absl REQUIRED)
+#include_directories(${ABSL_INCLUDE_DIRS})
+
+find_package(Protobuf REQUIRED CONFIG)
+#include_directories(${PROTOBUF_INCLUDE_DIRS})
+
+message(STATUS "include dirs are ${Protobuf_INCLUDE_DIRS}")
+message(STATUS "include dirs are ${PROTOBUF_INCLUDE_DIRS}")
+
+
 list(APPEND CMAKE_MODULE_PATH "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/cmake_modules")
 include(BuildUtils)
 
diff --git a/src/substrait/proto/CMakeLists.txt b/src/substrait/proto/CMakeLists.txt
index d8dc327c..0c5d5a62 100644
--- a/src/substrait/proto/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/src/substrait/proto/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -82,7 +82,7 @@ add_library(substrait_proto ${PROTO_SRCS} ${PROTO_HDRS} ProtoUtils.cpp
                             ProtoUtils.h)
 
 # Include the protobuf library as a dependency to use this class.
-target_link_libraries(substrait_proto ${PROTOBUF_LIBRARIES})
+target_link_libraries(substrait_proto protobuf::libprotobuf)
 
 # Make sure we can see our own generated include files.
 target_include_directories(substrait_proto
diff --git a/src/substrait/textplan/converter/LoadBinary.cpp b/src/substrait/textplan/converter/LoadBinary.cpp
index 69d98007..486e9a5e 100644
--- a/src/substrait/textplan/converter/LoadBinary.cpp
+++ b/src/substrait/textplan/converter/LoadBinary.cpp
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ PlanOrErrors loadFromJson(std::string_view json) {
       std::string{usableJson}, &plan);
   if (!status.ok()) {
     return PlanOrErrors({fmt::format(
-        "Failed to parse Substrait JSON: {}", status.message().ToString())});
+        "Failed to parse Substrait JSON: {}", status.message())});
   }
   return PlanOrErrors(plan);
 }
diff --git a/src/substrait/textplan/tests/CMakeLists.txt b/src/substrait/textplan/tests/CMakeLists.txt
index 16da68ba..24be6792 100644
--- a/src/substrait/textplan/tests/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/src/substrait/textplan/tests/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -36,7 +36,6 @@ if(${SUBSTRAIT_CPP_ROUNDTRIP_TESTING})
     parse_result_matchers
     protobuf-matchers
     fmt::fmt-header-only
-    absl::strings
     gmock
     gtest
     gtest_main)
diff --git a/src/substrait/textplan/tests/RoundtripTest.cpp b/src/substrait/textplan/tests/RoundtripTest.cpp
index 0d5949ca..4cf2e3ea 100644
--- a/src/substrait/textplan/tests/RoundtripTest.cpp
+++ b/src/substrait/textplan/tests/RoundtripTest.cpp
@@ -10,8 +10,6 @@
 #include <gtest/gtest.h>
 #include <protobuf-matchers/protocol-buffer-matchers.h>
 
-#include "absl/strings/str_split.h"
-#include "gmock/gmock.h"
 #include "substrait/textplan/SymbolTablePrinter.h"
 #include "substrait/textplan/converter/LoadBinary.h"
 #include "substrait/textplan/converter/ParseBinary.h"
@@ -28,10 +26,12 @@ namespace io::substrait::textplan {
 namespace {
 
 std::string addLineNumbers(const std::string& text) {
+  std::stringstream input{text};
   std::stringstream result;
   int lineNum = 0;
-  for (absl::string_view sp : absl::StrSplit(text, '\n')) {
-    result << std::setw(4) << ++lineNum << " " << sp << std::endl;
+  std::string line;
+  while (std::getline(input, line, '\n')) {
+    result << std::setw(4) << ++lineNum << " " << line << std::endl;
   }
   return result.str();
 }
diff --git a/third_party/CMakeLists.txt b/third_party/CMakeLists.txt
index 6ace2da8..06fdee18 100644
--- a/third_party/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/third_party/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -1,8 +1,5 @@
 # SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
 
-set(ABSL_PROPAGATE_CXX_STD ON)
-add_subdirectory(abseil-cpp)
-
 set(BUILD_TZ_LIB ON)
 add_subdirectory(datetime)
 
diff --git a/third_party/abseil-cpp b/third_party/abseil-cpp
deleted file mode 160000
index c8a2f925..00000000
--- a/third_party/abseil-cpp
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-Subproject commit c8a2f92586fe9b4e1aff049108f5db8064924d8e