Join me tonight, if you would,
in the book of Esther, chapter 9. The book of Esther, chapter
9, and we're going to be looking at verses 17 and 18. They're much the same. The message
in them is about the same that we want to look at. I will never
forget, I hope I never forget, you know, Brother Mahan, who
brought me the Gospel, shared with me one of the best pieces
of instruction a preacher could have. and that is wherever you
are in the Word of God, look for Christ. Find that trail to
Christ and get going on that just as soon as possible. Well,
that's what I want to do tonight. Because this passage of Scripture
shares so much about what we have in the victory that is in
Christ Jesus our Lord. Now, just remember, Israel in
the Persian Empire was on the brink of destruction. They're
on the brink of destruction. The command had gone out to destroy
all of Israel. And then we find out in God's
providence, in God's purpose, it was not going to happen. And we have one of those great
preachers of righteousness sharing, if it's not sure you, Esther,
deliverance will come some other way. He understood that the people
of God would be delivered. And how it happens sometimes
is not easy to figure out, but it happened. and He was part
of it. And we find out that the very
beginning, in the Fall, before the Fall, in the Council Halls
of Eternity, in the Covenant of Grace, God determined to save
a people. We're going to call them the
Jews. Spiritual Israel. And even in the Fall, they had
been marked down, chosen, put in a book, and let know that
they would be redeemed by God. Now, we didn't know that at the
time. We had no interest in it when the Gospel came to us, when
religion came to us. That was not of interest. But
we find out when we're born again that He reveals these things
to us. I have an interest in you before the foundation of
the world. Well, here, as the children of Israel are on the
very brink of destruction, As it appeared, we have an overseer.
We have one who holds all things in the palm of his hand. We have
the one who works behind the lattice, the one who works without
anybody being able to see him. You know, it's wonderful to read
in the scriptures that God is the spirit and they that worship
him must worship him in spirit and in truth. He's hidden from
us. There's that whole realm. that is hidden from us by nature.
We can't understand spiritual words. We can't understand spiritual
teaching. We cannot understand anything
spiritual. We can't understand God until
He reveals Himself to us. And then, by God's grace, we
begin to see some of the blessings that He has in His very person,
in the person of Christ Jesus. He had an eternal purpose, and
it was to save all Israel from their sins. and to deliver them. I have given to the Son all of
these folks and they will be under His care. He will be their
surety. He will die for them. He will
suffer for them. He will put Himself in their
place and will take care of the sin death. Now, after God does
that for us, we find these two verses share with us the results.
And I like results. I like the results of God's great
victory over sin, death, hell, and the grave. And so in verse
17, on the 13th day of the month, Adar, we're not going to get
too concerned about that. It was a time when God decreed
that there was going to be this. And on the 14th day of the same,
rested they. Now, after the victory is understood
and completed, What does it say? They rested. Okay, and then it
says, and made a day of feasting and gladness. Verse 18. Now the Jews that were at Shushan
assembled together on the 13th day thereof, and on the 14th
day thereof, and on the 15th day the same, they rested and
made it a day of feasting and gladness. Now we'd like to look
at this tonight from a New Testament eye. Looking at the Old Testament
through New Testament eyes, we see here that this great time
of rest and feasting and gladness at least represents and pictures
the saints of God, the blessings of God, and therefore the greatness
of such an unexpected deliverance. The greatness of a poor sinner
just ready to perish when the soul is made to hear the voice
of God. Seemingly ready to perish and
then God does something so gracious and he saves him. Turn with me
here to the book of Job for just one verse of scripture. The book
of Job right next door here Job 33, in Job 33 we hear these words
as it is decreed and declared. The word of God is so clear on
this subject that there had been a ransom found. Then he is gracious
unto him and saith, deliver him from going down to the pit. Job chapter 33 verse 24, deliver
him from going down to the pit. I have found a ransom. The payment
price is being made and the transaction took place as we read about our
Savior, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. So here
are the results of this great transaction between the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit on the behalf of the children
of God, they are given rest. Now this word that is found in
this verse of Scripture is not Sabbath. It's not that kind of rest. It
is better. It's not religious. We can see
all of this is a picture and a type here in Esther. God working
behind the scenes to fulfill his purpose with his people.
And what a response. This great deliverance brings
what the results of God's great deliverance to the church. Rest
from their labors, feasting and coming together at the feet of
the Savior. and to drink and to eat, that's
what that word means, and gladness with great joy of heart. Now
this word rest, now before we get too far afield here, turn
with me to the book of First Kings. 1 Kings chapter 4 verse
25, now I can't often turn there, I have to look it up, but it
is one of my favorite verses in the reign of Solomon because
it shares so much with us about how it pictures, what it types,
what a shadow it is of our position in Christ Jesus and what He gives
to us and what He produces in us. It is a gift, it's a product
of His great work of grace. In 1 Kings chapter 4, and verse
25, 1 Kings chapter 4 and verse 25, this message that God shared
through the publication or through the kingdom of Solomon. Notice
this, during Solomon's reign, it says, and Judah and Israel
dwelt safely. Now that's where God's people
dwell today. We dwell in Christ in that same manner. We dwell
spiritually, they dwell physically. Which would you rather have?
Well, we'd like to have a little peace in this world, but my goodness,
it doesn't compare to what we have in Christ. Every man under
his fig tree, under his vine and under his fig tree from Dan
even to Beersheba all the days of Solomon, there was a place
of rest. There was no wars. They didn't
have to go fighting battles. They built the temple. And it
was, as it says, during the days, all the days of Solomon, there
was this safety Everyone under his vine and under his fig tree.
What's that represent to us? We rest in Christ. He is our
vine. We rest in Christ. He's our food.
So we have this blessed and it's demonstrated here in the book
of Esther chapter 9 verses 17 and 18. This word rest, it means
resting place. It is not Sabbath, it is resting
place. A place of quiet. That's kind
of what is represented over there in the book of 1 Kings chapter
4 and verse 25 about where the people under Solomon's reign. What is it? Such a picture of
the peace that we have in Christ Jesus today. We rest in Him.
The battle is done. And if there was a battle to
fight, He's going to fight it. Because we can't. So here we
read about this wonderful position of rest, this place of rest.
It is mentioned here in the book of Esther, there's three times
it's used here in the book of Esther, chapter 9, 16, 17, and
18, this word is used. So let's go back to the book
of Esther, chapter 9, for just a moment. Esther, chapter 9,
And there in three verses in that passage of scripture, in
that chapter, this particular word is used. And we might ask
ourselves, where does the church find its resting place? we are
given a resting place. And that's what these children
of Israel had. They had been brought to a resting
place. Now it means to be at rest, but
it is wonderful to be at rest at a resting place. Here in the
book of Esther chapter nine, there in verse 16, we read that,
verse 16 it says, but the other Jews that were in the king's
provinces gathered themselves together and stood for their
lives and had rest from their enemies. They had rest from their
enemies. What is our enemies? Sin? Death? The grave? Hell? Whatever. And the Lord
Jesus took upon all of those enemies, and we have rest from
our enemies in Christ Jesus. He is our resting place. He's
the place where we come to, and we find that rest. And in verse
17, we read that, it says there, and the same rested they. And
verse 18, it tells us there, the same they rested. It is a
place of rest. This word is almost identical
to a word that we find in the New Testament. And in the New
Testament, we find in the book of Hebrews a number of times,
and it talks about rest there, and it also means a resting place. He's not talking about the Sabbath.
Now Christ is our Sabbath, and Christ is our resting place.
But here, turn with me, it's found one time in Stephen's message
in Acts chapter seven. This word that means a resting
place. The word being such much the
same as in the New Testament is a putting to rest or a resting
place. We appreciate and enjoy rest. Did you know that it's necessary
for us to have rest? Absolutely essential for life. But when it comes to spiritual
things, there's nothing better than being at rest with God. To come at rest with God. Now he's the one that produces
that because Christ is our peace. He is the prince of peace. He
is our peace. And as Marilyn brought out there
with regard to Peter after committing a great crime against God, betraying
him. The first words that Jesus mentioned
to him upon meeting him, peace be unto you. Now he wasn't being
sarcastic. He's being honest and truthful.
This is what I have brought to you, is peace. Peace be unto
you. Alright, here in the book of
Acts chapter 7, this message of Stephen. Now the culmination
of this message is his death. He's a preacher of righteousness,
And he preaches, and he stirs up the indignation of a bunch
of people, Pharisees, Calvinists, and they stone him to death.
Alright? Acts chapter 7, and there in
verse 49. Heaven, this is what, Stephen
says this with regard to the temple, and he's saying this
Heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool. Now that's the
words of God. That's the words of the Lord. What house will
you build me, saith the Lord, or what is the place of my rest? Now a lot of people looked at
that temple as a place of their rest. And a lot of people look
back to the tabernacle and said, this is a place of my rest. Well,
you didn't find any chairs around there. Every day was the same old story. That's a wonderful thing about
the Lord Jesus Christ. Once, once, in these latter days,
once, He has put away sin for His people forever. There is
rest with Him. So, or what is the place of my
rest? Now let's look at the other places
that this particular word is used in the Greek. in the book
of Hebrews every other time it's used in the book of Hebrews and
it has to deal with a rest and this rest is the result of the
victory that Jesus Christ had at the cross and in his burial
and in his resurrection and in his ascension back to the Father
that he would demonstrate that the success of the cross is successful
He absolutely was successful in doing what he intended to
do and that it was to be put sin as far as the East is from
the West to pay for it completely and there would be no charge
laid against the elect. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justify it. So
there's no charges can be brought up. You can't bring them against
me and I cannot bring them against you. Cause God's not gonna bring
them. All right, let's look here in
the book of Hebrews chapter three. In Hebrews chapter three, verse
11. Hebrews chapter three and verse
11. He says this to a bunch of the Israelites that did not believe. So I swear in my wrath, they
shall not enter into my resting place. I swear to them, they
shall not. And in that same chapter, in
verse 18, this word is mentioned again. And to whom swear he that
they should not enter into his rest, but them that believe not. So those that are unbelievers,
those who are never purchased by the blood of Christ, those
whose names are not written in the Lamb's book of life, they
don't have a place of rest. There is nothing spoken of rest
for them. Spiritual rest, there is none.
In fact, for eternity, there is total unrest. There is no
rest at all. There is no peace at all. But
in Christ Jesus, we get to sit at the feet of Jesus. There's
gonna be absolute rest. Peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ. All right, let's go to chapter
four in the book of Hebrews, and we'll read this. Just think,
as all those Jews there in the book of Esther were on the very
pinnacle of being destroyed by the edict of Haman, And God Almighty
intercedes on their behalf. We fell on Adam, thank God He
interceded on our behalf. He stepped in, He became our
surety. The Lord Jesus Christ became
our surety. And as a result, He gave us a
resting place, a place to sit down under Him, our vine. Alright, Hebrews chapter 4 verse
1. In Hebrews chapter four and verse
one, we read this, let us therefore fear less a promise being left
us of entering into his rest. Any of you should seem to come
short of it. Oh, the plea goes out. That's
why we read in the scriptures, make your calling in election
sure. There's time and time again,
the apostle Paul is led by the Holy Spirit to challenge, you
know, I was visiting with a lady today
and she said, I was seven years old
when I asked Jesus into my heart. And I said, you know, I did the
same thing. I made a profession of faith. And then I heard the
gospel and the Lord saved me. And she said, well, I just had
better understanding. You know, I didn't have any understanding
when I was 11. So that's why I didn't get it. No, the thing
is, You're not going to be saved by an un-gospel. You're going
to be saved by the preaching of THE gospel. The gospel of
Jesus Christ and His righteousness. So, I just am, to myself, I'm
going to pray for you. The Lord had me there for a reason. And I have her phone number,
she has some pictures I want to share, and I want to share
more than that. So, What does it say here in Acts chapter 4
and verse 3? For we which have believed, what? Do enter into rest. Now we know that that belief
is not our belief, it's what was given to us. We rest in that,
it was a gift. But we which have believed, do
enter into rest, as he said, as I have sworn in my wrath,
if they shall enter into my rest, although the works were finished
from the foundation of the world, for he spake in a certain place
of the seventh day on this wide, God did rest the seventh day
from all his works. And in this place again, if they
shall enter into my rest, seeing therefore it remaineth that some
must enter therein, And they to whom it was first preached
entered not in because of unbelief. And down in verse 10, And for
he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his
own works. We're not depending on our works,
we're depending upon His blood and righteousness. That's one
thing that God demands when He saves us. And you know what?
He gives us the ability to follow that demand. We will cease from
our works. We find out how trivial, how
terrible they are against a thrice holy God and His work. God ceased
from His work after the full creation and said, it's good
and it's very good. And so we have that. And then
in verse 11, let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest
any man fall after the same example of unbelief. So where are you? Where are we when it comes to
this? Are we trusting Christ and Christ
alone? Then we have rest. All right,
what a place those people had come to. After the victory was
won, they had rest. Now there's two other things
that they had that is brought out in those two verses of scripture. It says they had a day of feasting,
a day of feasting. I like feasts, don't you? A coming
together. Now this coming together meant
to eat and to drink. And this word is used several
times, even in the book of Esther, the word has been translated
banquet. She had a banquet. She invited the king and Haman
to a banquet. And the request made at that
banquet was come tomorrow to another banquet. So they sat
down and drank and eat. This thought, when viewed through
New Testament eyes, see the church call to feast on the person and
work of Jesus Christ. This made so much sense to me
when I found that passage of scripture over there in the book
of John chapter six, where he said, unless you drink my blood
or eat my flesh and drink my blood, we are called on spiritually
to feast on Him. Now let's just go over to the
book of John chapter 6 for a moment. The book of John chapter 6. Now
this is no trivial thing that is brought out. The Lord is not
talking about the Lord's Supper. It hasn't even been instituted.
He's not talking about that. And He's not talking about how
people have taken the Lord's Supper and perverted it to such
a place that they say that we're actually drinking the blood and
eating the flesh of the Savior. How perverted is that? Well,
here in the book of John chapter six, John chapter six and verse
53, John chapter six and verse 53. Let us read this together
as we find the Lord saying, verily, verily, which has double emphasis,
This could have been translated, amen, amen. In fact, there are
places in the New Testament where that word was translated, amen,
or so be it, so be it. Then Jesus said unto them, verily,
verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of
Man and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Now that's a
serious statement. Now that's why they perverted
it. They want to have Salvation, a physical act. And we find out
that God has demanded that it be a spiritual act. And that
spiritual act is called birth. And that spiritual birth comes
from God alone. It is the new birth. It is coming
from God. So he said, whoso eateth my flesh
and drinketh my blood, what? Hath eternal life. This is no
small thing. This is an absolute essential.
Now, what's going on at this time is they're conducting the
Passover. And he steps in and says, let
me explain the Passover. Now we go back to the Old Testament
to Exodus chapter 12, and we find out that only Jews participated
in that Passover. And it was a symbol of the broken
body. And eventually became, they drank
wine. It was a symbol of the broken body and shed blood of
our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And only the Jews took it, and
everyone that took the blood and put it on the outside was
delivered, and those who did not have the blood were not delivered.
Now, we find out that there was death in every household. In
the Jewish household, there was a death. And in the household
of the Egyptians, there was a death. In the household of the Egyptians,
it was the firstborn. In the household of the Israelites,
it was the death of a lamb. It was a substitutionary death.
And it is the death of the lamb that we celebrate. We celebrate. We're planning to have communion
service come to the Lord's table. We're not drinking his blood
and we're not taking his flesh when we do that. It is something
spiritual that God grants to us in the new birth that we get
to participate so closely that it's like being grafted in. We
become him and he is us. And so it goes on to tell us
here, whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, verse 54,
hath eternal life. What a serious statement. If
you don't do this, you don't have it. And I will raise him
up at the last day. That's exactly what he said to
Mary and Martha about Lazarus, you know. You said you'll raise
him up at the last day. Well, I'm gonna take care of
another time earlier than that, all right? So, for my flesh is
meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed, and he that eateth
my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him. It is a spiritual relationship
that God has granted us worms, to enjoy in our rest. As the living Father has sent
me and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me and even
he shall live by me." So we have this wonderful statement here
made by the Lord Jesus Christ about coming to a feast. We're coming to Christ in a feast.
We get to sit down and eat and drink. Spiritually speaking,
eat and drink of the blessings of Christ, the blessings of His
redemptive work, the blessings of the cross, the blessings of
the covenant of grace, the blessings that we have in God Almighty
and Christ Jesus. We get to feast. It is so joyful,
too, because we're not having to watch the outside to see whether
we're going to get shot doing it. We're at rest. God doesn't
have a hand raised up and ready to slap us if we get over the
line. It's at rest, and now we get to enjoy this feast. To eat
the flesh and drink the blood of Christ is to believe that
the Messiah Christ has come in the flesh and is truly and really
man. A lot of people were looking
for a king to come. The church has seen in this king
a man, the man Christ Jesus, the incarnate Son of God. He came and dwelt in the flesh. He came like unto us. He came
like his brethren. And it was that that went to
the cross and died for our sins. that his flesh is given for the
life of his people and his blood is shed for their sins. And we
delight in that. His body was broken for us and
his blood was shed for our sins. It is natural thing to do as
Nicodemus did when he said, how can these things be? Must I? That's a natural man talking
if you ever heard one. And that's what you hear most
of the time about this passage of scripture here in the book
of John. Look at it from a physical standpoint and are you on shaky
ground? And if God reveals this to us
from a spiritual standpoint, we say, I'm resting in Him and
I'm feasting with Him. Nicodemus said, how can this
be? Do I enter my mother's womb the
second time and be born? That's how far a natural man
can look at spiritual things. Totally out of his realm. The
natural man receiveth not the things of God, for they are spiritually
discerned. When the Holy Spirit gives us
a new birth, we have a mind that can be taught by the Spirit of
God. We're thankful for whatever He
gives us. As the Syrophoenician woman said, even crumbs from
the master's table beats what I had before. Alright. So we get to feast. We get to
sit and feast, to eat and drink. Christ lays down The principle
that eating his flesh and drinking his blood is a thing not only
possible but absolutely necessary to salvation. It is a thing without
which no man can see heaven. This passage has nothing to do
with corporally eating, fleshly eating his body and blood. It's
spiritual. And nobody will understand that
until they're born again. I don't know how many people
we've had here And I'm not one to say, you can't take the Lord's
Supper. The Bible says, let a man search himself. But how many
people here have we had over the last 35 years take the Lord's
Supper and say, I'm getting a blessing out of this. No, I'm getting
a blessing out of what this represents. And we're to do it till he comes.
We're doing it till he comes. All right. It has everything to do with
spiritual being, being at his banqueting house. All right,
Song of Solomon again, brings us out. The Song of Solomon. That's where
we found out about the lattice. He's behind the lattice. He's
got his fingerprints all over the book of Esther, all over
this passage of scripture that we're looking at tonight. His
name is not found, but he is found. Here in the book of the
Song of Solomon, chapter two, verse 14. No, verse four, excuse me. He brought
me to the, what? Banqueting house. He brought me to the banqueting
house and his banner over me was love. He brought me to where
I can eat and drink. Christ Jesus the Lord. The Lord speaks of the benefits
of the Passover in Exodus to the physical body. Here he speaks
of the blessing of the true Lamb of God to his spiritual body. So they rested and they feasted. They ate and drank. And then
the last thing, gladness. They rejoiced. They had joy. That victory was so close. They were at the parapets. They
were at the very, as Haman had sent those letters out, destruction
was certain. Great fear came upon the Jews
for it was this, you know, and I think a little bit of that
comes upon everyone that God ever saves. Lord, if it had not been for
you. People say it's not fair. I know
what fair would have been. Judgment. That would have been
fair. So by grace, we get to have gladness,
rejoice, mirth, pleasure. It's a good thing to be in Christ. It's a joyful thing to be in
Christ. It's a good thing to be brought out of the despondency
of this world. It is a wonderful gladness to
be lifted out of the horrible pit. It's not a terrible thing,
it's a wonderful thing. It's a glorious thing. It's a
glad thing to be lifted out of the horrible pit and to be set
on the solid rock Christ. And to have our goings finally
established. You know, when you're up to your
neck, I remember, wasn't it, Jeremiah was in a pit up to his
neck. Not a lot of movement. You're
not going very far. He didn't go very far. Well,
when the Lord lifts us out of that horrible pit, and establishes
our goings and puts a new song in our heart. Amazing grace,
how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. What a joy. Well, let's look over here in
Psalm, Psalm 4. As we think about gladness, they
had peace, they had rest. They had a feast and they had
gladness. And this is among the Jews. And
you know what? We just read that among those
pagans, those Gentiles, among those rapscallions that had all
that nonsense, some of them became Jews. God saves his people out of every
kindred, nation, people, and tongue. Some are Jews, many are
Gentiles. All right. In the book of Psalms,
Psalm 4, let's read this verse of scripture. Psalm 4, verse
7. It says there, thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than
in the time that their corn and their wine increased. Isn't it
good to have a good crop? Well, this is better. I was talking
to a wheat farmer yesterday, and oh, this last year wasn't
very good. Well, the year before it was
really good, wasn't it? Oh, it was pretty good last year
before. Yep, cherry farmers the same
way. But here it says, as we read here in Psalm 4, Let me
get over there again. My little book here traded places
with me. Psalm 4 and verse 7, Thou hast
put gladness in my heart. That's where we get our gladness.
That's where we get our rest. That's where we get our feasting.
And that's where we get our gladness. Thou hast done this. You're the
one that gave me rest. You're the one that caused me
to feast. And you're the one that gives me this gladness.
More than the time of their corn and their wine increase. We brag
in Christ and not what, where or when we have in this world.
Another place in the book of, well, let's go to Psalm 100 and
we'll look at this. Psalm, one more verse, and then
a couple verses in the book of Isaiah. Psalm 100. What a blessing it is when those
folks all enjoyed and appreciated the victory that they had. They
had been spared. How close it became. What is that? There's a verse in the book of
Hebrews that talks about it. Scarcely a righteous man. Anyway. You know, we look at
it sometimes, it's just by the very gnat's breath that we were
delivered. And then we find out, oh, where
sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Alright. Psalm 100. And verse two, Psalm 100 verse
two, serve the Lord with gladness. You know, when we have a stick
after us, that's not very gladness. You're going to serve the Lord
or I'm going to beat you. That's not what the Lord does. He puts
it in our heart to serve him. Serve the Lord with gladness
and come before his presence with singing. Serve it with gladness. Serve the Lord with gladness.
We've been delivered from the pit, from going down to the pit,
for he hath found Someone to purchase us. All right, a couple
verses in the book of Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 35. Isaiah chapter
35. As we think about all those Jews
throughout the Persian empire, 127 provinces, word got out,
the gospel was sent in their language and they got it and
they were given the victory and as a conclusion of that, they
rested. They feasted. And they were glad. All right.
Isaiah chapter 35. Isaiah chapter 35. and verse 10, Isaiah 35 and verse
10. It says, and the ransomed of
the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting
joy upon their heads and they shall obtain joy and gladness
and sorrow and Zion shall flee away. That's God's word. The ransomed of the Lord shall
return, and they will come with songs and joy and gladness and
sorrow and sighing shall flee away. It's no longer our ministry. All right, one more, Isaiah 51
verse three. Isaiah 51 and verse three, and
it says here, There's a number of times in
Scripture when Eden is used. Now we're not going to go back
to Eden, but we're going to get to go back as if Eden hadn't
happened. Alright, for the Lord shall comfort
Zion, the church. He will comfort all her waste
places, and he will make her wilderness like Eden. The church
is going to be blessed in such a great way. And her desert,
like the garden of the Lord, joy and gladness shall be found
therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody. Joy and gladness
shall be found therein. What's that about? I've been
redeemed. I've been brought in. God has
saved me by His grace. I had nothing to do with it.
He was the one that came upon me with His great grace. God
allowed me to hear the gospel of His free grace in Christ.
He gave me the new birth. That's what we get to boast in,
everything that Christ gives us. And we find out that we don't
have anything to boast about in ourselves. So, just think
about this whole host. How many? Jews. Now some have said those Jews
were the ones that didn't go back to the land of Judah. Guess what? God took care of
them. What a type that is. What a type
this is. And the victory was theirs. They
appreciated that victory. They celebrated in that victory
and they rested and they banqueted and they had great gladness.
Just a typical picture of the church today and throughout all
ages and throughout all eternity. We will rest, we will banquet,
and we will be glad.