Caleb Inherits Hebron

[0:00] these two chapters we have in joshua that's joshua chapter 14 and uh really good to carry on with caleb and uh if i if we were going to take a text we would take it from verse 13 and joshua blessed him that's blessed caleb and gave unto caleb this son of son of chephune hebron for an inheritance hebron therefore became the inheritance of caleb the son of chephune the kenesite unto this day because that he holly followed the lord god of israel we were considering last time these verses that he followed hollow holly followed the lord if i was going to give a title to this today i would say caleb inherits hebron last time we looked at caleb number 14 we consider two things caleb's commitment and caleb's confidence and tonight i'm going to pick another three c's going to look at caleb's consistency and really that's one of the things i i i really wanted to come back to caleb for because it really did speak to myself consistency the second thing we look at is caleb's courage and then thirdly we will look at caleb's conquest these three things caleb's consistency caleb's courage and caleb's conquest first of all let's look at caleb's consistency now this afternoon i looked up the definition of consistency and it says someone who is consistent always behaves in the same way we all know that a consistent person the same attitudes towards people never changing holding always to the same principles and there was a quote from somebody today i can't remember who it was i read as well and it said this most of us quit during the struggles when we come into struggles most of us quit before we can experience the rewards of staying the course that's it on the ordinary plane but you know what that happens on the spiritual as well i was thinking when i was preparing this and many years ago i was some people who had professed faith and had fallen away and i went to speak to them went to the house and i spoke to them and i asked them do you pray now this was an individual who if i could see was an absolutely conscientious believer he read the puritans he was into the word of god and all of a sudden he turned his back and i asked him that night do you pray and he says no i don't i don't think i need to anymore i don't believe and that is happening and it's happening and i see it happening so often and i'm sure you've seen it yourself in your own community within your own church circle and it's the saddest things i went away from that home and i tell you this i was in tears i was such a wonderful christian when he was when he was and yet it seemed the apostle paul says as he's writing to timothy and as you know that timothy when he's writing to timothy he's at the end he's coming to seeing he's feeling that his time is now coming to an end and if you look at second timothy chapter 4 at verse 6 he says there for i am now

[4:05] ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand i have fought the good fight i have finished my course i have kept the faith henceforth he says there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the lord the righteous judge shall give to me at that day and not to me only he says but unto all those that love his appearing that is what i consider consistent i have fought the good fight i have kept the faith friends if we're honest with ourselves that is what we want to have when we pass on before we pass on is it not i have fought the good fight i have kept the faith if you like me you want your desires to be consistent but you don't find yourself consistent you don't find a consistency within you and we'll tell you a story that i read recently and i had read it to a number of years before now about a man called charles templeton charles templeton was born in toronto in canada in 1915 1936 he would be about 20 that's about 21 years of age he first professed faith and christ and the same year he became an evangelist and he was such an evangelist that in the 1940s going into the 50s and particularly in the 1940s he could easily fill stadiums around america and canada 30 or 40 000 easily he was as good some people were saying that that billy grim came on the scene at that time as well and some people were saying that he was as good if not better an evangelist than billy grim as a matter of fact one person was recounting that at one time of one of his meetings he he there was about 30 000 there and that was consecutively every night for five nights of the week and there would be 150 to 200 converts every night and then as years went on in the 1940s things began to change he began to question the real reliability of scripture of the bible he began to question the the genesis narrative did was that really was it one day god created was god created something one day the the seven day the six day creation he started to question that and by the late 1950s he decided to pack it all in and he left the ministry in in 2000 in 2000 in 1996 he was by this time he was aged 81 he published a book farewell to god some of you might have heard about this book and then it he told about the reasons why he rejected the christian faith and most of these most of the points he put in that book was related to the accuracy of scripture he didn't believe in the accuracy of scripture he didn't believe in the book of genesis for instance didn't believe it 2001 he suffered uh he was suffering from alzheimer and by 2001 he had passed away before he passed away this is what i wanted to see lee strobel i read this in

[8:13] the gospel coalition lee strobel had visited him but lee strobel was a writer and he's an editor of the chicago chicago tribune and he visited him and he asked him a question what did you think how could you assess the story of jesus and it was a very tragic and emotional interview that they had and he said these things now this is just prior to him dying he was here started suffering from alzheimer a year or two before he passed away he is the most important human being who has ever lived and then he wept for a little while and he said i miss him and then all then he realized what he had said and he turned to strobel and he says enough of that enough of that you know about don't anymore don't want any to talk about that anymore enough of that with that the conversation ended enough of that and that was all that was silly went into alzheimer's and then within a year or two later he passed away we don't know what went on through his soul and we can never tell but it looked what i read and what others read about what others have written about him he he died an unrepentant man imagine the the good that that it is almost unbelievable that a man that was doing so much good could then go to the extent that he disbelieved in god altogether he was the most important human being he said he just he had he didn't any he didn't have any he didn't realize he didn't believe by then that he was the god man redeemer he was just an ordinary but an important one and yet and yet the conscience was pricking him i miss him all friends what an eternity would await such a man if he never found grace by the time he parted and that's the case with us all the end of his life was tragic wasn't it beginnings were wonderful but the end was he was not consistent he lived an inconsistent he became consistent in his unbelief in that sense but not in his godliness in his christianity enough of that here caleb totally different isn't he here he is he's 85 years old and what does he say here he is still holly following the lord fully fully following the lord look what he says in verse 10 look what he says there and now he says behold the lord have kept me alive imagine he said these 45 years even even since the lord speak unto unto this word and to moses while the children of israel wandered in the wilderness and now lo i am these 45 four score and five years old the lord hath kept me there was his emphasis in his god you know i was wondering thinking about today about the old testament since and we talk we we we we we we often talk about a man what a person a man or a woman walking with god we're walking with god if we're professing to be christians and if we're professing to be christians we should be talking to god we should be in communion with god this i believe was what caleb some people say to oh that was the old testament the old testament saints were as close to god as the new testament

[12:15] saints were and they were praying to god and caleb was praying to god pray caleb i was thinking of of of hannah remember hannah outside outside the temple remember what eli thought of her she was there poor hannah she was she was she she had a child she and yet uh canna had another another wife and eli thought that she was drunk what was she doing she was praying to the lord now that's friends that's what the old testament saints were doing christ hadn't come but they were looking for the messiah to come we're looking back we're doing the opposite thing but this is what here he is and look at look what he says again in verse 11 there yet yet he says i am as strong this day as long this days i as i was in the day that moses sent me as my strength was then even so my strength now for war both to go out and to come in now there is a play of words here his strength was then his physical strength was so was was as good he was as he was as he was as able as he was when he was 40. that's what he's saying but friends it was his spiritual strength was the same as well his spiritual strength he was as consistent then as he was in the days 40 years previous to that no faltering no falling back no failing with with with with caleb remember remember the 40 days he went into the wilderness spying he brought back a truthful report and now after 40 years in the wilderness now in canaan he's followed the lord and not one time has he has he has he has he murmured because he's holy followed the lord he hasn't murmured he's full of vigor he's full of strength he's full of spiritual vigor as well he knows he has knows that the promise of god is as good as it was 40 years ago hasn't faltered no his enthusiasm his vigor his seal his trust in god is the same years have not dimmed them not one iota the opposite is the case caleb is as he says in verse verse then he says in verse 12 now therefore give me this mountain give me this mountain i was promised this mountain at horeb of or a foreign but don't in horrid give me it no so friends what about ourselves if we're honest if you're like me and i'm looking around you and say there's some of you have been following for years some of you have been following for 10 years 20 years 30 40 years some maybe not some maybe not as long as that when you started following was your delight your delight your delight was in the lord wasn't it you would attend his services you delight to be in his house delight to be in the company of his people if we're honest about it you were you that was your place you would be loved to what you were looking forward to was that the the thursday night prayer meeting the sabbath morning sabbath evening a fellowship maybe no no if we're honest there are times in our experience we're not looking forward to it if we're honest our feelings have been dulled i have to be honest that's what the way i feel i'm dulled i used to go with seal up to god's house i would love to hear a preacher praying over in arnold or over and put a shop when canna matheson was on

[16:17] the go then you remember that we would go anywhere to listen to them now it's a bit windy outside it's a bit cold outside it's a bit drafty outside there's things you wouldn't look in the paper as a matter of fact sometimes sometimes you wouldn't even buy a paper there's television programs you wouldn't switch on and you switch them on today you watch it through you watch and then after the hour is going to pass you said what have i done what rubbish have i watched i was speaking there to somebody there like this week and i was thinking to my house we were talking about uh just because i'd been preparing this i've been saying well if we're honest look if we're honest with ourselves and i'm not talking preaching to you i'm preaching to myself i get up in the morning and we'll have worship and we'll have a word of prayer before i know it before i know it it's bedtime nearly and you'll say to yourself how much have i done how much have i rid of this have i spent secret time with the lord if the consistency is gone it's gone friends lot remember lot where do you read of lot first of all when he asked for sodden he was outside of sodden he had pitched himself outside of sodden before we realize it was he's judging in the gate of sodden and it's not in the gate of sodden that the two angels came in and found him he's right in the middle of it and that's righteous lot who vexed his soul day by day and friends if i'm looking at myself today and i'm saying to myself today where is my consistency am i as consistent as i was when first i knew the lord the complaint is now with me oh that i knew where i might find him is that the case we're mourning inside where could we where have we found them we're saying to ourselves there are times in an experience and you said to yourself saw ye him whom my soul loveth and that's a distant for me that's not what it used to be because i was running after the lord so so diligently but it's not there now oh friends is it any one sometimes it's a wonder to me that the savior is staying with me is that the case when you're a consistent a consistent witness caleb totally different he was he had a close walk with god in his youth and in his declining years he is the same i get the impression here here we have him it going into the promised land and caleb the son of jeffuni is the same spiritual scale of the son of jeffuni as he was way back in caryat before they even came into the before when they were turned away by the lord and yet he said here god and he said this god has kept me oh friends god is the only one i and i i find this more and more as i get older if god isn't able to keep me i can't keep myself i'm not up on that path do you find that he says here god has kept me this is where he says there god has kept me yes he has kept me these number of years well that is his consistency he is a consistent believer next his courage notice that we mentioned uh last time i was here about his commitment

[20:28] his commitment his commitment led him to confidence because he was committed to his god he was then confident in his god that his god would be with him and as god would do with him as he said he would he would prepare the promised land and he would overcome any enemy he want so he was confident because he was committed but the commitment because that the confidence then led to consistency so there's three things committed he's committed he's confident he is consistent and no because of this consistency he has got courage it's time to think about what is courage well first of all i would say to you courage you know you may have said you say well it's probably boldness or whatever but i think courage has got something like this and i will dwell upon it this is why i say it it's the it's the ability to overcome obstacles isn't it you know you think the ability to overcome obstacles now friends there are obstacles in our christian life plenty of them and i'm just going to mention two or three of them tonight first obstacle i would say that he had to say that he had to overcome was loneliness i mean by lonely but remember that there was 12 spies put out there's only himself and joshua were the only ones that came back with truth so out of the 12 there's only two of them and joshua became the the deputy to moses didn't he so caleb was really a lot on his own if we're honest the rest of the spies they died his own age group that is his own age group those who came out of of egypt were killed in the wilderness because god said to them that none of them none of your age group is going to get into the promised land so caleb was was there he was he was he was uh lonely i would say remember when when he spoke up and he told them when they said when the children of israel said uh we can't go we can't go into the promised land we can't go into the giants are too far too many giants in there the people who will overcome that we want to get back to to egypt they had intending stoning him but he stopped them because he spoke what god told him to speak this that's what their intention was to do because he had spoken the truth and friends he had to stand out in other words and you know when you stand out and especially in our day you're going to be lonely sometimes following god is one of the most lonely places you can be in some certain companies and you know it if you're in your own work sometimes and you know it when there are just a there's nothing but a crowd of swears around you and then you say to yourself oh i wish i could say something and you cannot because we're human friends you're we're all human and you're saying to yourself i cannot do this and you're standing you're standing out you're standing out you're alone as it were and you know it's easy to go along with the crowd but it's not so easy to stand out and i believe that caleb stood out time after time there's no record of it but he did that as the children of israel because you never hear if he's saying this and joshua's agreeing with him because look at joshua blessed

[24:32] him joshua blessed him in verse 13 and that's a sign that the man was saying what he was doing he holly followed the lord he didn't go in with what was happening and you know it's hard to stand out it's not easy not easy in your work not easy in your community and sometimes it's not easy in your family yes in your family life in your own family you can sometimes you're finding that you it's easier you know isn't it easier if we think about it isn't it easier to compromise isn't it sometimes let's go for an easier life it's easy to compromise i'm not saying that we should stand out to start catching people the lapels and say to them you must do this and you must do that we that's not the way believe me i've tried it i've tried it i was told no occasion you don't carry on this bible bashing you can stay out of this house you know so so i'm not saying that i said in my own house but in other houses uh you think you can you can't you can't do it you cannot do it but in order but we still it's easy it's not easy to be a caleb you see i'm sure there when kedi sparnia when he came back with the what he had seen in the land he says will easy overcome it yeah there are giants but our god is far greater than the giants i'm sure that there by saying that he stood he did stand out the other ten of them didn't say caleb was a spokesman caleb was a spy you don't hear joshua saying much do you if you go back to numbers 14 it's caleb that's actually the spokesperson i think sometimes we maybe maybe i'm saying this i'm like like what i was with jacob when i was down here and i was saying jacob was a more wonderful man that some people think he is but i think caleb is one of the most interesting men in the old testament it's caleb that seems to have spoken out year after year after year he was going on he had said to them the lord has promised us the land and he will give it to us now are you saying you think of it and a practical and a social level you're saying that they're going on they're going to this place that i haven't got water in this next place they haven't got food to eat they're complaining about the food they have to eat and they're complaining about the enemies that are coming to them and they're saying god said to us they're going to the promised land we're five years away and we haven't got it we're 10 years we're 15 years 20 years and they haven't seen it what do you think that caleb do you do you honestly believe this kind of god caleb said carried on and he was believing that god would give them the promised land that was the case he was fearing them now we've got exactly the same people in our day and they're called skeptics they are unbelievers and they're called skeptics where is your god i hear you hear it almost all of us can you don't see the war in ukraine at the moment russia against ukraine it is horrific what's happening there isn't it you see it on the television it's awful it's awful the destruction i was reading i was at a islamic gospel association meeting recently and they were telling us there some of the missionaries that are out there they're saying the houses are absolutely leveled the people there's thousands are dying and you'll turn around and the good skeptics and the the good good is return where is god in it all where is god god is responsible for this nothing of the kind and nothing further from the truth the root of everything you got is the devil the devil is behind it all and god has nothing to do with it a good god is nothing that's the skeptics we have and to go against we can be found lonely in our own person so he had to overcome loneliness now the second thing

[28:37] that he i think he had to overcome was fear was fear there were giants in the land definitely he saw them now i know he would say to them god is able to overcome them but purely on a physical he had more than the giants that they were there was giants a number of giants there was giant of discouragement you know if you think of it yourselves that is quite a difficult one that one now you're here as a small congregation and i'm sure there's times that you get discouraged oh there's only so and so going out there's only so and so many people there's only this and that and we get discouraged we get discouraged in our own personal spiritual lives we go out to the means of grace and we come back home and we say oh i didn't get anything i didn't get a thing how many times have we felt like that don't we we and then we come back and we say and you're discouraged with yourself that's the biggest discouragement i feel are you are you discouraged with yourself here tonight you think of your own sins that pile up you ever find yourself praying night before you go to bed and you're saying to lord i'm lord i'm coming again with the same sins as i came the night before and the night before you know what you say i'll not be caught in that again i'll not be caught in that again ah like a dog returning to its vomit isn't it is that we're honest that's what that's the way we are that's it that's a giants of discouragement there's the giant the giant of failure i'm sure that that that in all going through the the wilderness there was this nagging at him as well because he's the same devil was with was with caleb as the same devil is with you exactly the same he hasn't changed if anything he's getting worse because he's getting more experience but he's but and the question will always be will i make it when i make her friends i was visiting a old lady this week godly old woman and she's very despondent and she said i wonder if i'll make it she's been following probably for 60 70 years her body functions are almost gone i make it failure i feel that friends i've done it i've bought it i've done it doubt the giant of the the the giant of doubt doubt doubt will the lord do this for us will the lord turn again to us we we doubt the lord i sometimes feel that did he could have experienced that he was human the world the flesh and the devil do you feel them piling onto you so often and you're saying you're you're almost in total despair and you're saying to yourself i'll never make it well friends these are the giants giants of fear a fear and we fall into it we fall into sin we feel that we've let god down when we fall into sin don't we we've really we've really mucked it up we've made a mess of it we've let we've we've let our church down if you're honest if we're honest about it and i if i'm honest about it in here to the spiritual used to say if you opened my heart my my breastplate and see what's in my heart you won't talk to me do we feel like that don't we our friend there's that in it but i think there's

[32:42] another one we had to overcome that was bitterness ah bitterness bitterness how easy how easy it was for him an old man he was 85 he said he was full of vigor but he was 85 and let's be honest he was still 85 it's so easy for him to be in an old bitter disgruntled man because he had said let's go in let's go in the lord turned and he says to him no you're going to go back into the wilderness for 40 years how would you feel how would you feel and i think and he had to overcome this because i believe he overcame it i believe that the devil would come into and be saying to him bitter you know we feel that ourselves sometimes we feel that ourselves we see we feel so bitterness can can so easy easily come in can be bitter as a result of our providences you could find yourself here you aren't you you're you're you're struck down with some disease we see many people i've got i i visited many people and they're quite bitter about the way the lord has dealt with them a bit of bitter we're bitter sometimes with the church and you know that's one of i see that in the children of israel during where did there was they talk about murmurings murmurings of the children of israel in the wilderness the murmurings on the children of israel in the wilderness were because of bitterness they had a bitter spirit they had a murmuring spirit where were who were they going to moses moses because you know they couldn't get to god so that we're going to moses and friends there's times in our experience that we're so bitter that we take it out on the church maybe upon the elders maybe upon the deacons and maybe on the members there's people out there and i'll tell you quite honestly they're bitter with with with with with with the church itself they blame the church they blame the the the the the members of the church oh these people pious they're so pious in there they're so self-centeredly pious i've heard it it's been accused of of me you're so you're so pious in there and maybe friends but if we look at at at at on the day today we can be bitter with our wives and we can be bitter with our husbands we can be bitter with our parents we can be bitter with our brothers with our sisters can't we yeah little things little things we become bitter we murmur we're bitter that's the children of israel had that bitterness but yet caleb wasn't caleb did not seem to have this he was i get the impression he had stickability if we like to call it he was in it for the long haul he was in it 40 years the lord had said and he would be in it for that his courage was in the lord that's where it was and there it is in verse 12 there it says they are right in the middle of verse 12 he says there if so be the lord will be with me then he says i shall be able to drive them out as the lord has said his whole courage his whole strength was in the lord his god that's where he's was centered the time is is running running on we'll we'll finish i said i would finish with three c's and i'm going to get finished with these c's the last one is the caleb's conquest well notice in verse 13 i said before joshua blessed him

[36:46] and gave him and gave him joshua blessed him and gave unto caleb the son of chephunneh hebron for an an inheritance now look at verse in chapter chapter 15 verse 14 look at what he did you see and can i say that the bible sometimes has got it it mixes up chronology by that being i mean there's a time there's a time element in it sometimes you have in chapter 14 what happens before some verses of chapter of chapter 15 what happened before what happened in before chapter 14 because uh it says there hebron therefore became the inheritance of caleb the son of jephunneh but but you see caleb had to overcome hebron he had to he had to go in to it so part of verse you could always put part of chapter 15 back into maybe into into into uh at the end of 13 let's say and unto caleb the son of jephunneh he gave a part that's most rose gave a part among the children of jephunneh according to the commandment of the lord jephunneh even the city of arba the father of anach and caleb throw fence the three sons of anach shishia and and haiman and talmi the children these are these are the giants these are the giants these are the goliaths and he drove out so he did exactly what he did he drove them out that he had seen them 40 years previously yet they he didn't fear them he didn't fear them he went in because he wanted the inheritance now we notice that in chapter 15 that there was another part of of of horrib and this was the part that was behind it it was the mountain area and there was a valley behind and it was called he called it debier that's where there was mountains with with streams because he gives things his daughter asked him for streams and he gave him gave her part of that so that was the valley and we find that off neil his nephew went in now it's interesting that the two places he got were called hebron and debier now hebron is called fellowship and gibier he called it because it was a sanctuary now think of it he's been in the wilderness for 40 years all the trials all the trials all the troubles he's had in the wilderness he goes in with the assistance of the lord because it was called another name it was in verse 15 it was kirchath arba everybody's called it hebron hebron fellowship but then there is an extra bit to it he goes and he asks somebody to help him and the person he asks it was often his own nephew that actually led to soldiers up and took debier and he took these two places and that's wonderful to think that the two places he called was fellowship and sanctuary peace rest look at what it says in verse 15 and then we have it almost another you can almost superimpose it back into 15 that's in chapter 14 verse 15 the name of hebron before was kirchath arba which arba was a great man among the anachims uh a caleb had thrown them out and the land had rest rest from war that's what he had he got more he got more than horrib he got debier he got the sanctuary

[41:06] and the land had rest think about it friends what's this a picture of what's it a picture think of it what's it a picture of well i'll tell you what's a picture of if you go to hebrews hebrews is is is a book that that that that uh tells us that it's written to the hebrews and there's a a great deal about his history in it and and in hebrews chapter 4 it's telling us about what is after chapter 3 chapter 3 it tells about how hebrews chapter 3 it tells us about how the children of israel disobey they hardened their hearts in the wilderness and so they could not enter in verse 19 because of unbelief and then in chapter 4 at verse 9 the writer to the hebrews says this there remaineth therefore a rest to the people of god there remaineth a rest to the people of god there remains a horrib and a debier and mountains with streams what does this remind us of the rest and he tells us then in verse 11 let us labor therefore to enter into that rest lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief the people of unbelief friends there was a conquest for caleb there was a reward for caleb and as sure as that is true for caleb it is true for you and for me if we follow on follow on keep on following on i think i mean i don't know if i mentioned it to you uh eric alexander the minister he was a minister we get one of the great ministers in the church of scotland many years ago a few when i say many years ago i think it's only about 20 or 30 years ago maybe it's less than 20 he died actually but he was at the time of of of lloyd jones martin lloyd jones and he used to see martin lloyd jones shaking the hands of of his of people going out of the church and martin and he wondered what he was saying to them and he sort of went along to beside him and he could see them martin lloyd jones would grab his people keep on keeping on keep on keeping on that's a wonderful thought friends that is what the letter to the hebrew let us let us labor to enter into that rest it's not going to come to you just like that but you've got to soldier on and in soldiering on we must be consistent we must follow follow who or follow none other but the lord jesus christ and there we will have a rest a hebron a debil for ourselves and that's what caleb got and that's what caleb is doing today he's looking at the face of his savior and he's wondering himself caleb caleb how he ever got there because he was a sinner and friends that will keep you and i going until our last breath samuel rutherford i'm going close with this i i said what i don't like to leave the last words of of of charles templeton but samuel rutherford i read it this afternoon his last words with this oh he says that all my brethren in the public may know what a master i have served

[45:12] his last words on his deathbed and what peace i have this day as he was passing on i shall sleep in christ and when i awake i shall be satisfied with his likeness this night shall close the door and put my anger within the rail oh isn't that wonderful wonderful if we could say that and we can only say it friends by following on when darkness veils his lovely face i rest on his unchanging grace and every high and stormy gale my anchor holds within the rail that's for us let us put our anchor in christ within the rail let us conclude oh lord oh god we give thanks to thee for thy goodness to us and giving us the gospel we take away oh lord our god what was of us we take so much when we look into thy world we take much that is of ourselves deliver us from that oh lord and help us to center on what caleb center on caleb in his day looked forward to a messiah coming to a new jerusalem approaching although he called it the land of caleb yet we too can look forward to that because he has entered in within the veil and he is this day making intercession for us oh we bless thee for the intercession of christ bless us all together help us to keep on keeping on and keeping clinging to our savior every day of our lives wash away our sins for jesus sake amen we'll conclude by singing to god's praise again in psalm 27 psalm 107 psalm 107 at verse 27 verse 27 they reel and stagger like one drunk at their wit's end they be then they to god in trouble cry to them from the one's threats to three the storm is changed into a calm at his command and will so that the waves which raged before no quite aren't still then are they glad because at rest and quiet now they be so to the haven he then brings which they desire to see all that men to the lord would give praise for his goodness then and for his works of wonder done and to the sons of men these four verses in conclusion they will not stagger like one drunk but there will be so to the sons of men they will not dare with sin they be then they to god in trouble cry to them from nor come for help

[48:49] The waves which raced before The quiet are still Then are they glad because our friends And quiet are they we So to the heaven heaven brings Which we decide to see Oh, that men to the Lord would give Praise for his goodness end

[49:53] And for his works of wonder done And to the sons of men Just close with a word of prayer Oh, Lord our God, bless thy word to us Bless the word read, meditated upon and sung And we ask that you would bless each one here And bring us all to our homes in safety Bless our families Bless all connected with us and keep us Keep us, every one of us, the rest of our days Until we come to the end When we can say, like another That the time of our departure is at hand Oh, Lord help us Bless us and keep us, for Jesus' sake Amen