1.     We are told in the Bible that the Israelites traveled through “the wilderness of Paran” (Numbers 12:16).  The wilderness of Paran was south of the Promised Land.

2.     At the northern edge of the wilderness of Paran was a place known as Kadesh-barnea, sometimes referred simply as “Kadesh” (13:26).  Kadesh-barnea is an important place in the history of Israel. 

3.     Kadesh-barnea was the gateway to the Promised Land.  I remember when I first visited Denver, Colorado.  Seeing the Rocky Mountains for the first time was exhilarating and very impressive.  As we drove into town, I saw a sign that read, “WELCOME TO DENVER: GATEWAY TO THE ROCKIES.”

4.     Well, Kadesh-barnea was the gateway to the Promised Land and that was far more important than Denver and the Rocky Mountains.

5.     It was from Kadesh-barnea that the twelve spies were sent into the land of Canaan (Numbers 13:1-26).  By the way, this scouting expedition was not God’s idea. Moses liked the idea and God allowed it, but the idea originated with the Israelites (cf. Deut. 1:19-22).

6.     We refer to this as the permissive will of God.  We see this often in the Bible (e.g., Israel demanding a king; the matter of divorce).

7.     If the Israelites had believed God the scouting expedition would have been completely unnecessary.  God already told them He would give them the land.  All they had to do was go forward.

8.     I have entitled this morning’s message, “Kadesh-barnea, Place of Decision.”

I. WHY WAS KADESH-BARNEA A PLACE OF DECISION?

1.     Kadesh-barnea became a place with special significance for the Israelites because the course of their history was changed there.

2.     That is why people refer to Kadesh-barnea as a “place of decision.”  Theodore Epp said this is comparable to using the name “Waterloo” today.  “Inasmuch as Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo, it is now common to refer to a person’s defeat as his waterloo.  Because of what happened to Israel at Kadesh-barnea, it is also valid to refer to an individual believer’s being at his Kadesh-barnea; that is, at the place of decision” (Moses, Vol. IV).

3.     In other words, the believer must decide whether to remain at Kadesh-barnea in the desert and the place of defeat and discouragement, or to go forward and find rest in Christ, the way the Israelites went forward into the Promised Land.

4.     The choice then would be between victory and defeat; spiritual maturity or spiritual immaturity.

5.     Many Christians wander through their Christian life like the Israelites wandered through the desert.  There are many similarities.

6.     The Israelites wandered here and there without any sense of direction.  They knew they were delivered from Egypt but they had no clear direction for the Promised Land.

7.     Many Christians know they have been delivered from sin but have no clear direction as to what they should be doing now.

8.     At Kadesh-barnea the Israelites faced a major crisis.  They were at a place of decision.  To go forward meant to enjoy all the promises and blessings of God.

9.     Going forward would mean no more wandering through the desert.  It should have been an easy decision to make, but they worried and murmured because they did not trust God (Num. 13:27—14:1-4).

II. CHRISTIANS IN THE WILDERNESS

1.     A Christian wandering in the wilderness is not a fruitful Christian.  Each Christian needs to ask himself if he is still wandering around aimlessly in the desert or if he is really moving forward by faith.

2.     Let me also add that a Christian wandering in the wilderness is a disobedient Christian because God does not want His children wandering around aimlessly.  He wants us to go forward.

3.     “Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection…” (Hebrews 6:1). 

4.     “Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief” (Heb. 4:11).

5.     Thirteen times we find similar exhortations, with the words, “Let us” in the epistle to the Hebrews. 

6.     “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1).

7.     God wants us to go forward in the Christian life, not backwards.  “And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching” (Heb. 10:24, 25).

8.     By refusing to go forward into the Promised Land, the Israelites were refusing to go on to spiritual maturity.  Let me make an application.

9.     Some Christians do not do anything in the church.  They are not only hindering the work of God, they are hindering their own spiritual growth.  We grow as we serve.

10. Another application: stewardship.  A friend of mine is considering pastoring a small church.  Because of the small offerings he will probably have to work a second job.  He told me that he is going to teach them that it is in their best interest to give so that he could be more effective as their pastor, and they would be stronger Christians (Luke 6:38).

11. C.I. Scofield said, “There is a proper wilderness experience, and it is sometimes necessary that a child of God shall learn to depend upon God, shall learn by an experience which may be bitter as at Marah or blessed as at Elim, that all his springs must be found in God.  This is a young convert’s experience, and a proper wilderness experience.  But it loses its propriety from the very day of arrival at Kadesh-barnea.  A wilderness experience after we have looked over into the land is but one prolonged disobedience” (cited by J. Wilbur Chapman, The Power of a Surrendered Life, pp. 39, 40).

12. Scofield pointed out that a wilderness experience is necessary but after we have reached Kadesh-barnea, it is either move forward or disobey God.  How sad that many choose to disobey God.

13. It took the Israelites 40 years to enter the Promised Land, but the trip should have taken about two weeks.   This was God’s punishment for their unbelief and disobedience (cf. Num. 13:25; 14:32-34).

14. Perhaps there are some lost sinners here this morning.  This could be your Kadesh-barnea.  Will you step forward and trust Christ or will you turn away from God?

15. There are unsaved people who reach a point where they realize they must repent and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ.  The apostle Paul said to King Agrippa, “King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest” (Acts 26:27).

16. But King Agrippa said to Paul, “Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian” (Acts 26:28).  There are many sinners like King Agrippa.  Unsaved friend, do not be like King Agrippa.

17. There are Christians who have reached Kadesh-barnea but prefer the wilderness.  They do not want to press forward.  Their lives are characterized by a refusal to take God at His Word.

18. Jesus said, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).   Christian friend, are you enjoying the abundant Christian life?

19. If not, then this is your place of decision.  You are like Israel at Kadesh-barnea.  You must go forward.  You must believe God.

20. But the Israelites did not believe God.  They believed the “evil report” (Num. 13:32, 33).

III. LEAVING KADESH-BARNEA

1.     Leaving Kadesh-barnea and enjoying the abundant life, which God has promised, is a matter of simply believing God.

2.     Consider what God told the Israelites (Ex. 6:6-8).

·        “I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians…” God did bring them out of Egypt.

·        “And I will bring you in unto the land…” God delivered them from Egypt.  He kept His promise.  Therefore, the Israelites should have believed that He would also keep His promise to bring them into the Promise Land.

3.     But the Israelites did not believe God.  They would not enter the Promised Land.  Hebrews 4:6 says, they “entered not in because of unbelief” (cf. Numbers 14:11).

4.     God promised to deliver them from their enemies but they did not believe God (cf. Numbers 10:9). There are many promises given to us in the Bible.  God has promised us victory over sin, and deliverance from the power of sin.  Do we believe God?

5.     I am not suggesting you or I are to press forward in our own strength.  God has promised us the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

6.     Acts 5:32 says God gives the Holy Spirit “to them that obey him.”  To refuse to go forward is to rebel against God.  Moses said to the Israelites, “Notwithstanding ye would not go up, but rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God” (Deut. 1:26).

CONCLUSION:

1.     I hope no one misunderstands what I am saying about Kadesh-barnea being a place of decision.  Some preachers teach that a person gets saved but later on he needs a so-called “second blessing.”

2.     “In the life of the believer there sometimes comes a crisis, as clearly marked as his conversion, in which he passes out of a life of continual feebleness and failure to one of strength, and victory, and abiding rest. The transition has been called the Second Blessing. Many have objected to the phrase, as being unscriptural, or as tending to make a rule for all, what was only a mode of experience in some. Others have used it as helping to express clearly in human words what ought to be taught to believers as a possible deliverance from the ordinary life of the Christian, to one of abiding fellowship with God, and entire devotion to His service” – Andrew Murray (The Two Covenants and the Second Blessing).

3.     Andrew Murray refers to a believer’s “crisis, as clearly marked as his conversion.”  This was what Israel faced at Kadesh-barnea, their place of decision.  Will they obey God and move forward?

4.     Or will they turn back into the wilderness?

5.     People sometimes ask me, “Brother, do you believe in a second blessing?”  My answer: “Yes, and sometimes a third and a fourth too.”

6.     When the apostle Paul says in Ephesians 5:18, “be filled with the Spirit,” he does not mean be filled one time and that is it.

7.     I am stressing this because sometimes Christians get discouraged and say, “I had my crisis experience.  I had my second blessing.  I have been to that place of decision.  I have been to Kadesh-barnea, but now I am back to wandering in the wilderness.”

8.     You can go forward today.  The ISBE says, Kadesh-barnea “was an important camp of the Israelites during their wanderings, and seems to have been their headquarters for 38 years.”  In other words, Kadesh-barnea was not a one-time only place of decision.  You can make the right decision today.

9.     There is no need to be discouraged.  Interestingly, “Barnea” means “the desert of wandering” and “Kadesh” means “consecrated.”  I am reminded of the great hymn, written by Frances Havergal.   

Take my life and let it be
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee;
Take my hands and let them move
At the impulse of Thy love.
 
Take my feet and let them be
Swift and beautiful for Thee;
Take my voice and let me sing,
Always, only for my King.
 
Take my lips and let them be
Filled with messages from Thee;
Take my silver and my gold,
Not a mite would I withhold.
 
Take my moments and my days,
Let them flow in endless praise;
Take my intellect and use
Every pow’r as Thou shalt choose.
 
Take my will and make it Thine,
It shall be no longer mine;
Take my heart, it is Thine own,
It shall be Thy royal throne.
 
Take my love, my Lord, I pour
At Thy feet its treasure store;
Take myself and I will be
Ever, only, all for Thee.

10. Can you sing that with all your heart?  Do you really mean it? 

11. Do you know how Frances Havergal wrote that wonderful hymn?  “I went for a lit­tle vi­sit of five days (to Are­ley House). There were ten per­sons in the house, some un­con­vert­ed and long prayed for, some con­vert­ed, but not re­joic­ing Christ­ians. He gave me the pra­yer, ‘Lord, give me all in this house!’ And He just did. Be­fore I left the house ev­ery one had got a bless­ing. The last night of my vis­it af­ter I had re­tired, the gov­ern­ess asked me to go to the two daugh­ters. They were cry­ing, then and there both of them trust­ed and re­joiced; it was near­ly mid­night. I was too hap­py to sleep, and passed most of the night in praise and re­new­al of my own con­se­cra­tion; and these lit­tle coup­lets formed them­selves, and chimed in my heart one af­ter ano­ther till they fin­ished with ‘Ever, On­ly, ALL for Thee!’” (testimony of Frances Havergal).