I have marked what we're going to study tonight in black. I have done that to impress upon us that this was out of the will of God and it resulted in continual death. That area became, as it were, cemetery, so that there must have been over a million people at the very least that died. We saw that over 600,000 fighting men were numbered. Now, all of these were to die, as well as the women, so that you would have there over a million people who died as a result of the sin of unbelief and disobedience at Cadish Barnea. Now, you may notice looking at the chart, too, that I put a black cross at Mount Sinai and another one at Kibro-Panava and another one about Cadish. that all of these are on this side of Sinai. So far as we know from the record, there were no deaths between Egypt and Mount Sinai. But you remember that when the law was given at Mount Sinai, that very day 3,000 died because of their sins. We know that quite a number died at Kibra Hattava. We know that others died at Tadish. And so I have put these black crosses up to remind us of that, that the law, as it is called in 2 Corinthians chapter 3, is the ministration of death. The law cannot give life. It's the ministration of death. Not that there's anything wrong with the law. It's holy and just. and good but man is guilty and the only thing that the law can do where man is guilty is to pronounce the death penalty on him we read in the epistle of the romans that the law entered that sin might abound and it says now where there's no law there is no transgression it doesn't say there's no sin. There's sin wherever and whenever anything wrong is done, not sin. But transgression is the breaking of a definite commandment. And so where you don't have any law, don't have a definite commandment, you don't have any transgression you have sin. I think the old illustration is just as good as any. Here's a fresh seated lawn on the corner lawn. And any person walking across that lawn is sinning, and they know it. They know it's wrong to walk across a freshly planted lawn. They're sinning. They're doing what's wrong, but they're not transgressing. But the owner of that corner lot gets pretty well fed up with this, and he puts up a sign, keep out. No trespassing. Now when a person walks across that lot, they not only sin, they transgress, because the owner of that says keep out. And when you go in, you transgress that law that the owner has written on that Now, that is why from Mount Sinai on we have death. We have death in practically the same circumstances as you had before Mount Sinai. But God didn't visit them with death. But He did after they entered into the covenant of the law. And as Romans 3, 19 says, we know we know that whatsoever things the law says, it says to them are under the law that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. So I wanted to impress that on our hearts, and I put those black crosses there, and then I put up what would remind us of the wanderings of the children of Israel for 40 years after Cady Sparnia. That is in black, but we want to read verses 36 and 37 of numbers 33, and they removed from Ezeon Gabor and pitched in the wilderness of Zinn, which is Kadesh. Now that's coming up to Kadesh. Now we've had two studies at Kadesh. We've seen them sending out the spies And I've indicated that by the blue line reaching up into Canaan. And then we, in our last study, we saw the unbelief of Israel as they accepted the evil report of the ten spies and they refused to enter into the land. Now, that's verse 36. Now, verse 37. And they removed from Catech and pitched in Mount Hore in the edge of the land of Eden. Now, we're going to read between the lines. You're all familiar with that expression. And sometimes it isn't a very wise thing to do. But in between the lines of verse 36 37, you have 40 years. What's it say about them? Look again. Absolutely nothing. Here's a blank of 40 years. I'd point out to you previously that in the 33rd chapter, we have the stations at which they encamp the different locations where they encamped on their way from Egypt and we saw that even the 18 that are not mentioned in Exodus between Sinai and Kadesh are all enumerated here, but here you have 40 years and not a word about them in between these two. Now I have written in the margin of my Bible a comment by Dr. Graham Scroggie, a very able brother of a past century year, and he said in commenting on this strange silence between these two verses, the movements of God's people out of his will are not on God's calendar. Did you get that? The movements of God's people out of his will are not on God's calendar. God never intended this. Now God knew it, but he never intended it. And he leaves 40 years as a blank here. And you could write in between those two verses 40 wasted years. Now that's what we want to think about tonight. Israel is now going to pay the high price for their unbelief and disobedience at Hades-Farnia. Now, if you're anything like me, you need all the help that you can get to remember these things. That's why I like to prepare an outline that has some simple pegs in it, as it were, that you can hang your thoughts on. If you just think of a well-known supermarket, you'll be able to recall at least seven points that I want to make tonight. Now, that's the A&P. I am not getting any extra money for this commercial. I want you to understand that whatsoever. haven't tried to collect. Of course, I'm not saying I won't, but I don't have much hope. But just think of A&Ps. I'll give you seven A&Ps tonight that may help you to remember. Now, I'm doing this for a moment, not to make just a nice little talk to you, but I am impressed with the important lessons that we have in connection with these wasted years. this. I haven't got 40 more years to waste. That makes me 109. May the Lord deliver me. May I never reach the unhappy age of 109 in those veil of tears. No, I'm ready to ship off any time, and I'd much rather go 69 than 109. I can assure you of that. So I haven't got 40 years to waste. But a lot of you may have. I don't know whether there'll be 40 years for the Lord comes. I rather doubt it. But, putting that aside, many of you here are quite young. Most of you are younger than I am, and so you have much more chance of wasting 40 years than I have. Now, that's why I want to get these important lessons across to you. Now, the first thing, and I want to make it just as simple as I can tonight, the first thing is, here we have our first A&P, Arrested Progress. Did you get it? Arrested Progress. Now, in spite of all of their failures, from Egypt right on to Cady's Barnea, in spite of their unbelief and their murmuring and their failure, They at least made some progress. Every step they took was a little bit nearer to the promised land of Canaan. But all of that comes to an end here. And for 40 years, they made no progress, and they had to come right back again to Cady's before they could start making progress again. continue in our next study, I'll continue the red line, but it'll have to begin at Cady's. It doesn't begin out there in the wilderness where they're wandering around, but it begins back at Cady's, and they have to go back again. Now the very fact that we are not told much about it, what happened those 40 years, has led to some very strange notions regarding it. I'm not going to take too much time. I'm going into that. One well-known writer, Sidney Baxter, and thinks that Moses and the tabernacle and some of the leaders stayed right at Cady Sparnia, and the others just wandered off here and there and came back every now and then to Cady's. Now, with all due respect to Sidlow Baxter as a Bible teacher, that is just all wrong. The Scripture makes it very clear, Moses said, We turned and went toward the Red Sea. Now, when I say you turn, that might mean that I stayed up here on the platform, and you turned one out the door. Now, don't take that as suggestion, but I'm just using it as a grammatical illustration. If I said you, that would exempt me. But if I said we went out the door, that would mean I went too. And when Moses said we turned toward the Red Sea, I believe it means just what it says that Moses and all of them turned toward the Red Sea. That's what they had been told to do in the in numbers chapter 14 it would be or 15 now that doesn't mean back to the Red Sea that they had crossed when they came out of Egypt you notice in our chart you'll have just like two fingers reaching up there now they're both part of the Red Sea the one nearest Canaan is what is now called the Gulf of Akaba, which is quite prominent in the news during the last war over there in Israel. But it's part of the Red Sea. So that's where they went to, you see. They didn't go back again toward where they crossed the sea when they came out of Egypt, but rather back to this arm of the sea that is over here on the Canaan side. And they turned back there. So I'm not going to take any more time. I had a brother interrupt me at a Bible conference I was at a couple of years ago, and I was talking about this, not in this connection. But he said, Brother McKay, don't you think that they really stayed at Kadesh Barnea, and they just wandered around? They're all confused, and they kind of wandered around in their mind. That was a new one on me. I tried to be polite. I didn't say I thought the brother was the one who was wandering around in his mind. That would have been a little bit too rough, but that's what I was thinking all the time. Because when the Scripture says they wander, I take it that they wandered. Not they wandered, but they wandered. So we'll leave that. But the important thing is right now their progress was arrested. not a step toward Canaan. What a tragedy. You know, brothers and sisters, and I say this kindly, you know that I've been watching this assembly for the past 33 or 4 years, and I've seen Christians come and go, and I say this kindly, I have seen some Christians come here and make good progress, and then their progress been arrested, and I don't believe they've made one step of spiritual progress for years. It's tragic. It's just tragic. That's why I'm pressing this. Now, because of this, during these 40 years, here's our second A.P., they became aimless pilgrims. Now they became pilgrims as soon as they left Egypt, but they had an object. but now they become endless pilgrims. They're just wandering around. Oh, I don't know whether I got that black line up there right. I wanted to make kind of a circle, but I couldn't figure out how to make Scotch tape go in a circle. And so I just had to make it the way it is, you see? And I don't know if that's right. You don't know if it's right, but you can't Because we're not told where they went. They were told to go back toward the Red Sea. And as far as I've been able to discover, we find in Deuteronomy chapter 21, and the last verse of that, Moses, at the end of his life, is talking. And looking back on this experience, he says, now he said, we abode in Cadesh many days. So apparently they stayed for many days at Cadesh. Then he says in the first verse of the next chapter, Deuteronomy chapter 2, he says we compass Mount Seir many days. Now Mount Seir was another name for the land of Edom. It's where the descendants of Esau live. Now that's all we're told about these four years. They stayed for many days at Cades. When they moved, they started back toward that arm of the Red Sea, and that's where the land of Edom was. And they compassed that as they went around Mount Sears in that area for many days. Now that's all that we are told. So that there were 38 years it would seem by comparing scripture apparently the whole journey from Egypt on to Canaan took 40 years but 38 years of that was spent in wandering so instead of getting there in two years it took them 40 years in the wilderness and 38 of those were wandering around there at Mount Seir aimlessly. Where are you going? Well, we don't know. What are you going to do? Don't know. Where are you going to Mars? Don't know. What a pitiful thing. What a tragedy to live a Christian life like that. What about having any aim, any objective? It's well been said. If we aim at nothing, we generally hit us. And if we have no real objective in life, if we have no aim in life, then likely we'll just be like the Israelites and wander around for these 38 years. But now that isn't all. Because, you see, Christianity is never a negative thing. No, I know they didn't have Christianity, but I'm bringing it up to today. Living for God is never a negative thing. If we are not making progress, then we're doing something is wrong. Now that's what happened here, and this is what I want to carefully show you now. I've searched my Bible now for days on end, trying to get together all I can find regarding these 40 years. And frankly, I've been surprised at some of the things that I have discovered. read them all before, but they were just never impressed on me. During this 38 years of wandering there aimlessly there, with their progress arrested and suspended for the time being, they latched into, now get this, this is the third AP, apostate practices. Now remember who were talking about, people who had seen God come into Egypt and deliver them, people who had seen God open the Red Sea, people who had seen God rain manna from heaven and water of the smitten rock, people who had seen the pillar clouds there all the way from Egypt to Cady Sparnia, and we can mention many other things. These people who had heard the voice of God at Mount Sinai, who had been commanded that they were to have no other God but Jehovah. Now these people, now I want you to take time to turn with me and see a few of the things that they did. There isn't very much recorded regarding these 38 years I've said. There are just one or two things. One is, in the 15th of numbers, you read about, they found a man, his gathering sticks, on the Sabbath day, and they brought him to Moses. Now that proves that Moses wasn't back there at Cades. He was in the camp with them. They brought him to Moses to see what they should do. You remember they were commanded to do no work on the Sabbath day. That was part of the law, given the Mount Sinai. Now what should they do? They come to Moses, he inquires the Lord, and this Sabbath breaker is stoned to death. Now, I can't help but believe that that occurred at the beginning of these years of wandering, because we will look at some scriptures to see that they gradually got farther and farther away from God until it becomes almost unbelievable what they did. We're in numbers. All right, let's go to the next book. Deuteronomy 32, verse 17. Deuteronomy 32, verse 17. Verse 16 says, They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods. With abominations provoked they him to anger. They sacrificed unto devils, not to God. to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not. That is, these people, with all that I've reminded you that they knew, out here in the wilderness during this 40 years, they actually began to serve idols. When it says they sacrificed unto demons, It's the thought that behind the idols of the heathen are demons. Paul makes that very clear in his first epistle to the Corinthians. So they actually went into idol worship. These people who had seen so much of the delivering power of God. But I want you to read a little more about that. Turn to the prophecy of Ezekiel. Ezekiel chapter 20. Ezekiel chapter 20 and verse 16 says because they despised my judgments and walked not in my statutes but polluted my Sabbath for their heart went after their idols so here you have this people who have seen God working on their behalf, and now that they're away from Him in disobedience, they are actually worshiping idols. But even we get a darker picture of the same thing in the little prophecy of Amos. Just keep on turning. Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, and the prophecy of Amos, chapter 5. Look at what we have in verse 25. God speaking to Israel. Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? So you see, it's about what we're studying. But ye have borne the tabernacle of your molloc and Cheyenne, your images, the star of your God, which ye made to yourself. These are heathen gods, and this people, who had seen so much of the work of the living and true God, they are actually now serving the God of the heathen, and bowing down before idols. Now, the solemn lesson is this. We allow unbelief to enter our hearts. We disobey. We failed to go forward in the path of God. We turned back and we become wanderers. But all the time we're wandering, we're getting farther away from God. Quite a number of years, somebody asked me, Mr. McKay, where do you believe that a true Christian can go? If they get away from God, I said they can go anywhere except to hell. I believe that. I believe a born-again Christian that gets away from God can go anywhere and do anything except lose their soul and go to hell. Now that's the tragedy. That's what should make us afraid of getting away from God. I'm afraid to get away from God. I know my heart well enough. I know what's in me well enough to know that after 50 years of Christian life, if I got away from God, I could do anything. That's what should keep us close to Him. We could go on. There isn't time. They polluted we were reading. The Sabbath of the Lord. They sacrificed to idols. Think of it. A people who owed everything to God, it would almost be unbelievable if we didn't have it right here in Scripture. And this Moloch that we're reading about was the God of the Canaanites to whom they offered children as living sacrifices. And these people actually got so far from God that they offered their own children to the fire God Moloch to be burned in sacrifice to him. Imagine it, a people who had been redeemed by blood. But I want to get to this. They became adverse parents. Hear me carefully on this. They became the very opposite to what God intended. Now you, I believe, know your Bible well enough to remember that God again and again gave instructions to his people, Israel, that they were to teach their children the things of God. Do you remember in connection with the Passover? When your children shall ask what mean ye by the Passover, this feast. They were to tell them. Later, when you get the book of Joshua, and they went through the Jordan, and they raised up those stones. And the Lord said, now, when your children ask you, what mean ye by these stones? You explain to them. And we could turn to just a number of scriptures that would tell us of God's instructions that he expected the parents in Israel to instruct their children of the things of God. But now they're adverse. They're acting in the very opposite way to what God had commanded them. And we're going to see that in Ezekiel chapter 20, we were looking at the 16th verse of this 20th chapter of Ezekiel. Let me read to you, listen carefully if you're not following your Bible, Ezekiel chapter 20, verse 13. But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness. They walked not In my statutes, they despise my judgments, whether a man do, he shall even live in them. My Sabbath, they greatly polluted. Then I said I would pour out my fury upon the wilderness to consume them. You see, that's what we're studying. Now look down at verse 21, notwithstanding the children rebelled against me. Who shall do? These children, the children that God eventually was going to take into the land of Canaan, it says they rebelled against. Now watch the words carefully. They walked not in my statues. Exactly what he said about their parents. Neither kept my judgments to do them, which of a man do he shall even live in them. Exactly the same words. They polluted my Sabbaths. That is, the children did exactly what the parents did. Parents, that's a solemn word for us. Our children are going to take our example. For good or for evil. It was bad enough for this first generation to get up. get away from God, but as parents, they led the children away. Because when the children saw them breaking the Sabbath, they broke it. When the children saw their parents disobeying God's commandments, they disobeyed. And our children are going to do just the same thing. What a tremendous responsibility that evolves upon us. What an influence, an adverse influence. Some parents, and I'm going to say kindly, right here in this assembly, have had on their children. There are some parents that have been in this assembly for years, and their children today don't come near. You know why? Because they saw unbelief and disregard for the services of the Lord, and worldliness, and ambition. Now the boy grows up and sees his Christian father lying in bed Sunday morning instead of coming to the Lord's Supper. What's the boy going to do when he grows up? Just the same thing, you'll lie in bed. If the boy grows up, comes along, and sees his father saying, Well, I'm not going out tonight, I was out this morning, I'm not going to church twice. What's the boy going to do when he grows up? He's not coming out Sunday night either. If the boy sees his father all taken up with making money and getting and getting and getting and getting, what's the boy going to do? He's going to make that his aim in life. I'm going to get and get and get and get. And if all the children here at home is, how can we get more? How can we have a bigger house? How can we have a finer car? How can we get more money? I say to you, parents, we instill in our children expensive habits Now, this is plain talk, but it's on my heart. And I speak as a parent, as well as a servant of Christ. I believe the most important thing we've got to do is to set an example before our children. But I'd like to, this is enough along that line. That's a dark picture, isn't picture arrested progress aimless pilgrims apostate practices on adverse parents why because they disobey all goes back God says go in they said no we're not gonna go in we can't go in and it all stems from that I'm glad I don't have a dark picture like that to stop off. But let me tell you, that's just as true today as it was then. And I've not only seen it in my book, but I've seen it in about, I guess you could say, about 60 years of living with discount the first nine. I've seen it. I've never seen it fail. I've seen many a promising life has been ruined by disobedience to the Word of God. But now let's close on the bright earth. My next one is amazing pity. Amazing pity. I'm so glad we've got the God we have. You know, the people that I have done everything for like God did did this to me, I'd wash my hands with them. And you remember God's patience almost came to an end. You remember he said, Moses, I'm going to blot the whole lot out, and I'm going to start all over again with you. Now, if it hadn't have been for the intercession of Moses, God would have done that. And we'll never know when we get to heaven how much we owe to the intercession of Christ. been in our life but go back to geronim chapter 2 there's some lovely verses i like to close on a happy note even in spite of all of our failures and shortcomings we don't want to come to a prayer meeting and go away defeated we want to come and courage geronim chapter 2 and verse 7 for the lord thy god has blessed thee in all the works of thy hands He knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness, these forty years the Lord thy God hath been with thee. Thou hast lacked nothing. Now remember, that includes those thirty-eight years of wandering. Think of it. What amazing pity he had on that. He sees them doing this. But he says he's blessed thee in all the works of thy hands. He says he knows thy walk. walking through this great, terrible wilderness. God's eye was on them, even though they were wandering. They were out of his perfect will. But God didn't cast them off. That's what amazes me and delights me. He says, Thy God, the Lord, thy God hath been with thee. God was with them during all those 38 years in spot. Now they weren't getting God's best. You see, you can only get God's best when you're in His perfect will. But think of all God did for them. He says, Thou hast lacked nothing. Now go over to chapter 8. You can see that there's very much one would like to say on this, but I'll just read the verses. You read And it came to me with fresh force of recent days. This has to do with the years of wandering as well as the years of journeying, because the whole forty years, verse 2, chapter 8, you're on me. Thou shalt remember all the way in which the Lord thy God led to these forty years in the wilderness. Wait a minute, let's go back. The Lord thy God led thee. These 40 years, something long, isn't there? God didn't leave them. He couldn't leave them the way he intended to. But even though they took their own way and they wandered around, God's overruling led them. wonderful picture of the amazing pity of God, His abiding presence with them. And isn't that true? Even if we miss His best, God grant that none of us may. Yet our God of love and grace, He doesn't cast us off. What would happen to us if He did? We've all failed. short. We've all been stubborn and disobedient at times. But isn't it amazing what he did? Read these lovely verses. On down. But I'm just going to take verse 4. You read those intervening verses. They're lovely. Thy raiment wax not old upon me. But I want to go back to verse 3. There's an expression there we'll have to note. And he fed thee with manna. every day while they were wandering around in the wilderness, God had them with manna. Isn't that amazing? And yet isn't that just what God does for us? Don't we owe everything to Him, even when we're in disobedience? Don't we owe everything that we receive, the breath we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat? owe it all to him. He fed them every day with manna. Notice verse 4. Thy raiment wax not old upon me. How'd you like to have a suit that you could wear for 40 years, not get old? How'd you like to have a dress? Now, I know you ladies wouldn't want to wear the same dress for 40 years. I know you wouldn't. But think of all you'd save. Yeah, think of that and think of all your husband would say. Just think of it, you see. God knew that they couldn't get other Raymond, and he just took care of them with what they had. Not only that, neither did thy foot swell these forty years. Now, I'm not going to take any further time. It's past gone, but I did want to give this to you, and let me just give you this. If you will In Nehemiah, chapter 9, verse 21, Nehemiah 9, and verse 21, Amos chapter 2, and verse 10, you'll have it corroborated what we have here. God cared for them. They lacked nothing. He saw that their clothes didn't wear out, their shoes didn't wear out, their feet didn't swell. Think of wandering around for 40 years, not. riding in a nice air-conditioned car like we do today, but wandering around for 40 years and their feet didn't swell the whole time. What a God of grace, what a God of love. Does it make us say, well, God will take care of me, whether I obey or disobey? Surely it doesn't have that effect, does it? Doesn't it make us want to obey? this God who's so gracious, so kind, doesn't it make us want to walk in His way and to get His best, oh my brethren and sisters, the best thing you can have in life is the God's thing. As an expression on the world, people want to get the good things of life. I don't want so to... you