All right, if you take your Bible
and come back with me to Psalm 107. Psalm 107, entitled this message,
The Wanderer. The Wanderer. Psalm 107, verse
one says, give thanks unto the Lord for he is good, for his
mercy endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord
say so. whom he hath redeemed from the
hand of the enemy and gathered them out of the land from the
east and from the west and from the north and from the south. As we begin this psalm, I want
us to be reminded of this. This psalm is not written to
everyone. It is true this psalm is to be
preached to everyone. I can read this psalm to everyone. I can preach what's contained
in this psalm to everyone. But really, this psalm doesn't
belong to everyone. It is written to a very special
group of people. It says, Give thanks unto the
Lord, for He is good, His mercy endureth forever. Let the redeemed
of the Lord say so. This message is for the redeemed. Those who have been redeemed
from the hand of the enemy. These are the ones that God gave
to Christ. And Christ, by His blood, has
redeemed them. Remember in John 6, Jesus said,
this is the will of the Father, which has sent me, that I should
lose nothing. These are the ones He's talking
about in this psalm, the redeemed of the Lord. Our Lord Jesus came
into this world And He came for a very specific purpose, to save
His people from their sins. His people. And that's exactly
what He has done. Christ has come into this world
and He has redeemed His people. He has redeemed them because
they were enslaved. We who believe in Christ, we
understand this. We were enslaved to sin. We were under the condemnation
of God. We were under the judgment of
God, the justice of God. We were in bondage to sin. I tell you, when men sin, they
think they're free. But really, it's a bondage. They're
in bondage. But look at the cross, and then
you may see how Christ redeemed us. He, by His one offering,
His one offering for sin, has forever satisfied the justice
of God for my sin. He has redeemed me, has paid
the price. The penalty for my sin was death,
and Christ paid that price. He paid that price. Our sins
were transferred. Our sins were transferred. They
were taken from us. And God hath made Him to be sin
for us, who knew no sin, who did no sin. And God made Him
to be sin for this purpose, to redeem us, that we might be made
something we weren't. The righteousness of God in Him. You, this morning, A very important
question. Are you redeemed? I know that
God came, Christ came and redeemed His people. Are you redeemed? Who are the ones that are redeemed?
What is the manifest evidence of the redeemed? Here it is.
Give thanks. Give thanks unto the Lord. I'm
so thankful that my redemption is not a cooperative effort.
I'm so thankful that He did not leave one thing for me to pay. We've seen that Jesus paid it
all. And what's the evidence that
I'm redeemed is this. All to Him I owe. I owe everything
to Him. Therefore, we give thanks to
redeem to give thanks. And they give thanks because
God has gathered us to himself. Look at that in verse three.
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, who have been redeemed
from the hand of the enemy, and what? Gathered them. You see,
he not only redeemed us, he gathered us. He called us. He called us
with a holy calling, an effectual calling. And here's the hope
for sinners. Here's the glad tidings of good
things that God has promised to gather His people. That God,
all that Christ would need, every one of them, not one will be
left ungathered. He will gather them, no matter
where they are, north, south, east, west, any direction. Now
this gives me encouragement as I preach the gospel and should
give you encouragement. Everyone God's going to say,
they'll hear this word. If not from me, from someone
else. God'll send a man to them. He'll send a preacher. And God
will effectually work that word into their hearts. And they can
do nothing but believe. He gathers them. God says, my
word's like the rain that comes down from heaven and waters the
earth. Gives bread to the... He gives
seed to the sower and bread to the eater. So shall my word go
out of my mouth. It's going to accomplish whatever
I send it to. Isn't this wonderful that whatever
the purpose of the word is, it's going to accomplish it. No matter how weak and feeble
this man is, the word of God is not weak. It's not feeble
as the man preaching. It does exactly what God sends
it to do. And wherever the Word of God
is, it gives life. I thought about this, the rain.
You know where it's going to rain and when it's going to rain?
No, they give you a chance, don't they? Well, it's a 50% chance
or 10% chance. It might come, it might not.
We don't know where the rain's coming, where it might. Conditions
are right, maybe it will. They don't know. I don't know
where the word of God goes. I don't know where the spirit
of God takes that word, but wherever it goes, there's life. There's
life. I'm so thankful for this. And
so then this day, I determined to set forth Christ among you.
I determined to lift up Christ and show you this mercy. God
says his mercy endures forever. And that mercy, that mercy is
only found in Jesus Christ. It's only found in one person. So I'm determined to set him
before you. And I'm going to do this. Now in this chapter,
in this chapter, I'm going to go through this chapter again.
I know I've been through this before with you, but there are
five characters, five characters in this, in this chapter. The first one we're going to
deal with today is the wanderer. Every believer is described in
each of these five characters, the wanderer, the rebel, the
fool, the mariner, and the congregation. There are five characters in
which the believer is here described, and we're going to deal with
this first character of the wanderer. And we'll see three things. Three
things this morning about the wanderer. I want you to see his
character and condition. The first thing. The second thing
I want you to see is the cry and the deliverance of this wanderer. And thirdly, I want you to see
this. Those of us who are identified with this wonder, we want to
see our proneness still to wonder. Those three things. So first
of all, the character. Now, the scripture here says,
they wandered, in verse four, in the wilderness, in a solitary
way. They found no city to dwell in,
hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted, Now the illusion here
is of a traveler in a desert land. And as he's traveling on
the road in this barren land, the wind blows. And you know
what happens to a road in the desert when the wind blows? It
covers over. There's no sign of it. Where
there was once a road, now there's no road. So the illusion is this
man is now in a barren place. He is lost and has no bearing
whatsoever. And so this traveler, he must
then wander. He's lost. He cannot find his
way. That's the illusion. And until somebody gives him direction,
he'll continue to wander. Therefore, seeing he's in such
a lifeless place, there's no lasting landmarks in the desert.
You know that? No lasting landmarks in the desert.
And so anyway he goes, get this. Any way he turns, he's lost. He's lost. He goes wandering
in a solitary way. And no matter where he goes,
it's only desolation and death awaiting him. It's not long until he runs out
of food, and there he is. He has no food. He has no shelter
from the heat. He runs out of food and therefore
seeing this man's desperation, he runs from one mirage to another. You know, when you're in the
desert and you're dehydrated, your mind begins to play tricks
on you out there. These people, they would run
and they think they're seeing water. He just drinks it in and
when he wakes, comes to himself, what does he find? It's just
sand. It's just sand. And it's not long until what?
His soul just faints. How long can a man stay in the
desert until he's about dead? How long can a man go without
water or food in a desert place? And so this man's soul faints
and he has no hope. Now listen, you that have been
saved, you understand the illusion here. You understand the illustration
because That's what we are by nature, lost. We were in a desert
wilderness. We had no hope, no refuge, no
food, no spiritual food to sustain us. The spiritual condition of
everyone who God has gathered. We understand this. We were lost. We wandered about in this world,
this barren wasteland, running from one mirage to another, trying
to satisfy our souls. If you've ever been found in
Christ, if you've been gathered to Him by faith, you understand
this. This is where He found us. Scripture
says, of Jacob, He said, I have found Him in a waste-hound wilderness. That's where God finds all His
people. He found us wandering in the wilderness. This word,
wander, means to go astray. Is this not true of us from birth?
The wicked are estranged from the womb, speaking lies. We were born speaking lies. We
weren't born innocent and became sinners. We were sinners and
became worse sinners. The only reason I wasn't as big
a sinner as I am now is because I didn't know how. But as we
grow up, we learn how to be bigger sinners, don't we? We learn how
to talk, and the first thing we want to do is we'll lie. You
do anything to save our ears, right? You get in trouble with
your parents, what are you going to do? Man, I'm going to lie.
No, that's our nature. We were born sinners. And I'll
tell you this, today, if God has not gathered you by His Spirit
to believe on Christ, you're still lost. Still lost. You don't know the way to God.
You've not been set on the right way. And this word, solitary,
it says he wandered, he went astray in a solitary way. Isaiah said, we like sheep have
gone astray and turned everyone to what? His own way. His own
way. The word solitary here means destruction. That's what it is. The word is
destruction. The way of the natural man is
a destructive way. Everywhere you go is destruction. A way of destruction that can
never bring him to God or make him acceptable. Now, man, natural
man, truly believes that salvation can be accomplished by his works. This is our nature too, is that
we by nature believe that we can make ourselves acceptable
to God. We all did. Now listen, I was
raised under the gospel and my acceptance was knowing the gospel.
My hope was in my knowledge. That was a destructive way. That
didn't do anything. I didn't know Christ. I knew
the gospel, but I didn't know him. I wandered in a solitary
way. I went about my own way to establish
my own righteousness before God. Man sincerely desires, man sincerely
may desire to obey God and do his best, but that will never
please God. They believe that they may earn
heaven by their own works or some holy, some deed, some religious
ceremony. Man, you see how religious ceremonies
are very extravagant? I mean, they have these gold
crosses and beautiful robes and scents. They appeal to all the
human senses, sight, sound, smell. And they think that somehow that's
going to make them acceptable. Friends, that's a way of destruction. Proverbs 16 says, there is a
way that seemeth right unto man. Religion, worse religion, just
seems right to the natural man. To you and me, it does, by our
nature. How many times, even you that
believe, how many times do we still try to look at something
in ourselves? Some, you know, one day you wake
up and you're doing good, and you think, oh, well, God's on
my side. And then you wake up and you sin, you're so full of
sin, you've neglected God, you've neglected His word, you think,
oh, no, God, He's not with me anymore. What are you looking
at? You're looking at what you're
doing. Why? Because that's the flesh. The
flesh is always going to look that way. But that way, there's
a way that seemeth right unto man, but the end is what? Death. Death. Man lost in the desert,
he says, well, I'm sure that this is the right way. He keeps
going, and what? He dies. Well, that wasn't the
right way, was it? He's dead. A way of salvation
by works, religion, and religious ceremony. by an act of free will
is utter destruction. I pray that God would even now,
if you are in that way, if you really believe that, I pray God
show you the truth that you're lost. And so the character of this
wanderer, I want you to see this, he has no place to dwell. He's
wandering in the wilderness. His way is a way of death. And
now he has no city to dwell in. No refuge. He has no refuge. No shelter from the sun. No shelter
from the heat. No protection from thieves. He's without protection. He has
no city. No fortified walls. Even so it
is spiritually true with a man who is low. He has no refuge. No refuge. No protection from
the wrath of God. Nothing to stand between Him
and a holy God. And those outside of Christ,
they have no peace, no rest. They travel from sin to sin,
from one earthly pleasure to another, and what do they find?
Sand. No lasting joy. No lasting joy
in the things of this world. They go from one religion to
the next. They may stay in the same church,
but they're always adding something to it. Always trying to pile
more laws, more rules. Never satisfied. Paul said this, they have a form
of godliness. You look at a religious man,
he has a form of godliness. but he denies that the power
of godliness is Christ. He denies that godliness comes
only from Christ. He thinks the power resides in
himself. Paul said, they learn, ever learning
and never able to come to that truth. It says, for all of us that God
gathered, we wandered about with no refuge. Next, notice this, they're hungry
and thirsty, verse 5. Hungry and thirsty, their souls
faded within them. These wanderers, they stagger
in the barrenness of sin, walking in the way of destruction, having
no refuge, having no peace. They can never find anything
to satisfy their souls. Have you seen that the lusts
of our pleasure never satisfy? And I tell you this, only really
God's people understand that. They understand that it is never
enough. You ever seen your children at
Christmas? Well, you ever seen me at Christmas?
I mean, you got something in mind, and maybe they harp on
you, they harp on you to get this. I'm going to have this.
Oh, I'm going to die without that. Then you get it and they
open it up and what? Six months later, where is it?
Oh, they moved on to another thing. Why? Because it never
satisfies. This is not just true of children,
friends. This is true of us. The flesh
is never satisfied. He that loveth silver shall not
be satisfied with what? Silver. Or he that loveth abundance
with increase. You're never going to have enough.
The flesh will never have enough. But friends, what does God require?
This is all important. What does God require of you? Not what do I require of you.
Not what do you think God requires of you. What does God say He
requires of you? Righteousness. Perfect, absolute,
Sinless righteousness, that's what God demands. What does it profit then if a
man gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what will
you give in exchange for your soul? God requires righteousness, friends,
and nothing in this world is going to provide it. Nothing
is going to satisfy that need. Nothing. Such righteousness and
holiness, I'll tell you, is only found in one man. One man. This is the narrow way. Christ. There's only one way to God.
There's only one way to God. Christ, in him alone, is righteous. Christ is all our righteousness,
all our holiness is only found in Him. Do you then feel your
hunger for righteousness? Are you wandering? Are you wandering? Are you without refuge, without
shelter, without peace? Are you hungry for something
that the world can never give you? And what happens to a man like
that, his soul faints. Have you ever had your soul faint?
Consider souls fainting in them. It's here that God must bring
every redeemed sinner to the end of himself. You never come
to the end of yourself, you'll never come to Christ. You've
got something, you still have something you think that God
wants. You'll never come to Christ.
You'll never do this next part. You'll never cry to him. You'll
bargain. Well, if you'll do this, I'll
do this. Well, your soul ain't fainting.
You still got some hope left in you. If God is ever going
to save a sinner, he has to bring him to the end. the end of his
religion, the end of his good works, the end of himself, the
end of any hope of finding his way in this world. But notice every soul, every
wandering soul, that God is going to save. This second part is
true. He's lost. He's wandering about
from religion to religion, from sin to sin, no hope, no life,
in a dead, destructive way. He's hungry, but he cannot satisfy
the righteousness that God requires. And his soul faints, but listen,
every fainting soul will do this. Verse six, then. I like that. He said, only after
they had fainted. Then they cried unto the Lord,
In their trouble, they cried unto the Lord. This
is the second thing. Every lost, wandering sinner
will cry. He will cry unto the Lord. Why should the lost cry unto
the Lord? Listen, because of that next part, and he delivered
them out of their distresses. He delivered them. I must preach
to wandering sinners, but I know this. Every wandering sinner
that cries, this is the promise of God, He will deliver you out
of all your distress. First of all, you were lost because
you didn't know the way. What's the first thing God shows
you when you cry to Him? He shows you this, Christ is
the way. Isn't that what the wanderer needed? The road was
covered. He had no way, no idea of knowing the way. But when
his soul fainted, God delivered it, and the first thing He showed
him was the way. Jesus Christ is the way. Isn't that what He said? Anybody
that says that Christ is a good man, or Christ is a prophet,
or, you know, they believe He's some kind of Savior, listen.
He said this, I am the way. There are not many ways to God. There are not many ways. I'm
telling you, people believe that there are. That's your way. I
got my own way. No, there's only one way. Either
I'm wrong or you're wrong. There's only one way. And Christ
said, I'm the way. You know what I believe? I believe
He's the way. He's the truth. He said, I am
the truth. You hear that stupid phrase,
well, that's your truth. Idiots. There's no such thing as your
truth and my truth. There is the truth. And Christ
said, I'm the truth. I'm the way and I'm the truth. And
I'm the life. There ain't no life outside of
Christ. There's death outside of Christ. If you're outside of Christ,
there's death. That's all there is. But in Christ,
there's life. He said, I'm the life. I'm the
only way a man has life. And listen to this last part.
No man comes to God but by Jesus. And if that's true, he's a liar. And friends, I know I was a wanderer.
I know when God showed me the way, I knew that to be absolutely
true. I was not going to make my way
to God. And why would I want to? Christ
is the way of God. I don't want my own way. My way
leads to death, but He is the life. And so then all who have
found Him know He's the way. We know that He's the refuge. I had no refuge until Christ
came. I cried, I found Him the way,
and I found Him to be refuge. My refuge, Psalm 48, verse 2,
beautiful for situation. The joy of the whole earth is
Mount Zion on the sides of the north, the city of the great
king. God is known in her palaces for a refuge. A shelter. When it rains and we are in this
building, I do not feel the rain. The building, it shelters me. Christ is my refuge and in him,
he suffered the wrath of God in my stead. Noah's Ark is probably
one of the greatest pictures of that, isn't it? The whole
world died in the flood except for those in the ark. The ark
endured the wrath. Christ endured the wrath, and
I am in Him. He's my refuge. He's my shelter. He's the only mediator between
God and man, the man, Christ Jesus. We find in Him a refuge. This song, I love it because
it really describes when we found Him to be our refuge. Against
the God who ruled the sky, I fought with hand uplifted high, despised
the mention of his grace, too proud to seek a hiding place. Enwrapped in thick Egyptian night
and fond of darkness more than light, madly I ran the sinful
race, secure without a hiding place. But thus the eternal counsel
ran. Almighty Lord, arrest that man. I felt the arrows of distress
and found I had no hiding place. Ere long, a heavenly voice I
heard, and mercy's angel form appeared. He led me on with gentle
pace. Where? To Jesus Christ, my hiding
place. On him, almighty vengeance fell. It must have sunk the world to
hell. He bore it for a sinful race
and thus became my hiding place. Should seven bold storms of vengeance
roll and shake the world from pole to pole, no thunderbolt
shall daunt my face, for Jesus Christ is my hiding place, my
refuge, my refuge. And those who cry unto the Lord
are hungry, we find him to be the bread of life. Now what he
said, he said, I am the bread of life. Whoso eateth my flesh
and drinketh my blood shall never hunger or thirst. These words I say, they are spirit
and they are truth. These aren't literal flesh, literal
blood. He's speaking spiritually here
of faith in his blood and righteousness. Those who eat of His flesh and
drink His blood do it by faith. And what do we find once we taste
of Christ? We find we have all the righteousness
God requires. I tell you what, I don't know
how to feel that. But how I feel about that don't
mean anything. He is all. my righteousness,
all of it. I contribute nothing. He is my
refuge, and he is the sustainer of my life. Can you identify then with this
one? What is said of this man, is
that true of you? Did you wander in a destructive
way? Did you have no hope, no refuge?
You have no righteousness. Have you fainted within yourself? Did you cry unto Him? You that
cried unto Him, what have you found? Did He not deliver you
out of all your distresses? You cried and you were troubled,
and He delivered you. Oh, that men would praise the
Lord for His goodness. God's goodness is found in His
salvation of sinners. His grace, His mercy is found
in Christ who saves wandering sinners. And this last thing
I want you to see is this. Everyone that was chosen by the
Father, redeemed by the Son, and gathered by the Spirit of
God, none of those for whom Christ died, who are found in the Holy
Spirit shall ever perish, Their faith shall never fail. They
shall never be deceived to leave Christ. Not because of their
own strength, but because they are kept. Is this true of you,
wanderer? You're kept. Why are you still
here? You're kept. Remember what Peter
says, you are kept by the power of God. You know, it takes the
power of God to keep a man. Can you keep yourself? Is it
possible for you to keep yourself? I'm kept by the power of God.
But we who are kept, we also are found of Christ. We must
never forget that the old man of sin still remains in us, and
he is still prone to wander. We like to sing that hymn, and
it says, prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Do you feel it? Prone to leave the God I love, how often do we wander from him? How often do we, like sheep,
the sheep, you know, the sheep put his head down, he'll start
eating this way, and pretty soon he looks up and goes, oh, where's
his head? Where'd it go? Sometimes that
sheep gets so fat, and he just falls over on his belly, on his
back, Can't get himself up. Call that a cast sheep. How often
do we found cast? Laying on our back. Can't right ourselves. Prone
to wonder. This old man of sin is like a
weight about our neck constantly pulling us down to the earth.
We would. We would praise God. We would
honor God. I would love Christ. But I find this other principle,
this other law, boring in my members, dragging me to the earth,
causing me to wander. The Spirit is daily filling our
hearts with faith and longing The spirit is daily pointing
us and keeping our eyes fixed on Christ, looking always to
his blood and righteousness. But the flesh is daily filling
our minds with unbelief and fear and lust. The flesh is daily
moving us to doubt the love and power of Christ and his righteousness. He's always looking to the circumstances
and not to Christ. You found that to be true of
yourself? How often do we look at the circumstance and try to
determine whether God cares for us? How insignificant are the circumstances
compared to this? Hearing is the love of God. Not
that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to
be the propitiation for our sins. There's where the love of God
is seen. You're not gonna see it in your circumstance. Yet
the flesh is often lost, confused, because we look at the circumstance
and not at Christ. And what do we do in such places?
Well, we do the same thing we did at the beginning. We cry. And still it's that same old
principle, not till we're brought to the end of ourself do we cry. I want a shortcut. I'd like to
cry at the beginning. That's not how it works, is it? God's always bringing us to the
end of ourselves. And when he does that, you know,
Christ becomes, it's not that he wasn't always full, but we
see him. more clearly, we see him as all
our hope. And so then this process continues. We wander, we faint, God delivers
us. All that men would praise the
Lord for his wonderful works, and we do. When he finds us,
when he picks this old fat sheep up and puts us on our feet, what
are we, we're thankful. We praise him, we give thanks.
Until what? Do we do it again? You know what? I'm so thankful that he is long-suffering,
aren't you? I'm just so thankful he's not
like me. I'm not very long-suffering. But he is. His mercy endureth. How long? That's the kind of mercy I need.
That's the kind of mercy a wanderer finds when Christ gathers him. I pray God will bless this encouragement. Let's stand and be dismissed
and pray. Father, I do pray that you bless
your word. It is yours. I pray you'd find the wonderer. I pray you'd draw him to yourself. I pray you'd find no hope of
peace in the veins of this life. That he might cry to thee when
you deliver him from all his distresses. And Father, I confess this sinner
is prone to wonder from you. Though you found me, though you
saved me, I am still prone to wonder. Father, keep us, sustain
us, even as you promised to do. Help us to give you the praise
and honor and glory for all your salvation. I ask you to do this
in Christ's name. Amen.