[0:00] We're going to sing to God's praise the words of Psalm 116. Psalm 116 at the beginning, first six stanzas.
[0:13] I love the Lord because my voice and prayer she did hear. I while I live will call on him who bowed to me his ear. Of death the cords and sorrows did about me compass round.
[0:27] The pains of hell took cold on me, thy grief and trouble found. Upon the name of God the Lord then did I call and say, Deliver thou my soul, O Lord, I do thee humbly pray.
[0:42] God merciful and righteous is, yea gracious is our Lord. God saves the meek, I was brought low, he did me help afford.
[0:53] O thou my soul, do thou return unto thy quiet rest. For largely lo, the Lord to thee his bounty hath expressed. For my distressed soul from death delivered was by thee.
[1:07] Thou didst my mourning eyes from tears, my feet from falling free. And so on. You can sing these verses. Psalm 116 from the beginning to verse 8.
[1:20] I love the Lord because my voice and prayer she did hear. I love the Lord because my voice and prayer she did hear.
[1:41] I find thy life will call on him who bowed to me his ear.
[1:56] Forget the course and sorrow, O Lord, About me come much round.
[2:12] Nothing so well to hold on me, I give a chance of prayer she did hear.
[2:22] I give a chance of prayer she did hear. Upon the name of God the Lord, Then give a chance of prayer she did hear.
[2:42] God bless you, O Lord, I do thee hungry, pray.
[2:57] God bless you for unrighteousness, Yet gracious is our Lord.
[3:13] God bless you for unrighteousness, But since the meek I was brought low, He gave me help afford.
[3:28] O thou my soul, Good love, Return unto thy quiet rest, For thou shalt thou, O Lord, O Lord, Purely, Is thou shalt thou express.
[4:01] For my distress is shown from yet, Till heaven was by thee.
[4:15] Thou didst my mourning as frontiers, My people fall in me.
[4:36] We turn now to the passage of Scripture that we read, The Gospel of John chapter 1, And we can read at verse 35.
[4:51] Again the next day after John stood, And two of his disciples, And looking upon Jesus as he walked, He saith, Behold the Lamb of God.
[5:05] And the two disciples heard him speak, And they followed Jesus. Then Jesus turned, And saw them following, And saith unto them, For seek ye.
[5:18] They said unto him, Rabbi, Which is to say, Being interpreted, Master, Where dwellest thou? He saith unto them, Come and see. They came and saw where he dwelt, And abode with him that day, For it was about the tenth hour.
[5:33] One of the two which heard John speak, And followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first findeth his own brother, Simon, And saith unto him, We have found the Messiah, Which is being interpreted to Christ.
[5:49] And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, He said, Thou art Simon, The son of Jonah, Thou shalt be called Cephas, Which is by interpretation a stone.
[6:06] And so on. And so on. Well, we've all, Enjoyed, I hope, Communion season, Here in the congregation.
[6:28] And, I believe after, Our, Experiencing, A weekend of services, And, Participating in the sacrament, It is, Incumbent upon those who have participated in that, To reflect upon, What they have, Partaken of.
[6:56] Reflect on, What fruit is there of, The experience of these services, And, Of our, Offering, Offering obedience, To, The Lord Jesus Christ's own command, To his people, To remember him, In his death, Until he come.
[7:21] I have often heard, The question asked, Concerning, The experience of sitting under God's word, What is it, What is it, That we have, By way of fruit?
[7:36] What is it, That, I am to discover, In my life, As a Christian, By reason of, Whatever it is, Whether it's just sitting under the gospel, Or in this case, Sitting under the word of God, Over several days, And also participating in the Lord's supper.
[7:57] Maybe the question is asked, Without, Too much thought, Being given to it. But it is a necessary question.
[8:10] I notice that, When it comes to, As I sometimes have to do, Prepare for preaching, In a communion season.
[8:22] I would read up on, On various aspects of, The, What is expected of you, At that time.
[8:34] And, In the many discussions, That there are on the Lord's supper, You would find, As well as, There being a focus, On the Lord's supper itself, There would be, Different slants to that.
[8:54] It's biblical origins, It's the theology surrounding it. The, The liturgy, All of these things, Have a, A part to play in our, Consideration of what we're doing.
[9:08] Because every one of us, When we're doing something, Whatever practice we have, Whatever historical practice, Whatever our own, Particular liturgy, We, We don't think that we have a liturgy, But we do.
[9:23] We have a specific liturgy, We, We meet in a certain way, And we, We conduct ourselves in, In, Very specific, Modes.
[9:36] And, If, These things are disturbed, We, We, We're not comfortable. But we believe, That, That, For the most part, We have, Scriptural warrant, For these things.
[9:52] But, Very often, In these discussions, Most of the emphasis, Falls upon, What leads up, To the, Sacrament. And, The emphasis, Falls, Very much, On, Preparation.
[10:10] And, Almost as much, On the preparation, As there is, In the participation. You've got to prepare, Your own soul.
[10:22] You've got to prepare, Your heart. You've got to, Examine yourself. That's the biblical injunction. You're required to do that. So that, When you do, Communicate.
[10:33] When you do sit at the Lord's table, You're doing it, In as positive a way as possible. And, In a, In a way that, Enhances your relationship, With Christ.
[10:46] But I found that, There's not, As much emphasis, Placed then, On, Asking the question, What of, Me now?
[10:58] What of me now? I've, Sat into the gospel, I've, I've, Sat into the gospel, I've, Experienced all these servants, Services, The preparatory services, The, Examination, The, Elaboration of what it is to be justified by faith.
[11:21] And, The, The emphasis that inevitably falls upon the death of Christ. And, The, The benefit, That there is for me in that.
[11:37] But what now? What are the questions you ask yourself concerning what you have heard? And, There should be, There should be, Every one of us should look for the fruit, The fruit, That, That, Follows us, Into our life.
[11:58] The benefits of, Actually, Partaking of the Lord's Supper, And everything that accompanies it, By faith. John Calvin, Has, Well, A long time ago, As you would imagine, Wrote, A short catechism, But it was quite short for him.
[12:21] Catechism on the various sacraments, And the various, Um, Aspects of doctrine, That apply to the believers life.
[12:35] And his focus at, One point falls upon, The benefits that the believer should look for. As he looks, Looks back in order to look forward.
[12:48] And, The first thing he, He says is by, By participating, By partaking in the Lord's Supper, We are reminded that we have, A part in all his blessings.
[13:04] The participation, The participation, Encourages us to believe that, Very thing. That we have a part, That we, That we, That in other words, That we have a right to, That it belongs to us.
[13:18] The blessings, That Christ has, Secured by way of his death, Belong to his church, Belong to the members in his church.
[13:30] And we are, Enabled, To reflect on that truth, And remind ourselves of it. We are also, To remind ourselves, Of what this blessedness means.
[13:45] What these blessed blessings are to us, As believers. To do so, With, With discernment, So that we, In the partaking of the sacrament itself.
[13:56] But, To do so, With discernment, So that we, With discernment, So that we, Respond to what we have enjoyed.
[14:09] That it creates in us, The desire to praise him. To praise him. In other words, One effect of, Being involved in, This weekend is that, We have been encouraged to come to him, Vocally.
[14:26] And, With the, With the sacrifice of praise, More readily, Come from us, In our prayers, In our praise. And the third thing that he emphasizes, That, Emphasizes is this, That, We are, Encouraged to, If not inspired, To live lives that are more holy.
[14:52] And, Holy in respect of him, And of relationship with him. But also with those, In regard to those that we live our lives with.
[15:05] That we live our lives amongst, In the world. That we, We have an interest in the world, And have a disposition towards the world, That is charitable, As he puts it.
[15:20] I think charitable, In the sense that he uses it, Is charitable, Have a loving disposition towards them, That's the world. Not their worldliness, But, The desire that you have, And even heard expressed tonight in prayer.
[15:38] That we are concerned for those who are out of Christ. And that we would decide them, To be where we are, And to know, The same Lord that we have, Professed.
[15:51] And also, Strengthening, At the same time, The love that we have for the Lord's people. Now, These are benefits, These are, These are fruits, If you like, That, That the believer enjoys, As a result of, Spending time under the word.
[16:10] Now, I don't know if we are, Consciously engaged, In that kind of activity. If we have done so, To any degree, Meaningfully, Or if we are aware of it being a duty or not.
[16:29] If we are simply content to say, Well, we enjoyed, The weekend, We enjoyed the company of God's people, We enjoyed different preaching, We enjoyed, Sitting, At the Lord's table.
[16:45] I mean, When I mean enjoy, I mean that we took pleasure, Took delight in it. Not in any worldly sense, But that, We, Found, The longings of our soul, Met, In our participation, Or in our partaking.
[17:05] In our partaking, Of the supper. One thing that I am also aware of, And it has been mentioned here, Already tonight. And that is that, The Lord's people, Very often I heard them say this, After a, After a communion season, They would look forward, To seeing the fruit of it, By way of conversion.
[17:30] That we would see new people, Attend the prayer meeting. And unfortunately, Not only do we not see, New people come, To the prayer meeting very often.
[17:45] The Lord's people, Neglect that means of grace. And it's obviously so, Not just in this congregation, But in every congregation. I know that there are people, Who cannot attend, For very, Very, Genuine reasons.
[18:05] But these reasons, Are not, Shared by everybody. And it's a, It's a, An indication of the spiritual state, Of our day.
[18:21] That very few people, See, The duty of attending, The prayer meeting. Even when it is not, A little delight for them, To attend the prayer meeting.
[18:32] And it should be, A pleasurable thing, To come together, Of our weekday. And, Gather, With the Lord's people, For prayer.
[18:47] It should be something, That we enjoy. And that we deem a privilege. But when we're not in the mood, When we're not, Of that, Mental or spiritual disposition, It should still be, Something that we feel, Well if my place is empty there, Without good reason, Then, I'm culpable, I'm guilty for that.
[19:12] And that, That spirit is not really one that, That we find strong enough, In our present generation.
[19:23] So not only do we need to pray to God, That we would see, New people being converted. That we would see the Lord's people being revived.
[19:35] And that they would feel it, That it's their, Their duty, And their privilege, To come, To be with the Lord's people. What does that, What does all that we've said, Got to do with this passage?
[19:51] Well, I think that we need to focus, On what we ourselves can do, To encourage ourselves, To encourage ourselves, And others, To be, In the path of duty.
[20:06] To be, With God's people. To be, Where, Prayer, Is want to be made. Very often, You hear God's people, And, They have all kinds of reasons, And excuses, For not doing something.
[20:27] And, They themselves, Would not be dissuaded, That their reasons are genuine. But look at this passage, For example.
[20:40] And if, I want to focus on, On one person, In this passage. And that person, Is Andrew. And, We know that Andrew, Is one of the Lord's disciples.
[20:54] Is one of the ones, Is one of the ones, Is one of the ones, Is one of the ones listed, Amongst the twelve. And, While, While we look at, At the Synoptic Gospels, And we look at John's Gospel, There's a difference, Or a discrepancy, Between, The accounts that we have there, Of the calling of the disciples.
[21:12] But, While there is a discrepancy, There's no, There's no discrepancy, About who, Were called to be disciples. And I think, When you, When you look at Andrew, In particular, There's a subtle, Subtle nuance, If you like, About, The way he's described, Which may, I don't know if it's, Right or wrong, To think of it like that.
[21:42] But, When you see the way, That he is described, In this passage, You're alerted, To the fact that, Either he himself, Considered, Himself to be a lesser disciple, Or that he was, In some way, Without, The same place, In the list of disciples.
[22:05] You see, When he, When he is identified, He is described to us, As the brother, Of Simon.
[22:16] Why would anybody, Want to be described, As the brother of somebody, Or the sister of somebody, Or the son of somebody? They have a, They have, They are a person, In their own right.
[22:29] They have a name. They have, They have, They have the same right, To be identified, In the same way, That others are. But he is, Described here, As Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.
[22:45] Now, Maybe it's just unintentional. Maybe it's not meant, To be conveying, Any truth to us. But, Think of it for yourself.
[22:59] If I were to mention, Simon Peter's name to you, You can list, Any number of things, That you know, Peter, To be, Uh, Guilty of.
[23:12] Or to be, Well known for. You know that, He's written, Epistles. You know that, He was to the fore, In many of the encounters, That Jesus had, With others.
[23:27] He was somebody, Who stood out. And for that reason, You can understand, Why the knowledge, That you have of Peter, Is far greater, Than anything you know, About Andrew.
[23:38] Because Andrew, Isn't mentioned, All that often, Within the Gospels. And certainly, Not, In the same way, That Peter is.
[23:50] But we do know, That he was a disciple, Of John. John the Baptist. And John, Pointed him, To Jesus.
[24:01] And along with another, Who is not named, But it is suspected, Or some believe him, To be John. Who wrote this Gospel. And John had that habit, Of, Not identifying himself, By name, When he was, Speaking of himself.
[24:17] He would, He would talk, For example, Of the disciple, Whom Jesus loved. He wouldn't, Call himself by name, Although, He features him that. So maybe, This is John's Gospel.
[24:29] And although he, He is clearly, Or very likely, To be the one, Who was with Andrew. Who went, To speak, To Peter.
[24:40] And follow Jesus. But, We see how, How Jesus speaks to, To Andrew as well.
[24:52] I don't want to make too much of it. But you see that, When Jesus spoke to Andrew, He just said to him, As he followed him. He, He, He, He just tells him, That, To come and see, And see, He says in verse 39, Come and see, He came and saw where he dwelt.
[25:15] And abode with him that day, For it was about the tenth hour. But when it came to the apostle Peter, Peter is spoken to directly by Jesus. And he says to him, Thou art Simon, The son of Jonas.
[25:29] Thou shalt be called Cephas, Which is by interpretation a stone. Now why, Why that is, Why Jesus, Seems at that very point, To, Identify, Peter as someone who was going to, Stand out amongst the disciples.
[25:51] But, We do have in the synoptic gospel, In the synoptic gospel. Just read them for yourself. Matthew 4, And, And Mark 1, And, Luke's gospel as well.
[26:05] Just a brief word there. But, The important thing is, You're not demeaning the character of Andrew, By, By drawing attention to that.
[26:17] But you're noticing, The very things that the scripture, Are choosing to be silent on, For whatever reason.
[26:30] The mode and method of their calling, Is not considered important. Simply that they have come to follow Jesus, And as his disciples, They will have a role to play.
[26:44] I know that when it comes to speaking about Andrew, There are many commentators, And, It's rather a shame, That the things that they say about Andrew, Are the things that he hasn't done.
[26:58] You know, For example, Some would say, He never preached a sermon. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He was not a narrator. He was not a personality.
[27:10] That was what was not true about him. Nobody wants to be described about, In that way, In that way, The things that are not true about you.
[27:26] But that's the thing that they seem to, To identify, Because Andrew, In that respect, Seems to be different.
[27:37] However, In many respects, What we can actually say about that is, That this is the habit that we ourselves have, When it comes to be followers of Jesus.
[27:55] Instead of focusing on the things that we can do, We tend to identify the things that we can't do. We can't, We would rather speak about our deficiency, Rather than identify the things that we might be able to do for Jesus.
[28:19] Now you might think, And I do believe that it's partly cultural, That we're not very good at blowing our own trumpet. But that's not what the Bible is wanting us to do.
[28:31] When it comes to following the Lord, And bearing testimony to our Lord, Then we would use every gift and grace that we have, To the best of our ability.
[28:48] Whatever they may be, Exercise them, Rather than speak about them. Not speak about the things we can't do, But rather see what we can do.
[29:01] And, That's why I want us to think about this passage. Because, If everything that we've said about Andrew is true, That he wasn't a preacher, That he wasn't a writer, That he wasn't a personality, That he hasn't written a letter, That he hasn't written an epistle, Hasn't preached a sermon.
[29:25] These are things that are not brought to our attention, In the scripture. But one thing that he does do, And that is brought to our attention here, Is, That, He went, And told his brother about Jesus.
[29:42] And it didn't stop there. He went, He went, And brought his brother to Jesus. And you might think, Well that's not very great.
[29:55] That's not very exciting. But believe you me, If everyone here tonight, Went, And told somebody about Jesus.
[30:07] And brought somebody to Jesus. And brought somebody to Jesus. Do you not think it would make a difference, To ourselves, As a fellowship? Do you not think it would make a difference, To yourself, Being that very instrument.
[30:24] That you're able to speak from your own experience, About the Christ that is your Lord. Why is your Lord? Why is your Lord? And to tell them, For example, I'm going to the prayer meeting tonight.
[30:38] Why don't you come with me? Are we ashamed of the prayer meeting? Are we ashamed of, Of what goes on in the prayer meeting? Are we ashamed of the people that pray with us?
[30:52] Surely not. And you might think, It's an easy thing. But that isn't an easy thing. I'm not saying that for one minute.
[31:03] I don't think for one minute, It was an easy thing, That Andrew had to do. You know Peter. Don't you? You know Peter well.
[31:14] You know what kind of person he was. Would you be able to go and tell Peter, About Jesus? About Jesus? Would you be able to tell Peter to his face, Come with me?
[31:28] I think there would be a great deal of trepidation on the part of Andrew. I'm not, I can't, I can't insist on that.
[31:39] There's no, There's no truth that substantiates that. But I do know Peter from the scripture. And I do know from personal experience, And from the experience of many Christians, Many Christians that the hardest place that they have, They could actually bear testimony to the Lord was in their own home.
[32:00] Believe it or not. The hardest place that they had to stand out and say, Well, a change has been brought in my life.
[32:14] And I need to tell you about that. It's not easy, for whatever reason. But Andrew went to tell Peter.
[32:27] We don't know but that God made it easy for him. But that isn't always the case. What God wants us to do doesn't necessarily mean that he makes it easy for us.
[32:41] The commentator Don Carson makes this simple point. Andrew became the first in a long line of successors, Who have discovered that the most common and effective Christian testimony, Is the private witness of a friend to a friend, A brother to a brother.
[33:09] And the fact is, God often makes use of relationships to create a relationship with Christ.
[33:23] It doesn't matter how long that process takes. You are not concerned with that as long as the process results in an end product, Which is a person coming to a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ for themselves.
[33:40] Andrew probably would not have said, This is my 40. This is what I am good at.
[33:51] This is what I am an expert at. But it seems that he continued to do it. We don't know much about him.
[34:02] I think somebody points out that he is mentioned 13, 14 times in the New Testament Gospels. But it is interesting that three of these times he is directing people to Christ or Christ to people.
[34:19] Remember when the miracle of the loaves and the fishes, Two fish and the five loaves. The young boy who took these loaves and fishes to Christ was brought by Andrew.
[34:31] Again, when the Greeks and the Gentiles were gathered to celebrate with the Jews at the time of a festival.
[34:45] That some said, Sir, we would see Jesus. And Jesus was shown to them by Philip and Andrew.
[34:56] Maybe he wasn't an expert. Maybe it wasn't his 40. But it was something that he decided to do. You like theology, don't you?
[35:11] You like to spend your time taxing the great martyr. But more often than not, what we need to spend time on is doing the simple things.
[35:24] And learning to do the simple things well. Learning to understand that whatever it costs us, and fear of rejection or fear of disappointment is something that weighs heavily upon us.
[35:43] These are the things that keep us back. But they shouldn't. If you have something, and you've spent, I hope, some time reflecting on what gave you pleasure this weekend as a Christian.
[36:02] What did you enjoy about the weekend? I'm told, everybody I've spoken to have told me how much they enjoyed the weekend. What did you enjoy?
[36:15] Did you enjoy the preaching? I believe you did. Did you enjoy the fellowship? I believe you did. Did you enjoy the privilege of renewing your vows before Christ?
[36:27] I believe you did. Why should you do? Why should you be embarrassed about encouraging others to have that same pleasurable, enjoyable experience?
[36:43] We all believe that God must work in the conversion of any individual. Why don't you leave it all to Him?
[36:54] Well, one reason should be is that He doesn't want you to leave it all to Him. The all that He does is His doing. Nothing to do with you.
[37:06] The all that you are to do is to speak often, often. To bear testimony to Him. To share with others what He means to you and why.
[37:20] And to do it unhesitatingly and with a desire that that would be the means by which others are encouraged to come and be with you.
[37:36] Come thou with us and we will do you good. Somebody said that. That's not right. Well, may God encourage us to think of these things.
[37:47] If we reflect on what we have enjoyed, I believe that we should reflect on how we can go forward with the Lord. Let us pray.
[38:01] Ever blessed God, we give thanks that amongst the disciples there were many. Who knew the Lord because the Lord loved them and made Himself known to them.
[38:16] The psalmist had these words, I love the Lord because my voice and prayer he did hear. And that love for the Lord is not something that can be easily heard, nor should it be.
[38:33] And we pray that our love for you would be shown in ways such as was demonstrated by the disciples. And in this case, in the life of Andrew.
[38:45] Who wanted others to come and meet with Jesus. Help us to remember that simple truth. Bless us together and bless all who are part of our fellowship.
[38:59] Especially remembering those who are away at this time with regard to the death of our loved one. We pray for them. We remember the grieving and the sorrowful throughout the convocation.
[39:11] Whoever are of that number. Visit the sink and heal their hurts and bind their wounds. Aid the recovery. Remember as each one according to the need that is known to you alone.
[39:27] Cleanse from sin in Jesus name. Amen. Our concluding psalm is Psalm 84.
[39:38] In Gaelic. We sing in Gaelic the first two verses of the psalm. Be a tale of laud. We are six verses of judgment. In the pants there are at times in Jesus'hle.
[39:49] Ur keine Nilpgar. Let us sing in Gaelic the last day. What we are supposed to do is how they have abay. Let us sing in the water. What we are perhaps a faithful and dific кино. For those who are in the sky. Let us call me Ев a Wentman. We Computer Something like them In Gaelic. O Veerich is my own riskjudge to zagg I love you.
[40:59] Thank you.
[41:29] Thank you.
[41:59] Thank you.
[42:29] For the harvest, Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, rest and abide with you, all never and always.
[42:50] Amen