It is a wonderful thing to encounter
a person who is truly seeking after the Lord Jesus Christ. Sadly, we live in a day of general
apathy concerning spiritual things. People are careless, heedless,
thoughtless about their eternal soul's condition. They're like
a man who suffers from a rare disease, who hears that there
is a skilled doctor going to be visiting his town and he can't
be bothered to pay him a visit. There seems to be no real grasp
of the seriousness of the fact that we live but a few years
here in this world and have all of eternity stretching out before
us. It is a great blessing to have
a spiritual desire, a desire after spiritual things. A great
blessing. And you who are here this evening,
who are here not simply because it's a calendar appointment or
an hour of gathering, but are here because you have a desire
to meet the Lord Jesus Christ, are blessed even before the Lord
has begun blessing you. because you're blessed with a
hunger and a thirst after Him. A hunger and a thirst after righteousness. And the Lord said Himself, it's
a blessed condition to be in. For the fact is that we can never
manufacture a true desire after spiritual things of ourselves
and in ourselves. Only God can open a man's heart. Only God can inspire a desire
after holy things in the life of an individual. Only God can
give that first desire, that opening initiative to show a
sinner the predicament that they are in, to open to their eyes
a sense, a glimpse of the awfulness of their state. It takes a holy
God to show a man that he is truly a sinner. And it takes
the Lord Jesus Christ and the power of God, the Holy Spirit,
to open a sinner to the hope of salvation and everlasting
life. Such a person needs to know that
they are a sinner. They need to have a sense of
the awfulness of their state in order to have the parallel
desire after a better thing. To want righteousness and to
know our need of it is the beginning of true spiritual understanding
and it is a wonderful thing to encounter an individual who has
a sense of their unworthiness before God and an awareness of
their sin. The great thing for those of
us who know the Lord Jesus Christ is to realize that such an individual,
though they might be under great conviction and might be under
great pressure and might be in their own minds subsumed with
a terrible fearfulness and blackness and depression at their own condition
of sin. It is a great thing for us to
realise that this is the beginning of better things for them. This is the way in which the
Lord Jesus Christ brings individuals to himself. And such a state
of seeking indicates a work of grace in an individual's life. It indicates because there is
this hunger and thirst that God the Spirit already has been at
work in that individual's life. For though they feel tired and
weary and troubled and worn Though they feel as if there is no end
to the dilemma of their soul, yet there is the promise that
Jesus himself will be to their soul that which they can never
accomplish themselves. So the Lord says, blessed are
they which hunger and thirst after righteousness, because
they will be filled. And I say that to you this evening. There is a hunger after righteousness,
which is a good thing for us. And there is the promise that
where the Lord begins a work in the life of an individual,
that he will carry it through to the end. There will be a filling. And we rejoice when the Lord
is pleased to meet us in the way on such occasions as this
and give us a portion, give us something for our soul, something
to nourish us, something to salve that hunger and that thirst. And so we come expecting day
by day week by week that the Lord will speak to us and the
Lord will give us that sense of his presence and that blessing
which is his portion. If we understand these things,
If we understand that even the dark paths are a blessing, that
even the spiritual problems that we encounter are a blessing because
they are an opportunity and occasion for the Lord to deal with our
spirits, deal with our souls, then we will see that spiritual
troubles in themselves are a good thing. that the very fact that
the Lord is stirring us, the very fact that the Lord is provoking
us, the very fact that our spirits are troubled bespeaks that we
have a spirit that is enlivened and open and sensitive to holy
things. The Christian life is not an
easy life. The Christian life is full of
hazards and pitfalls and quandaries and problems. And if we begin
to think for a moment that entering in upon this life is going to
be a glide into eternity, then we've not begun to understand
what it is to make that pilgrim journey. And yet the Lord is
pleased to gather his people, to draw close to them. No one
desires trial. No one seeks discomfort. No one wants these hardships
that come into our lives and seem to tear our hearts out and
cause us to have so much sadness in this life. No one would desire
such a thing. that the very presence in the
soul of a man and a woman of these things is the proof of
spiritual life to us. And by these things, God the
Holy Spirit opens the door to spiritual experiences and opens
the door to peace with him and gives him the opportunity to
draw near to us and to comfort us, even in the depths of our
darknesses. Let us not think that this trouble
is a one-off event, that it is something that is experienced
as a sinner comes to a knowledge of Christ. It is an experience
to be repeated time after time in the Lord's people and amongst
the Lord's people. They often find that they are
troubled by all manner of thing. It can be trouble of sin in our
own life's experience. That can be a single event. It
can be an ongoing affliction. It can be trouble with doubt
that comes from our sin and the nature that we have in this flesh. And we think to ourselves, how
can I be part of this body of Christ when I do these things
and feel these things and think these things? participate in
these things. The devil is active and he comes
upon us and he takes these doubts that we have and he stirs them
up and he screws us up and he causes us to be troubled and
then there's indifference and coldness We were thinking about
that a little earlier, how it was that we first had that first
flush of love with one that we encountered. And then over a
period of time, that relationship changes. Let us not be indifferent
towards our spouses, but let us never be indifferent towards
our Lord. What a terrible thing if we take
the Saviour for granted. If we assume He's just always
going to be there for us when we need Him. I'll tell you what
will happen. He will make you need Him. He will force you to need Him. He will take away, leg by leg,
those things which support you and hold you up. and he will
bring you to that place where you are utterly dependent upon
him. He will not permit us, not his
people, not his church, not his children, not those that he loves,
he will not permit us to be indifferent towards him. If he comes to town,
we will be there to see him. The Lord He tells His people
that they will be afflicted, but their afflictions are a blessing. He tells His people that they
will be tried, but that trial will do them good. And the Lord,
as He went through His own ministry with His own disciples, He often
spoke to them about the troubles that they would have and he reassured
them in the face of those troubles. For example in Luke chapter 12
in verse 32 he says, fear not little flock. Now why did he
have to tell them not to be afraid? Because fear and those things
about round about them, which would generate that fear were
always going to be a part of their experience. So we can read
that verse in verse 32 of Luke chapter 12. We can read that
verse today. That verse that the Lord spoke
to his disciples long time ago. And we can say, thank you, Lord. Thank you for telling me not
to be afraid. As I go into work tomorrow, as
I face that manager, as I face that work person, as I face this
relationship, as I face this problem, as I face these concerns
of health and of strength and of finance and of the future,
thank you, Lord, that you have encouraged your people not to
be afraid. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. Place your trust in me in the
face of these difficulties, in the face of these hardships.
Let it be that you and I come together in this new and deeper
experience of your dependence upon me and my supply of your
every need. Peace, he says to his disciples,
I leave with you. My peace I give unto you, not
as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled,
neither let it be afraid. There is a battle that rages,
friends, in the nature of the Lord's people. In this nature
of flesh there is a battle that rages every day. We are beset
in this body of flesh with minds that are prone to doubt. That's just the way they're wired. Hearts that are prone to temptation
and the sensualities that are presented to us day by day. This is a battle in which the
flesh often takes the ascendancy, where this body, this body which
can never inherit heaven, this body which must go its way of
corruption, seems to take charge. and lead us into places and lead
us into situations that we wish we never were in. Sometimes our spiritual, new
spiritual man seems to be dominated by the old man. And it is hard
for us to lay hold on the promises that God has given us. weak-faithed,
little-faithed men and women who have experienced grace and
yet for all of these reasons find that that light dims and
that sense of the presence of Christ becomes faint in our sight. Therefore I say to you today
That as we began our thoughts by saying it is a wonderful thing
to encounter someone who is truly seeking after the Lord, you and
me need to be seeking after the Lord. You and I constantly need
to be seeking after Him, looking for Him, endeavouring to find
Him, being in the places where we know He will be, being active
about those things in which He has given us His promises. It becomes the Lord's people
to be where the gospel is preached because the Lord has said, I
am there. And in that day, when we think
we have strength enough to stand by ourselves, that will be the
day that we will fall. Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter
10, wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed. Let us
seek the Lord while he may be found. He is near in the gospel. He is present in the gatherings
of the Lord's people. Let us take it as something incumbent
upon each of us personally, privately, and as a fellowship to be seeking
the Lord's face frequently. I want to think for a few minutes
with you this evening about a man called Andrew. Andrew is a lovely
example of a man who sought the Lord Jesus Christ. The scripture account of Andrew
is relatively sparse. He was one of the Lord's disciples. And he is a disciple, perhaps
not in the first rank as far as others were concerned, such
as Peter and James and John. And sometimes Andrew seems to
stand in the shadow of his brother. How often does scripture say,
Andrew, Peter's brother? It's almost as if that was his
name. He was known not as Andrew, But
Andrew, Peter's brother, standing in the shadow of his brother,
yet in this one thing, in this one thing at least, Andrew had
priority. What was it? He was the first
to seek the Saviour. He was the first disciple He
was the first to seek after the Lord Jesus Christ. And for that
reason, he is worthy of our attention for a few minutes this evening.
Turn in your Bibles, please, to John chapter 1. John's Gospel,
chapter 1. And I want to read from verse
29. John chapter 1 and verse 29. This is a passage which I'm sure
will be familiar to you, and yet it holds some Lovely little
gems that I'm sure will do our hearts good this evening. In
John chapter 1, John's Gospel chapter 1 in verse 29, we read
these words. The next day John seeth Jesus,
that is John the Baptist, seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith,
Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, after
me cometh a man which is preferred before me, for he was before
me. And I knew him not, but that
he should be made manifest to Israel. Therefore I am come baptizing
with water. And John bare record saying,
I saw the spirit descending from heaven like a dove and it abode
upon him. And I knew him not, but he that
sent me to baptise with water, the same said unto me. Upon whom
thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him the same
is he which baptiseth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw and bear record that
this is the Son of God. And 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. And the two disciples
heard him speak and they followed Jesus. Then Jesus turned and
saw them following and saith unto them, What seek ye? 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.
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, the Christ. 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. Amen. May God bless this reading
to us. Andrew. The name Andrew means
manly or manliness. He was a man. He was a fisherman. Some think there is a sense also
in the word of to conquer or to be victorious, to overcome,
but the principal meaning is that of manliness. And it's a
Greek name. He is one of the apostles of
the Lord Jesus Christ, and he was one of several disciples
that came from the town of Bethsaida in Galilee. And as we've already
learned, he was the brother of Simon Peter. Yes, he was a fisherman, but
Andrew had another characteristic. Andrew was anxious about his
soul. Andrew was anxious about the
well-being of his soul. Now, you know, you can't tell
from looking on the outside of the person that they have got
a soul hunger. But here was a man who by his
actions demonstrated that he was concerned about his eternal
well-being. And I ask you this evening, can
you relate to that in any way? Is that something that you have
felt? Is that something that you are aware of? Is there any
sense in your own life in which you have a fear of dying and
standing before God and not being fit for that? Is there a sense in which the
state of your soul weighs upon you? Is it sometimes the fact
that you rise up in your heart and in your thoughts because
you fear that there is no fitness in you for heaven and for glory? That was how Andrew felt. That
was exactly how Andrew felt. He had a problem with sin and
he had a problem with his sin in his life. He had heard of
a man called John the Baptist and he wondered whether John
the Baptist might have an answer for him, might be of some help
to him. And he sought out John the Baptist. He travelled a good distance
from his home in Bethsaida in order to be in the company of
John the Baptist. And we might well suppose that
he had been baptised by John the Baptist. And instead of returning
to his own home as one that had been baptised by John, he stuck
around. He said, I'm not going to leave
this man, I'm going to follow after him and I'm going to listen
to what he has to say because I think this man might be able
to teach me something about this weight of sin that I have got
in my life. And how right he was. If ever
there was a man to point him to the Lord Jesus Christ, it
was John the Baptist. Andrew was seeking for Christ
and he didn't even know it, but he hung around John the Baptist
in the hope that this man might be able to point him to the one
who would help this problem of his sin. He heard John preaching,
about the great Messiah that was soon to come. Let me advise
you of something, friends, this evening. If you or if anyone
you know is anxious about the eternal well-being of their soul,
get yourself or get them. to a preacher who will point
them to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's it. There is no other
way. You know, you can put a book
in their hands, you can tell them to listen to something,
you can try to witness to the best of your ability, but the
essence is this, being under the sound of a preacher, under
the sound of a man who will point them to the Lord Jesus Christ. And I don't see that as any disrespect
to any other means of witnessing. But this is the appointed means,
the preaching of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's
what John the Baptist did. And that's what entranced Andrew. He couldn't go home. He had to
wait in the presence of this man. Indeed, he became, as it
were, a disciple of John the Baptist. Did you know that? Andrew
was a disciple of John the Baptist before he was a disciple of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And there he waited. As he waited and as he listened
to John, Andrew heard what John said concerning this figure who
appeared on the edge of the group one day. He heard John speaking
and he saw John pointing at a man. And John said, behold, the Lamb
of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Well, Andrew
thought, that's what I need to know a little bit more about.
If ever he needed to know the person who would deal with his
sin, here it was, the Lamb of God, who would deal with the
sins of the world. Now, if you don't have any sin,
it won't matter to you that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only
one that can take your sin away. It just won't. If you don't have
any sin, then you don't need a sin bearer and a sin taker
away. Or if you feel that you have
sinned but it's not really very much and it's not really very
important and it certainly doesn't cause you any problems, not at
least that it needs to be taken away and dealt with, then again,
you're not going to be overly concerned about the person of
the Lord Jesus Christ. You'll be quite content to let
things be the way they are. and weeks will become months,
and months will become years, and soon the end of your days
will be upon you, and you've never once dealt with the problem
of your sin. But if, like Andrew, you long
to be rid of your sin, and you desire a righteousness, you've
got a hunger and a thirst after righteousness, Then watch what
this man does. He followed Jesus. That's what
he did. That's what Andrew did. John
the Baptist said, behold, the Lamb of God that taketh away
the sins of the world. And what did Andrew do? He walked. He followed that man. Now there are many people who
claim to be followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, by which they
mean they admire his teachings. They're prepared even to learn
something of his doctrine. They try to follow his example. But Andrew was different. He
wanted more than just a moral lifestyle. He'd already tried
that. That's what drove him to join
the Baptist. He knew he couldn't do it by
himself. And as he listened to John the
Baptist, he knew that he wanted these sins taken away. And look at verse 38. Jesus knew it too. Jesus knew that here was a man
that needed his sins dealt with. Do you imagine that Jesus is
unaware of the troubles of your heart? He knows you and He knows
your needs. And He graciously turns to these
two disciples. These two men, we don't know
who the other one is. Okay, I'm going to hazard an
opinion. I think it was probably John. John has a habit, he's the writer
of this narrative, he has a habit of hiding his own identity when
it comes to his participation in the events surrounding the
Lord Jesus Christ. And just another interesting
little aside to that is that Andrew is more mentioned in the
book of John than he is in any of the other Gospels. So it may
be that there was a little bit of a friendship relationship
there between Andrew and John. Be that as it may, I think that
of these two men, Andrew as the one who is identified, and was
the one who had the great burden in his soul. And as the Lord
turned to them, he said to them, what is it that you want? Verse 38, Jesus turned and saw
them following him and saith unto them, what seek ye? They said unto him, where dwellest
thou? The Lord encouraged these two
men to speak to him. He encouraged them to open their
hearts to him. I think this is lovely. The fact
that Andrew said to the Lord, where dwellest thou? Probably means that he didn't
want to start speaking to him there in the middle of the street.
They're there in the public place. He knew that what he had to say
to the Lord was of such a private nature that it would cause him
embarrassment to be seen standing in the street talking about these
things. And so he asked the Lord, can
we go somewhere private? I'd like to speak to you privately.
That's beautiful. That's lovely. Here was a man
who sought Jesus. And when he had the first opportunity
of speaking to him, he says, let's go somewhere private. I
want to speak to you privately. And you know what's even lovelier
than that? The Lord Jesus Christ took him home. Isn't that great? I'd never really noticed that
before. We hear a lot about the Lord
in his ministry, spending time in other people's homes. He spent
time at the home of Peter. He spent time at the home of
Mary and Martha. There were a number of places
where the Lord, who himself didn't own a home, he had, told the
birds of the air have nests and the foxes of wolves in the ground,
the Son of God had nowhere to lay his head. Not at this time. At this time, the Lord had a
residence and he took Andrew and this other disciple to that
home. That's a lovely thing that the
Lord did for them. It's intimate. He took care of
them. He made their coming to him as
easy as possible. And that's what the Lord does. He makes our coming easy. The following hours were spent
in his presence. The actual conversation has not
been recorded. Now, if I'm right in thinking
that this was John, then he would easily have been able to write
down for us the things that were spoken at that meeting. He would have known what went
on. And yet there is no mention of that. The conversation which
took hours is not recorded. And that I think is because what
transpired between Jesus and Andrew that day was for their
hearing only. This was a sinner unloading his
heart to his saviour. And I don't need to be party
to that. And you don't need to be party to that. And I don't
need to know what your confessions are to the Lord and you don't
need to know what my confessions are. Because there is a privacy
about being able to go to the Lord Jesus Christ with the deepest
needs of our soul and laying them before him and having him
deal with them. Man to man or man to woman. It's a lovely thing that we see
here in the privacy of the Lord's home, in the privacy of your
home, in the privacy of your own heart, an ability to confess
our sins to the Lord in the knowledge that He will hear them and He
will answer. How can I be sure about that?
Because John tells us, all that the Father giveth me shall come
to me. and him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out. Andrew came to the Lord, and
the Lord invited him in. What can we say? At its simplest,
it's this. Andrew came to the Lord about
the problem of his sin, and Jesus took him in. There you are. That's it in a nutshell. Sometimes
people make it appear that following the Lord Jesus Christ is hard,
that it's a difficult, a joyless experience, a life of rules and
regulations and restrictions. Well, there is a sense in which
it is. a difficult life to follow the
Lord Jesus Christ. Look, I think chapter 14 speaks
of that, where the Lord tells the people who are following
Him that in order to follow Him, they must take up their cross. There is a sense in which the
life of a Christian is hard, but it also is full of great
blessings And Andrew's reaction to seeking and finding Jesus
is shown to us in verse 41. He first findeth, the very first
thing that he did was he found his own brother Simon and saith
unto him, we have found the Messiah. First thing he does is goes and
tells his brother. This is his excitement. This
is the enthusiasm that he has. He is full of joy. He is full
of wonder. He has found the one that the
prophets have been speaking about for hundreds and hundreds of
years. The one that Moses spoke about,
the one that Isaiah spoke about, the one that Joel spoke about,
the one that was spoken of by Malachi. This is it. Peter, we
found him. And how do I know we've found
him? Because I've spent hours in his
company, and he has spoken to me of things that only I could
know. What was it the woman at the
well said? Come see a man who told me all things ever I did.
Is not this the Christ? Long before Peter was able to
say, in response to Jesus' question, who do you say that I am? Thou
art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Andrew was telling
Peter that exact same thing. And just as Peter had had it
revealed to him, By the Father above, so had Andrew. Here was
Andrew's conversion experience. Here was the change that took
place in Andrew, and he was enthusiastic about it. We have found the Christ,
the one anointed by God to accomplish his will, the one who will save
his people from their sin, the one who is bringing in his kingdom. Messiahs means anointed, and
anointed means appointed with power and authority. Andrew knew
who Christ was. It's a wonderful thing to know
the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ would save his people
from their sins, and he would make them holy, and he would
bring them to glory, and Andrew rejoiced in those things which
were his portion. By faith, Andrew knew it to be
true, And he found it personally applied to his own heart, and
he wanted his brother to know. And so he went and he got him,
the brother that he loved, and he took him to the Lord as well. That's what it is to follow Christ.
It is to know by faith who he is. Jesus Christ, the son of
the living God. That's what it is to follow Christ. It is to believe by faith what
he teaches, the doctrine of free grace. It is to follow him in
pursuing by faith where he leads us. That where I am, there ye
may be also. and it is to trust by faith what
he has accomplished and promises to supply. I will never leave
thee nor forsake thee. That's what it is to pursue Christ. That's what it is to follow Christ.
That's what it is to seek Christ day by day by day. The death of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the cross of crucifixion was yet several years away. The efficacious shedding of the
blood, the sin-cleansing blood of the Lord was yet to happen. But following his conversation
with Jesus, Andrew already knew it was well with his soul. His sin, oh, the bliss of this
glorious thought. His sin, not in part, But the
whole is nailed to that cross and he bears it no more. Praise
the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul. May the Lord give us grace
to know these truths in our own soul. There's one final thought
that I want to leave with you and we're done. We really don't
read very much in the scriptures about Andrew. We don't know what
happened to him after the Lord's death. He just goes off of the
scene altogether. And then say comparison to Peter
or James or John, there is very little about him. But what we
do read about Andrew, I think is striking. And I think it's
significant. Here was a man who sought peace
for his soul. He wanted his sins forgiven. And whenever subsequently Andrew
is spoken of, wherever he is spoken of doing something, invariably
what he is doing involves bringing someone to Christ. He brought Peter in John 1, verse
42. 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. Then later on, you remember when
the Lord fed the 5,000. It was Andrew who brought that
little boy with the five loaves and the two fishes to the Lord. There is a lad here which has
five barley loaves and two small fishes. And finally, there were
a group of Greek men who wanted an interview with the Lord Jesus
just prior to his death. And they came and they said to
Philip and then to Andrew, Sirs, we would see Jesus. And Andrew,
he was involved in speaking to the Lord on behalf of these individuals. Is that not delightful that a
man who sought Jesus and found him, now intercedes for others
who seek audience with the Lord. Let us be like them. Let us seek the Lord. Let us seek to be in the presence
of our glorious Saviour. And let us remember that he is
the one alone who can deal with our sin, who can deal with our
needs, and he is our rich provision, day by day, every day of our
life. Lo, I am with you always, even
unto the end of the world. Amen.