Eureka
1 John 4:1-6 (NLT)
Intro: In 1848, James Marshall was the first man to discover gold in California. After his discovery, thousands flocked to the area around San Francisco and they became known as the forty-niners. When they heard or used the term Eureka, it meant riches beyond their wildest dreams. It is a Greek word that’s means I Have found it. They found out quickly though that all that glitters is not gold.
. The rivers and rocks around the area were filled with golden specks that resembled Gold but in essence it was not. Thus the term fool’s gold was born. It was iron pyrite and while it looked like gold, it was worthless.
. While sometimes the miners could distinguish the fools gold from the real gold, they could not do it consistently. Tghey developed two ways to test the gold there in the streams and mines.
. The first test was the bite test. They would literally take the rock and bite it. Gold was much softer than the fool’s gold and you could actually leave your teeth prints in the gold. I’m sure you have seen the old westerns on TV where people bite the gold or gold coin.
They were checking to see if it was authentic.
. The second test was the scrape test. The miners would find a white rock of some kind and they would scrape the metal across the rock. True gold would leave a yellow streak whereas fool’s gold would leave a greenish black streak on the rock.
. After the miner had preformed these tests, and was sure that he had actually found gold, you could hear them yelling through the mountains and hills of California.
. EUREKA
. Christians find themselves with the same issue as the miners spiritually.
. We hear many doctrines and religious teachings in our world and many of them differ from each other.
. Just because a preacher or someone claiming to speak for God says something, that does not necessarily make it true.
. I have long postulated that we preachers have done as much damage to the faith as we have helped bring people to faith.
. We preach and speak out of ignorance of scripture. We add our own bias’s and many add rules and regulations to salvation.
. If you don’t walk like me and talk like me and live exactly by the rules and regulations that I lay down, then you are not saved.
You and I, as people of God, should be like the miners and test everything that we are told about God.
. The prospectors would cry out Eureka only after they were sure that what they had was genuine.
. Christians Need to test what they are being taught, not by what they have heard from other people or pastors but by what God’s word has to say.
. Let’s read our scripture. 1John 4:1-6
1Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world.
2This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God.
3But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here.
4But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.
5Those people belong to this world, so they speak from the world’s viewpoint, and the world listens to them.
6But we belong to God, and those who know God listen to us. If they do not belong to God, they do not listen to us. That is how we know if someone has the Spirit of truth or the spirit of deception.
. The first thing we see here is that we should not believe everything we hear or read.
. We should test for false teaching.
. Look at verse 1 again
1Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world.
Look at how the Bible translation “the message” translates this verse.
1 My dear friends, don't believe everything you hear. Carefully weigh and examine what people tell you. Not everyone who talks about God comes from God. There are a lot of lying preachers loose in the world.
. From this verse we should realize that in order to know the truth of what someone is teaching us or telling us, we should be students of the word.
. Part of what the protestant reformation did for the world was help make available to all mankind God’s word.
. Folks, Bibles are available to us. In order to test and make sure that speakers, teachers and preachers are telling us truths, we must be students of the word.
.Many today will simply take what a “religious “ person tells them as the truth.
. You must evaluate all they say by the standard, The word of God.
. Folks, there are false teachers everywhere.
. What do they look like?
. They will deny Christian doctrine.
. They will claim to have a new teaching or new revelation.
. Peter warns us of these people in 2 peter 2:1-2
. 1But there were also false prophets in Israel, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will cleverly teach destructive heresies and even deny the Master who bought them. In this way, they will bring sudden destruction on themselves.
2Many will follow their evil teaching and shameful immorality. And because of these teachers, the way of truth will be slandered.
. They will have a new word from God.
. They will be teacher and religious sects that have what I call the Bible plus.
. They will acknowledge that Bible but will also have some other writing or some other revelation from God that will validate what they teach and believe,
. Instead of an attitude of inclusiveness, they will have an exclusive spirit.
. They will want to pull away from what God has intended for the church and his people to be.
. Back in 1John 2: 19, John told us
. 19These people left our churches, but they never really belonged with us; otherwise they would have stayed with us. When they left, it proved that they did not belong with us.
. While there are new ways to reach people and I can and will embrace many of them, The message of the Bible will never change.
. Mankind separated themselves from God but God has provided a way back through Jesus Christ. That is the message of the Bible.
. False teachers will want to twist and change and pervert what God’s word says.
. Test everyone by the God’s word folks. Don’t let anyone deceive you.
. Some will want to preach and teach a salvation by works and they will minimize or even discount the grace of God.
. This is the Jesus plus salvation. I know we have been talking a lot about expanding and working in God’s kingdom a lot around here lately. Let me make clear that this is a result of salvation, not a cause of salvation.
. We are saved by the grace of God through Jesus Christ, no other way, building God’s kingdom is a result of the salvation, that change that comes through salvation.
. Don’t believe everything you hear folks, test it. The only way to truly test is to examine what you hear by God’s word.
. Next you should:
. Examine What They Believe About Jesus
. You see the real test of a preacher or teacher is what do they believe about Jesus.
. Look at verses 2&3 again
. 2This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God.
3But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here.
. Not only is this a test for teachers and preachers, it is a test for all people of faith.
. What do they believe about Jesus.
. We hear this a lot in our world today.
"Jesus. It’s a little name. It is a small word. Say this little name in public, however, in a way other than an obscenity, and stand back and watch the fireworks. This little name is like a tiny detonator that triggers a nuclear warhead.
You can say "God," and you won’t get a squeak.
You can say "Our Father in Heaven," and few will flinch.
You can say "Great Spirit," and people will nod in approval.
You can say "Allah" and you will be deemed tolerant.
But say "Jesus" and just wait for the sonic boom.
Articles will appear in the paper. Reprimands will be posted from the home office. Suits will be threatened by the civil liberties block.
So don’t say Jesus.
Jesus is divisive, and now is a time for unity.
Jesus is an extremist, and that must mean right wing.
Jesus is exclusive, so His name amounts to hate speech.
Keep His name to yourself. Cloister it in your church. Lock it in your prayer closet. Close it between the covers of your Bible. But for God’s sake, don’t voice it in the public square! It’s immodest. It’s immoral. It’s unloving.
Only one problem. Jesus is God.
Only one problem. Jesus alone brings salvation.
Only one problem. All other gods are nothing.
So speak His name aloud. Shout it from the mountain. Whisper it in the dark. Write it in the sky.
That’s not hate, it’s hope."
. What do you believe about Jesus.
. This is what we should believe about Jesus.
. Jesus Is Eternal
. Jesus was not created, He was the creator. We have many in our religious world who want to deny this.
. Genesis 1:1 states that in the beginning, God created. In the Hebrew this is plural, meaning more than one.
. Jesus was there in the creation process.
. Colossians 1:15-17 tells us;
5Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,
16for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see—such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him.
17He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together.
Folks, Jesus is God in the flesh.
. The story is told of Daniel Webster when he was in the prime of his manhood. He was dining with a company of literary men in Boston. During the dinner the conversation turned upon the subject of Christianity. Mr. Webster frankly stated his belief in the divinity of Christ and his dependence upon the atonement of the Savior. One said to him, “Mr Webster, can you comprehend how Christ could be both God and man? Mr. Webster promptly replied, “No, sir, I cannot comprehend it. If I could comprehend him, he would be no greater than myself. I feel that I need a super-human Savior.”
. In our world today, we hear that we are all going to Heaven and that we all religions have truth and validity
.
. Hogwash
. In John 14, Thomas, of the doubting Thomas, asked Jesus how we were to know the way to Heaven. How do we get there Lord.
. Jesus answered him saying this:
. “…“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.
. If you believe something other than this, you are wrong.
. If someone is teaching this, they are wrong and are false teachers.
. I have a question for you this morning.
. What do you believe about Jesus?
. John writes that we can identify false teachers by examining what they teach and believe about Jesus.
. A Christian should also be identified by what they believe about Jesus.
. Is He just some abstract name that you hear on Sunday when you come to church.
. Do you believe that He is God?
. Do you believe that He came to earth in the flesh to reconcile mankind back to God?
. Do you believe that He did this by voluntarily dying on a cross in your place?
. Do you believe that in so doing, He paid the price for your sin and now you can have a relationship with God for eternity?
. If all of that is true, I can and you can cry out Eureka, I have found it.
. I have found and know the way to salvation.
. Can you cry out eureka this morning?
. Invitation
*** To my Christian brothers and sisters, thank you for taking the time to read this sermon. I ask that you take another second and score this for me. I am always open to feedback so that I can continue to grow in the proclamation of God’s word.
May God bless you as you continue to strive to walk worthy of His calling.
Sources: The Holy Bible, NLT
John MacArthur, The MacArthur Commentary, 1-3 John
Tim Patrick, Truth Or Consequences, sermon central
