Trinity Presbyterian Church North Bay — Sermons & Sunday School

Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 05/28/2023 in Petaluma, CA teaching through the OPC Booklet Helps for Worship.

Sermon preached on Genesis 9:1-17 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 05/21/2023 in Petaluma, CA. Sermon Manuscript Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div. We come now to the post-Flood world, which happens to be the same world we live in. As Noah and family step off ... Read more

Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 05/21/2023 in Petaluma, CA teaching through the OPC Booklet Helps for Worship.

Sermon preached on Genesis 8 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 05/14/2023 in Petaluma, CA. Sermon Manuscript Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div. We ended last week with Noah and his family saved from the Flood’s destruction that had destroyed all humans and all the land and air ... Read more

Sermon preached on Genesis 7 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 05/07/2023 in Petaluma, CA Sermon Manuscript Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div. Today we continue working through the Flood section here in Genesis. As a reminder, this section spans Genesis 6:9 through chapter 8 and demonstrates a ... Read more

Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 05/07/2023 in Petaluma, CA teaching through the OPC Booklet Helps for Worship.

Sermon preached on Genesis 6:19-22 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 04/30/2023 in Petaluma, CA.

Sermon Manuscript

Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.

We come today to the next main section of Genesis, the section regarding Noah, with verse 9, “These are the generations of Noah.” This section continues through chapter 9. However, the bulk of this section has a distinct subsection about the Flood which starts here and goes through the end of chapter 8. I’ll be taking us through the Flood section over three sermons, focusing today on 6:9-22. This section on the Flood spanning almost three chapters demonstrates a beautiful literary framework, with a chiastic structure that mirrors the rising, prevailing, and then subsiding of the Flood waters. This structure simultaneously paints the imagery of de-creation and re-creation. What we ultimately find is that this Flood narrative is a type or picture of the end, that some of our eschatology is prefigured here. In other words, what we expect to happen at the end of this age, essentially a smaller version of that happened here with Noah and the Flood. For here in the Flood narrative, we find the judgment of the wicked, the salvation of God’s elect, and the ushering in a of a new creation. We will be studying and seeing those eschatological themes over the course of three sermons on the Flood narrative. Today, we’ll especially consider how God saves his elect. We’ll see how he saves his people in Noah through this Ark, and that is a type of the salvation of God’s people that will come at the end when Christ returns.

Let us begin with verses 9-12 which serve as a prologue to the Flood narrative. In this prologue, we are painted a picture of the state of the world at that time. This state of the world is what precipitates the Flood. We are told about Noah, and we are told about earth in general.

For Noah, we are told that he was righteous, and that he was blameless and that he walked with God. For Noah to be righteous speaks of his being in a right and favorable standing with God. We naturally think of how he would have been one who lived in godliness in trying to do good and not do evil. Similarly, for Noah to be described here as blameless, it speaks of being above reproach. In fact, the language here of blameless is what is used elsewhere to describe a sacrifice that was without blemish. Noah was a man that could be described as one without a blemish. Of course, from other Scripture, we know that no human save Jesus is perfectly righteous, and only Jesus is without any blemish of sin. While that is true enough, you might say that is right doctrine from the wrong text. Because that is not the emphasis here. Noah is emphasized here for his godliness in contrast to everyone around him.

So then, in verse 11 we see the state of everyone else in this world. God looked and saw that the world was filled with violence. To describe the world as full of violence is to describe its wickedness with rather jarring language. If we say people are wicked that speaks of their evil and depravity. But to speak of such in terms of violence is to say how their evil afflicted and harmed others. Violence against neighbor is the opposite of the love for neighbor that is true godliness.

But not only was the world full of violence, verses 11-12 say that God saw how corrupt it had become. The word corrupt could also be translated as ruined or spoiled. This is said three times here. In other words, this is really emphasizing how horribly messed up this world had become. It’s like if you take some nice painting and splash a bunc...

Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 04/30/2023 in Petaluma, CA teaching through the OPC Booklet Helps for Worship

Sermon preached on Genesis 6:1-8 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 04/23/2023 in Petaluma, CA.

Sermon Manuscript

Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.

We finished off last week reflecting on the genealogy of Adam’s line through Seth in contrast to the genealogy of Cain. We referred to the line through Seth as the godly seed of the woman, that was hoping on the promise of God to bring a savior, per Genesis 3:15. We referred to Cain’s line as the seed of the serpent who while accomplishing many things for human civilization, was not described as a godly line. Seth’s line hoped for God to redeem humanity. Cain’s line effectively hoped in themselves. Today’s passage stands at the end of this section that had considered Adam’s line in Seth in comparison to Cain’s line. It serves to conclude that section and act to transition us to the next main section that will begin in verse 9. That’s where we’ll learn about Noah and the Flood in detail. So then, today’s passage will summarize what progress mankind had made in history up to this point, and how that ultimately precipitated the Flood.

Let us begin in our first point by trying to address the big, debated question that presents itself here. I am referring to verse 1 and the description of the sons of God versus the daughters of men. Who are these sons of God who took such daughters of men as wives? There are three main views about this, but really just two big categories. One category is that this is describing intermarriage between angels and men. The other category is that this describes marriage between humans, which has a couple specific variations within that category.

Let me note right away, that I have trouble adopting the view that this is describing relations between angels and humans, despite it being fairly popular by too many in Christendom. What is probably the reason this view is so popular is because it is a somewhat ancient view at this point. There is book called the Book of Enoch written maybe around 200 or 300 BC at the oldest estimates. The Book claims to be written by Enoch but of course Enoch lived several millennia before that, and there is no credible case that Enoch actually wrote the Book of Enoch. But, that book claims to record the backstory to our passage today and describes how fallen angels married human women and made babies with them who become these giant Nephilim. You have undoubtedly heard this view before. But let us note that the Jews never accepted the book of Enoch into their canon of Scripture. But that didn’t stop some people, including both Jews and Christians from buying into it. Then again, I’m always amazed how many people who bought into some of the fanciful claims about the history of Jesus and Christianity in The Da Vinci Code book written in 2003. The Book of Enoch is not in the Bible for a reason. I need not add that Jesus himself taught that angels don’t marry, Matthew 22:30.

The closest thing to an actual biblical argument for understanding the language here in Genesis of “sons of God” as “angels” is the claim that this is what the Old Testament meant when it used that language. Yet, this is a very exaggerated claim. First off, that phrase is only found in the Hebrew Old Testament three times, and all in Job. Yes, there it does refer to angels. However, similar language throughout the Old Testament gets used in various ways, including various times where humans are being referred to somehow as sons of the divine. Sometimes the Bible refers to humans as sons of God to describe their good relationship with God, like Deuteronomy 14:1 that refers to Israel as sons of the LORD your God; in other words its used...

Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 04/23/2023 in Petaluma, CA teaching through the OPC Booklet Helps for Worship.