Trinity Presbyterian Church North Bay — Sermons & Sunday School

Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 03/19/2023 in Petaluma, CA teaching through the OPC Booklet Helps for Worship.

Sermon preached on Genesis 3 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 03/12/2023 in Petaluma, CA.

Sermon Manuscript

Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.

If you’ve ever watched a scary movie, then you have surely seen the actors doing things that you thought, “Wait, no, don’t do that! Don’t go down that dark alley alone. Don’t open that scary door with the strange noises behind it. Don’t hide from the bad guy in the garage full of chainsaws.” We might think ourselves smarter than them, yet real life is different when you have to face situations yourself. We can end up like Frodo from the Lord of the Rings books, where he knew he had to destroy the evil ring of power but when he finally had the opportunity he made the wrong choice. Adam and Eve knew better here, but made the wrong choice. And in our own lives, we so often know better, and make wrong choices, showing that we are indeed children of our first parents. Indeed, their actions here have plunged all humanity into a state of sin and misery. So today we will focus on their fall into sin. Next week, we’ll return to see God’s resulting curse upon man and this world. And in both sermons, we’ll have an opportunity to consider God’s redeeming grace at work despite mankind’s sinfulness.

So then, we will first study this fall into sin by consider separately each of the three major players involved here. We have the serpent, the woman, and the man. We’ll begin with the serpent. The serpent is introduced to us first starting in verse 1, where we see him as a talking serpent. While it is not told to us here, we learn in the rest of the Bible of the evil spirit that is behind this serpent. It is none other than the devil, the one called Satan, that fallen angel who stands as the accuser of the saints who is a liar who will even crafty disguise himself as an angel of light (Rev 12:9, etc.). It is Satan who is behind this talking serpent.

Some have wondered how could Satan be described here as a serpent, and have even considered if it was really a serpent as we know serpents. But I think we are to understand that this was a real animal, not something else. Verse 1 describes the serpent here as one of the beasts of the field that the Lord God had made, i.e. one of all the kinds created on the sixth day of creation. Apparently, Satan somehow entered into and controlled this serpent for the purpose of tempting Eve. If we think it strange how a demon could control an animal and even make it talk, let me remind you that we see similar things elsewhere in Scripture. In the New Testament, there’s that legion of demons that were permitted to enter into pigs and then control them unto their death. Of animals talking, there’s that donkey who was supernaturally enabled to speak to Balaam in Numbers 22. While it can be hard to imagine Satan controlling a serpent and making him talk, it is not impossible to believe. It very well may be that God would only permit Satan’s evil temptation if it came mediated via an animal, because while Satan meant this for evil, God may have allowed it as a test for Adam and Eve in their duty to subdue the animals and exercise dominion over them. Would they subdue this serpent that needs subduing?

So then, we might ask why would Satan inhabit a serpent, versus some other animal? The answer is surely there in verse 1. Because the serpent is more crafty than the other animals. The word crafty here can also be translated as shrewd, subtle, or even clever or prudent. Understand that this is talking about actual serpents here. It’s saying that serpents are more crafty than other animals.

Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 03/12/2023 in Petaluma, CA teaching through the OPC Booklet Helps for Worship.

Sermon preached on Genesis 2:9-3:24 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 03/05/2023 in Petaluma, CA.

Sermon Manuscript

Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.

We will be spending two weeks on this passage.  This week we will be considering it from a high level to think about covenant theology and its value.  Next week we’ll delve into the details to consider the fall of mankind.  So, today we’ll consider covenant theology.  Maybe you’ve heard people use that terminology and didn’t know what it meant.  Or maybe you’ve never heard that terminology.  Today, you will get a primer on it.  It is a foundational concept that will help you to properly interpret Scripture wherever you happen to be studying in the Bible.  Because it is so foundational, we are not surprised to find its foundations right here at the beginning of Genesis.  So then, today I will first give you a brief overview of covenant theology.  Then, I’ll show how we find what is called the covenant of works here.  Lastly, I’ll show the beginning of the covenant of grace here as well.

Let’s begin then with an overview of covenant theology, starting with a definition.  What is a covenant?  In general, it’s a formal agreement or contract between two parties, often accompanied by oaths, signs, and ceremonies.  This commonly seen today when people get married, the couple is entering into a marriage covenant and there is typically oaths, signs, and a ceremony to solemnize that.  It is important to note that covenants are not always between equal parties.  Many of the examples of covenants that we have from the ancient Near East are suzerain-vassal treaties.  In those treaties, the suzerain is the superior and the vassal is the inferior in the covenant.  Those covenants would usually include certain stipulations for the vassal to keep, with the suzerain promising blessings if they do and threatening curses if they don’t.  So then, in the Bible, we see various covenants throughout, some just between humans, but others where God is covenanting with mankind.

That is what we are interested when we talk about covenant theology.  We are talking about the covenants that we see between God and man in the Bible.  This is a framework for reading and understanding the Bible, because it’s a framework for understanding our relationship with God at any point in history.  Wherever you are at in the Bible, you ask, “What specific covenant between God and man is operating here?”  That is important context proper interpretation of any Bible passage.

To understand covenant theology, we need to recognize that there are two main covenants that we see expressed in human history.  There is the covenant of works, and there is the covenant of grace.  The covenant of works was made here with Adam and all his posterity.  When he broke it, all humanity broke it with him.  That left all humanity condemned under the judgment of God according to our failed works.  But after that first covenant was broken, God graciously made a new covenant with man, specifically with his elect, called the covenant of grace.  The covenant of grace is the one overarching covenant by which God saves his chosen people through a salvation that is by grace through faith in a savior.  I say that it is an overarching covenant because as we study the Bible, we see that there are various historical administrations of it in the Bible.  We will see it first promised here at Genesis 3:15.  Afterwards we’ll see a number of specific administ...

Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 03/05/2023 in Petaluma, CA teaching through the OPC Booklet Helps for Worship.

Sermon preached on Genesis 2:18-25 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 02/26/2023 in Petaluma, CA.

Sermon Manuscript

Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.

Marriage has fallen on hard times recently. As I say that, you might immediately think of gay marriage, and, yes, that is an opponent to the biblical institution of marriage. But the institution has far greater enemies than gay marriage. If you do some searching on the statistics, you’ll find that in the last century the marriage rate has declined drastically. In other words, less and less people are getting married. Cohabitation and fornication are very common, even among people who do eventually go on to get married. Add to all this the continued prevalence of divorce where somewhere in the 40% to 50% of marriages end in divorce. Yes, gay marriage is a contemporary problem we are facing for the institution of marriage. But it is not the biggest problem by any means. I pray that today’s biblical reflection on marriage will help promote a renewed zeal for this institution.

So then, today we come specifically to consider verse 24. This is the formal institution of marriage. In our first point, I want us to consider the importance of the word “therefore” that begins verse 24. That connects the verse to what just happened with God making woman out of man. To say it another way, verses 18-23 describe the historical fact of God making Eve out of Adam, but then verse 24 makes an application of that fact of history to the ongoing institution of marriage.

To say this another way, verse 24 isn’t explicitly about Adam and Eve. You know it’s not about Adam and Eve because Adam didn’t have any parents, but verse 24 mentions a man’s parents. Verse 24 isn’t about Adam and Eve, but about every human marriage after Adam and Eve. And what it is saying is that the each of those marriages is patterned after Adam and Eve. So, verse 24 is about Adam and Eve in that sense. That’s what the “therefore” is all about. What Adam and Eve were, that’s what every human marriage now is supposed to try to reflect and image. They are the precedence upon which the model of the marriage institution is founded. That applies not just to marriage specifically, but also about their differences as man and woman that we discussed last week. Human marriages today are to express and reflect the sort of similarity and difference we studied last Sunday with regard to Adam and Eve.

So think with me further on this “therefore”, on how the marriage institution tries to image Adam and Eve. Verse 24 says that marriage is to be between one man and one woman. That is because Adam and Eve were one man and one woman, verse 23. This speaks against all the ways man tries to pervert marriage today whether it be in polygamy, homosexuality, or bestiality. Biblical marriage is between one man and one woman because is its modeled after the union of the first man and woman.

Thinking more about this “therefore”, verse 24 says that a man when he gets married is to leave his father and mother. That is because Adam didn’t have any father and mother. It all began with just them, verse 23. Likewise, verse 24 says that a husband and wife are to hold fast in cleaving relationally with each other, just like we saw that before Eve, Adam was all alone, but God made Eve to be that helper fit for him so he wouldn’t be all alone but would have a match, a complement, a corresponding partner. How Eve was made as such a fit for Adam is why the marriage institution involves the husband and wife cleaving together. So too, verse 24 says that the husband and wife are to become one flesh....

Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 02/26/2023 in Petaluma, CA concluding this series assessing woke culture.

Sermon preached on Genesis 2:18-25 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 02/19/2023 in Petaluma, CA.

Sermon Manuscript

Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.

If we have any woke guests here with us today, I have to warn you of something that may be upsetting to you. We are going to see Adam, a man, defining what a woman is. Today, we will focus primarily on the creation of the first woman and how she complemented the first man. Next week, I’ll return us to this passage to think more specifically about the institution of marriage by studying verse 24 in detail. While we will think some about marriage today, I especially will be having us to consider gender. Men and women have been created with both similarities and differences and our gender is something fundamental to humanity. So then today we have this opportunity to think about biblical manhood and womanhood.

Let us begin first with the idea found in verses 18-20, that God makes here for the man a “helper fit for him”. You’ll notice that phrase, “a helper fit for him” brackets those verses, so that groups those verses as a unit, around that theme. We begin in verse 18 to see God’s purpose behind the creation of the woman. God says that is not good for man, in Hebrew the adam, to be alone. After chapter 1’s repeated creative acts where God say this is good and that is good, here God says something about his creation that is not good – at least not yet. Man is alone, and creation will not be complete without the creation of his complement, and ultimately the marriage and family and society that will flow from that. In general, it is not good for humanity to be alone. God meant for us to be in relationship to others with the fellowship and community that comes with that.

Let me make that clear. Right now at this point, there was just this single male human. He’s all alone on this big planet. As God makes him a wife, that will provide him companionship. He won’t be alone anymore. But realize that it is just the start of addressing this. From their marital union, they will produce offspring, who will produce offspring, and so on and so on. So, from a marriage will come a family and from there more and more families, filling the world with humans who will be in community with one another. For God to say in verse 18 that it is not good for man to be alone, has to have in mind not just having two humans instead of one, but ultimately to have a world full of humans in family, community, and society.

But realize then the bigger goal of a world full of humans in community won’t happen without God’s beginning here with making a woman for the man. This speaks to this foundational element of marriage in society. Look at where we are at in the Bible. I said chapter 1 was a prologue, so really, right here in the very first chapter of the book, God tells us of this fundamental element of human society. Yes, there are some people that God calls to singleness, but in light of this passage, that should be more of the exception than the norm. Too many people today choose to remain single for wrong reasons, and if that’s the case, it is not good for them, and its not good for society. Again, there are people who are called to singleness, some who even desperately desire to be married, and I don’t want to be unsympathetic to that. But that doesn’t change what the Bible teaches here, that marriage, along the family it generally produces, is a foundational element of society. Our culture needs a renewed value for this institution.

So then, while verse 18 tells us God’s purpose and plan to create a match for Adam,

Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 02/19/2023 in Petaluma, CA concerning matters of self.

Sermon preached on Genesis 2:4-17 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 02/12/2023 in Petaluma, CA.

Sermon Manuscript

Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.

We’ve worked through the prologue and we now enter into the first main section of Genesis. I remind you that each section begins like we see in verse 4, “These are the generations.” This one is a little interesting because the others will mention the generations of a specific individual and then tell you something about that person and of their heritage and legacy. The language of generations is especially a genealogical reference and in fact the future sections will especially talk in terms of the offspring of the person under consideration. But here, in verse 4, it’s essentially the language of the offspring of the heavens and the earth. That’s a bit metaphorically put, but basically its describing that after the heavens and the earth were formed, here is then the history of the first humans on earth. Indeed, today we will only talk about one human, Adam, as God makes him and puts him in the Garden of Eden and begins to interact with him there.

Let us begin then in our first point to start with the LORD God. Verse 4 tells us something about God for the first time in the book. It tells us that God is the LORD. Let me explain what I am referring to. Up to this point, Genesis had spoken about God in terms of “God”. It used the generic Hebrew word for God, which is Elohim. In the beginning, God, Elohim, created the heavens and the earth. But now when you get to 2:4, it speaks of the LORD God made the earth and the heavens. And you will notice in the pew bibles, that the English translation is placed in all capital letters, L-O-R-D. This is a translation convention uses by many English Bible versions to tell us that the Hebrew here is not the generic word for lord, which would be Adonai, but rather the personal name that God told Moses at the burning bush, typically pronounced today in Hebrew as Yahweh. So, when your Bible has the word lord in all capitals, then that LORD is referring to this name of God, Yahweh, in the Bible. By the way, some in history have pronounced that Hebrew word as Jehovah, though Yahweh is likely the more accurate pronunciation. So, in 2:4, it says that Yahweh Elohim made the earth and the heavens.

Let me make sure you are appreciating the significance here. While the word Elohim is a generic word for God, the name Yahweh is specific and personal. Many of the pagan nations back then would have been fine using the word Elohim to speak of their deity. But they would not have used the name Yahweh. Again, remember that Genesis was recorded by Moses in the context of God’s special redemptive work for Israel. God redeemed Israel from Egyptian slavery and he used Moses to do that. God first appears to Moses to call him to that task at the burning bush that burned but was not consumed. There, God first identified himself to Moses as the God of his fathers, of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But Moses then asks God if he has a specific name that he can tell Israel. So, God answered him in Exodus 3:14, “I AM WHO I AM,” and then in the next verse says for Moses to tell the people that Yahweh, the God of their fathers, has sent you to save them. Yahweh, then is a shortened version of “I am who I am,” which is basically expressing the same self-existence of God that we noted when we studied Genesis 1:1. But the main point is that Yahweh is a specific and personal name that God revealed to his chosen people just before he redeemed them out of Egyptian slavery.

So then, while the word Elohim, God, is generic,