Trinity Presbyterian Church North Bay — Sermons & Sunday School

Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 05/16/2021 in Novato, CA. This week we considered the history of the church at its 50th anniversary.

Sermon preached on James 5:1-6 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 05/09/2021 in Novato, CA.

Sermon Manuscript

Our passage for today speaks a word of judgment on the wicked rich. This word of judgment reads much like we see among the Old Testament prophets where they are speaking to God’s people and take an aside to declare judgment on the nations. Presumably, those prophets would speak such judgment on the nations not so much for the nations to hear it, but for God’s people to hear it. It would have been to God’s people to know that God would deal with the wicked, especially in cases when certain nations had been afflicting God’s people. So then too, this passage deals with rich wicked people who had afflicted the righteous. This passage of judgment then is offered to encourage those afflicted by such condemned people.

But we can note that structurally this passage begins the same way last passage did in chapter 4 verse 13. There it said, “Come now you who say”, and here it says, “Come now you rich.” We mentioned last week that this uses a literary device called apostrophe to interrupt the main dialogue and parenthetically address a third person. It’s the only place James uses this structure in the whole letter and they are back-to-back passages. Yet, while last week could easily have addressed itself to Christians, this passage clearly addresses itself to non-Christians, confronting the wicked rich. Arguably the similar structure between this passage and last is to warn those Christians who might aspire to riches through their business plans to make sure they don’t fall into the trap of the wicked rich here are denounced in judgment.

So, as Christians we can see two main applications by which we can approach today’s passage. This judgment oracle against the wicked rich can serve to comfort us who are God’s people who have been afflicted by such. It comforts us to know that God sees our afflictions and will ultimately vindicate us and deliver us from them. But this judgment oracle also warns us not to become like such people who have rejected Christ and disregarded righteousness for the fleeting riches of this world. So then, with this two-pronged framework of application in mind, let us dig into today’s passage that declares judgment on the wicked rich.

In our first point then, we will observe how James describes these wicked rich and their sins. I’ll start by explaining that I’m referring to them as “wicked rich” and not simply as the “rich” to bring out a good and necessary conclusion we must have in light of the rest of Scripture. James must not be speaking against any and all rich people as being under God’s judgment, because Scripture speaks of many godly people who were rich and were blessed by God. James even tells us of one in this very chapter, in verse 11, namely Job. James even commends Job’s example to us. So, James can’t be speaking judgment on anyone who has riches. Riches aren’t the problem, and should a Christian find themselves rich in this life, it is a blessing to steward righteously to the glory of God. Rather, what we find here is that James is addressing a stereotypical rich person of the day whose riches were attributed in one way or another to various aspects of their wickedness and how they afflict others, particularly the godly. For James to simply refer to them as the “rich” here is basically a form a prophetic shorthand. I mentioned this back in chapter 2 as well, where James employed similar language. So then, let’s observe in this first point what kind of rich people that James is condemning here. As we do that, we’ll see that is fitting to refer to such as the wicked rich.

So, then we see starting in verse 2 that these rich people have ...

Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 05/09/2021 in Novato, CA. This week we continued our series on eschatology.

Sermon preached on James 4:13-17 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 05/02/2021 in Novato, CA.

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If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that. Today’s passage draws our attention to a common topic among Christians. It’s the topic of planning and decision making and how that relates to the will of God for our lives. And yet it is so often the case that when Christians delve into that topic that they spend most of their time trying to figure out what can’t be figured out – to know the secret things of God. I mean that often Christians in decision making and planning get consumed wanting to know what God’s secret will for their life is. God’s secret will is in contrast to his revealed will. God’s secret will is what will actually come to pass, as it flows out of God’s eternal decree whereby he has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass. But God has not told us his secret will. Instead, he has told us his revealed will. In the Word, he tells us certain things that will come to pass. And he tells us, in general ways, how he wants us to make decisions and live out our lives. So then, on the one hand, we’ve been given certain revealed things by which we should be trying to base our decisions upon. Yet on the other hand, it is an exercise in futility to try to make decisions based on trying to discern the secret things of God because those things are not knowable. It is this fact, this truth, that today’s passage gets us to deal with. Today is not a passage that talks about making decisions and plans in light of God’s revealed will. That’s a lesson from other passages. Today’s passage wants us to think about decision making and planning in light of the fact that we don’t and can’t know God’s secret will. In fact, every decision in life, every plan made, has this hearty element to it: that we don’t know God’s secret will in regards to our plans. Let us then look at what James has to tell us in light of this sure truth.

We’ll begin in our first point looking at verses 13-14 where we see he introduces today’s topic. He begins in verse 13 addressing a hypothetical person. He says, “Come now, you who say,” and then describes the person who’s planning a one-year business venture. James here uses a rhetorical technique known as “apostrophe” where you interrupt your speech to suddenly address a third party, in this case these people who are making business plans. Interestingly, he does the very same thing again in the next passage, starting in chapter 5, verse 1. There he addresses rich people who have been trusting in their riches and persecuting the poor. The close proximity and parallel structure might suggest at least some connection. While the next passage will go on to address unsaved rich people, here maybe he has in the mind Christians who would presume to become rich by their business ventures. Clearly there is a financial component to this when he describes their interest in making a profit in verse 13.

Yet, James’ here doesn’t say that making a profit is bad nor is that his concern in this passage. For that matter, he doesn’t speak against planning, per se, either. But he is speaking to people who are making plans. In this case, it is business plans, though certainly his words have application to all sort of plans we might make. So then, while he pauses to address this imagined third party group of planners, I think we should all listen up. Some of us, myself included, especially pride ourselves in being planners, versus the more spontaneous, spur-of-the-moment, sort of people. People who are especially planners need to be reminded of the truths that James is bringing to our attention today. But surely all of us make plans of various sorts and need to hear what James is teaching here today....

Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 05/02/2021 in Novato, CA. This week we continued our series on eschatology.

Sermon preached on James 4:11-12 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 04/25/2021 in Novato, CA..

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James has been confronting his original readers regarding their conflicts with one another. He has also been confronting them on their use of their tongues – on what they say. We’ve been noting how those things can be connected. We can sin against someone in what we say. Well, today’s passage specifically develops this connection. James again confronts them on their behavior when it comes of how they are sinfully speaking against others.

Though we can notice that his tone changes a bit here. Last week it was such a strong word of rebuke where he called them double minded sinners and wretches. But then he pointed them back to the fountain of God’s grace. And so here he resumes referring to them as brothers. And yet while that should comfort and encourage them, it also should remind them that they have been speaking ill of their brothers. Such is the topic we find being addressed today.

Let us begin in our first point by considering verse 11’s admonition to not speak evil against one another. The word here sometimes is translated as “slander” which is when you attack someone’s character or reputation, often by making false statements about them. But the Greek word is even broader than that, literally to means to “speak against someone”. And so, it prohibits any sort of sinful speech that you direct against someone. Technically this could be done in someone’s presence, but often this kind of speaking against someone is done when they are not present. You speak ill of them and discredit them, and often behind their back. So then, verse 11 is a general prohibition of speaking in an evil manner against someone else.

James further adds to this prohibition in verse 11 when he speaks of the related concern of judging. See how he closely pairs these together when he refers both saying, “the one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother”. Notice that he again is concerned that this is something they are doing to their fellow Christian brothers. So then, James puts speaking evil against others in a similar category here as judging others. It seems James is not talking about two different sins but using nuanced language to help describe what he is addressing. The way they have been speaking evil against each other is also a form of sinful judging. In fact, this idea of inappropriate judging is at the heart of this passage and referenced in various ways.

We recall that Jesus spoke against sinful judging in the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 7:1, he said, “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.” That is an often abused verse because some people will take it to mean that we can’t ever speak out against anyone, regardless of their conduct or creed. But Scripture must interpret Scripture, and there are too many places where we learn that there are times when we must make judgments. What Jesus and what James here must forbid is sinful judging. Even James next chapter, in 5:19, speaks of how it is good if we help a sinful wandering brother back to the truth. Such implies that we would need to recognize and make a determination that a brother is wandering sinfully away from Christ.

And yet it’s James’s point in 5:19 that can help understand in contrast what he is condemning here. It’s one thing to lovingly urge a wayward Christian back to the truth. It’s another to go around and denouncing him before others and pontificating to others that the person should have no place in the church.

Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 04/25/2021 in Novato, CA. This week we continued our series on eschatology.

Sermon preached on James 4:1-10 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 04/18/2021 in Novato, CA.

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Last week’s passage commended wisdom to us, but especially in how it could bring forth the fruit of peacemaking. Here we see why James had such peacemaking in mind. James confronts them for their quarreling and fighting that they have been doing. He helps them to understand what is underlying their conflicts. And in response he calls them to humble themselves in repentance. Let us walk through this strong word of rebuke by James and see how he points them and us back to the sweet gospel when he says in verse 6, “But God gives more grace”

We begin in our first point by dealing with the question he asks them in verse 1. He asks, “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you?” Here we see that James knows whom he is writing to. He knows what they have been struggling. With a sternness yet love of a father, he confronts them on this. The church of Christ ought not to have quarrels and fights among them. But history has shown this is something the church too often has had to deal with. Just think of how many times you’ve heard of a “church split” occurring. How especially sad when a church would split over relatively mundane matters or personality differences versus say some weighty matter of doctrine.

But notice that James quickly moves past the fact of them fighting to get to them ask why they have been fighting. James wants them to see that their conflicts stem from hearts that are in the wrong place. He asserts this in verse 1 by saying that they have sinful passions at war within them. Verse 2 then gives some examples of this. James says they “desire”. Read that as sinful, covetous lusts, because we see what happens when they don’t get what they want. It says they murder! It’s hard for us to imagine that they were literally murdering people. Yes, this is a really stern rebuke by James but we might imagine that an even stronger rebuke would have been in order if they were literally murdering, but maybe they were. It is also possible James uses the language of murder the way that Jesus used it on the Sermon on the Mount. That’s when Jesus said that sinful hatred or sinful slander toward someone is a form of murder. And of course, murder is where conflict would end if allowed to go completely unchecked. But again, murder is just a form of the conflict. James says the heart of the matter is their sinful desire. Likewise, James goes on in verse 2 to say basically the same thing a different way. He says, “You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel.” James here sounds like a prophet speaking poetically with Hebrew poetry to emphatically make his point. Their fighting is coming from their sinful hearts that are wanting things that aren’t theirs to have and it ends them up in conflict.

But then notice how James contrasts this at the end of verse 2. After twice talking about their sinful passions and desires he then says, “You do not have, because you do not ask; you ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions.” So, James spends a moment to remind that what is the opposite of such sinful passions and desires. There are such things as godly desires. Not all desire is wrong. Some in fact is quite good. If they would have godly desires, they could ask God for those things, and God may in fact give them those things. James gives some examples of such in this letter. For example, in the first chapter he had told them they could ask God for wisdom who freely gives it. In the last chapter James will speak of the healing we can find through prayer, especially healing from sin. Of course, James points out here that their desires have not been ...

Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 04/18/2021 in Novato, CA. This week we continued our series on eschatology.

Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 04/11/2021 in Novato, CA. This week we continued our series on eschatology.