Trinity Presbyterian Church North Bay — Sermons & Sunday School

Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 10/25/2020 in Novato, CA. This week, in commemorating the Protestant Reformation, we consider Martin Luther in 1520.

Midweek study led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 10/21/2020 in Novato, CA. This week we continued a series on Lamentations, looking at 1:2-5, 18-21.

Sermon preached on 2 Kings 19:20-37 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 10/18/2020 in Novato, CA.

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This is now the third and final week dealing with the Assyrian threat against Jerusalem. It began last chapter when we saw the godly King Hezekiah begin to reign and he reversed the policy of his father Ahaz to submit to Assyria. In response, Assyria came down and wiped out most of Judah and its various fortified cities. At that point, Hezekiah tried to make peace with Assyria and gave them the tribute they demanded. But they wanted more, ultimately to take Jerusalem and exile its inhabitants. The Assyrian King Sennacherib, while engaging in other battles nearby, sent his messengers to Jerusalem to try to negotiate its surrender. They tried to get King Hezekiah and the people to lose hope. They end up repeatedly mocking the LORD God, saying that none of the other gods of the nations could save them from Assyria, and neither could Judah’s God. This caused Hezekiah to go to prayer, both directly to the LORD and through the prophet Isaiah. We saw how Hezekiah found comfort in his doctrine of God. Hezekiah knew Assyria miscalculated when they compared the LORD God who was the one true God with all those false gods of the nations that didn’t really exist. So, he prayed that God would vindicate his name before these presumptuous pagans. Last week we saw God initially replied that he would save them by making King Sennacherib hear a rumor and return to his own land and there be killed. But our passage ended with Hezekiah still waiting on the LORD for this salvation, while Sennacherib continued to taunt them and revile the LORD. That drove Hezekiah back to pray in the temple. That is where we pick up today because Isaiah then returns with another word from God, after which we see how God fulfilled his promise to bring judgment on Sennacherib and deliver Jerusalem from Assyria.

So then, we pick up the story in verse 20 with Isaiah returning to give Hezekiah this word from God. The long story short is that Isaiah says God has heard the blasphemy of King Sennacherib and will judge him because of it. However, you will notice that much of Isaiah’s prophecy here comes in the form a poetic oracle spoken against King Sennacherib specifically. So then, the plan for today is to first work through this poetic utterance in verses 21-29. Then our last point will be to work through the remaining verses to see how God saves Jerusalem from Assyria and promises to raise up a remnant through all of this.

Beginning with the poetic oracle, we note that it was not uncommon for a prophet of Israel to prophesy in poetry, nor was it uncommon for such to be oracles of judgment as we see here. Notice how this poetic oracle is directed against Sennacherib. Verse 21 tells us this, and then as we read through it we see that it is put in the second person singular. It’s the divine counter to Assyria’s mocking. Sennacherib mocked God in the third-person, speaking ill of him to others. Yet here, God responds directly to him and returns his mocking back upon himself.

Working through the poetic utterance, we see the first section deals with Jerusalem’s safety. This is verse 21. At the heart of Assyria’s reviling of the LORD was that they claimed they were going to destroy Jerusalem if they resisted capture. God quickly deals with that right away and basically says that is not going to happen. God pictures Jerusalem as a pure virgin who will not be defiled by Assyria but who instead mocks Assyria on her way out. Assyria had mocked Jerusalem, but Jerusalem will mock Assyria when God makes Assyria go back home without its prize.

The next section is verses 22-24 where God confronts Assyria for its mo...

Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 10/18/2020 in Novato, CA. This week as an epilogue to our our series on biblical history, we continued a survey of church history, considering the ancient church.

Midweek study led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 10/14/2020 in Novato, CA. This week we continued a series on Lamentations, looking at chapter 1.

Sermon preached on 2 Kings 19 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 10/11/2020 in Novato, CA.







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Last week, we ended where this passage begins. We ended with the Assyrians threatening to wipe out God’s people in Jerusalem. The Assyrians taunted the people of Jerusalem claiming that none of the things they were trusting in would be able to help them. They said Egypt couldn’t help them, nor King Hezekiah, nor even Israel’s God! Faced with such strong threats by Assyria, what would King Hezekiah do? Would Hezekiah continue to trust in God faced with such a threat? That is a question God’s people still have to face today when the enemies of Christianity breathe their strong threats against us. Will we keep our trust in God? Well, while these Assyrian threats surely tested Hezekiah’s faith, we see he does put his hope in the LORD here. And I appreciate how we see that Hezekiah’s doctrine of God helped him find comfort amidst these threats. That’s part of what our doctrine should do. It should speak to how we think, to how we feel, and of course, to how we act. Hezekiah’s doctrine of God guided him forward here. And it’s my hope that our doctrine of God today will be grown today as we study this passage – and that such might help us to stand in faith in the threats we face today from the world.



Let’s begin today by appreciating the trouble God’s people were in here. Hezekiah describes the trouble in verse 3. Hezekiah pours out his heart about the situation. He speaks there to the prophet Isaiah, which is effectively him pouring out his heart to God. There, Hezekiah says that their day is one of distress, rebuke, and disgrace.



Think first about the great distress that they were in. They have this strong enemy at their doorstep makings all these credible threats. Assyria had already destroyed their Israelite brothers to the north. In fact, they had already leveled much of their own country of Judah by now. This is what Hezekiah refers to in verse 4 when he mentions a “remnant”. Last chapter, in 18:13, we read that the Assyrians had already come up against Judah and wiped out numerous fortified cities. Lachish was mentioned there as an example of a city they captured. It was likely mentioned because it was probably the second largest fortified city in Judah at the time. In fact, archeologists have found an Assyrian relief that depicts the Assyrian record of the destruction of Lachish (now on display in the British Museum). The relief shows the Assyrians flaying alive some of the leaders at Lachish and impaling others on poles for all to see. It shows them exiling the survivors and looting the city. This is the kind of thing these atrocious Assyrians had already done. Such embodies the distress that they would have had. Jerusalem had then become the remnant among Judah and the last stronghold. Now Assyria was coming upon Jerusalem. This was indeed a day of great distress.



Think then about this being a day of rebuke. Hezekiah’s doctrine of God recognizes that God is a holy, righteous God who demands of his people faithfulness to the covenant with its various laws and statutes and commandments. Hezekiah is recognizing how they have not been faithful in this regard. Yes, they had recently began to turn back to God and make major reforms. But Hezekiah believes the Assyrian onslaught has been part of God’s rebuke about Judah for their waywardness.



Think then about this being a day of disgrace. Judah has shamefully lost so much already. They stand poised for this final disgrace of complete destruction and removal from the Promised Land – if Assyria is allowed by God to do so. You can see this disgrace expressed in the king’s torn clothes and sackcloth.

Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 10/11/2020 in Novato, CA. This week as an epilogue to our our series on biblical history, we began a survey of church history, beginning with the ancient church.

Midweek study led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 10/07/2020 in Novato, CA. This week we began a series on Lamentations, providing an overview to the book.

Sermon preached on 2 Kings 18 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 10/04/2020 in Novato, CA.







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After darkness, light. Or in Latin, post tenebras lux. That became the motto of Protestant Geneva under reformer John Calvin’s leadership. They even put it on their coins. It reflected how God brought a great light of reformation to the church after a period of much darkness. As we head into October, this is a month that we tend to reflect a bit more on the Protestant Reformation. Well, we have a fitting passage to begin this month as we start to look at King Hezekiah who was a great reformer-king in Judah. Judah had been in much darkness, especially under the leadership of Hezekiah’s father Ahaz. But here, in a time when it was greatly needed, God rose up Hezekiah to bring much needed religious reform to God’s people.



Let us begin then by considering the summary of Hezekiah that is given to us in verses 1-8. We take great joy when we see how his own personal spiritual health is summarized. We start there in verse 3 and learn that he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD. Not only that, but we read that he did according to the pattern of David his father. We’ve read about some evil kings in Judah’s history. We’ve read about some decently good kings in Israel’s history. But time and again even the good kings were said to be good, but not as good as their father David. So then, finally we have this refreshing report that not only did Hezekiah do good, but he did David-good. David, a man after God’s own heart, finally had a son who lived up to his legacy. We find this further explained in verse 5 in terms of trust. Hezekiah trusted in the LORD – that’s a trust that will get tested in today’s passage. Verse 6 adds that he held fast to the LORD. In other words, he preserved in his trust and allegiance to God. When troubles came, he continued to cling to the LORD. It goes on to say how that was illustrated in terms of obedience. He did not depart from following the LORD even in how he closely kept the commandments God gave Moses. And so, verse 7 tells us that the LORD was with him and prospered him. His life was a demonstration of the righteous way of Psalm 1, that a person planted in the LORD finds a blessed and fruitful life. As we will see, that doesn’t mean that he had a life without any troubles. But, by the great grace of God, Hezekiah was a godly king whom the people needed for that day.



As such a king, we notice all the wonderful religious reforms he accomplished. We find this in verse 4 and it should also really jump out at you. It says he removed the high places. Remember, this has been the repeated refrain among the kings of the southern kingdom of Judah. Even the best ones that received a good report, would end with a disclaimer that the king didn’t remove the high places. God had commanded there should be just one central altar among his people, and that had been established in Jerusalem. Yet these high places were alternate altars located throughout the land. Many of these sites would have historically been pagan worship sites from when the Canaanite peoples controlled the land. Unfortunately, some of them were still being used to perform pagan worship practices, as we see the pagan Asherah poles mentioned in verse 4. When that was the case, there was nothing valid at all about such high place worship. Yet, many of these high places had begun to be used as a place to offer sacrifices to the LORD God of Israel. When they worshipped the LORD God in those high places, that was technically still a violation of God’s regulation for a single altar, though not in such a way that completely invalidated the worship. We saw that, for example, back in Solomon’s day in 1 Kings 3,

Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 10/04/2020 in Novato, CA. This week we continued our series on biblical history, discussing the period of the early Christian church.