Trinity Presbyterian Church North Bay — Sermons & Sunday School

Sermon preached on 2 Kings 6:8-23 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Lord’s Day Online Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 05/31/2020.







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We see a reminder in this passage that if God is for you, it doesn’t matter who is against you! But is that the hope that Israel as a nation had been living by? Is that the hope that you have been living by?



We begin our passage by seeing God again saving Israel from its enemies. This time it is again God saving them from the Syrians. We see this in verses 8-12. There we find that the Syrian King, presumably King Ben-hadad, had been leading bands of soldiers into various parts of Israel and setting up ambushes. It seems these ambushes were especially set to try to capture the king of Israel – presumably King Jehoram. But the plans of the Syrian King kept getting foiled. Elisha would keep warning the Israelite King of where the Syrians were camped in Israel. And so, King of Israel would investigate it and then be on guard against that threat. The text in verse 11 tells us that this happen on a number of occasions.



Realize what this is. It is the miraculous help of God to Israel. Unbelievers always try to explain away the miracles of God. They try to say that since Elisha presumably traveled around Israel a lot, he had lots of informants who could give him information on the Syrian military movements. But such reducing of Elisha’s role to that of a military intelligence officer is not what this passage about. No, the Bible claims that Elisha had a knowledge beyond what any man could have. This is even reported to the Syrian King by his own servants. When he realizes that his ambush plans keep getting foiled, he gets upset. He begins to wonder if he has a spy in his ranks. But that’s when his servants inform him that the problem is Elisha, the prophet in Israel. In verse 12 they even go as far to say that Elisha knows the very words that the Syrian king says in his own bedroom!



We have a word for this. It’s called omniscience. That’s what we are really talking about here. We are talking about the omniscience of God. That God sees all things and hears all things and knows all things. Nothing can be hidden from God. God is all knowing. That’s what is behind Elisha’s knowledge of the Syrian troop movements. Elisha is not all-knowing. It is the God of Israel who is all-knowing and gave this information to his prophet. The Syrian King had not seen the God of Israel as the all-seeing God, and so his secret plans kept getting exposed. How many today, even Christians too often, live without the recognition that God sees everything we do, everything we say, even everything we think!



A question we might ask here is why is God even yet saving Israel like this? Israel who had been so wayward under the kings of the house of Omri. More to the point, we might remember that God had told Elijah that he would raise up a Syrian king named Hazael to bring judgment upon Israel and the house of Omri. Yet, Hazael hasn’t even came to power yet in Syria. That will happen in two chapters from now. But that means that God had already declared that Syria would bring a mighty judgment on Israel – yet here he spares them from Syria. This is God’s mercy. It is his longsuffering with Israel, that they would yet see their God for who he is. That they would yet see that their relationship with God is their only hope for salvation and for a blessed life. That they would yet see this and repent. Unfortunately, they will not sufficiently see that before Hazael of Syria is raised up to judge Israel. But God’s longsuffering toward Israel means that he gives them many chances to see this. We see that right here alone with these many times that Elisha informs the Israelite King of the Syrian King’s ambushe...

Sunday School class led online by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 05/31/2020. This week we continued our series on biblical history, discussing the postexilic period especially the start of the rebuilding of the temple at the decree of Cyrus.

Sermon preached on 2 Kings 6:1-7 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Lord’s Day Online Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 05/24/2020.







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We come today to the memorable, if not seemingly enigmatic, story of the floating axe head. This is a passage that often makes people wonder what the purpose of such a story is for being included in the Holy Word of God. In fact, we’ll see today that in many ways this one miracle embodies in these short seven verses the teaching that was seen back in chapter 4 with forty-four verses and four miracles. It’s the mighty God working miraculously through Elisha to minister to the reviving remnant among Israel.



Let us begin then looking at verses 1-3 and consider the needs of a growing church. Step back and remember the context. This section of Scripture has been showing God’s response to the evil dynasty of the house of Omri in Israel. Omri began his career as king by being more evil than any Israelite King before him. His son Ahab is then said to have been even far worse. The central problem that the house of Omri faced is their introduction of false gods into Israel. They took a nation that had already been struggling with their major perversions to worship of the one true God to then lead the people in a widespread apostasy by going after other false gods. This included a government campaign to kill all the faithful prophets of the LORD among Israel. God’s first response was to raise up Elijah during King Ahab’s day. Elijah had many successes, though much of his ministry was conducted during a time where so few faithful followers of the LORD could be found during Israel’s time. By the time of Elijah’s conclusion of his ministry, there were signs of new life just beginning to form in terms of the true religion. Pockets of disciples were beginning to be found scattered throughout Israel. Elijah’s final days saw him serving as the spiritual leader of these forming groups. Elisha then continued on that role after Elijah was taken up into heaven.



Well, the house of Omri still stood at that time. God would yet finish off that wayward house in Israel. That time is coming soon in our study of 2 Kings. But for now, we are delighted to see in our passage that the faithful remnant is continuing to grow. That’s the first problem we find presented in our passage. Verse 1, “Now the sons of the prophets said to Elisha, ‘See, the place where we dwell under your charge is too small for us.’” This is one of those good problems to have. Apparently, one of these groups of disciples had been lodging with Elisha at his home. Maybe at first this was not an issue. But it sounds like their number was growing and now Elisha’s home was getting too cramped. Here we see the first of several echoes back to the themes of chapter 4. There, the final miracle involved trying to feed the disciples with the firstfruits offering that had been given. But the size of the group of disciples there had grown to such a number, that the food wasn’t going to be enough for them. But God solved that dilemma through a miracle. Well, here they have more growing pains and that is a good thing. It’s good to see a growing number of faithful disciples.



And so, with church growth, comes various practical needs. First, we see here they needed more space. After the disciples present the issue to Elisha, they then propose a solution. They can go to the Jordan river and start cutting down trees and all pitch in to build a new place out there. I appreciate how they seek Elisha’s blessing for this, which he gives them. I also appreciate how each of them are going to help in the process — this is literally edification. They are all going to literally edify – build an edifice!

Sunday School class led online by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 05/24/2020. This week we continued our series on biblical history, discussing the postexilic period including study of Obadiah and Daniel.

Sermon preached on 2 Kings 5 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Lord’s Day Online Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 05/17/2020.







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This is one of the stories that Jesus references in the New Testament. He mentions that Elisha didn’t cure any lepers in all Israel, but instead this Syrian. If we were unfamiliar with the history of Israel at this time, we might miss why that might have been especially troublesome to some Israelites. The Syrians weren’t just another nation. At that time, they were enemy number one for Israel. At the end of 1 Kings we saw heated confrontations between King Ben-hadad of Sryia and King Ahab of Israel. Ahab even died in a battle with Sryia. We might also recall that God had told Elijah that he was to anoint Hazael to be King of Syria whom God would then use as a hand of judgment. That hadn’t even happened yet at this point in the timeline. It would yet be Elisha who would commission Hazael in just a few chapters. In fact, the next few chapters will show more Syrian war efforts against Israel. And so, this is not just any Gentile being healed of leprosy, it is a Syrian – Israel’s chief enemy of the time. If you were an Israelite at the time, what would you think of God healing a Syrian while your nation suffers under them? More importantly, what would God want you to think about this?



With that background, let us dig into our first point by looking at the first scene of our passage. I draw your attention to the first five verses. This is where we learn of the background of Naaman, of his condition of leprosy, and how he finds hope for a cure through an Israelite slave girl. Verse 1 then gives us the background of Naaman. Not only is he a Syrian, but he is very powerful and influential Syrian, described as a mighty man of valor. More specifically, we learn that he is the army commander for the Syrians. Think by analogy the role of Joab as army commander during King David’s days. This is not only one of the top leaders in Syria, but he’s the head of the army – you know, the army that has been constantly afflicting your nation. This isn’t just another citizen of Syria – it’s probably one of the names you heard a lot in the news and had grown to fear whenever you hear it. And not only had he served in this role, but he had been very successful in his service as Syria’s army commander. Verse 1 speaks of how pleased the king of Syria was with his service because of the great military success Syria has had under his leadership. Notice why Naaman has had such success according to verse 1. It was because of the LORD. The LORD had given victory to Syria by Naaman’s hand.



Realize that at this point, this is not something the Naaman would have recognized let alone acknowledged. Presumably at this point in the story, Naaman worships the false god of his master, this Rimmon mentioned later in the text. But the God of Israel, the one true God over all, had given victory to this pagan army commander Naaman. Surely that would have infuriated many Israelites to hear that God gave the Syrians the victory. But it was the truth. God is behind all the affairs of human history. No nation has a victory, no leader rises to power, without God ordaining it in his inscrutable providence. Yet, despite God prospering Naaman in so many ways, he did have one blight. He had leprosy.



Well, if anyone among Israel would have reason to hate Syrians in general, and Naaman in particular, it would be this young girl we are introduced to in verse 2. She had suffered at the hand of the Syrian military as a victim of one of their military raids. It’s quite possible that her parents were killed in that raid. She herself was captured and carried off back to Syria. There, she was made a servant girl of Naaman’s wife.

Sunday School class led online by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 05/17/2020. This week we continued our series on biblical history, reviewing the kings of Israel and Judah.

Sermon preached on 2 Kings 4:38-44 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Lord’s Day Online Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 05/10/2020.







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I’ve been enjoying the providential fact that many of our Bible passages lately through 2 Kings have lent themselves to some helpful application for living through a pandemic. Yes, a pandemic is not identical with a famine as we see in today’s passage. But there are certainly enough similarities to warrant some helpful application.



Let’s begin then with verse 38 and talk about the context of a famine. That’s the background for the events in today’s passage. There was yet again a famine in the land of Israel. Why was there a famine in the land? That was an important question if you were an Israelite living in the Promised Land under the terms of the Mosaic covenant. What I mean is that when God brought Israel into the Promised Land, he gave them a special promise that it would be a land of milk and honey for them. It was to be a sort of earthly paradise – a type and foretaste of the glory of the age to come. But that foretaste came under the condition that they carefully kept the many laws of the Mosaic Covenant. As they were faithful to the covenant, God sent many forms of blessing, including things like storms to water the earth at the right time and a bountiful harvest. When they were not faithful, God would send the covenant curses upon the land, which included things like drought and famine. The greatest covenant curse would be removal from the land through exile to an enemy nation. We can find these terms for the Mosaic covenant outlined in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28. One that is especially fitting in this chapter, is that Leviticus 26:26 speaks of how Israel would end up having to ration what small amount of bread is available, so that everyone will eat but no one will be satisfied. Clearly here, due to the recent sins of Israel, they were experiencing this famine.



Now let me add a clarification here. Not every famine in the world can be directly attributed to some recent specific sin of a people. Things were rather unique for Israel under the terms of the Mosaic Covenant. God did not say that he would offer those same exact blessings and curses for all nations in all times and places. True, there is a general truth that God rewards righteousness and punishes wickedness. However, books like Ecclesiastes and Job warn us against an overly simplistic application of such a principle. The bottom line is that the Mosaic Covenant’s arrangement of blessings and curses to Israel in the Promised Land was not given as a universal promise to the world. Rather, if you are looking for a more universally given “promise” from God concerning the fruit of the field, go to Genesis 3:17-19. There, in light of mankind’s fall into sin, God cursed the earth and said that it will only be through much pain, sweat, and toil amidst thorns and thistles that we humans will eat our bread from the land. So, in general, when we find things like famine in a land, it not necessarily something we can directly relate back to a specific sin of that land. It might be, but apart from special revelation to tell us such, we should be careful not to be presumptuous in our speech. However, what we can say for sure whenever any famine comes upon the earth is that it is part of the ramifications of the curse from Genesis 3 when mankind fell into sin. We live in a world generally under the judgment and curse of God because of human sin. So then, every famine is ultimately a result of human sin in general, but not necessarily tied some specific occurrence of sin. We can say the same for pandemics.



It was actually that overall curse that had begun to be mitigated to God’s people through the Mosaic covenant.

Sunday School class led online by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 05/10/2020. This week we continued our series on biblical history, discussing the lamentations of God’s people in Babylonian exile.

Sermon preached on 2 Kings 4:8-37 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 05/03/2020 in Novato, CA.







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Our faith can be shown in our works and tested through our trials. That’s something we were reminded of from James 1 back at the start of the current shelter-in-place order. It is something we see brought to our attention again in this passage. While I won’t make quite as much direct application as I did back in that James sermon to our current circumstances, there is application to our current circumstances. And so, we will see this idea of faith at work and faith tested through trial as we consider this wealthy woman today in our passage. Note, that while this woman has a husband and he seems to also be a man of faith, this passage does not center its attention on him. While there are many passages in the Bible that feature godly men, today we are greeted with another wonderful passage about a woman of faith.



Let us begin then today by seeing the faith at work of this wealthy woman in terms of her hospitality. She will have opportunity to bless the prophet Elisha out of her riches. What a helpful contrast from last passage where Elisha was ministering to a poor woman. The work of ministry is not to favor rich or poor, as James 2 reminds. Elisha ministers to not only male and female, but also to rich and poor. I’m reminded of Jesus’ later rebuke of some scribes, that they would abuse poor widows by eating them out of house and home (Luke 20:47). But that’s not Elisha here. Last passage showed Elisha providing financially to a widow in her poverty. But here we see that when this woman has the financial means to provide for him, he gladly accepts her hospitality.



And that is exactly what she is doing. This wealthy woman is performing the righteous work of hospitality. We see the beginnings of this in verse 8. Whenever Elisha would be passing through, she would open up her home and give him a meal. That was very standard practice back then. Elisha’s ministry had an itinerant component to it. He had to travel around the nation meeting up with the various groups of disciples that were being formed – the various “sons of the prophets” that we’ve been seeing in all the cities. That was work Elijah began and Elisha had continued it. Yet, when prophet did such traveling ministry, they would typically need to rely on the hospitality of godly people. Most immediately, that would involve feeding the prophet. But another component of hospitality often included hosting the prophet for the night while they are in town. And so, we see then in verse 10 that this is what the wealthy woman and her husband begin to do. Based on her initiative and insight, she recognizes that Elisha’ work takes him regularly through their town of Shunem. So, she speaks with her husband and they make a small guest room for Elisha for whenever he is passing through.



Recognize that hospitality is a righteous thing in general. The Bible commands hospitality in various places, 1 Peter 4:9 as but one example of many. Hospitality is something good in general, and it is especially wonderful to be able to show such hospitality to a prophet. Such hospitality is a godly stewardship of what the LORD has provided, especially when it is being used to aid in the ministry of God’s word. Not only do we recognize that here, but we see in verse 9 that this is what the woman recognized too. She knew that Elisha was a “holy man of God” and so she wanted to do her part to bless such a ministry. In other words, it was her faith at work to feed and house Elisha. It was her faith demonstrated through works that wanted to make a return to the LORD of how much God had given her by blessing the prophet like this.

Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 05/03/2020 in Novato, CA. This week we continued our series on biblical history, further covering the time of the multiple deportations to Babylon and the Fall of Jerusalem.