Trinity Presbyterian Church North Bay — Sermons & Sunday School

Adult Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 11/25/2018 in Novato, CA. This week we began a new series on the book of Ecclesiastes.

Sermon preached on Hebrews 11:16-22 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 11/18/2018 in Novato, CA. Sermon manuscript Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div. Hebrews 11:16-22 11/18/18 “Concerning Things to Come” If only we could tell the future! How many of life’s decisions would be easier to ... Read moreConcerning Things to Come

Adult Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 11/18/2018 in Novato, CA. This week we continued a church history series on the Synod of Dort, surveying the canons of Dort.

Sermon preached on Hebrews 11:13-15 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 11/4/2018 in Novato, CA. Sermon manuscript Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div. Hebrews 11:13-15 11/4/18 Living and Dying in Faith as Pilgrims As I was studying today’s passage, I kept thinking about the classic story ... Read moreLiving and Dying in Faith as Pilgrims

Adult Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 11/4/2018 in Novato, CA. This week we continued a church history series on the Synod of Dort, surveying the canons of Dort.

Sermon preached on Romans 8:28-39 by Dr. Cornelis P. Venema during our 2018 Reformation Service.

Reformation Sunday lecture delivered by Dr. Cornelis Venema, in observance of the 400th anniversary of the Synod of Dort, at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 10/28/2018 in Novato, CA.

Sermon preached on Hebrews 11:8-13 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 10/28/2018 in Novato, CA.

Sermon manuscript

Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.

Hebrews 11:8-13

10/28/18

Abraham, Sarah, and Faith

God’s promises sometimes find fulfillment in this life. Sometimes they find fulfillment in the future, often looking to glory. In all circumstances, we are called to live by faith. When such faith doesn’t find fulfillment yet in this life, our faith is exercised. When such faith does receives fulfillment in this life to a divine promise, our faith is vindicated. In all such circumstances, our Great God is honored and glorified. In all such circumstances, God’s promises will ultimately come to fulfillment.

We see this again in today’s passage with regard to Abraham and Sarah. We are reminded of promises that God gave them. Promises that could be roughly described as promises of a place and of a people. We can see a certain degree of how these promises began to be realized for them. We can also see how these promises were not yet realized during their lives on earth. In fact, verses 12-13 explicitly reference both fulfillment and lack of fulfillment. So, today, I want us to spend some time thinking about faith in light of both. I want us to see what this passage teaches us about how faith is at work both when God’s promises find fulfillment in our lives and when they do not yet find fulfillment in our lives. We’ll accomplish this today thinking first about the promise of a place to Abraham and Sarah, and then about the promise of a people.

So then, looking first at God’s promise to them of a place. In verse 8 we see God’s promise described in terms of an inheritance. Genesis records how God promised to give Abraham the land of Canaan. This became known as the Promised Land. And the Scriptures, especially Hebrews, like to refer to that land as an inheritance from God. God had called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldeans, which would be around the modern area of Kuwait and Iraq, to go to a place God would show him (Gen 15:7; Acts 7:2-4). After leaving Ur, Abraham and his family at first settled in the city of Haran which was in Upper Mesopotamia, along the modern borders of southern Turkey. After Abraham’s father died, God again called for Abraham to continue on in his migration, as we find in Genesis 12, with God bringing Abraham and Sarah, along with his nephew Lot to the land of Canaan.

Notice then how faith had to be exercised here. Verse 8 puts it in terms of obedience: “by faith Abraham obeyed”. That obedience means when God told him to pack up his family and move away from the rest of his extended family and his existing home, then that is exactly what he did. So, his faith is described here as being exercised in terms of obedience. Again, as a reminder, it’s his faith that is being specifically commended here, not the obedience. Yes, the obedience is commendable too, but what’s being highlighted is the faith that was behind the obedience. But that is an important aspect of faith. Faith in God, believing in God and believing who God is, should bear fruit of obedience to God. And it did here in Abraham’s case. God told him to pick up and move and he did.

Recognize that this faith also involved a great deal of trust in God. I mean think about it. The Scripture doesn’t even record that God told Abraham where he was going. It says that God told Abraham to go to a land he would “show” him. And of course, even if God did tell Abraham the name of the place he was taking him too, still great trust would have been needed for Abraham because surely Abraham wouldn’t have really known much about Canaan anyways. Let me give you an illustration that might help you appreciate this a little more. Imagine a husband and wife are considering relocation for a husband’s new job. What would be typical is that both the husband and the wife go and visit [...]

Adult Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 10/28/2018 in Novato, CA. This week we continued a church history series on the Synod of Dort, surveying the canons of Dort.

Sermon preached on Hebrews 11:4-7 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 10/21/2018 in Novato, CA.

Sermon manuscript

Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.

Hebrews 11:4-7

10/21/18

Pleasing God

Pleasing God. That’s a central idea in today’s verses as we continue working through this amazing “hall of faith” chapter. Last week we started with verses 1-3 and saw faith described as what we have while we trust God and his word, even when his word has not yet come to pass. When we considered that last week, we even pointed to how that was illustrated in today’s passage, in verse 7, with Noah. Noah, whose name means “rest”, had God’s word of warning that there would be a flood. Outwardly, he couldn’t see evidence of a coming flood, but he believed God and by faith obeyed and built the ark that saved him and his family and gave his family “rest”. So then, today we continue to see this faith illustrated as we will be seeing throughout this chapter. Yet, today’s verses especially highlight how such faith is pleasing to God. That will be our theme for today as we reflect on the pleasing faith of especially Abel and Enoch and see how it is impossible otherwise to please God.

Let’s begin then with Abel in verse 4. Hebrews is marching us through the Bible, after having in verse 3 pointed us to Genesis 1. Now, the story of Cain and Abel appear in Genesis 3. There we find that Abel and his sacrifice are commended by God, whereas Cain and his sacrifice were not. Hebrews interprets and explains what was going on there in terms of faith. Abel had a true, commendable faith in God, a faith, that pleased God, Cain did not. In fact, verse 4 says that by such faith God witnessed that Abel was righteous. That’s a wonderful reminder that it was not Abel’s works that justified him before God, but it was his faith. Yes, faith that expressed itself through an offering that pleased God. But ultimately it was the faith behind the sacrifice that God was commending. It was such faith that God accounted to Abel as righteous per verse 4.

Now, it’s at this point, we might ask why is that that Abel’s sacrifice was accepted, and Cain’s wasn’t. And how would Abel and Cain know what kind of sacrifice to bring God? There are various passages in Scripture that we can read and wish we were told more. Sometimes certain details that seem important for us to know are not given to us. The opening chapters of Genesis have a number of such details. Cain and Abel’s story is such an example. So, we need to have humility when we come to certain conclusions when Scripture doesn’t explicitly give us an answer to a question that we have. Yet, what does seem common in those opening chapters of Genesis is that there are certain answers that come to us by implication. Certainly, some answers we want with Cain and Abel are implied.

So then, let’s think further about why was Abel and his sacrifice accepted compared to Cain. A lot of ideas have been suggested over the years, but two that often are put forward deal with: one, the person who was giving the offering and two, the kind or nature of the offering. These aren’t mutually exclusive. In fact, in the text of Genesis, it seems that’s exactly what it does bring out. Genesis 4:4 speaks of how God had regard not only for Abel’s offering, but for Abel as a person. Likewise, Genesis 4:5 says God did not have regard for either Cain’s offering or for Cain himself. Both of these two aspects, the nature of the person giving the offering, and the nature of the offering itself, play into God’s differing responses to Cain and Abel.

As for the person, we certainly remember from elsewhere that the efficacy of an offering is in some way related to the person. Remember how we’ve talked recently in Hebrews how God only receives sacrifices from the penitent people. People who hardheartedly offer sacrifices while blatantly and unrepentantly living a life of sin s[...]