Trinity Presbyterian Church North Bay — Sermons & Sunday School

Adult Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 10/21/2018 in Novato, CA. This week we continued a church history series on the Synod of Dort, beginning to survey the canons of Dort.

Adult Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 10/14/2018 in Novato, CA. This week we continued a church history series on the Synod of Dort.

Sermon preached on Hebrews 10:26-39 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 10/7/2018 in Novato, CA.

Sermon manuscript

Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.

Hebrews 10:26-39

10/7/18

“He Who is Coming Will Come and Will Not Tarry”

Repetition on a serious concern is important. It is important for serious concerns to repeat them. That is what we come to today in Hebrews. This section of scripture closely mirrors what we saw back in Hebrews 6. There, Hebrews warned about the threat of apostasy. There, Hebrews also encouraged the readers of this letter that he was confident of better things for them, even as he encouraged them toward patient and diligent perseverance of the faith. That same structure is here in this passage, and it will be the basis for how I structure today’s sermon. Clearly, this was a message that Hebrews thought needed to be repeated. In fact, what’s here in today’s passage and Hebrews 6 appears to be the primary reason for writing this letter. And so, as we dig into this repeated theme of persevering in the faith versus apostasy, we’ll be reinforcing a central teaching from Hebrews. And yet, as we’ll see, this passage is not just identically repeating what was said back in chapter 6. Rather, Hebrews has had a lot to tell us since chapter 6 about the nature of Christ’s sacrifice as our Great High Priest. Consequently, today’s revisiting of this same topic from Hebrews 6 is explained in some fresh ways that draw from this teaching he’s been giving concerning Christ and his sacrifice.

So then, in our first half of today’s sermon, let’s think about this warning given here concerning apostasy. As a reminder, the definition of apostasy is the abandonment or renunciation of one’s faith and religion. Before I teach on what this passage is saying concerning the threat of apostasy, let me first begin by noting two things this passage must not be saying. I offer these clarifications, because this is a passage that is more difficult to understand which has resulted in some people coming to some conclusions that are not consistent with the rest of the Bible.

First, this passage is not against the possibility that someone could for a time fall away from the faith and later be restored. Certainly and sadly, some people do fall away from the faith and never return. But on the other hand, Scripture also teaches that some people do return. Peter after his three denials of Jesus is restored. In Paul’s two letters to the Corinthians we see the picture of effective church discipline where someone who had engaged in egregious sin is excommunicated but later restored to the church after their repentance. In fact, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5:5 that this is the very purpose of church discipline, that by excommunicating them we are handing them over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh so that they might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. It was Jesus’ point to the Pharisees in the parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15 that he is all about seeking and saving those who have gone astray and bringing them back. Surely, then, however, this passage is understood, it must not contradict this well established and repeated teaching of Scripture.

Second, this passage must not be saying that a truly born-again Christian can lose their salvation. This is a teaching elsewhere that one who has been regenerated by the Holy Spirit will never lose that new birth so as to fully and finally fall away from the faith. Or to say it another way, God always completes the work that he begins inside someone’s heart. Surely, the Jeremiah 31 passage speaks to that when it speaks of the new covenant bringing a real change to someone’s heart. How that relates to the real fact that sometimes people who are in the visible church fall away, is to point to what John says in 1 John 2:2. There it says that people who have left the church show that they never really were of the[...]

Adult Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 10/7/2018 in Novato, CA. This week we began a church history series on the Synod of Dort.

Sermon preached on Hebrews 10:19-25 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 9/30/2018 in Novato, CA.

Sermon manuscript

Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.

Hebrews 10:19-25

9/30/18

“Therefore Brethren, Having…”

Hebrews has been giving us a lot of “meat” in terms of doctrine. For some Christians, a plate of meaty doctrine is their most favorite kind of Scripture passage. On the other hand, some Christians when faced with a lot of doctrine will ask the question of “so what”. In other words, they want to know what response and significance should come to us in light of such doctrines. Well, if you are that kind of person, we have a lot of “so what” spelled out here for you. Verse 19 starts out with that word “therefore”. It then summarizes in verses 19-20 a bunch of meaty doctrine that we’ve just been learning about in Hebrews. Then in verses 22-25 we see the “therefore” worked out. Three exhortations; three commands are given to us. The idea is that the meaty doctrine summarized in verses 19-20 are the summary of what we’ve been talking about, and the “therefore” is pointing us to these three commands. The commands are the “so what” about these meaty doctrines we’ve been studying.

So, today we’ll spend most of our time on the so called “so what”. We’ll consider in order each of the three exhortations. But first let’s be reminded about the meaty doctrine to set the stage for the exhortation. Basically, there are two closely related doctrines mentioned in verses 19-20. The first is about the access we now have to God because of Jesus’ sacrifice. The second is about how Jesus is the high priest over us who are God’s house. In terms of this access to God, we are reminded of how we can now boldly come into the true heavenly temple, into the very throne room of God. It refers to that heavenly place here as the Holiest, and says that we can enter into the place past the veil of Christ’s flesh. That veil language reminds us that what Hebrews is saying is that we have access to the true Holy of Holies. As the veil in the earthly tabernacle blocked access to the Holy of Holies, we have the right of entrance into the real holiest place. Remember that Hebrews 9:8 mentioned that the setup of access to the Holy of Holies under the old covenant only served to show how we really didn’t have access to God’s presence in the Holy of Holies. But here now, it reminds us that we do have free access to not the type and shadow of the earthly Holy of Holies, but to the reality in heaven of God’s holy presence. And it reminds us that we have such access to God’s presence and God’s true heavenly tabernacle because of the blood of Jesus Christ which cleanses us and consecrates us so we can have such an access.

In terms of having this high priest over God’s house, we remember first that

Hebrews 3 said that we, God’s redeemed people, are his house. It also made the point there that Moses was faithful as a servant in God’s house, but Jesus as a Son. But more recently in Hebrews, we’ve read over and over about Jesus as our Great High Priest in the heavens. These points are brought together when we are told that Jesus is the High Priest over God’s house. This is good to point out after reminding us that we have such access to God, because it means that though Christians are all priests now, Jesus is still our greater priest over us. That means he is there to help us in our times of need here and now, and that means there is the sympathy and mercy we surely need while we eagerly wait for his return.

So then, being reminded of these wonderful doctrines, we come to the three exhortations that flow from them. The first of these “so whats” is in verse 22. Let us draw near. This is the same exhortation mentioned all the way back in chapter 4, verse 16, to draw near boldly the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. In other words, this com[...]

Adult Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 9/30/2018 in Novato, CA. This week we continued a series on public worship, studying chapter II of the OPC Directory for the Public Worship of God, specifically on the topic of the giving of offerings.

Sermon preached on Hebrews 10:1-18 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 9/23/2018 in Novato, CA.

Sermon manuscript

Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.

Hebrews 10:1-18

9/23/18

“No Longer an Offering for Sin”

Our passage today again starts with an assertion that old covenant worship was modeled after better realities, but they weren’t the realities themselves. For example, back in Hebrews 5, we read the Moses had modeled the earthly tabernacle after a heavenly pattern God showed him. It said that meant the old covenant tabernacle was only a copy and a shadow of the heavenly reality. Well, here it further clarifies what it means when it says these copies are “shadows”. Verse 1 says that to a be a shadow means that they are not an identical representation of the real thing. They are a shadowy representations. It says that they were not the very image of the things they are copying. Earlier when talking about something being a copy, I had given the analogy of an art class using a copy of the Mona Lisa to study it. I pointed out how a copy could be useful but it would be wrong to claim it was in fact the original. Yet, here we would want to further clarify the analogy. We aren’t talking about an exact replica of the Mona Lisa. We are talking more like a rough sketch of the Mona Lisa. Under the old covenant, there were such shadowy sketches of the good realities to come – the tabernacle being one example. What’s the point? This means the old covenant things pointed beyond themselves. You wouldn’t want to hold on to them as ends in themselves. We would want to look to what they foreshadowed and seek that. So then, today, we are told of another major aspect of what the law foreshadowed. The sacrificial system was a shadow of the sacrifice of Christ and the atonement from sin that he would bring. This is biblical typology, the prefigured Christ and his work. So then, in today’s sermon we again exalt the work of Christ.

In our first point for today, we see the shadowy nature of the old covenant sacrificial system by the frequency of their offerings. The old covenant contained many offerings for sin. Verse 1 mentions the annual offerings found in the Day of Atonement ritual. Verse 11 mentions all the daily offerings the priests would do. So many offerings for sin under the old covenant: both daily and annuals ones. In contrast, the new covenant in Christ has only a single offering. The many offerings under the old covenant were supposed to point you to this one offering of Christ that would accomplish what the many old covenant offerings did not.

This passage interprets the difference between the many sacrifices and the one sacrifice in terms of perfection. In verse 1, it says the many old covenant sacrifices couldn’t perfect. In verse 14, it says that Christ’s one sacrifice does perfect. We said earlier in Hebrews that this kind of perfection referred to completion. What God’s people need to complete our salvation wasn’t accomplished by those many sacrifices. They were completed by the one sacrifice of Jesus. That’s because those old covenant sacrifices were merely shadows and pictures of the sacrifice to come that would actually perfect. They were meant to make God’s people look for the sacrifice to come that would solve the problem of sin. Hebrews is saying that the fact there were ongoing, continual sacrifices should have told them and us that they couldn’t perfect. In contrast, when Jesus finished the offering of himself, he sat down at the right hand of God. That’s verse 12 which is Hebrews again returning to a quote from Psalm 110 which had also told us that Jesus was a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. If there was more work to complete in terms of atonement by sacrifice, then Jesus wouldn’t have finished that work by sitting down at God’s right hand. And so, Christ’s sitting down is only further evidence that hi[...]

Adult Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 9/23/2018 in Novato, CA. This week we continued a series on public worship, studying chapter II of the OPC Directory for the Public Worship of God, specifically on the topic of the giving of offerings.

Sermon preached on Hebrews 9:23-28 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 9/16/2018 in Novato, CA.

Sermon manuscript

Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.

Hebrews 9:23-28

9/16/18

“To Put Away Sin”

Not all laundry detergent is created equal. In fact, detergent companies continually are working on improving the cleaning power of their product. Certainly, laundry detergent technology has improved greatly over the years. Yet, imagine if one day someone invented the perfect detergent; one that got rid of every possible stain without damaging the clothing. Of course, that doesn’t seem likely to happen, but if it did, there wouldn’t have to be any more research to try to make a better detergent. You can’t improve upon perfection, of course. Well, I used the analogy of laundry detergent recently to say that humans need a cleansing far deeper than any physical detergent could ever possibly provide. As we continue our Hebrew series, today’s passage further develops this theme about purification. It speaks of the purification that we need, and the solution God has provided.

We begin then by seeing this topic of purification referenced in verse 23. There it does so by way of comparison. This passage continues to be comparing the purification accomplished under the old covenant versus the new covenant. And notice that it speaks of necessity. Verse 23 speaks of a necessity for purification under the old covenant, and certainly we see here that there was also a necessity for such under the new covenant. That necessity was due to the problem of man’s sin. This goes back to last week’s passage, when in verse 22 it said that blood purifies for the remission of sin. So then, man needs to be purified from his sins, and God provided for the shedding of blood as a means for purification. Under the old covenant, God accepted the blood of certain animals to provide a measure of purification. Animal blood back then provided some sort of fleshly cleansing according to what we saw back in verse 13. Under the new covenant, God provided a better cleansing with the blood of Christ, one that could cleanse the hearts of men.

Interestingly, as we started to see last week, the necessity for this old covenant purification included the tabernacle and the furnishings within it that were used for divine worship. These too were purified by blood. We could imagine why a physical tabernacle made with hands of sinful man would need the purification of the flesh provided by the old covenant sacrifices. And yet, amazingly, today’s passage also speaks of the need for the heavenly things to be purified with blood, blood better than what they used under the old covenant. That’s verse 23. When it says “heavenly things” it seems fair to interpret that as the true, heavenly tabernacle and everything associated with that in heaven. Whatever pattern Moses saw in heaven and copied in the earthly tabernacle and furnishings – presumably that is what is referred to in verse 23 as needing better blood to purify. That is an amazing thought.

What need for purification would the heavenly sanctuary need? It would be easy to speculate but Scripture doesn’t explicitly answer that here. Yet, what is given to us is the context which compares this with the ratification of the Mosaic covenant and what they did under the old covenant. And so here what they did under the old covenant is described in verse 18 as “dedicating”. They dedicated that first covenant with blood, including sprinkling with blood the tabernacle and its various items used in divine worship. Similarly, several Old Testament passages speak of this in a similar way with the language of “consecration”, in other words in terms of making things holy for holy use.

For example, in Exodus 29:32 we see that the blood placed on the altar would bring purification and atonement in the sense of consecration. We find a similar consecration idea in [...]

Adult Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 9/16/2018 in Novato, CA. This week we continued a series on public worship, studying chapter II of the OPC Directory for the Public Worship of God, specifically on the topic of corporate confession of faith.