http://www.trinityopcnovato.org Serving Novato, Marin County, California and the World Wide Web. This site provides information about the Christian ministry of Trinity Presbyterian Church, OPC. This site also broadcasts the latest sermons and Sunday schools from Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) in Novato, CA. Our sermons seek to exposit Scripture, preaching Christ and the cross, and understanding the impact and demand of the Word on our lives. Thu, 09 Feb 2012 23:54:18 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Copyright © by W. Reid Hankins and Trinity Presbyterian Church, 2011 info@trinityopcnovato.org (Rev. W. Reid Hankins) info@trinityopcnovato.org (Rev. W. Reid Hankins) Religion & Spirituality:Christianity 1440 http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/wp-content/plugins/podpress/images/tpc-vertical144.jpg http://www.trinityopcnovato.org 144 144 http://www.novatoopcsermons.org/?feed=rss2&cat=3 Sermons and Sunday Schools Serving Novato, Marin County, California and the World Wide Web. This feed broadcasts the latest sermons and Sunday schools from Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) in Novato, CA. Our sermons seek to exposit Scripture, preaching Christ and the cross, and understanding the impact and demand of the Word on our lives. Church, Novato, Marin, Hankins, Sermon, Christian, OPC, San Rafael Rev. W. Reid Hankins Rev. W. Reid Hankins info@trinityopcnovato.org no no http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2012/02/05/salvation-lord/ http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2012/02/05/salvation-lord/#comments Sun, 05 Feb 2012 23:23:02 +0000 Pastor Reid Hankins http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/?p=1612 http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2012/02/05/salvation-lord/feed/ 0 0:00:01 Sermon preached on Jonah 1:17-2:10 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 2/5/2012 in Novato, CA. Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div. Jonah 1:17-2:10 2/5/12 “Salvation is of the LORD” So, I[...] Sermon preached on Jonah 1:17-2:10 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 2/5/2012 in Novato, CA. Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div. Jonah 1:17-2:10 2/5/12 “Salvation is of the LORD” So, I have to admit. When I was younger and would read the book of Jonah, I’d often want to quickly move through Jonah chapter 2. Almost skip over it essentially. If I recall, I didn’t skip over it, because that seemed wrong. But I’d quickly read it as quick as I possibly could to get back to the story line, or at least that’s what I thought. Jonah chapter 2 is clearly something different. It’s a song, a psalm. And its poetry – a different genre than the rest of the book. And yet, as I’ve grown, I’ve learned to appreciate Hebrew poetry more, and so I’ve spent a good deal more time studying it. What I found, is that like most poetry, you need to slow down when you read it, not speed through it. And like most poetry, I found I greatly appreciated it, after more serious reflection. That’s what I found in Jonah chapter 2, and I hope that today you’ll share in that joy as we look at this lovely psalm. Now, sometimes it might seem strange to us that right in the middle of a story like this, that we find the narrative of Jonah almost interrupted to have this song sung. And yet that’s something in our own culture we’ve done. Just watch some TV episodes of I Love Lucy, and they regularly interrupt the storyline to have a song or musical performance. Even more so, this is not out of the ordinary in Scripture. There are several places where in the midst of God’s great salvation, that the people stop to sing some praise. Miriam, Moses, Deborah, Hannah, Elizabeth, Mary, are just a few saints whose songs are recorded for us in the midst of historical books. In the midst of narrative. It’s the idea of the new song. That a new song is sung to celebrate some new saving act of God. That is what Jonah is doing here. Jonah realizes from the belly of the fish that he has been saved. Just remember from last week what had happened. Jonah had disobeyed God. He went on the run. He got on the ship and tried to sail away from God. That proved futile when God sent a big storm after him. When the sailors discovered from Jonah that the huge storm was directed at him, they asked what should be done. Jonah said that they should throw him overboard. That’s ultimately what they did. Jonah should have died at that point. When you are thrown overboard in the middle of the ocean, far from land, in the midst of a great storm, you are going to die. That is, unless some salvation comes to you. Well, that salvation came to Jonah. Chapter 1, verse 17, God had a fish swallow Jonah to save him. It’s in this song, that Jonah acknowledges that salvation. And it’s in this song we learn a little bit more about the story of Jonah. We get to see a bit of what was going on inside him after he was thrown overboard from the boat. On the boat he had no signs of repentance, and we saw no prayers out of him. Finally, this psalm reveals a change in Jonah’s heart as he fell to his death in the mighty waters of the sea. So let’s begin then today by analyzing the structure of this passage and this psalm. I had us read beginning in chapter 1, verse 17, because despite the later chapter breakdowns, that verse really serves to bracket this psalm. 1:17 and 2:10 are the narrative hooks for this passage. They both focus on God’s action with the fish. In 1:17, God appointed a fish to swallow Jonah and save him from drowning. In 2:10, God commands the fish to spit Jonah up on dry land. So these verses are like the introduction and conclusion to this passage. Chapter 2, verse 1, then is the transition to the psalm. It’s there that we find when he uttered this psalm. It[...] Jonah Rev. W. Reid Hankins no no http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2012/01/29/sea-ceased-raging/ http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2012/01/29/sea-ceased-raging/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:37:49 +0000 Pastor Reid Hankins http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/?p=1604 http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2012/01/29/sea-ceased-raging/feed/ 0 0:38:28 Sermon preached on Jonah 1:1-3 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 1/29/2012 in Novato, CA. Sermon preached on Jonah 1:1-3 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 1/29/2012 in Novato, CA. Jonah Rev. W. Reid Hankins no no http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2012/01/22/word-lord-jonah/ http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2012/01/22/word-lord-jonah/#comments Sun, 22 Jan 2012 22:02:55 +0000 Pastor Reid Hankins http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/?p=1594 http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2012/01/22/word-lord-jonah/feed/ 0 0:38:28 Sermon preached on Jonah 1:1-3 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 1/22/2012 in Novato, CA. Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div. Jonah 1:1-3 1/22/11 “Word of the LORD Came to Jonah” This m[...] Sermon preached on Jonah 1:1-3 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 1/22/2012 in Novato, CA. Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div. Jonah 1:1-3 1/22/11 “Word of the LORD Came to Jonah” This morning we begin a short sermon series through Jonah. Today’s message will be a little different than normal. I read through the first few verses as a way to introduce us to this book. And that’s what we’ll do this morning. Today’s message will serve as an introduction into this book. This is one of those books where the whole story together has a point to tell, and I’m hoping we can capture some of that day. That we don’t miss the forest for the trees as we dig into the details in the next few weeks. So, today we’ll consider the introductory aspects of this book. We’ll think through some of the basics: the genre, the main characters, the mission of Jonah, the main themes of the book, and the audience. Let’s begin then with briefly noting the genre of the book. For the most part, it would fall under the category of historical narrative. The exception would be most of chapter 2, which contains a psalm that Jonah sang, and so that would fall under the genre of Hebrew poetry. But notice that I said, this is historical narrative; emphasis on the “historical.” Scholars agree that this book is narrative. It clearly is telling a story of a prophet named Jonah. Sadly, however, there are a some today who acknowledge that it is narrative, but want to throw out the historical part. Some for example, have said that the book of Jonah is just a parable. Like how Jesus told parables. Life stories that people can relate to in order to understand a spiritual point. Well, that might sound nice to say about the book of Jonah, but the question becomes why would you come to that conclusion? What evidence inside the text or even outside of the text would lead you to come to that conclusion? Usually, what seems to lead people to that conclusion is unbelief. They just think the story of Jonah sounds too outrageous to them. Well, the fact that there is miraculous material in a historical narrative of Scripture should not be surprising to a believer. We shouldn’t take something to be a parable that otherwise presents itself as historical narrative. For example, in the gospels, people can tell when Jesus is speaking in a parable. There’s not a question if he’s telling them a historical fact or not. For that matter, parables don’t tend to be filled with stories of miracles. They tend to be filled with stories of everyday normal occurrences. They explain a spiritual truth by making points with natural truths. Jonah as a parable doesn’t seem to make sense as a parable because there is nothing ordinary about it. It’s all about supernatural, miraculous interactions with God. Rather, instead, the book of Jonah itself claims historicity. It’s not just any random made-up person named Jonah, it is as verse 1 says, Jonah the son of Amittai – a historical person. And Jesus himself stamps it with historicity when he refers to Jonah in the New Testament. For example, Matthew 12 sees Jesus refer to Jonah. In the same breadth, he refers to Solomon and the Queen of the South. Those who want to deny Jonah’s historicity try to explain that verse away – it’s just Jesus’ referring to the truth of what they would call the Jonah parable. But that’s not the best way to take the evidence. No, everyone would agree that Solomon is a historical figure and that the Bible paints the Queen of the South as a historical figure. Jesus talks about all these characters in the same way in Matthew 12, as real historical people. And so at the end of the day, Jonah is a historical narrative, and the only real reason to take it otherwise would be someone’s [...] Jonah Rev. W. Reid Hankins no no http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2012/01/15/overwork-rich/ http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2012/01/15/overwork-rich/#comments Sun, 15 Jan 2012 21:47:29 +0000 Pastor Reid Hankins http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/?p=1589 http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2012/01/15/overwork-rich/feed/ 0 0:38:20 Sermon preached on Proverbs 22:22-23:11 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 1/15/2012 in Novato, CA. Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div. Proverbs 22:22-23:11 1/15/12 “Do Not Overwork to be Rich[...] Sermon preached on Proverbs 22:22-23:11 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 1/15/2012 in Novato, CA. Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div. Proverbs 22:22-23:11 1/15/12 “Do Not Overwork to be Rich” Americans know how to work hard. This can be one of our greatest strengths. Americans also know how to overwork. Too often the American dream, a good thing in itself, can be twisted into American greed. Greed expressed in a love of money and pursuit of riches resulting in too much work, too much stress, and not enough time for rest, and family, and friends. From a spiritual standpoint, this certainly has its effect. When you ask people how their time of devotions have been going, their time in the Word and prayer, what’s the most typical answer it seems? I just haven’t had the time. Usually that’s because other work has taken first priority in our lives. Don’t get me wrong. Work is a good thing. The Bible tells us that. Money is not a bad thing, in itself, either. The Bible acknowledges we need money, and certainly paints a picture that poverty is not something to be sought after, per se. Rather, we are to work hard to provide for our families, to give back to God, and to have something to share with others. The Bible acknowledges this, and certainly the book of Proverbs acknowledges this. And yet this passage reminds us that even good things can be perverted with the wrong focus. So often man’s wisdom perverts the good things of God. This verse, however, presents us with God’s wisdom. God’s wisdom on work, particularly as it relates to the pursuit of wealth. And so today we’ll begin first by analyzing verse 4 in some detail – what is it specifically saying. Second, we’ll spend some time assessing the teaching – trying to understand it within the larger context of the Bibles’ teachings on work and wealth. Lastly, we’ll think about how to apply it to the Christian’s life. So let’s begin with some analysis of verse 4 – what is it saying? In typical Hebrew poetry, there are two parallel parts here. The first part is the first half of the verse, “Do not overwork to be rich.” The second part is the rest of the verse, a call to cease. Let’s begin with the first part. It’s a command to not overwork. This word of overwork here is about hard work; working to exhaustion. This word can be simply translated as labor, but there is also a more general word in Hebrew to be used to simply refer to someone’s job or business. And so here the focus of this word is the kind of work that involves toil; lots of effort; hard work. To translate it as overwork is slightly interpretive of the NKJV here, but it is within the scope of the idea of this word. A more literal translation would be like the KJV, which simply has “do not labor to be rich.” The ESV is similar, “Do not toil to acquire wealth.” I actually prefer those more literal translations because they better bring out the subtle nuance here. The word for overwork here is not something you’d usually translate as “overwork” in Hebrew. It’s a general enough word used for labor or toil. It’s a word in Hebrew that is often used to refer to legitimate hard work. You see the problem is not the toil, per se, it’s the purpose of the toil. It becomes a problem when the purpose of the toil is simply for the pursuit of riches. When you labor and toil with the chief goal to become wealthy. Wealthy like the royalty mentioned in verse 1. Then it becomes foolish and unwise. And so the wisdom of verse 4 is expressed in the negation. In the word translated as “Do not”. In other words, “don’t!” Don’t do this! Don’t spend all your life’s energy on the pursuit of wealth – just[...] Proverbs Rev. W. Reid Hankins no no http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2012/01/08/blessed-man/ http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2012/01/08/blessed-man/#comments Sun, 08 Jan 2012 23:33:06 +0000 Pastor Reid Hankins http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/?p=1581 http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2012/01/08/blessed-man/feed/ 0 0:43:11 Sermon preached on Psalm 1 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 1/8/2012 in Novato, CA. Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div. Psalm 1 1/8/12 “Blessed is the Man” Here we have Psalm 1. A ps[...] Sermon preached on Psalm 1 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 1/8/2012 in Novato, CA. Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div. Psalm 1 1/8/12 “Blessed is the Man” Here we have Psalm 1. A psalm that serves as the entrance into the entire Psalter. A psalm long recognized for its beauty both in terms of its poetry and content. Standing at the beginning of the Psalter, it calls us to the way we must approach the psalms. It calls us to the way we must approach all of life. We cannot truly worship God without going down the path of life commended in this passage. And so what we have in this psalm is a theme found in several places in Scripture. It’s the theme of two ways. There are two ways you can go in life. Two directions. Two paths. Which will you take? One leads a good way. The other quite the opposite. Jesus spoke of such a choice too in the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 7:13-14, Jesus spoke of the two ways. One way, he said, was wide and broad, but it leads to destruction. The other way, Jesus said, was narrow and difficult, but it leads to life. This is what this psalm presents to us. Two different ways. As in the words of verse 6, it’s the way of the righteous, versus the way of the ungodly. This will what we’ll consider today. We’ll consider first what these two different ways entail. Second, we’ll consider the outcome of these two different ways. Finally, we’ll consider how to live out Psalm 1′s admonition. But before we dig into this psalm, let me offer a helpful side note. What we have here in Psalm 1 is an idealized picture of how God’s way is the best way, and ultimately the only real way of any true value. We should not understand this concept simplistically. Some who have understood passages like this simplistically, have come up with a prosperity theology. That effectively says if you but order your life in God’s way, you will have health and wealth and virtually no problems and only prosperity in this life. That, however, doesn’t fit with the reality of life or the Biblical witness. Just read the books of Job and Ecclesiastes and you’ll find that things are a little more complex than that. The Bible is clear – sometimes in this world, the wicked seem to prosper for a time and the righteous do suffer for a time. We just studied that a bit in our series through Malachi. A Biblical worldview has to accommodate that, and in fact the Bible does accommodate that in its teaching. That being said, Psalm 1 doesn’t deal with that fact in any detail. And since we’ve dealt with that subject a decent bit recently, I’m not going to delve into it very deeply today again. Rather, I will just say that Psalm 1 presents that the way of the righteous is ultimately the best way. That’s true, even if the way of the wicked might at times in this life seem more advantageous. The point of this psalm, and Scripture as a whole, is that it is not ultimately the best way. Rather Psalm 1 says that if you want it to go well with you, then go God’s way. This we will see in our passage for today. So, then, let’s begin first by comparing the two ways. What does each way look like? The psalms are divided up into three sections. Verses 1-3 deal with the way of the righteous. Verses 4-5 deal with the way of the ungodly. Verse 6 is a final summary verse. Let’s look first then at the way of the righteous. What does that way look like? Verse 1 starts the description. Interestingly, it begins by telling us what righteousness does not look like. It does not look like the way of the wicked. Verse 2 will then tell us in positive terms what the way of the righteous does look like. This might seem strange at initial glance, to start with what righteousness is not, but it actually does make sense. It follows the common pattern of life[...] Psalms Rev. W. Reid Hankins no no http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2012/01/01/great-dreadful-day-lord/ http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2012/01/01/great-dreadful-day-lord/#comments Sun, 01 Jan 2012 23:36:38 +0000 Pastor Reid Hankins http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/?p=1571 http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2012/01/01/great-dreadful-day-lord/feed/ 0 0:34:21 Sermon preached on Malachi 4 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 1/1/2012 in Novato, CA. Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div. Malachi 4 1/1/12 “Great and Dreadful Day of the LORD” It’[...] Sermon preached on Malachi 4 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 1/1/2012 in Novato, CA. Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div. Malachi 4 1/1/12 “Great and Dreadful Day of the LORD” It’s a common thing I’ve heard in my life – people don’t generally like fire and brimstone preaching. Some preachers are labeled that by people, and I think I’ve only heard that label used negatively by people – as a critique of someone’s preaching. Now, sometimes that comment is made for understandable reasons – the person is responding to a preacher who has had an imbalance in their preaching. That preacher seems to always be preaching about fire and brimstone in a way that appears to miss the balance of Scripture and especially the central focus of God’s grace and salvation in Christ. Biblical preaching should convey the balance of topics of Scripture and should not over-emphasize one topic at the detriment of another. Rather, the amount of attention and importance we place on a doctrine in our preaching should reflect the importance and air time given it in the Scriptures. And so, if that’s all a person is saying when they are critiquing someone as a fire and brimstone preacher, then I can appreciate their concern. And yet, more often than not, it seems that people today make this comment because preaching about fire and brimstone is just not popular. People don’t want to hear about it. They don’t want to think about a final day of judgment. They don’t want to think about God sending people to hell. Some would prefer we rarely talk about things like hell and a judgment day. Others would prefer we never talk about it. Too many in the Christian church today don’t want to believe that God actually has wrath or that he’ll bring judgment. They want to focus on God’s grace and love, and get rid of God’s wrath and judgment altogether. Well, you can do that, if you are going to be a church that invents your own god. If you make a god of your own creation and devising, then you can throw out the wrath of God. But that’s not what we do here. We don’t invent God. God has revealed himself to us in his Holy Word. That’s how we know about him. He has revealed himself as a God of love and grace, but also as a God of justice. Justice that will bring forth his righteous wrath in a final day of judgment. Judgment that will include fire and brimstone. The Bible may not talk about this fiery judgment on every page, but it does talk about it quite a bit. This judgment is something that Hebrews 6 says is part of the element principles of our Christian faith. Scripture talks about it. This passage talks about it. We have to talk about it. About this great and dreadful day of the LORD. And so there are plenty of passages like this in the Bible. They are meant to warn and awaken people. But they are also meant to encourage God’s people who face oppression from the godless people in society. We’ll see both here today. Let’s begin by looking at how Malachi describes this coming day of judgment. Then we’ll see how he calls us to respond in light of this coming day. We’ll then think further about that response in light of the New Testament and the coming of Christ. And so this description of the coming day of judgment begins in verse 1. It begins by getting our attention. Behold! Look! This day is coming! The tension raised in the book of Malachi is about when justice would be served. In chapter 2, the question was if the God of justice would be coming to bring justice. In chapter 3, the concern was that the proud and wicked seemed to prosper over the righteous. In light of these questions and concerns, God responds by getting our attention – Behold, the day is indeed coming. That’s verse 1. Don’t miss[...] Malachi Rev. W. Reid Hankins no no http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2011/12/25/egypt/ http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2011/12/25/egypt/#comments Sun, 25 Dec 2011 21:49:48 +0000 Pastor Reid Hankins http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/?p=1561 http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2011/12/25/egypt/feed/ 0 0:35:34 Sermon preached on Matthew 2:13-15 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 12/25/2011 in Novato, CA. Sermon preached on Matthew 2:13-15 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 12/25/2011 in Novato, CA. Matthew Rev. W. Reid Hankins no no http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2011/12/18/book-remembrance-written/ http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2011/12/18/book-remembrance-written/#comments Mon, 19 Dec 2011 00:45:22 +0000 Pastor Reid Hankins http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/?p=1556 http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2011/12/18/book-remembrance-written/feed/ 0 0:36:10 Sermon preached on Malachi 3:13-4:3 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 12/18/2011 in Novato, CA. Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div. Malachi 3:13-4:3 12/18/11 “A Book of Remembrance Was Written[...] Sermon preached on Malachi 3:13-4:3 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 12/18/2011 in Novato, CA. Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div. Malachi 3:13-4:3 12/18/11 “A Book of Remembrance Was Written” It’s a common frustration, even among those in the Christian church. For some people, their religion just doesn’t produce what they expect it to produce. They go to church. They throw some money in the plate when it goes by. They donate their time to worthy causes. They generally lead a pretty decent life from the world’s perspective. And yet their faith and relationship with God doesn’t yield what they expect it to. They find their life full of problems. Strained relationships. Troubles at work. Health challenges. They feel burnt out. They feel far from God, like being in a desert: dry and weary. They don’t see how their religion makes any difference. They begin to tire of it all. They’ve heard lofty ideas about what a relationship with God is supposed to bring, but they don’t seem to experience it. Not only is their life a mess, but they certainly don’t have the peace and joy that a Christian is supposedly supposed to have. They find themselves instead as someone who struggles to control their anger and they feel bitter about so many things. They’ve grown impatient in it all. They probably ask, how is this worth it? Does God even care? What good is my religion with a life like this? They look around and see many people who don’t go to church and they think their life looks better off than theirs. And so their anger turns towards God. They start to speak in harsh terms against him. Either directly or indirectly, they start slandering God and their religion. They claim it to be useless and worthless. Well, that is the spirit addressed in this passage for today. It was a spirit present in the church at Malachi’s day. And it’s a spirit that can be present in the church today. This passage addresses that spirit. Not only is it an unrighteous attitude, it something that is not good for anyone – it eats away at one’s heart. And so this passage instead gets us to address the heart of such frustrations with a God who greatly loves and treasures his people. Let’s begin today then with verses 13-15. Here we see that wrong spirit among the people. Verse 13, God says, that their words had been harsh. Harsh against God. The people show they understand what he’s getting at, by their question: “What have we spoken against you?” To speak against someone is describing slander. You see, that’s what the people addressed in verses 13-15 had been doing. Harshly slandering God. Murmuring against God and putting him to the test. This is somewhat similar to what was addressed in 2:17. There the people had scoffed against God with their words. They had said things like, “Where is the God of justice?” They mocked him in their statements. Here this is something similar. But, here it’s put more in the form of a harsh complaint. A complaint that draws into question the value of their religion. You see, God tells them what their harsh words were, in verses 14 and 15. Verse 14, they say their religion has been useless. They say there has been no profit in it. In other words, they don’t see any benefit in their relationship with God. In fact, in verse 15 they say the opposite has been the case. They say this: not only have they not benefited from their religion as they thought they should, the unreligious have done better than they have. They said the proud people are the ones blessed. That the wicked ones are the ones exalted. That those who tempt and test God get away with it. So the bottom line is that they were saying this in their complaint: following God’s ways doesn’t benefit me; if anythin[...] Malachi Rev. W. Reid Hankins no no http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2011/12/11/return/ http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2011/12/11/return/#comments Mon, 12 Dec 2011 00:40:16 +0000 Pastor Reid Hankins http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/?p=1552 http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2011/12/11/return/feed/ 0 0:38:34 Sermon preached on Malachi 3:6-12 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 12/11/2011 in Novato, CA. Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div. Malachi 3:6-12 12/04/11 “And I Will Return To You” In th[...] Sermon preached on Malachi 3:6-12 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 12/11/2011 in Novato, CA. Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div. Malachi 3:6-12 12/04/11 “And I Will Return To You” In this passage we see a call for the people to return to God. Verse 7. If the people return to God, God says that he will return to them. And so what is then flushed out in this passage is the concept of repentance. Repentance is about turning. It’s about turning around from one direction to another. From a direction of sin toward the direction of righteousness. From a direction of godlessness to godliness. From the direction away from God to the direction toward God. Repentance involves a turning, and that’s what this passage is about. Well, as a Christian, it is important to understand the concept of repentance, since we’ve been called to faith and repentance. We’ve been called to turn from a life apart from God and turn toward him in faith. To trust in his forgiveness and set him as the Lord in our life. That’s what Christian conversion is all about. It’s about a turning to God. We see a kind of turning described in this passage. Here it is about the people of Malachi’s day turning back to God, specifically in the area of worship. And I like how Malachi describes this. Often when we think of repentance, we think of confession. Confessing a sin is part of repentance, but it’s not all of it. Repentance involves not only confessing a sin, but then turning from it. In your mind you make a mental u-turn and look to stop practicing that sin in your life. Here Malachi shows us this with the example of tithing. And so again, the people respond right away in verse 7 again with a bit of spiritual ignorance. God had just confronted them on their sin. God said they needed to return to him. And yet in verse 7, they ask “In what way shall we return.” Well, they should have been able to examine their lives and answer that question in light of God’s law. But we are glad they asked because it shows us a picture of returning. Returning involved turning from their sin to follow God and his holy laws. Here God points to their failure to tithe. That was a sin they needed to turn from if they were to return to God. And so we’ll be spending some time today thinking about their failure in tithing. But then we’ll situate that within the context of their call to repent and return to God. So then let’s think about their failure to tithe. We’ll start with a basic definition of this. First, note that tithing is an ordinance. Verse 7 mentioned ordinances and then the passage goes on to talk about the ordinance of tithing. Offerings are mentioned here too alongside tithing. They are related, though don’t become the focus here as much as the tithing. Back in chapter 1, he had dealt with their problematic offerings. So here God says they had not been giving a tithe, and that this tithe was not optional. It was a statute God commanded them to be doing as part of their religious worship. Specifically, a tithe was a tenth. A tenth of their income. The word literally means just that – a tenth. Numbers 18 gives the primary legislation on tithing. This tenth of their income was supposed to be given to the priests and Levites as their primary sustenance. Deuteronomy 14 goes on to describe how normally they were to bring this offering at the main tabernacle, with the exception of every third year. In those years you were to store the tithe up locally to provide for the needs of both the local Levites, and the poor and needy. This is what it’s getting at in verse 10 when it talks about the storehouses being full. These tithes were to fill up God’s storehouses to provide food for these different groups. Evidently those storehouses had become empty at Malachi[...] Malachi Rev. W. Reid Hankins no no http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2011/12/04/lord-seek-suddenly/ http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2011/12/04/lord-seek-suddenly/#comments Mon, 05 Dec 2011 04:50:48 +0000 Pastor Reid Hankins http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/?p=1539 http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2011/12/04/lord-seek-suddenly/feed/ 0 0:00:01 Sermon preached on Malachi 3:1-6 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 12/04/2011 in Novato, CA. Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div. Malachi 3:1-6 12/04/11 “The Lord, Whom You Seek, Will Suddenly Come” [...] Sermon preached on Malachi 3:1-6 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 12/04/2011 in Novato, CA. Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div. Malachi 3:1-6 12/04/11 “The Lord, Whom You Seek, Will Suddenly Come” We’ve just recently wrapped up the Thanksgiving holiday and now we are full swing in the Christmas season. Well, Thanksgiving of course, reminds us to be thankful. And the Christmas season commemorates the advent of Christ into this world to save us. And these two different holidays are closely situated next to each other on our calendars. We talk about them marking out the holiday season. And yet we can see good reason for these two holidays to be so close to each other. For when we have Thanksgiving, how can we not also think about the coming of Jesus. We have so many things we thank God for at Thanksgiving. And yet what is the greatest thing we should thank God for? It’s Jesus. We should be thankful chiefly for Jesus. We should thank God for salvation. We should be thankful for the advent of Christ into this world to live and die and rise again for us. And so as we resume our study through Malachi today we find that we have a perfect passage for the advent season. This is a passage about the coming of Jesus Christ. Well, as we study it today, in this time between Thanksgiving and Christmas, let us think of how thankful we are because Christ has come! So then, remember with me the context of our passage. Last week we looked particularly at chapter 2, verse 17. That’s when we saw Israel asking a question. They asked, “Where is the God of justice?” We discussed how they asked it arrogantly, with the wrong spirit. And yet the question still stood. With all God’s good promises to come to his people and restore them, where was he? With all the troubles they were facing, where was he? They had accused God of indifference and of injustice in their question. And so God does not let the question go unanswered. Our verses today are the answer to that question. Where is the God of justice? Verse 1. Behold he is coming! But first, he will send a messenger. Someone to prepare the way. Isaiah 40 also predicted this – preparing the way for the Lord. Who is that? Well, the New Testament tells us. It was John the Baptist. Matthew 11:10 specifically quotes verse 1 here and says this forerunner was John the Baptist. The New Testament then also shows us that the prophecies about God coming to his people are fulfilled in Jesus. Jesus is God coming to his people – the Messiah who also God incarnate. The advent of the Messiah is the advent of God. And so the people when they hear this probably would have got very excited. Some of them probably remembered Isaiah’s prophecy which had indeed talked about God coming to the people but first sending a forerunner. God was saying here that he had not forgotten about his promise. It would indeed come to pass. Surely this would have sparked some joy, and some thanksgiving at the reiterated promise. And yet the prophecy takes a surprising turn at verse 2. God is coming. The Day of the Lord is coming. But who can endure the day of his coming? The prophet Amos had discussed this somewhat too. You see the people were complaining that he hadn’t come yet. They assumed that his coming would be a great day for them. A pleasant day. Malachi challenges that assumption. Malachi chooses to emphasize two aspects of God’s coming today. First, he says that God’s coming would be for refinement and purification. Second, he says that God’s coming would be for judgment. For those who are to be true followers of God, there is going to be a turning back to God in repentance and faith – coming in the form of a refiner’s fire. For those who are not, they will taste of God’s judgment and wrath. This is what God would do when he comes. In other words, this is what Jesus would do when he comes. So let’s spend some time thinki[...] Malachi Rev. W. Reid Hankins no no