From the 10/25/2020 Liturgy of Sovereign King Church written by Aaron Sabie

The Psalm writer wrote:  Open my eyes, that I may behold Wonderful things from Your law. As we come before a Holy God and hear his word, may we have eyes open to the wonderful and fearful things from his law. May it move us to repent and seek forgiveness, fear disobedience, and live in light of the grace we have received.   This is the word of God.  It is eternally true and applicable for all of life.  

Proverbs 24:1-9 Do not be envious of evil men, Nor desire to be with them; For their minds devise violence, And their lips talk of trouble. By wisdom a house is built, And by understanding it is established; And by knowledge the rooms are filled With all precious and pleasant riches. A wise man is strong, And a man of knowledge increases power. For by wise guidance you will wage war, And in abundance of counselors there is victory. Wisdom is too exalted for a fool, He does not open his mouth in the gate. One who plans to do evil, Men will call a schemer. The devising of folly is sin, And the scoffer is an abomination to men.

This is the Word of the LORD.

Ask an engineer about the starting point from which the fabrication of any structure or system should begin, and they will surely tell you that before anything else, a proper foundation must be laid. Skyscrapers are erected upon a foundation of bedrock and steel reinforced concrete. Ships are built upon a sturdy keel. Electrical and plumbing systems are only as good as the wiring and piping which moves the electricity and water efficiently and safely from point A to point B. Cars must have a solid chassis. Even our own bodies, perfectly engineered by our Creator Who is a Master Craftsman, have a foundation called a backbone. Without it, we would be skin-bags filled with organs lying on the ground.

Surely you get the point. Anything we build must have a firm foundation. Sinking sand will not do. A good foundation must be able to support the weight of the structure, the demands placed upon it, and be able to weather unforseen storms which arise.

Your home is no different. No, not the physical structure in this case, but rather that group of people you gather with, in the dwelling in which you live. Mother, father, husband, wife, and children who unite together under the banner of the "Spurgeon family", or "Anglen Family", or the " Jackson Family", constitute a home with a foundation.

What is your home built upon?
Your job?
Your family history?
Your hobbies?

Since its inception, have you been laboring and toiling to build a kingdom called home in your own strength? Flying over your home, is there a banner which declares "My will be done"?

The Proverb tells us today:
By wisdom a house is built, And by understanding it is established; And by knowledge the rooms are filled With all precious and pleasant riches

There is both a physical and a spiritual element to this proverb. Physical, in the sense that faith in the Lord Jesus, coupled with hard work, proper planning, and diligence, often bears fruit in regards to establishing a household upon firm footing, with growth that occurs as God's favor is granted to the one laboring in faith.

And then there is a spiritual aspect to this. As one meditates upon God's word, hides it in their heart, their soul is established. As the believer partakes in the means of grace offered by God, for instance the preaching of God's word and the fellowship of the saints, he is strengthened and fit for service. Matthew Henry states that wisdom will " fortify a house and turn it into a castle". That is a dwelling built upon a foundation which cannot be moved.

What is your home built upon? The wisdom of God, or folly? "Unless the Lord builds the house, They labor in vain who build it" (Psalm 127:1).

Just as your physical home will rot, deteriorate, and get washed away if built upon a foundation of sand, so the fabric of your home will crumble if built upon anything other than the precious blood of Christ, our Spiritual Rock. Apart from Christ, the foundations of our homes are prone to being eaten by termite, destroyed by rust, or burned up by fire. But with faith in the Lord Jesus, we have a foundation upon which no calamity, no storm, no trial, and no enemy can move us from.

The wisdom which truly builds a house is found only in Jesus Christ, Who is the wisdom of God. It is wisdom which comes down from heaven:
James 3:17–18: But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

The wisdom to build a home, establish it, and fill it with precious and pleasant riches is pure, peaceable, gentle. Full of mercy. Is your home a home full of mercy? Is forgiveness a practice on display in your home? Are faults overlooked, sins covered by love? Do the members in your home remember the weaknesses inherent in the frames of their loved ones and show mercy?

Or is your house one that is full of strife and contention? Is your home marked by selfishness, animosity, back biting, and a habitual failure to consider others more highly than yourselves?

 James 3:14–16:  But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing.

A home full of jealousy and selfish ambition is a disordered, chaotic home which will be swept away by the tides of life. Void of the rock solid foundation of Christ and His love, this home will not stand. There will be no rooms filled with precious and pleasant riches. Only sorrow, emptiness, and vain, fruitless living.

What are you building your house upon?
What fills the rooms of your home?

If you are able, please kneel, and let us repent of how we have offended God in building our homes.
Heavenly Father,
We see in Scripture what love and patience Your Son shows as He builds up the body of His Church. We see the rock solid foundation upon which it is built, so that even the gates of hell cannot prevail. I pray Father that You would be merciful towards those of us who have taken to build our lives, and our homes, upon foundations other than Your Word.
Please give us wisdom Father, to recognize the faulty, weak, cracked foundations of our lives, and the resolve to tear those foundations down with gospel truths and stand firmly upon the one laid by Your Son. Father, please forgive us for having been led astray by our lusts, passions, and selfish desires, to build in vain and waste the blessings You have granted us. Please lead us once again to the Rock, help us be satisfied by Him and abide in Him. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Please join me in standing and listen to the comforting assurance of the grace of God, promised in the gospel to all that believe: 

He has sent redemption to His people; He has ordained His covenant forever; Holy and awesome is His name. | Psalm 111:9

 To all those who thus repent and seek Jesus Christ for their salvation, your sins are forgiven in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lift up your hearts!

From the 10.18.2020 Liturgy of Sovereign King Church
Written by Aaron Sabie

The Psalm writer wrote:  Open my eyes, that I may behold Wonderful things from Your law. As we come before a Holy God and hear his word, may we have eyes open to the wonderful and fearful things from his law. May it move us to repent and seek forgiveness, fear disobedience, and live in light of the grace we have received.   This is the word of God.  It is eternally true and applicable for all of life.  

Proverbs 23:29-35 Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? Those who linger long over wine, Those who go to taste mixed wine. Do not look on the wine when it is red, When it sparkles in the cup, When it goes down smoothly; At the last it bites like a serpent And stings like a viper. Your eyes will see strange things And your mind will utter perverse things. And you will be like one who lies down in the middle of the sea, Or like one who lies down on the top of a mast. “They struck me, but I did not become ill; They beat me, but I did not know it. When shall I awake? I will seek another drink.”

This is the Word of the LORD.
 
Drunkenness is the object of this Lord's day Proverb. Talk to anyone acquainted with the abuse of alcohol, anyone familiar with imbibing in strong drink over the course of their life, and you will hear stories of raucous behavior, fights, sexual immorality, hangovers, lost time, and strained relationships. For all the glamor that many like to portray a night of drunkenness as, rest assured, it leads to nowhere but passed out in a puddle of your own vomit stumbling around in some back alley in Tijuana. While an evening filled with throwing back a few strong drinks with your friends may appear fun and harmless, in the end, God's word reminds us that "at the last it bites like a serpent and stings like a viper."

Drunkenness is a sin. In Ephesians we are told "do not be drunk with wine, which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit". Titus warns the older women to not be addicted to much wine.
Noah stumbled into drunkenness following God's deliverance from the flood. Genesis 9:20, 21 tells us:

Then Noah began farming and planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine and became drunk, and uncovered himself inside his tent.

Drunkenness is a sin which greases the wheels of your conscience and breaks down your guardrails of self control, leading, as the proverb tells us today, to woe, sorrow, contentions, and complaining.
 
Matthew Henry says this of drunkenness:
Drunkenness is the cause of drowsiness; it stupefies men, and makes them inattentive to business, and then all goes to wreck and ruin: thus men that have lived creditably come to be clothed with rags.
"Be not ruled by sense, but by reason and religion. Covet not that which pleases the eye, in hopes that it will please the taste; but let thy serious thoughts correct the errors of thy senses and convince thee that that which seems delightful is really hurtful, and resolve against it accordingly. Let not the heart walk after the eye, for it is a deceitful guide. Be not too bold with the charms of this or any other sin; look not, lest thou lust, lest thou take the forbidden fruit. Note Those that would be kept from any sin must keep themselves from all the occasions and beginnings of it, and be afraid of coming within the reach of its allurements, lest they be overcome by them.

Drunkenness is a sin in which those prone to it must guard themselves, avoiding the "occasions and beginnings of it". It is a sin which has a visual, alluring aspect to it, as we see from the language in the proverb: "Do not look on the wine when it is red, When it sparkles in the cup." Drunkenness is a result of allowing the fruit of the vine master you. Wine is a good thing which God has blessed us with, but being led by your appetite for wine rather than the Holy Spirit is a sin we must repent of and avoid.

The principal of recognizing that which causes you to stumble, and avoiding it, is not limited to drunkenness. One which many stumble into that we would be wise to avoid is the sin of lust. A man prone to lust, embellishing in pornography on his phone or laptop, would be wise to enlist assistance in setting up guardrails and boundaries which help in guarding his eyes. Whether it be special software, or throwing the computer in the trash, men and women prone to lust ought to avoid all occasions for it. I have heard brothers in Christ who war against lust say that there are days in which all they can do is keep their eyes averted downward for fear of stumbling into it. Brothers and sisters, if lust, whether it be for strong drink or sexual immorality, is something that has its claws in you: do not go it alone. Enlist the help of some faithful brothers and sisters to help you in this fight. In the multitude of counsellors there is victory. Do not attempt to be a lone ranger Christian tackling the problem of lust all by yourself.

An an aside:  just as the red wine sparkling in the cup is an allurement for those prone to drunkenness, young ladies, do not be as the sparkling wine. Do not let your adornment be merely external- braiding the hair, and wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses; but let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit which is precious in the sight of God.

At this time, if you are able, please join me in kneeling as we confess our sins to God who is Holy, Holy, Holy.

HOLY LORD,
We have sinned times without number,
    and been guilty of pride and unbelief,
  of failure to find thy mind in thy Word,
  of neglect to seek thee in our daily lives.
Our transgressions and short-comings
  present us with a list of accusations,
But we bless thee that they will not stand against us,
  for all have been laid on Christ;
Go on to subdue our corruptions,
  and grant us grace to live above them.
Let not the passions of the flesh nor lustings
  of the mind bring our spirits into subjection,
  but do thou rule over us in liberty and power.
We thank thee that many of our prayers
    have been refused --
  We have asked amiss and do not have,
  We have prayed from lusts and been rejected,
  We have longed for Egypt and been given a  wilderness.
Go on with thy patient work,
  answering ‘no’ to our wrongful prayers,
  and fitting us to accept it.
Purge us from every false desire,
  every base aspiration,
  everything contrary to thy rule.
We thank thee for thy wisdom and thy love,
  for all the acts of discipline to which we are subject,
  for sometimes putting us into the furnace
    to refine our gold and remove our dross.
No trial is so hard to bear as a sense of sin.
If thou shouldst give us choice to live
  in pleasure and keep our sins,
  or to have them burnt away with trial,
  give us sanctified affliction.
Deliver us from every evil habit,
  every accretion of former sins,
  everything that dims the brightness
    of thy grace in us,
  everything that prevents us taking delight
    in thee.
Then we shall bless thee, God of Jeshurun,
  for helping us to be upright.
In Jesus' Name we pray, Amen

Prayer adopted from The Valley of Vision prayer titled "Continual repentance".

Please join me in standing and listen to the comforting assurance of the grace of God, promised in the gospel to all that believe: 

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds. | Titus 2:11-14

To all those who thus repent and seek Jesus Christ for their salvation, your sins are forgiven in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lift up your hearts!

From the 10-4-2020 liturgy of Sovereign King Church
The Psalm writer wrote:  Open my eyes, that I may behold Wonderful things from Your law. As we come before a Holy God and hear his word, may we have eyes open to the wonderful and fearful things from his law. May it move us to repent and seek forgiveness, fear disobedience, and live in light of the grace we have received.   This is the word of God.  It is eternally true and applicable for all of life.  

Proverbs 23:12-21 Apply your heart to discipline And your ears to words of knowledge. Do not hold back discipline from the child, Although you strike him with the rod, he will not die. You shall strike him with the rod And rescue his soul from Sheol. My son, if your heart is wise, My own heart also will be glad; And my inmost being will rejoice When your lips speak what is right. Do not let your heart envy sinners, But live in the fear of the Lord always. Surely there is a future, And your hope will not be cut off. Listen, my son, and be wise, And direct your heart in the way. Do not be with heavy drinkers of wine, Or with gluttonous eaters of meat; For the heavy drinker and the glutton will come to poverty, And drowsiness will clothe one with rags.


A 2014 Pew Research Survey revealed that 70.6% of Americans identified as Christian. According to the same source, that shakes out to approximately 205,000,000 Christians in the United States.
In a land of 205,000,000 self professed Christians, we see abortion on demand, sodomite marriage, the deification of sports figures and entertainers, a political landscape rife with lies, hypocrisy, and corruption, and rampant sexual immorality from immodestly dressed women to the normalization of pedophilia. Cohabitation has become a common arrangement even among professing Christians, with traditional marriage being maligned as an institution of privilege.

These things have been highlighted so that this point may be made:
it is not enough to proclaim with your mouth that you are a Christian,
it is not enough that you read your bible daily,
attend Church every Lord's Day,
take the Lord's supper,
and physically do "churchy" things which would satisfy the inspecting eye of outsiders or even unsuspecting elders.

Dear Christian the word today tells us we must:
Apply your heart to discipline And your ears to words of knowledge.

The word apply as used here means to "come to" or "enter into". One way to think of it would be if your wife asked you to fix a broken faucet and the tool required was a wrench, so you grab the wrench and go stand next to the sink. Your wife walks by and sees you standing there holding the wrench and asks "Are you going to fix the sink?", and you respond "I am, can't you see I am holding the wrench?" Simply having access to the tool, having it in your hand, and even the opportunity to use it, does not fix the sink. To fix it, you must apply your knowledge of how to fix sinks, and the wrench in your hand, to the problem.

It is the same with the Word of God. You can have all the book knowledge that comes from a Christian upbringing,
You can cry "Lord, Lord!",
You can attend Church every Sunday,
Listen to all the latest podcasts and
read Calvin's Institutes twice a year until you are the foremost authority on all things reformed,
but unless you apply it to the path which God has placed before you, it is for nothing.

Your religion is merely window dressing, a show, and worthless.

James tells us that we ought not be simply hearers of the Word, but also doers.
You see brothers and sisters, it is not enough to immerse yourself into the life of the Church, all the teaching, activities, and motion that takes place. It is not enough to merely play the part, hoping for some kind of osmosis to take place in which you are conformed to Christ's image merely by saying and doing the "right" things, and looking the part.

No dear saints, we must apprehend the Word of God. We must lay hold of it, and along with our laying hold of it, apply it to every area of our lives.

Isn't that what we say here? "God's Word is eternally true and applicable for all of life?"

On the day of judgement if you prove to have been a faker, a fraud, a faux Christian, having worshipped God with your lips in rote manner, while your heart was far from Him, this phrase you hear uttered week after week "eternally true and applicable for all of life", will ring in your ears as judgement against you. If on the day of judgement it is revealed that the whole of your religion consisted merely of holding the tools given to you without any application, you will find yourself like the unfaithful servant in Matthew 25:
 
“For it is just like a man about to go on a journey, who called his own slaves and entrusted his possessions to them.  To one he gave five talents, to another, two, and to another, one, each according to his own ability; and he went on his journey.  Immediately the one who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and gained five more talents.  In the same manner the one who had received the two talents gained two more.  But he who received the one talent went away, and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.   “Now after a long time the master of those slaves *came and *settled accounts with them.  The one who had received the five talents came up and brought five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you entrusted five talents to me. See, I have gained five more talents.’  His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’   “Also the one who had received the two talents came up and said, ‘Master, you entrusted two talents to me. See, I have gained two more talents.’  His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’   “And the one also who had received the one talent came up and said, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed.  And I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours.’   “But his master answered and said to him, ‘You wicked, lazy slave, you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I scattered no seed.  Then you ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my arrival I would have received my money back with interest.  Therefore take away the talent from him, and give it to the one who has the ten talents.’   “For to everyone who has, more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away.  Throw out the worthless slave into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Matthew 25:14-30 NASB
He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Word of the Lord says to Sovereign King Church.

At this time if you are able, please join me in kneeling as we confess our sins to Almighty God.
HEAVENLY FATHER,
Thou hast placed me in the church
      which thy Son purchased by his own blood.
Add grace to grace that I may live worthy of my vocation. I am a voyager across life’s ocean;
Safe in heaven’s ark, may I pass through
    a troubled world
  into the harbour of eternal rest. I am a tree of the vineyard thou hast planted.
Grant me not to be barren, with worthless
    leaves and wild grapes;
Prune me of useless branches;
Water me with dews of blessing.
I am part of the Lamb’s bride, the church.
Help me to be true, faithful, chaste, loving,
    pure, devoted;
Let no strong affection wantonly dally
    with the world.
May I live high above a love of things temporal,
  sanctified, cleansed, unblemished, hallowed
    by grace,
  thy love my fullness,
  thy glory my joy,
  thy precepts my pathway,
  thy cross my resting place.
My heart is not always a flame of adoring love,
But, resting in thy Son’s redemption,
I look forward to the days of heaven,
  where no langour shall oppress,
    no iniquities chill,
    no mists of unbelief dim the eye,
    no zeal ever tires.
Father, these thoughts are the stay, prop, and comfort of my soul.
From The Valley of Vision titled "Vocation".
Father, please forgive us of our sins against You, for our failure to apply Your Holy Word to every area of our lives. Please help us to trust anew in Your Son Jesus, and to lay hold of His wisdom. In Jesus Name we pray, amen.
 
Listen now to the comforting assurance of the grace of God, promised in the gospel to all that believe: 

Romans 6:15-18 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.

To all those who thus repent and seek Jesus Christ for their salvation, your sins are forgiven in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lift up your hearts!