First Presbyterian Church - Yorktown, Tx

09/08/2026

1) He that will love God and keep himself in the love of God must not love self. There is no greater enemy to the love of God. ‘Lovers of self’ leads the list in Paul’s description of the last days. Where this principle prevails, it opens a flood-gate of sin, and shuts the door upon all holy motions. If self is loved, admired, and idolized, it is the worst idol in the world. This is an idol in a secret place continually adored. This sets men upon God’s throne, and un-gods him by deifying themselves. Self-denial is the first lesson to be learned to take away this great stumbling block to God’s love. 2) To keep yourselves in the love of God, you must be very shy of sin’s risings and temptations, for the love of God and the love of sin are more contrary to each other than heaven and hell! O, mind this, we must keep God’s commandments if we love him! We keep ourselves in the love of God when we walk closely with God in ways of strict holiness. God’s favorites had this characteristic: Abraham, (Gensis17:1) When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless., Enoch (Genesis 5:22) Enoch walked with God after the birth of Methuselah three hundred years and had other sons and daughters., Noah (Genesis 6:9) These are the descendants of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God., Caleb (Numbers 14:24) But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me wholeheartedly, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it., and David (Psalm 73:28) But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge, o tell of all your works.. God is love, and he that dwells in love dwells in God. O sweet dwelling! Your will find that the holiest persons were always the highest favorites of God: Job, (Job 1:1) There was once a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil., Zechariah (Luke 1:6-7) Both of them were righteous before God, living blamelessly according to all the commandments and regulations of the Lord. But they had no children because Elizabeth was barren, and both were getting on in years., Mary (Luke 1:28) And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you, Simeon (Luke 2:25) Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him., and Anna (Luke 2:36-37) There was also a prophet, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day. Holiness and purity bring us to the sight of God. This is the soul’s highest happiness and ultimate end! 3) We also keep ourselves in the love of God when we cherish in our hearts the pardon of sin. What wonderful love it is for the Lord to pardon the great and many sins of a poor sinful soul! We cannot but choose to express our great love to the Lord for it! Forgiveness of sin is an act of the greatest grace, condescension, and kindness of God to a poor soul!
2 TIMOTHY 3:1-2
You must understand this, that in the last days distressing times will come. or people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,

MATTHEW 16:24-25
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

JOHN 14:21
They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me, and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”

09/07/2026

If youth and health ever makes your departure seem a long way off, this will do much to deceive and dull the best, and take away the power of every truth and duty. You will hardly be able to keep the faculties of your soul awake if you do not think of death and judgment as near at hand. The greatest change or joy or misery in eternity will not keep our stupid hearts awake unless we look at them as near as well as certain. Among men, there is a common difference in their thoughts of death in health and when they are dying. In health, they can speak of death with laughter, or lightly without awaking the soul. When they come to die they are oftentimes much altered, as if they had never heard they are mortal. To live in the house of mirth is more dangerous than to live in the house of mourning, and the expectation of a long life is a grievous enemy to the operations of grace, and the safety of the soul. This greatly strengthens our temptations to luxury, ambition, worldliness, and almost every sin. When men think they have many years of leisure to repent, they are apt to transgress more boldly! When they think they have yet many years to live, it tempts them to pass away time in idleness, to loiter in their race, to trifle in their work, and to overvalue the pleasures, honors, and shadows of felicity that are here below. He that makes his life about house or land or inheritance will give more importance to it than one that must go out of it the next year. He that thinks of living many years will feel it a great matter to obtain an estate, name, family, and the accommodations and pleasing of his flesh, while self-denial will seem a very hard work. Though health is a wonderful mercy, it is perhaps a great snare to the heart to turn it from duty. Take heed, if you love your souls, of falling into the snare of worldly hopes.
PROVERBS 27:1
Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.

09/06/2026

09/06/2026

Do not promise yourself a long life or prosperity and great matters in the world, lest it entangles your heart with transitory things, and engages you in ambitious or covetous designs, and steals away your heart from God, and destroys all your serious apprehensions of eternity. The approach of death greatly influences the mind of most, and so, if we do not count on a long life, it greatly helps us in our preparation and work of holiness through our lives. Come to a man that lies on his heath bed, or a prisoner that is to die tomorrow, and test him with riches, or honors, or temptations to lust, or drunkenness, or excess, and he will think you are mad or impertinent to talk of such things. Oh how serious we are in repentance and casting up our accounts when we see that death is at hand! Every sentence of Scripture has life and power in it, and time seems precious! If you ask such a man if it is better to spend time in needless recreations and idleness, or in prayer and holy conversation, the word of God and the life to come, he will be easily satisfied with the truth, and dispute frivolous temptations to sensual time-wasting. Expectation of a speedy approach into the presence of an eternal God has much in it to awaken the powers of the soul. If anything will make you serious, this will, in every thought, speech, and duty! It is a great mercy of God that in this short life there are frequent dangers, sicknesses, and uncertainties, that cause us to look about us and be ready for our change. The sick who are looking at death are more considerate, and it is a great part of the duty of the youth in good health to consider their frailty and the uncertainty of their lives, and always live as those that wait for the coming of the Lord. Since time is so swift, common reason teaches us to live in a constant readiness to die.
PSALM 139:16
Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed.

09/05/2026

Watch diligently against the most discernible decays of grace and against the degenerating of it into some carnal affection, or some counterfeit of some other kind. We are no sooner warmed by the celestial flames, but our natural corruption is inclining us to grow cold. Hot water loses its heat by degrees unless a fire is continually kept under it. Who does not feel that his heart is prone to cool after a sermon, or prayer, or holy meditation has begun to warm it? As soon as it is gone, we are so prone to return to our former temper, and neglect our duty, and return to thoughts or business about the world, and we presently grow cold and dull again. Be watchful, therefore, lest it declines too far. Be frequent in the means that must preserve you from declining. You are rowing against the stream of fleshly interests and inclinations. Do not wait too long, lest you go down faster by your ease than you go up by your labor. The decay of grace is a very common form of backsliding that is too little observed. God does not value men by their places and dignity in the world, but by their graces and holiness of life. The most common way of degenerating in all religious duties is to adopt a dead formality. How apt men are to corrupt and debase all duties of religion. If the devil can but get you to cast off your spirituality and life of duty, he will give you leave to seem very devout with outward action, words, and beads. Thus you will have much zeal for a dead religion, or the co**se of worship, and he will make you think it is indeed alive. By all means take heed of turning the worship of God into mere lip service. It is the work of a saint, and a diligent saint, to keep the soul itself both regularly and vigorously employed with God.
REVELATION 3:1
“And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars: “I know your works; you have a name of being alive, but you are dead.

09/04/2026

He that will keep himself in the love of God will seek to know what is the will and pleasure of God and to conform to it. The will of God is the sovereign will for all the world. Who can say to God, ‘What are you doing?’ When your will comes in conflict with God’s, you know what you must do. We can never keep ourselves in the love of God but by doing that which is agreeable to his holiness. We must keep ourselves free from the love of the world. The love of the world is contrary to the love of God. The love of the world is a heart-thief: it steals the heart away from God as Absalom did from David by his kisses and flatteries. To love the world is to make an idol of it. The Lord says, ‘Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness,’ a double caution! Luxury, sensuality, drunkenness, and the love of pleasure more than the love of God, are of this nature; they are belly-gods. Inordinate love of children likewise can become an idol, as with old Eli, honoring his sons above God. Love of the world chokes all that is truly good. Do we not see what mortal enemies worldly men are to divine things? The devil is the prince of the wicked world, and rules the children of disobedience. The world feeds the flesh and is not subject to the law of God. Yea, it is a deadly thing to the soul. When once men drink of the world’s cup, they are intoxicated. The greatest witch in the world is the world! Her honors are bewitching honors, her delights and pleasures are bewitching, and her riches and profits are bewitching. Love of the world makes men apostates from Christ—so Demas, and many thousands more! How then is the love of the world consistent with God’s love?
1 JOHN 2:16
for all that is in the world—the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches—comes not from the Father but from the world.

COLOSSIANS 3:5
Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry).

LUKE 12:15
And he said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”

1 SAMUEL 2:29
Why then look with greedy eye at my sacrifices and my offerings and honor your sons more than me by fattening yourselves on the choicest parts of every offering of my people Israel?

ROMANS 8:7
For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law—indeed, it cannot,

2 TIMOTHY 4:10
or Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica; Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia.

09/03/2026

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09/03/2026

It is the duty of every child of God to keep himself in the love of God. This proposition is grounded upon a threefold supposition—1) That some are in the love of God, really and eternally, 2) that this love, in which God loves his chosen, is a special love, a particular and distinguishing love, and 3) That it is a duty as well as a privilege to keep ourselves in the love of God. Our love to God is the effect, and not the cause, of God’s love to us. He that will keep himself in the love of God must mind and meditate on four attributes and properties of god’s love, which will have a great influence upon his heart and love. First—Consider the eternity of God’s love to you. Yea, before all time God has been your friend. Election is the effect of God’s eternal love. His love is as eternal as himself! Second—Consider the freeness of God’s love. God’s free love is called grace. Paul, the great champion of free grace, says, ‘Not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began’. O, meditate on this! O how the consideration of this should keep us in the love of God! Mark and mind this well: free grace and love sent Jesus Christ into the world with all the train of spiritual blessings. O, meditate and mind the infinite, free love of God in all the sweet streams of it. Dwell on it, be ravished with it, and give the god of grace and love the glory for it forever! Third—Consider the immensity of God’s love. It is as vast as the ocean, but without bounds or bottom. It passes all knowledge. Consideration of this alone has so amazed some devout souls that they have been in an ecstasy, above and beside themselves. Fourth—Consider the unchangeableness of God’s love. This gives a sure anchor and comfort to a true believer in a storm! It is an everlasting, inseparable, invincible, and unquenchable love.
1 JOHN 4:19
We love because he first loved us.

JUDE 21
keep yourselves in the love of God; look forward to the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.

2 TIMOTHY 1:9
who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace, and this grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began,

EPHESIANS 3:17-19
and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

09/02/2026

If God is our exceeding great reward, let us long to take possession of it. Though it should not be a burden to stay on earth and serve him, we should long to have our portion in hand! This is a becoming temperament in a Christian—content to live, desirous to die. When we consider our earthly condition, we are compassed with a body of sin; we cannot pray without wandering; and we cannot believe without doubting. Should not this make us desire to be gone? Think how happy in God the saints above are, beholding the smiling face of God. While we drink wormwood, they swim in honey. Whole we are perplexed between hope and fear, they are enrolled in the book of life. While we are tossed upon turbulent seas, they have arrived at their harbor. If we really knew what a reward God is, and what the joy of our Lord means, we would need patience to be content to stay here any longer! If God is our exceeding great reward, let us be a living organ of his praise. When we consider the greatness of this reward, let us present him with our thank-offering, for many are passed by, and the lot of free grace has fallen upon us! Saints look comely in the garments of praise, and praise is the work of heaven. Let us break forth into doxologies and triumphs. Long for the time when you shall join in concert with angels sounding forth hallelujahs to the King of glory. Monuments of mercy should be patterns of thankfulness. If we lose on earth, as long as God lives, our reward is not lost. I cannot be poor as long as God is rich. Whatever we lose for God we shall find again in him. The disciples left all and followed him. Alsa! Wat had they left? A few small boats and tackling! What are these to the reward? They parted with movable goods for the unchangeable God. All losses are made up in him. We may be losers for God, but we shall not be losers by him.
PHILIPPIANS 1:23
I am hard pressed between the two: my desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better,

PHILIPPIANS 1:23-25
I am hard pressed between the two: my desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better, but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you. Since I am convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with all

09/01/2026

Let us beg God to be our reward. Be earnest suitors, and God can’t find it in his heart to deny you. Prayer is the key of heaven which, being turned by the hand of faith, opens all God’s treasures. If God is our reward, this may teach us contentment. If we have but little oil in the cruse, and our estate is almost boiled away to nothing our great reward is yet to come! Though your pension is small, your portion is large. If God is your deed of gift, this may rock your hearts quiet. God lets the wicked have their pay beforehand, but the saints’ reward is given later; the robe and the ring is yet to come. May not this tune our hearts into contentment? Christian, though God does not give you a goat to make merry with, you can be content with ‘all I have is yours!’ How can you complain of the world’s emptiness when you have God’s fullness? Is not God reward enough? Does a son have any grounds to complain if a father denies him a flower from the garden when he makes him heir to his estate? So Christian, if you do not have much of the world, you do have God, an inexhaustible treasure! Who should be content if not he who has God for his portion, and heaven for his heaven? If God is so great a portion, let those who have an interest in him be cheerful. Let the birds of paradise sing for joy. Shall a carnal man rejoice whose hope leans on earthly crutches? Shall not he rejoice whose treasure is laid up in heaven? Be serious, yet cheerful; a dejected, melancholy temper unfits for duty, especially praising God. Will others think God is a great reward when they see Christians drooping? It is a sin not to rejoice as much as not to repent! Let God take away what he will, he will at last give you better! Be not too much troubled at the diminishing of earthly things—heaven is yours. There you shall tread upon stars, make friends with angels, and commune with the holy Trinity.
JAMES 4:8
Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.