Sermons & Devotionals by Utmost For His Highest

“But ye are … a royal priesthood.” 1 Peter 2:9 By what right do we become "a royal priesthood"? By the right of the Atonement. Are we prepared to leave ourselves resolutely alone and to launch out into the priestly work of prayer? The continual grubbing on the inside to see whether we are what we ou... Read More

“Blessed are the poor in spirit.” Matthew 5:3 The New Testament notices things which from our standards do not seem to count. "Blessed are the poor in spirit," literally - Blessed are the paupers - an exceedingly commonplace thing! The preaching of to-day is apt to emphasize strength of will, beauty... Read More

“My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words.” 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 Paul was a scholar and an orator of the first rank; he is not speaking out of abject humility; but saying that he would veil the power of God if, when he preached the gospel, he impressed people with his "excellency of spe... Read More

“Watch with Me.” Matthew 26:40 "Watch with Me" - with no private point of view of your own at all, but watch entirely with Me. In the early stages we do not watch with Jesus, we watch for Him. We do not watch with Him through the revelation of the Bible; in the circumstances of our lives. Our Lord i... Read More

“Behold, we go up to Jerusalem.” Luke 18:31 In the natural life our ambitions alter as we develop; in the Christian life the goal is given at the beginning, the beginning and the end are the same, viz., Our Lord Himself. We start with Christ and we end with Him - "until we all attain to the stature ... Read More

“Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am.” John 13:13 To have a master and to be mastered is not the same thing. To have a master means that there is one who knows me better than I know myself, one who is closer than a friend, one who fathoms the remotest abyss of my heart and satis... Read More

“The friend of the Bridegroom.” John 3:29 Goodness and purity ought never to attract attention to themselves, they ought simply to be magnets to draw to Jesus Christ. If my holiness is not drawing towards Him, it is not holiness of the right order, but an influence that will awaken inordinate affect... Read More

“And he said, Who art Thou, Lord?” Acts 9:6 By the miracle of Redemption Saul of Tarsus was turned in one second from a strong-willed, intense Pharisee into a humble, devoted slave of the Lord Jesus. There is nothing miraculous about the things we can explain. We command what we are able to explain,... Read More

“For He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” Hebrews 8:5 What line does my thought take? Does it turn to what God says or to what I fear? Am I learning to say not what God says, but to say something after I have heard what He says? "He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsak... Read More

“For every one that asketh receiveth.” Luke 11:10 There is nothing more difficult than to ask. We will long and desire and crave and suffer, but not until we are at the extreme limit will we ask. A sense of unreality makes us ask. Have you ever asked out of the depths of moral poverty? "If any of yo... Read More

“Seek, and ye shall find.” Luke 11:9 "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss." If you ask for things from life instead of from God, you ask amiss, i.e., you ask from a desire for self-realization. The more you realize yourself the less will you seek God. "Seek, and ye shall find." Get to work... Read More

“How much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him?” Matthew 7:11 Jesus is laying down rules of conduct for those who have His Spirit. By the simple argument of these verses He urges us to keep our minds filled with the notion of God's control behind every thin... Read More

“And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.” Galatians 5:2 The natural life is not sinful; we must be apostatized from sin, have nothing to do with sin in any shape or form. Sin belongs to hell and the devil; I, as a child of God, belong to heaven and God. It ... Read More

“Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.” Galatians 4:22 Paul is not dealing with sin in this chapter of Galatians, but with the relation of the natural to the spiritual. The natural must be turned into the spiritual by sacrifice, otherwise a tremendous divorce will be... Read More

“I have appeared unto thee for this purpose.” Acts 26:16 The vision Paul had on the road to Damascus was no passing emotion, but a vision that had very clear and emphatic directions for him, and he says, "I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision." Our Lord said, in effect, to Paul - Your whole l... Read More

“For the love of Christ constraineth us.” 2 Corinthians 5:14 Paul says he is overruled, overmastered, held as in a vice, by the love of Christ. Very few of us know what it means to be held in a grip by the love of God; we are held by the constraint of our experience only. The one thing that held Pau... Read More

“I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord.” Jeremiah 1:8 God promised Jeremiah that He would deliver him personally - "Thy life will I give unto thee for a prey." That is all God promises His children. Wherever God sends us, He will guard our lives. Our personal property and possessions are a ... Read More

“Though it tarry, wait for it.” Habakkuk 2:3 Patience is not indifference; patience conveys the idea of an immensely strong rock withstanding all onslaughts. The vision of God is the source of patience, because it imparts a moral inspiration. Moses endured, not because he had an ideal of right and d... Read More

“Because thou hast kept the word of My patience.” Revelation 3:10 Patience is more than endurance. A saint's life is in the hands of God like a bow and arrow in the hands of an archer. God is aiming at something the saint cannot see, and He stretches and strains, and every now and again the saint sa... Read More

“I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the barbarians.” Romans 1:14 Paul was overwhelmed with the sense of his indebtedness to Jesus Christ, and he spent himself to express it. The great inspiration in Paul's life was his view of Jesus Christ as his spiritual creditor. Do I feel that sense of indeb... Read More