Sermons & Devotionals by Utmost For His Highest

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord. (Isaiah 6:1) Our soul's history with God is frequently the history of the "passing of the hero." Over and over again God has to remove our friends in order to bring Himself in their place, and that is where we faint and fail and get discouraged... Read More

“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord.” Isaiah 6:1 Our soul's history with God is frequently the history of the "passing of the hero." Over and over again God has to remove our friends in order to bring Himself in their place, and that is where we faint and fail and get discouraged... Read More

“In your patience possess ye your souls.” Luke 21:19 When a man is born again, there is not the same robustness in his thinking or reasoning for a time as formerly. We have to make an expression of the new life, to form the mind of Christ. "Acquire your soul with patience." Many of us prefer to stay... Read More

“We are made as the filth of the world.” 1 Corinthians 4:9-13 These words are not an exaggeration. The reason they are not true of us who call ourselves ministers of the gospel is not that Paul forgot the exact truth in using them, but that we have too many discreet affinities to allow ourselves to ... Read More

“But the high places were not taken away out of Israel; nevertheless the heart of Asa was perfect all his days.” 2 Chronicles 15:17 Asa was incomplete in his external obedience, he was right in the main but not entirely right. Beware of the thing of which you say - "Oh, that does not matter much." T... Read More

“I am crucified with Christ.” Galatians 2:20 No one is ever united with Jesus Christ until he is willing to relinquish not sin only, but his whole way of looking at things. To be born from above of the Spirit of God means that we must let go before we lay hold, and in the first stages it is the reli... Read More

“I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me.” John 12:32 Very few of us have any understanding of the reason why Jesus Christ died. If sympathy is all that human beings need, then the Cross of Christ is a farce, there was no need for it. What the world needs is not "a little bit of love," but a... Read More

“He that believeth in Me . . out of him shall flow… .” John 7:38 Jesus did not say - "he that believeth in Me shall realize the blessing of the fulness of God," but - "he that believeth in Me out of him shall escape everything he receives." Our Lord's teaching is always anti -self-realization. His p... Read More

“Let them that suffer according to the will of God, commit the keeping of their souls to Him in well-doing.” 1 Peter 4:19 To choose to suffer means that there is something wrong; to choose God's Will even if it means suffering is a very different thing. No healthy saint ever chooses suffering; he ch... Read More

But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." ” Galatians 6:14 When a man is first born again, he becomes incoherent, there is an amount of unrelated emotion about him, unrelated phases of external things. In the apostle Paul there was a strong steady coherence und... Read More

“The secret (friendship R.V.) of the Lord is with them that fear Him.” Psalms 25:14 What is the sign of a friend? That he tells you secret Sorrows? No, that he tells you secret joys. Many will confide to you their secret sorrows, but the last mark of intimacy is to confide secret joys. Have we ever ... Read More

“Jesus leadeth them up into a high mountain apart by themselves.” Mark 9:2 We have all had times on the mount, when we have seen things from God's standpoint and have wanted to stay there; but God will never allow us to stay there. The test of our spiritual life is the power to descend; if we have p... Read More

“If Thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us.” Mark 9:22 After every time of exaltation we are brought down with a sudden rush into things as they are where it is neither beautiful nor poetic nor thrilling. The height of the mountain top is measured by the drab drudgery of the val... Read More

“This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.” Mark 9:29 "Why could not we cast him out?" The answer lies in a personal relationship to Jesus Christ. This kind can come forth by nothing but by concentration and redoubled concentration on Him. We can ever remain powerless, as were ... Read More

“Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?” Matthew 7:9 The illustration of prayer that Our Lord uses here is that of a good child asking for a good thing. We talk about prayer as if God heard us irrespective of the fact of our relationship to Him (cf. Matthew... Read More

That I may know Him. (Philippians 3:10) The initiative of the saint is not towards self-realization, but towards knowing Jesus Christ. The spiritual saint never believes circumstances to be haphazard, or thinks of his life as secular and sacred; he sees everything he is dumped down in as the means o... Read More

Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works; not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. (Hebrews 10:24-25) We are all capable of being spiritual sluggards; we do not want to mix with the rough and tumble of life as it is, our one object is to secure retirement. The no... Read More

Till we all come . . unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. (Ephesians 4:13) Rehabilitation means the putting back of the whole human race into the relationship God designed it to be in, and this is what Jesus Christ did in Redemption. The Church ceases to be a spiritual society w... Read More

“Love suffereth long, and is kind …” 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 Love is not premeditated, it is spontaneous, i.e., it bursts up in extraordinary ways. There is nothing of mathematical certainty in Paul's category of love. We cannot say - "Now I am going to think no evil; I am going to believe all things."... Read More

“Son of man, can these bones live?” Ezekiel 37:3 Can that sinner be turned into a saint? Can that twisted life be put right? There is only one answer: "0 Lord, Thou knowest, I don't." Never trample in with religious common sense and say - "Oh, yes, with a little more Bible reading and devotion and p... Read More