The great and important question for you and me always has been and is now. "How can man be just with God?" I do not deny an interest in the mysteries of providence and the matters of prophecy, but the most important matter to me at all times – and it increases as I grow older and approach the day of judgment – is, "How can I stand before God justified and accepted?" Woe to the man who shall be weighed and found wanting!
"If I justify myself," job declared, "my own mouth would condemn me." If I say that I am without sin and holy enough for God's fellowship, I would be a liar and make God a liar!
But Paul declares "It is God that justifieth." He can, by the substitution and satisfaction of His Son, make the unjust, just and the unclean, clean! He can cover us with a perfect robe of righteousness, so that we are as holy and pure as the Redeemer Himself. And the important thing is that God can justify us in a way that is consistent with His holiness, glorifying to His mercy, honoring to His law and which completely satisfies His justice.
As the first Adam stood before God as the representative and federal head of the whole human race and as it was by his sin that guilt and sin were both imputed and imparted to us, so God in grace sent Christ the second Adam, the Lord Jesus, to stand in our stead that we might in, and through, and by Him, has imputed and imparted to us a perfect righteousness. "By the disobedience of one the many became sinners, so by the obedience of One shall the many be made righteous."
This is the good news to the guilty and good tidings of great joy to the helpless. The great writer and preacher Isaac Watts declared on his death bed, "I bless God that His promises are so plain and simple that I do not need great wisdom to grasp them – my hope is simply in the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ, my Lord!"
About Henry Mahan
Henry T. Mahan was born in Birmingham, Alabama in August 1926. He joined the United States Navy in 1944 and served as a signalman on an L.S.T. in the Pacific during World War II. In 1946, he married his wife Doris, and the Lord blessed them with four children.
At the age of 21, he entered the pastoral ministry and gained broad experience as a pastor, teacher, conference speaker, and evangelist. In 1950, through the preaching of evangelist Rolfe Barnard, God was pleased to establish Henry in sovereign free grace teaching. At that time, he was serving as an assistant pastor at Pollard Baptist Church (off of Blackburn ave.) in Ashland, Kentucky.
In 1955, Thirteenth Street Baptist Church was formed in Ashland, Kentucky, and Henry was called to be its pastor. He faithfully served that congregation for more than 50 years, continuing in the same message throughout his ministry. His preaching was centered on the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified, in full accord with the Scriptures. He consistently proclaimed God’s sovereign purpose in salvation and the glory of Christ in redeeming sinners through His blood and righteousness.
Henry T. Mahan also traveled widely, preaching in conferences and churches across the United States and beyond. His ministry was marked by a clear and unwavering emphasis on Christ, not the preacher, but the One preached. Those who heard him recognized that his sermons honored the Savior and exalted the name of the Lord Jesus Christ above all.
Henry T. Mahan served as pastor and teacher of Thirteenth Street Baptist Church in Ashland, Kentucky for over half a century. His life and ministry were devoted to proclaiming the sovereign grace of God and directing sinners to the finished work of Christ. He entered into the presence of the Lord in 2019, leaving behind a lasting testimony to the gospel he faithfully preached.
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