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Henry Mahan

The Smitten Rock

Exodus 17:1-6
Henry Mahan • February, 27 2002 • Audio
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Message: 1548b
Henry Mahan Tape Ministry
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Sermon Transcript

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Exodus 17. Let's turn to Exodus
17. The smitten rock. Exodus 17. And all the congregation
of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, that's
Paran, after their journeys, according to the commandment
of the Lord, And they pitched and referred them. There was
no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people did chide
or contend with Moses and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why
chide ye with me? Wherefore do you tempt the Lord?
And the people thirsted there for water. And the people murmured
against Moses, and they said, Wherefore is this, that thou
hast brought us up out of Egypt to kill us, and our children,
and our cattle?" With thirst. And Moses cried unto the Lord,
saying, What shall I do unto this people? They be almost ready
to stone me. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Now go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders
of Israel, and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take
it in thy hand, and go. Behold, I will stand before thee
there upon the rock in Ored, and thou shalt smite the rock,
and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink."
And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. Now
those people who neglect the Old Testament scriptures and
just don't read the Old Testament. And of many, that's true. They
just neglect the Old Testament scriptures. They rob themselves
of some of the most precious, comforting words of our God. I don't recommend that people
who do not know the Lord stay in the Old Testament. I recommend
they read the Gospels and the Book of Romans and the Book of
Hebrews and the Epistles. But for you and I who have met
Christ Jesus, whom we know to be the fulfillment of all Scripture,
we can spend as much time in the Old Testament as we please. And we'll grow in the knowledge
of Christ. Spending time in the Old Testament will enable you
to grow in the knowledge of Christ, just like Dale, that Scripture
you read tonight. on the ashes of the red heifer.
These are pictures of Christ. These are types of Christ. All
the scriptures, the Old Testament scriptures concern Christ. That's right, His person and
His redeeming work. He died for our sins according
to the Old Testament scriptures. He was buried in Rose again according
to the scriptures. For example, when Israel mourned
in bondage in the land of Egypt, the Lord gave them the Passover
lamb and instructed them how they should kill the lamb, roast
its body with fire, and put the blood upon the door, and they
would be delivered. When I see the blood, I will pass over you.
This is the Lord's Passover. And over in the book of 1 Corinthians,
Paul says, Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us. So if you
want to study Christ, our Passover, you're going to have to study
Israel's Passover, because He is that Passover fulfilled. When
Israel hungered in the wilderness and cried for food, and God gave
them manna from heaven, they'd get up every morning and there
it would be on the ground. They would gather it, and it's
so sweet as honey. Sweet to the taste. Well, that
wasn't done just to satisfy the hunger of Israel. That bread's
Christ. He's the bread of life. In fact,
when the Israelites confronted our Savior, they said, Moses
gave us that bread from heaven. He said, Moses didn't give you
the bread from heaven. My Father gave you the bread
from heaven. And I am that bread. I am the
bread of life. He that eateth of me shall never
die, never hunger. That bread is Christ. You just
have to read that over there, the manna. And then when the
people were bitten by the fire serpents for their great sin
and murmuring against God, our Lord commanded Moses to lift
up the blazing serpent on a pole, and whosoever looked would live.
Christ our Lord said, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, under the same circumstances, because of the same judgment,
murmuring against God, and people were bitten and dying, so must
the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth on him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. That's the Old Testament. hundreds and hundreds of pictures
and types and promises. I've written down here some names
of Christ from the Old Testament and the New Testament. Most of
them are from the Old Testament. The names of our Lord. How many
can you name? Names of our Lord. I put them
in alphabetical order. He's Alpha and Omega. He's the
Advocate. He's the Amen. He's the Brazen
Serpent. He's the bread of life. He's
the bridegroom. He's our brother. He's the captain
of our salvation. He's the conqueror. He's the
cornerstone. He's the counselor. He's the
covert from the storm. He's the desire of all nations.
He's the forerunner. He's the fountain of life. He's
a friend of sinners. He's a Galilean. He's the king. Not just the king, but the king
of kings. He's God, the mighty God. He's
the husband. He's the head of the church.
He's the image of God, image of the Father. He's Emmanuel.
He's the infant of days. He's Jesus. He's Joshua. He's
the judge. He's the ladder, Jacob saw. He's
the Lamb of God. He's the leader. He's the life.
He's the light. He's the Lord of all. He's the
Lord Divine. He's the Mediator. He's the Messiah.
He's the Mighty God. He's the Morning Star. He's the
Physician. He's the Pilot. He's the Priest
of God. He's that Prophet. He's our Redeemer. He's our Rock. He's our Savior,
our Shepherd. He's the Son of David. He's the
Son of God. He's the Son of Man. He's the
Son of Jacob. He's the Son of Righteousness
that rises with healing in His wings. He's the Teacher. He's
the Tree of Life. He's the Truth. He's the Wisdom. He's the Righteousness. He's
Sanctification. He's Redemption. He is the Word of God. Sixty
names. And I didn't begin to touch it.
All the names of our Lord. He's everything. He's altogether
lovely. He's all and in all. My, my.
And here in our text, in this passage of Scripture, we read
about a rock that's been smitten. And Paul said in 1 Corinthians
chapter 5 verse 10, or 10 verse 5, that rock is Christ. This
rock we're going to read. The Lord told Moses, smite the
rock. That rock, Paul said, is Christ. So let's look at it,
starting at verse 1 in chapter 17 of Exodus. And all the children
of the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the
wilderness of sin. This wilderness of sin, it's
not sin like sins. It's the wilderness, that was
the name of it, it's Paran. And you know something that people
need to know about the journeyings of Israel? In early days, I used to think
they wandered around in a barren, waterless, lifeless, griceless
wilderness. Because the word wilderness to
me kind of indicates that. But it is not a desert except
in a few isolated places. If you'll study that land around
Sinai, And down in that area, the only barren wasteland was
just in places occasionally. They were journeying over a land
that had water and springs and wells, except where the springs
were dry and the wells were not producing or the rivers were
dry. But most of the time, see they had cattle. Israel was not
just people wandering around doing nothing. They had sheep
and goats and cattle. They had, there were two or three
million of them. And it was just like a nation
moving with families and tents and cattle and all these things.
But they came to this place here, and listen to this. They were
journeying from the wilderness of sin after their journeys,
and they were journeying according to the commandment of the Lord.
Every stop they made was by it. The cloud stopped. Every time
they moved, the cloud moved. And where the cloud moved, they
followed. Isn't that correct? They were following, they were
journeying after the commandments of the Lord. And we go through
our wilderness, and we go through our waterless places, and we
go through our mountains, experiences, and our valleys, but we also
are journeying after the commandments of the Lord. The steps of a righteous
man are ordered by the Lord. And this was it, wilderness.
This was Israel. They were following the leadership
of the Lord. Well, they came to this place
in Rephidim, and there was no water for the people to drink.
There was no water there. And so what happened? The people
murmured. They did contend with Moses,
and they said, Give us water that we may drink. Moses said
to them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt the Lord?
And the people thirsted there for water. And the people murmured
against Moses and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought
us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children, our cattle,
our sheep and oxen? People murmured. You know, if
we didn't know something about the evil
nature of men and a deceitful heart, you know, Jeremiah said
the heart's deceitful, desperately wicked. Who can know it? We'd
be at a loss to understand these people murmuring against the
providence of God. It's hard to explain their unbelief
when they'd seen so much. They had been recipients of so
much, they seemed to be just insensible to the goodness of
God and the mighty acts of God. He just brought them out of slavery.
They were not free men. And he parted the Red Sea and
took them through and delivered them from the clutches of the
armies of Pharaoh and destroyed the armies of Pharaoh. He had
given them bread from heaven. He had rained down quail for
them to kill and eat. They fared pretty good. Pretty
good. An amazing thing, if you turn
back just one page in Exodus, He just recently provided them
with water. You remember, look at Exodus
chapter 15, just two chapters back. Exodus 15, verse 23. And they came to Marah, and they
could not drink of the waters of Marah because they were bitter.
Therefore, the name of the place was called Marah, bitterness.
And the people murmured against Moses. You know, the only way
I can explain this about these people, these were not regenerated
people. They just were not. You know,
Paul said the gospel was preached unto them, but it did not profit
them because of unbelief. This was a nation of unbelievers.
This was a nation of rebels. We were not regenerated people.
And the Lord right here, let's read the rest of that. People
murmured against Moses, what shall we drink? And he cried
unto the Lord. And the Lord showed him a tree,
which when he had cast it into the waters, the waters were made
sweet. And there he made for them a statute and an ordinance,
and there he proved them. And he said, if you are diligent
and hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and you do what
is right, and you give ear to his commandments and keep his
statutes, I put none of these diseases upon thee which I brought
upon the Egyptians, for I am the Lord that healeth thee. But
these were not regenerated people. They did not know the Lord. And
here are some comments from different writers about them. Listen to
this. The evil heart of Israel was always ready to depart from
the living God. The tendency of their natural
hearts was not to believe God, but to doubt God. I hope that
can't be said about us. These men talked about the greatness
of God, but they allowed the smallest cloud to completely
cover his face. The age-old questions arose in
excellence in the Old Testament, Just like it arose in the New
Testament and still occupies the mind of men today. What shall
we drink? What shall we eat? What shall
we wear? Well, let's hold that exodus
and go over to Matthew. You and I, we have the answer. Our Lord gave us the answer.
Matthew chapter 6. We have it. We have that. We do not murmur
against our Lord. He says in Matthew 6, verse 32, our Lord said in verse 31, he
says, Therefore, to the believer, to the regenerated soul, therefore
take no thoughts, saying, What shall we eat? What shall we drink? Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
For it is after all these things that the Gentiles seek, Here's
our answer. Your heavenly Father knoweth
you have need of all these things, but seek ye first the kingdom
of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be
added unto you. Therefore, take no thought, no
anxiety, worrisome thought, murmuring spirit about tomorrow, Tomorrow
shall take thought for the things of itself. Don't be taken up
with the cares and the troubles of tomorrow. Sufficient under
the day is the evil thereof. Another scripture, Paul said,
but my God shall supply all your needs according to his riches
in glory through Christ Jesus. And Paul said this, I know how
to abound and I know how to be abased and I've learned. And
whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. But not these
folks. All right, back to my text. Not
these folks. In Exodus chapter 17, now verse 4. Let's see what
happens here. And Moses cried unto the Lord,
saying, What shall I do unto these people? What shall I do? You know what Moses is saying
there? He's saying, Lord, I can't do anything with them. Moses
is declaring his inability to provide for the people, his inability
to aid them or help them or even know what to do. His prayer,
though, expresses his confidence in the Lord to provide. He said,
Lord, what shall I do? What do you want me to do? They're
ready to stone me. All right, here's where we're
going to see the type of Christ, now the picture of our Lord.
And knowing that rock is Christ, we know how to apply it. First
of all, we're in Rephidim just like they were, the place of
no water. That's what David called this
world in Psalm 63. Listen to this, I'll turn to
it and read it to you. Psalm 63, David said, O God,
thou art my God, Early will I seek thee, my soul thirsteth for thee,
my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where
no water is. That's where we are. That's where
we are. The human well is dry, in Adam
we all die. In the flesh no man can please
God. The ceremonial well is dry by the deeds of the law. No flesh
shall be justified. The religious well is dry. Our
Lord said you can come from sea and land and make one proselyte
to your religion. After you have made him, he is
twofold more the child of hell than you are. And the Lord summed
it up in one sentence to the apostles. They said, Lord, who
can do such? He said, with me it is impossible.
just plain impossible. With me in salvation, eternal
life, redemption is impossible. But not with God. With God, all
things are possible. So let's see what God himself
says. All right. What are we going
to do? All right, verse 5. And the Lord
said to Moses, Now you go on before the people. You go before the people. God
uses men. Now watch this. You go before
the people. Our Lord in Malachi said, Behold,
I send my messenger before me. He will go before me. That's
John the Baptist. My messenger will go before me.
There will be a forerunner. Go before Christ. In John chapter
1 verse 6, there was a man sent from God whose name was John.
He came as a witness. of the life. Moses, go before
the people. You go before the people. God
will send a messenger, God will send a preacher, God will send
his servant before the people. They are going to hear through
the man. And then he says, take the elders
of Israel with you. This is not a one-man ministry.
Take the elders with you. They will be witnesses of the
miracle. All the way through this word, it says every word
has to be established by two or three witnesses. Back in the
land of Israel, they weren't allowed to try anybody on the
word of one witness. One witness could not convict,
condemn, or bring judgment on anybody. Couldn't do it. They
would just throw it completely out. Had to be two or three. They had to agree in one. So the Lord said, Moses, don't
be afraid. Now you go before the people. We'll use you. But
take the elders with you. We'll have some witnesses. Suppose
Moses had gone alone and came back, went up there where God
told him to go, up towards Sinai out to Horeb. And he came back
and says, I struck a rock up there with my rod, and enough
water is coming down through there like a river. They'd have
never believed him. They'd have said, Moses, you
didn't find a rock and strike it with a rod. You went up there
and found a river. That's what you did. But he,
God said, he's like the elders with you. Witnesses. Everything's
got to be witnesses. Our Lord did that. When our Lord
in John 5, he said this, If I testify only of myself, my witness is
not true. He said, The Father bore witness
of me. John the Baptist bore witness
of me. The works that I do bear witness of me, and the scripture
bears witness of me. Those are my witnesses, undeniable
witnesses. God the Father, God through the miracles, God
in the scriptures, and God in His witness, His man, His prophets. Those who go forth to it, take
the elders with you, witnesses. And he says, and take with thee
the elders, and take your rod. Take the rod wherever you smoke
the river. Take it in your hand and go.
What is this rod? I'll tell you what it is. It's
the Word of God. It's the Word of God. Let's go
back and see if I can make good on that. Turn to Exodus 4. Got
to be the Word of God. Got to be the Word of God. That's
the only way God creates. Creates by His Word. Begets. He's begotten us with the Word.
That's the way God destroys. With the Word. That's the way
God sent the flood. Destroyed the world. By Word.
That's how He protects and preserves the world. We have the promise
of the Word. Word, Word, Word, Word, Word.
Alright. Here in Exodus 4. In verse 1-5, watch it, Exodus
4-1, Moses answered and said, Lord, behold, they are not going
to believe me. Now, they wouldn't. I don't blame
them. There was an 80-year-old man that had been out in the
wilderness for 40 years, taking care of sheep, and he wandered
in and said, the Lord sent me to deliver you all. I wouldn't
believe him either. You wouldn't either. They won't leave me and
they won't hearken to my voice. They'll say, well, I haven't
appeared to you. You got any proof? And the Lord
said to him, what's that in your hand? Oh boy, what you got in
your hand? I'll tell you what I've got in
my hand. There it is. That's the proof. What you got
in your hand, Moses? I've got a rod. Throw it on the
ground. That's just a rod, but when God's
in it, something happens big. It's just a rod. And this right
here is just words on paper. Black words on white paper. Same
words in a register's dictionary. Same words in Mary Had a Little
Lamb. Same words that are in this phony religious magazine.
Just the words. But when it's God's Word, when
God speaks, when God's in it, well, watch out. That's right. Throw it on the ground. He cast
it on the ground and it became a serpent. By Moses' power, No,
so Moses fled from it. Scared Moses by God's power. God can take the Word written
by Peter, Paul, James, and John and make it the power of God
unto salvation. Convincing power, convicting power, converting
power, changing power, all. And the Lord said to Moses, put
forth your hand, take it by the tail. And he put it forth his
hand, caught it, and it became a rod. Why? That they may believe that the
Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,
the God of Jacob hath appeared unto you. They'll believe it
when I speak. They'll believe it when I act.
They'll believe it when I take that which is ordinary and common,
which you hold in your hand, and I make it my word, my voice,
my commandment. He can make dead words He can
make a dead rod live. He can make words on paper live,
too. Take it in your hand. There is
power in the Word. Let me read you a scripture over
here from Jeremiah 23, 29. He says, Is not... Now, he says
the preacher that has a dream, let him tell his dream. But he
that's got my word, let him speak my word faithfully. Is not my
word like a fire? A fire? Yes, sir. His word is,
not mine, is it? Is my word not like a hammer
that can break a rock in pieces, a stony heart, flashed as a smithereen? My word, Lord. That's right.
All right, Moses, you go now before the people. You take the
elders with you as witnesses. Y'all are going to sing. Y'all
are going to be in the heavenly choir. Y'all are going to sing
a quartet and an octet and a sextet and all the others. All of you
are going to say the same thing. And you take that rod in your
hand where the one wants you to smoke the river. Smoke the
river. That rod was a rod of judgment.
He smoked the river and it turned to blood. He smoked the dust
and it turned to lice. That's why he took that run and
smoked the dust and everybody had lice crawling everywhere.
There was a grain of dust that was a lice, louse. What's the
plural for lice? I don't know. One louse and a lice and another
lice. All right. But he smoked the
dust and it turned to lice. Our God smoked the firstborn.
And he died. But watch this. Take it in your hand and go.
And verse 6, Behold, I will stand upon the rock. I will stand there
upon the rock. A lot of folks get the idea,
and Frank and I are talking about this. This is a little rock here,
you know, Moses. This rock of Rephidim, John Gill
says it's still there. Of course, John Gill wrote 400
years ago. But he said, 400 years ago, he
said Dr. Shaw, before 1600, wrote this. He said, I was on a journey to
Sinai. That's where this rock Horeb
is. It's right by Sinai. You come down Sinai as a mountain,
there's Horeb. And we descended the western side of Mount Sinai,
and we came upon the plains of Rephidim, and we saw what the
Arabs believed to be the rock of Rephidim, Moses' rock, which
continues to this day. And he said, what they showed
me was a rock six yards square. Six yards square, big rock. And
like he's talking about, it's got those holes in it, if they
believed the water came through. I don't know, but a lot of things. Jordan River's
still there. Mount Sinai's still there. Bethlehem's still there. And
so why wouldn't the rock still be there? But this is not a little
rock. This is a big rock. This is a
rock. And this rock, God stands on it. It's a rock that looks
like a lot of other rocks, like Christ our Lord looked like a
lot of other men. God was in Christ. Without controversy, great is
the mystery. God was manifest in the flesh. Scene of the angels, vindicated
by the Spirit, preached to the Gentiles, believed on in the
world. God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself. So God
says, I'll be on the rock. And you take your rod, listen,
and you smite that rock. Just like you smote the river
with judgment, it turned to blood. Smote the death, turned to lice.
I smote the firstborn. You smote the Red Sea and it
split in half. You smite that rock. And there will come water out
of it. And I want to tell you something about that water coming
out of that rock now. But Deuteronomy, turn to Deuteronomy 8, it describes
that rock here. I hadn't seen this before, so
I don't know how I missed it, but I could have missed a lot
of things. But it says here in Deuteronomy 8.15, God lived thee through that great
terrible wilderness wherein were fire serpents and scorpions and
drought where there was no water, who brought thee forth water
out of the rock of hardness, durableness, strength of it,
a rock of flame. And then Moses smote the rock,
Numbers 20 says, and water came out, what was the word? Abundantly. Abundantly, so that the congregation
drank, and their flocks and their cattle. Like I told you, this
was a nation of people, and people and cattle and The sheep and
the oxen, it came out abundantly. Now here are two scriptures,
Psalm 78. Let's read this reference to the Mount of Water. It came
from that rock. Psalm 78, verse 20. David is talking here about that
rock. He said in Psalm 78, 20, Behold, he smote the rock, and
the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed. It wasn't
a trickle, was it? Plenty of water. Psalm 105. Psalm
105. Verse 41. Psalm 105, 41. He opened
the rock, and the waters gushed out. They ran in dry places like a river. Verse 6 of chapter 17 again,
Behold, God said, I will stand before thee there upon the rock,
and over them, and I shall smite the rock. Our Lord Jesus Christ
was smitten of God. That's what Isaiah wrote over
in Isaiah 53. That's the reason that I have
not one doubt anywhere in my mind that this This instance
over here and this experience over here is not God teaching
us about the personal work of Christ, do you? This is Christ.
It says in Isaiah 53, But he was wounded. Now, verse 4, Surely
he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows. We did esteem
him stricken, smitten of God. Christ was smitten of God and
afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was
bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, with his stripes we are healed. Verse 10, It pleased
the Lord to bruise him, he hath put him to grieve. When thou
shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed,
he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hands. He shall see the travail of his
soul and be satisfied. And by his knowledge shall my
righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities."
That rock is Christ. The same as the Passover lamb,
the same as the uplifted serpent, the same as the bread broken
at the Lord's table, that's Christ. The same as the wine which is
poured forth, it's Christ. And here are five lessons I want
to leave with you before we go. concerning the smitten rock.
The first is the rock gave no water till it was smitten. Christ died for our sins. He
was smitten of God and afflicted. He took all of our judgment in
his body on the tree. Secondly, from that rock came
water to satisfy our thirst. But John 19 says they pierced
his side. He was smitten of God, they pierced
his side, and forthwith came out blood and water. By pure
water our sins are cleansed and sanctified, and we come before
God pure and clean. And by blood, expiation and satisfaction
is made, and we come before God reconciled and justified. We sang it while ago. Did you
notice those words by Toplady? I know you did. Rock of ages,
cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the
blood from thy wounded side which flowed, smitten rock, water and
blood, from thy wounded side which flowed, be of sin a double
cure. save from wrath, justified blood,
make me pure, cleansed with the washing of the word, cleansed. Justified by the blood, sanctified,
washed, pure and white with the water. Thirdly, that rock gave
no water till it was smitten, The rock Christ Jesus from his
side flowed blood and water, blood to justify, water to sanctify,
and that rock is the foundation, the chief cornerstone on which
the living temple, this church, is built. He said, Who am I? Peter said, You are the Christ.
You are the Son of the living God. You are the Alpha, Advocate,
Mediator. Prophet, priest, all those names
I gave you, that's who you are. He said, blessed are you. On
this rock, I built my church. Those are the folks, you read
it, your chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a
peculiar people. Living stones built on these
stones. Stop Christ Jesus. I kept reading about that rock,
the size of it. And the river, the words he used
was abundantly. Streams, rivers of water. And it's free to everybody that's
thirsty. Everybody. And it's abundant. I'm come that they might have
life and have it how? I told you that story, but I'm
going to tell it again. When you get my age, you tell
a lot of things again. You know about that. Half of
you do. But anyway, this old man got his Social Security check,
and he went down to the bank to have it cashed. He gave it
to the girl in the window there, and she counted out, gave it
to him, and he counted. And he counted again. Cars were lined
up back there. He counted again. She shifted
one foot to the other and watched him. He counted a third time.
Well, she said, isn't it all there? He said, it just barely
is. That's not the way the water
flows. It flows abundantly. It's satisfied. I tried. Old
Spurgeon said to that little mouse that was eating corn out
of that silo that was 35 feet high and about 15 feet around,
he said, little mouse, he said, you don't need to worry about
running out of something to eat, you just keep on eating. You
don't have to worry about running out of grace. Mercy. The visions of God. Plenty. Plenty where that came from.
And the fifth thing, this salvation, this water from the rock, was
not just for those who witnessed the smiting. They wandered in that well in
its 38 years. It was kept on water. And there were babies born. Babies
born. Lots of them. Lots of them. But that water was not just to
satisfy those that were there when it was smitten. The rock
was smitten and flowed out. It says that rock followed them.
You know what it says? That rock cried and it followed
them. Now I can't explain that, but I just know they had plenty
of water. Because it was not only for those that witnessed
the smiting when it took place, but it was for those who came
along years later. Because he said, I have sheep
that are not of this fold only, I have sheep that I must bring,
and they shall hear my voice, and they'll drink of this water
too." They'll drink too. And those that are, like you
prayed for them a while ago, they'll drink too. Somebody's
going to stand right here and tell them what I and these other
preachers have told you. You're going to tell them about
this rock. Somebody's going to stand right
here about 15 years from now and preach. on this rock and
somebody's going to drink. That's right. Never run dry.
All right. Let's sing the solid rock that
Mike lead us in two seconds.
Henry Mahan
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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