Bootstrap
Henry Mahan

The Grace of God

Ephesians 2:8-10
Henry Mahan • September, 20 1992 • Audio
0 Comments
Message: 1076a
Henry Mahan Tape Ministry
6088 Zebulon Highway
Pikeville, KY 41501
What does the Bible say about the grace of God?

The Bible teaches that salvation is by grace through faith, which is a gift from God and not of our own doing.

In Ephesians 2:8-10, we see that salvation is entirely by grace. It emphasizes that we did not earn our salvation through works; instead, it is a gift from God. This grace is not just about favor but encompasses God's entire redemptive plan, showcasing His attributes such as sovereignty, justice, and love. Grace is crucial because it underlines our total dependence on God for salvation, reminding us that we are His workmanship, created for good works ordained by Him.

Ephesians 2:8-10

How do we know that salvation is by grace alone?

Salvation is by grace alone as affirmed by Scripture, emphasizing that it is God's unmerited favor without any human contribution.

The doctrine of salvation by grace alone is foundational in Reformed theology, supported by Ephesians 2:8-9. This passage indicates that salvation is a gift, not contingent on our works or merits. It is crucial for believers to understand that grace does not require any human efforts to be effective. God's sovereignty ensures that He alone carries out the act of salvation, showing that His grace is sufficient for even the most unworthy among us. It illustrates that our position before God relies solely on His actions, not our own.

Ephesians 2:8-9

Why is the grace of God important for Christians?

The grace of God is essential for Christians as it ensures that salvation and forgiveness are entirely gifts from God, independent of our actions.

Grace is fundamental in the life of a Christian because it underscores the entirety of our salvation experience. It affirms that God, in His mercy and love, acts to rescue us from sin without our deserving it. The grace of God provides assurance, as we realize that our sins do not disqualify us from His mercy. Instead, our unworthiness magnifies His grace, allowing us to approach Him in faith and repentance, strengthened by the knowledge that we are upheld by His power and not our own efforts. Moreover, it cultivates an attitude of humility and gratitude, as we recognize that our salvation is by God's initiative alone.

Ephesians 2:8-10, Romans 5:8, Titus 3:5

What does grace mean in the context of salvation?

Grace in the context of salvation refers to God's unmerited favor that assures believers of their redemption through Christ's work.

In salvation, grace represents God's unmerited favor towards humanity, allowing individuals to be saved through faith alone. Ephesians 2:8-9 articulates that we cannot earn salvation; it is entirely God's gift. The grace of God manifests His love and mercy, as He forgave our sins not because of our actions but due to His character and will. It emphasizes that no matter how deep our sin or how long we have lived in rebellion, God's grace is sufficient to redeem and transform us. Furthermore, grace leads to the empowerment of believers to live righteously as they are created in Christ for good works.

Ephesians 2:8-10, Romans 6:14

Can anyone be excluded from the grace of God?

No one is excluded from the grace of God as it is available to all who will receive it, regardless of their past sins.

The grace of God is universally accessible, affirming that no one is beyond its reach. The idea is supported by passages like Ephesians 2:8-9, which highlight the unconditional nature of God's gift of salvation. It does not depend on our worth or actions; rather, it is offered freely to all who recognize their need and accept it in faith. The only ones excluded are those who refuse to embrace this grace, preferring to rely on their own efforts or merits. This underscores the inclusive nature of the Gospel, promoting the truth that God's grace can redeem even the most broken and lost.

Ephesians 2:8-9, Romans 10:13

Sermon Transcript

Auto-generated transcript • May contain errors

100%
Last Sunday morning I spoke to
you on the subject, the God of all grace, the God of all grace. This morning I'm speaking on
the subject, the grace of God, the grace of that God who's the
God of all grace. Paul said one of his fears, talking
to the Church of I fear. I fear. Paul uses that term frequently. I fear less preaching to others,
I become a castaway. And here he says, I fear less
by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through
his craftiness, through his subtlety. So your minds should be corrupted
from the simplicity that's in Christ. I'm going to try to preach this
morning on the grace of God with simplicity. As if I were speaking to a class
of very small young people, very young, young people. My text is Ephesians 2, verse
8. Let's look at it. Verse 8, 9,
and 10. For by grace are you saved, or
have you been saved, through faith. And that's not of yourself. It's not of yourself. It's the
gift of God. This grace is the gift of God.
This salvation is the gift of God. This faith is the gift of
God. It's all the gift of God. It's not of works. Lest any man
should be inclined to boast. Lest any man should feel impressed
to boast about what he's done for God, let him remember it's
not of works. Lest any man should boast. We're
his workmanship. We're his workmanship. John Howsam makes model airplanes. You go to his home, he'll show
you, these are my workmanship. This is what I've done. Some
of you have projects, crafts that you make. When anyone comes
to visit you, you say, this is my work. And I'll tell you, when
God points to one of his redeemed ones, he said, that's my work.
I did that. I did it all. We're his workmanship. We're His workmanship from beginning
to end. There's nothing that we do ourselves,
far or upon ourselves, or in ourselves. It's God that worketh
in you, both to will and to do His good pleasure. Verse 10,
we're His workmanship. We're created. That's something
we can't do. When we, when we, John makes
a model airplane, he doesn't create a thing. He puts parts
together. He went to the store and bought
those parts and put them together. And he can say, this is my workmanship,
but there's a sense in which it's not his workmanship. There's
a switch in which somebody else contributed something to it.
But when God points to one of you and says, this is my workmanship,
he created us. There wasn't anything to begin
with. There wasn't anything to work with. We didn't bring anything
to God to work with. He created us. We didn't have
spiritual life, we didn't have repentance, we didn't have faith,
we didn't even want God. We didn't want to be his workmanship.
He created us in Christ Jesus on two good works and ordained
everything that God does, he ordained to do. Predestined,
that's what the word means. He ordained, he predestined us
that we should walk in them. The old-timers used to talk about
the attributes of God. We've got a book in the library
by Arthur Pink on the attributes of God. And I know there are
a lot of young people here this morning who would say, well,
what's an attribute? Well, that's characteristic. That's character.
The character of God. The characteristics of God. The
attributes of God, or what's God like? Who is God? Well, God
is holy. Immaculately, infinitely holy.
God is sovereign, all-powerful, almighty, omnipotent. Omnipotent means all-powerful.
God is wise. The wisdom of God. God is just. God is righteous. God is unchangeable,
immutable. God is eternal. And God is good. God is love. And there's no place,
there's no one place where all of these attributes of God, where
the whole character of God, the whole character of God is on
display and revealed like in the redemption and like in the
salvation of sinners. In the salvation of sinners you
see all of God, all of God. Salvation is not only all of
God, but in salvation you have revealed to you all of God, all
of his attributes. For example, his wisdom, his
wisdom. Christ Jesus is the wisdom of
God. That's what Scripture says. When
you see Christ in his eternality, in his deity, in his incarnation,
in his redemptive work, in his death, in his glory, that's the
wisdom of God. the wisdom and power of God.
Christ crucified is the wisdom of God. And then also in our
redemption, God's sovereignty is manifested. Everything that
they did to Christ, God prophesied and foreordained from eternity. He was the lamb slain before
the foundation of the world. The plucking of his beard, the
spitting in his face, the laceration of his back, the selling of Christ
by Judas for 30 pieces of silver, 18 silver dollars. 30 pieces
of silver, but 18 dollars the equivalent. That's in the scripture. Everything's in there. God ordained
it. They did what God determined
before to be done. You see his sovereignty, his
purpose in all that's done. That's revealed in the death
of Christ. There are no accidents involved in this redemption of
his people. Everything's on schedule. The
scripture says, known unto God are all his works from the beginning. And then the justice of God is
revealed. God's justice is satisfied in
Christ. Job asked this question three
or four times. How can man be just with God? How can, how can man this born
of a woman, be clean, be holy. How can God accept a human on
an equal equality with him? Two can't walk together except
they be aggrieved. And how can behold the moon,
it shineth not. The spires are not clean in God's
sight. How much more abominable and
filthy is man who drinks iniquity like the water? Job keeps asking,
how can this be equal with that? How can this depravity and wickedness, be
clean. Well, how can God's law be honored
and his justice satisfied? That's what Christ did. He came
down here as a representative. He came down here in human flesh
in the form of a servant, and as a man he obeyed the law. As
a man he went to the cross as the God-man and died, and there
he satisfied God's justice He died to bring us to God. He died
what? The just for the unjust. God
sent him forth to be a propitiation that he might be what? Just and
justified. So everything God required of
me and of you is fulfilled. Christ fulfilled it. All that
justice demanded, God fulfilled in Christ. His justice is on
display. in his holiness. How do you see
holiness in a crucifixion? How can you see anything in a
crucifixion but base human nature and hatred? I see holiness. God spared not his own son, but
delivered him up for us all. When sin was found on Christ,
God's holiness crucified It wasn't men who nailed him to the cross.
Christ said, no man takes my life from me, I lay it down.
I have the power to lay it down and take it up again. Pilate
said, I could set you free. He said, you can't do anything
except my Father give you the power, except it be given you
from above. Men nailed him to the cross,
but they did what God determined before to be done. It pleased
God to bruise him. It's God's justice that crucified
Christ. It's God's holiness that put
him on the cross. When he cried, My God, why have
you forsaken me? That wasn't a play. God wasn't
acting. Christ had sin. He bore our sins. And God the Father turned his
back on our sins and on him who bore them. That's his holiness. God cannot look upon sin. God's sovereignty, his wisdom,
his justice, his holiness, his immutability, he will not change. His covenant shall be fulfilled.
Everything is seen at the cross. But here, oh, at the cross you
see the love of God. For God so loved the world, he
gave his only begotten Son. At the cross you see the grace
of God, the mercy of God, the love of God, the kindness. David
talked about in Psalm 51 his loving kindness. You talk about giving a son. You talk about giving a son for
a friend. There are people here who would
give your life for your child. You'd give your life for a dear
friend. But would you give your life
for an enemy? But God did. God commended His love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us,
but we were enemies. Christ died for us. His love
is manifested. The hymn writer said, how sovereign
is the love of God. Christ suffered in my place,
paid in full all debts that I owe. Salvation is by grace. I see the grace of God, the love
of God, the mercy of God in the cross of Christ. Nowhere is the
character and attributes of God so much on display as at that
cross. There you see God. Come to the
cross and see God in his mercy and in his love. It took a miracle
to hang the stars in place. It took a miracle to put the
world in place. But when God saved my soul, cleansed
and made me whole, it took a miracle of what? Grace. Grace. Grace. Look at our text. Look
at it just briefly. For by grace are you saved through
faith. And you know, I think all of
these men who have studied the Bible for years, and you know,
let's stay in our field. When you find you're good at
something, stay in your field. Teach from your field. And this
is my field. And I've put enough time in it
and God's given me enough understanding of it that I'm I know my field. And what this is saying in the
better translations, some are on this particular part of it,
for by grace you are saved. You have been saved. That's what
this is saying. You have been saved. Now listen
to me. Grace doesn't try to save, it
saves. That's what he's saying. It doesn't
try to save. This is what the preachers seem to be implying,
that God is trying to save this world. Listen, my friend. The
God of their imagination may be trying to do something, but
the God of the Bible, the God of heaven and earth, the God
of all creation, doesn't try to do anything. The Lord God of heaven and earth
says, my ear's not heavy that I can't hear. My arm's not short
that I can't see. Do you really think that the
God of heaven and earth is trying to do anything and not able to
do it? Now, tell me, do you really think
that? That's not sensible, is it? He's almighty. He said, can
I not do with my own what I will? Who can stay my hand? Who can
say unto me, what doest thou? Our God's in the heavens. He
hath done whatsoever he pleased. A friend of mine visited a lawyer
one time, and the lawyer said, I know you from somewhere. He
said, well, we've never met. Sitting in the lawyer's office,
and the lawyer said, I've seen you somewhere. I never forget
a face. The preacher said, well, I can't
imagine where it would be because I've never seen you. He said,
of course, I'm on television every Sunday. That's where I've
seen you. That's where I've seen you. He
said, what is this you're preaching? that's got people upset. And
my friend thought, well, how am I going to explain to him,
he doesn't have any background in theology, how am I going to
explain to him what I'm preaching? That it's the Heidelberg Catechism,
it's the 39 Articles of the Church of England, it's the Heidelberg
Dutch Catechism, it's the Westminster Confession of the Presbyterian,
it's the London Confession, and the Philadelphia Confession of
the Baptist. It's what people have believed back to Moses. He doesn't have any background,
what will I say to him? So he looked at him and said
this. He said, well sir, he said, if you were God, would you run this world or would
you turn it over to men to run? If you were God, the kingdom,
the world, the universe, you made it, it's yours. Would you
run it or would you turn it over to men to run? do with what they
will. He said that lawyer, he did this.
He said, if I was God, I'd run this thing lock, stock, and barrel.
He said, that's what I'm preaching. God does run this thing. So grace doesn't try to save,
it saves. Grace doesn't do its best to
save, it saves. Grace doesn't make us savable,
it saves. Grace does not require human
help. God Almighty, when He redeems
a sinner, He redeems him. When He sets out to save him,
when God puts His blood pounds on a sinner's track, He's going
to land him. I've been fishing a whole lot
of times and the big one always gets away. But my God, The big one never
gets away. The little one doesn't either.
I thank God for that. The peanut doesn't get away either.
When God baits his hook and goes fishing, he catches what he goes after.
Do you believe that? Why? By grace, are you saying. By grace. My election is of grace. Even now there's a remnant according
to the election of grace. My calling is of grace. He called
me by his grace. My redemption is of grace. Look
over there at verse 7 of Ephesians 1. In whom we have redemption
through his blood, the forgiveness of sin according to the riches
of his grace. Redemption is by his grace. Forgiveness
is by his grace. God forgave me, not because I
deserve to be forgiven, but because he's gracious. Not because I'm
good, because he's gracious. But he forgave me because I repented.
Hogwash. That's right. That's not so.
He didn't forgive me because I repented. I repented because
he forgave me. That's why I didn't say, I repented
because he forgave me. It's the goodness of God that
led me to repentance. Which comes first, repentance
or faith? I don't know. Here's a piece of paper, it's
got to have two sides. You can't have a piece of paper
without two sides. Redemption is repentance and
faith. You can't have either without
the other. A man can't turn to God unless he turns from his
idols. And if he ever turns from his idols, there ain't no place
to go but to God. Everything else is a mouth. Isn't
that right, Frank? I repent because he forgave me.
My election is of grace, my redemption is of grace, my calling is of
grace, my forgiveness is of grace, my being kept, we're kept by
the power of God. Somebody says, I hope I hold
out. I won't. I guarantee you, I won't. And
I promise you, if God leaves you on your own, you won't either.
We're kept by the power of God. Perseverance is by grace. Grace,
by grace, you see it there? Are you saved? And that not of
yourselves? Grace is not of yourselves. If
it was, it wouldn't be grace. Now just think, grace, what is
grace? Unmerited favor. Grace is free. Grace is given. In fact, many
years ago I built a house over here on Stevens Avenue on a lot
that a man gave me. A brick house, first house I
built, a man gave me the lot. But when we went to the courthouse
in Catlisburg to get the deed, they wouldn't accept it that
way. I had to pay them a dollar. That's right. Had to be some
money, change hands. Dollar and other consideration.
You remember that? That's what he said on the deed, for a dollar
and other consideration. So really, that lot, well, I
just paid a dollar. You say it's worth more than
that. It doesn't matter where it's worth. I paid, didn't I? But in this grace business, salvation,
you don't even pay a dollar. God doesn't take your natural
heart and give you a new heart. Everything you have that God
has accepted in Christ is brand new. I make all things new. He
uses nothing. with which you're originally
endowed. Everything is new. Grace is not of yourselves. Isn't
that what it said? It's not of yourselves. It's
the gift of God. Some of you have birthdays this
week. We're going to give some gifts. What is a gift? It originates
with a giver. It's paid for by the giver. It's
laid in your hands. What do you give? Nothing. You receive it. Do you know what
a gift is? It's a gift. What is salvation? It's a gift. And the preacher
can say, now God's waiting on you to do this. God's waiting
on you to do that. If you do this, God will do that.
I beg your pardon. My little granddaughter's got
a birthday this week. Gosh, now I'm going to get her
a gift. And that gift will not be contingent on anything she
does. She may be a good little girl, she may be a bad little
girl, but she's going to get the gift. You see what I'm saying? It's a gift. Because we love
her. Because we want to do it. We're
going to give her a gift. That's why God saved me for no
other reason. Because he would. Because he
loved me. He paid for it. It's free. Young
people, salvation is not if you anything. It's if God. It's a gift. It's a gift of God. Why do we read one thing and
preach another? Why do preachers read one thing
and preach another? Now, if you'll walk down the
aisle, if you'll shake my hand, if you'll pray through, if you'll
join church, if you'll be baptized, if you'll keep the law, if you're
tired, if, if, if, there's no if to it. It's a gift. And a gift is received. It's
of grace and it's received. That's all. Take it. You hungry? Eat. Are you thirsty? Drink. Are you weary? Lie down. Are you naked? He clothes you in his righteousness. That's right. It's not of works. Salvation is not of yourselves. It's not of yourselves. It's
not of works. Nothing is of yourselves. Listen to me. What I'm preaching,
you know is so. Everybody here knows it's so.
I wrote this down. Answer this question for me.
Is there any person here, any person in this building, any
person in this church today, who believes that a holy, sovereign,
unchangeable, eternal God of heaven and earth can look upon
you and your life and your thoughts and anything about you and say,
well, you've been good, you've been faithful, you've been good
enough to inherit eternal life, to earn and merit a place in
glory beside my beloved Son, Jesus Christ, who earned that
place. by who he was and what he did. So you come on up and
sit with Jesus and he sits on his merit and you sit on yours. Nobody will believe that, do
you? Why, of course not. You can't be sensible and be
honest. What I say is that he earned
his place and mine. He's the heir, I'm just a joint
heir. He is his. He earned it. He has the right. to sit in glory. I'm there because He took me
with Him, paid my debt, assumed my responsibility, fulfilled
my obligations, and took me with Him. Now I'll ask you about five
questions and I'll quit. Here are my questions. If salvation, like it says here,
is by grace, free gift of God, Then is there any person here
who's ineligible? Is there any person here who's
ineligible? You say, what's that word ineligible
mean? Is any person here exempt? Is
any person here whom grace cannot save if it's all of grace, if
it's free? Now if it costs something, then
a lot of us say, well, I can't pay it. There's some things I'd like
to have and I can't afford them. Some of you can afford them. But this, anybody can afford
it. It's free. Isn't that right Al? He says come without money,
without price. It's free! The only people who are exempt
are those who are unwilling to receive it that way. Well, I don't care what it says,
I'm going to work. I'm going to pay for it. Doesn't
that kind of irritate you a little bit? Like Brother Spurgeon once. Now this is a true story. Spurgeon
was invited by a widow lady in his church to come and have tea. Well, these dear Australian people
and English people can't just drink tea, they eat tea. That's
right, they eat tea. She told me she came to your
house for tea the other night. Did you have tea the other night?
They call supper tea. So Spurgeon went to this lady. He knew she was poor. She was
a widower lady and she didn't have as much as some of the other
members of his church and he was fairly well off. And you
know what he did? He took a sack of provisions
with him. He took cookies, scones, other things, and went to her
house and he sat down And he put them on the table and said,
I brought these. That dear widdle lady picked
up his sack, he said, and dropped it in the waste can. She said, I invited you to eat
tea, not bring tea. Understand it? Oh, everyone that thirsty, come
to the water. come without money, without possession. So anybody exempt? Pray. Secondly,
my second question. If we're saved by grace alone,
it's a gift of God, then do my sins and unworthiness present
any problem? Well, no. No problem at all. But I'm unworthy. It's grace. But I'm such a sinner. It's grace. But I think such awful thoughts.
It's grace. My unworthiness has nothing to
do with it. In fact, actually, if I were
one of you ladies and prepared a meal, the fellows most hungry
is the one I'd like to come eat with me. I don't want anybody
coming and eating and picking at the food. I'm not hungry,
you know, pushing it. I don't want any of that. It's
the fellow that sits down and says, man, I can't wait to get
into this. Because I haven't eaten in a
week. That lady just sat there rubbing her hands. My grandchildren
love this story. A preacher ate with a lady and
she was hard of hearing like me. And he'd eaten a whole lot
and she said, you want some more? He said, I've had sufficient.
She said, you've been fishing? He said, no, I've had plenty.
She said, and caught 20. He said, no, that's all I know. She said,
I lost your pole. Are you hungry? I got your attention
now, haven't I? I did that on purpose. Bring
your appetite. All the fitness he requires is
to feel your need of him. Your unworthiness. You see, actually
your sins magnify his grace. That's the reason people heard
Paul preach and they said, well, we'll sin that grace may abound.
He said, you missed it. God forbid. Third question. If I'm saved by grace alone,
is there any sin too great for God to forgive? And you know, now
you may say, well, that's your second question. No, that's not
my second question. Because I've been in the ministry
long enough to know this. that there are dear people who
feel that one sin is greater than another. And there are people
sitting right here who feel like that they're worse than others
because of something that happened ten years ago or twenty years
ago or thirty years ago or forty years ago, one of them. Some
particular sin. A person may have been on drugs
and they say, I'm not fit to associate with people who've
never done that. Someone else has two or three
divorces. Someone else may have lived a
very promiscuous life. Someone else may have been a
thief. I know someone who is now a believer,
but that person can't get over the fact that years ago they
confiscated things from their company, took it, and it just
keeps them this way. They're under this feeling of
depression because they can't forget that sin. They can forget sin, but not
that sin. Listen, Jacob deceived his own
father, tricked him, tricked the old blind man, came to an
old blind man pretending to be somebody else. But God said,
I love him, love Jacob. In order to cover up his sins,
murdered one of his best friends. Murdered him. Had an enemy murder
him. Peter denied that he even knew
Christ one time. Don't you know? Don't you know
he batted his head against the wall? Why did I do that? Not
why. Yeah, I know why. Paul killed
Christians. Can you imagine him standing
up preaching to the church at Ephesus or somewhere you know
or somewhere The believers will say, Jerusalem, and knowing that
he killed some of their brothers and sisters? He killed them for
worshiping Christ. Listen, forget that past. It's by grace. You see what I'm
saying? Forget it. Please forget it. Don't accentuate or exaggerate
one act above another. Listen, let me tell you this.
Everybody in here do the same thing if God turned them loose.
Now you just remember that. I don't see a man sitting, a
precious wife sitting next to you, or your precious husband,
or children, anybody else. It's only by the grace of God
that we're not all in Summit Penitentiary. You know that? Now that's true. It's only by
the, what you are is by the grace of God, and what you're not is
by the grace of God too. Now don't ever forget that. Don't
be a Pharisee. Don't be holier than thou. That's
smoking God's nose. Don't ever look down your nose
at someone and say, well, I sure wouldn't do that. The only reason
you didn't beat him to it is God didn't let you. Enough said. Fourth question. If we're saved
by grace alone, what about future failure? Now God gives me a new heart,
but I still got an old one. God gives me a new nature, but
I still got an old one. Somebody said, well, I'd be a
Christian, but I couldn't hold out. Well, I said, while I go,
you won't. That's beside the point. We're
not discussing what you're going to do. We're discussing what
he's going to do. He said, I'll never leave you
and I'll never forsake you. You will leave him. That's right,
you will deny him some way, either by a word or an act or a thought
or a deed. Yeah, you will. I will too. You
will sin. What about my future sins? They're
in the same place my past sins. Under the blood. Under the blood. My last question. If we're saved
by grace alone, What does the length of time I spent in sin
or the length of time I spent serving the Lord contribute to
it? I hear people say, well, you
have to get saved before you're 30 years old or you'll never
be saved. That's a lie. That's not so. God saves us when
he's pleased to save us. The Apostle Paul was over 40
years old before he came to know Christ. I know people out here in this
auditorium that are 60, 70, 75 years old before they heard the
gospel. It doesn't matter how long, the thief on the cross,
how long he served the Lord. How long was he in rebellion?
His whole life. This is by grace. You know David
one time, David, you can read this in I've jotted it down. I believe it's in 1 Samuel 30.
You can read it later. But David, some fellows came
and captured his people and stole everything and left. And David
took 600 men to go after them. God told him he would defeat
them. But 200 men were weary and worn out. And he left them
by the brook. Remember that brook, Besor or
something like that? He left them by the brook. And the 400
went on and the 400 defeated the enemy. Got all the spores,
took even the enemy spores, and came back to the brook and David
stopped where the 200 men were waiting on him and he said, are
all of you alright? Yeah, we're rested. One of the
fellas in the 400 said, well, they're not going to participate
in our spores. We're not going to give them
anything. We did the fighting. They didn't do any fighting.
We went after the enemy. They stayed here. They don't
get anything. David said, hold it. Hold it right there. It's
by the grace of God that we defeated the enemy. By the grace of God
that we have this fall. And I set forth a decree, and
you'll find it in 1 Samuel 30, and it's a decree to that date,
that whether you stay by the goods or whether you go into
the fight, you get the same reward. You know what he said? It's 1
Samuel 30, read it, it's so exciting. So then, it's by grace! by the grace of God. For by grace
are you saved through faith, that knowledge itself, it is
the gift of God.
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.

Comments

0 / 2000 characters
Comments are moderated before appearing.

Be the first to comment!

Joshua

Joshua

Shall we play a game? Ask me about articles, sermons, or theology from our library. I can also help you navigate the site.

0:00 0:00