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Henry Mahan

Remind Me Dear Lord

Ephesians 2:11-13
Henry Mahan • November, 27 1991 • Audio
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Message: 1040a
Henry Mahan Tape Ministry
6088 Zebulon Highway
Pikeville, KY 41501
What does the Bible say about grace in Ephesians 2?

Ephesians 2 teaches that by grace we are saved through faith, emphasizing that salvation is a gift from God and not based on our works.

Ephesians 2 presents a profound understanding of grace, illustrating our unworthiness before God and His immense mercy toward us. The Apostle Paul reminds us that we were once dead in our sins, hopelessly separated from God and devoid of any means to achieve righteousness. However, it is in this state of despair that God intervened, demonstrating His love and grace by offering salvation freely through faith. This grace is not earned; we are reminded that it is entirely a gift from God, ensuring that no one can boast about their own merit. Thus, the beauty of Ephesians 2 lies in its clarity: salvation is grounded solely in God’s sovereign grace.

Ephesians 2:8-9

How do we know our identity in Christ?

Our identity in Christ is defined by our union with Him through faith, as described in Ephesians 2, where we go from being far off to being near to God.

Ephesians 2 elaborates on the radical transformation that believers experience through their union with Christ. Paul emphasizes that before Christ, we were aliens to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God. Yet, through the blood of Christ, we have been brought near and adopted into the family of God. Our identity is no longer rooted in our past or our failures; instead, we are seen as members of God's household, united with other believers as one body in Christ. This profound shift from alienation to belonging gives Christians a significant identity that is upheld by grace and anchored in the reality of who Christ is and what He has accomplished for us.

Ephesians 2:13-19

Why is remembering our past important for Christians?

Remembering our past helps Christians appreciate God's grace and understand the significance of our salvation.

The act of remembering our past, as highlighted in Ephesians 2, plays an essential role in our spiritual growth. It is a reminder of the depths from which we have been saved and encourages gratitude for God’s sovereign grace. Paul’s exhortation to remember is a call to reflect on the hopelessness of our condition before knowing Christ, which serves to magnify His mercy and love. Recognizing what we were without Him enables us to grasp the truth of our new identity, fostering humility and appreciation. This remembrance not only inspires worship but also propels us toward sharing the gospel with those still lost in sin, ensuring that our testimonies glorify God’s transformative power.

Ephesians 2:11, Ephesians 2:12

Sermon Transcript

Auto-generated transcript • May contain errors

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Roll back the curtain of memory
now and then, and show me where you brought me from, and where
I could it be. Remember I'm human, and humans
forget. So remind me, remind me dear
Lord. Let's just entitle the message
tonight, Remind Me, Dear Lord. Remind Me. And let's turn to
Ephesians chapter 2. That'll be the title of the message,
Remind Me, Dear Lord. Ephesians 2, I'm going to read
my text, beginning with verse 11. Wherefore remember that ye, being in time past Gentiles
in the flesh, who are called on circumcision by that which
is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands, that
at that time you were without Christ. being aliens from the
commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise,
having no hope, and without God, and without God in this world.
But now, but now in Christ Jesus, you who sometimes were far are
made now by the blood of Christ. Years ago, I read about a very wealthy and
a very powerful, influential man who was a believer who knew
God. And he had a unique way of keeping
himself humble and reminding himself of where
he was and who brought him there and where he used to be, and
reminding him of the blessings and the goodness of God to him.
He had a fine, beautiful home on a gorgeous piece of property. And on the back of his estate,
down back of the main house, he had brought to that place
and restored his parents' little humble home, just a two-room
little cabin in which he was born and raised, complete with
the furniture, the old wood stove his mother's rocker, the kitchen
cabinet, the bare floors, and the rugs woven out of scraps. And very often when he'd come
in from his office in the afternoon, he would leave the big house
and he'd go down to the little framed cottage and sit in his
mother's rocker before the old wood stove. And he said he'd
just sit there and rock and meditate and remember where he came from. He told someone one time who
asked him about this strange behavior, he said, I know who
I am now. And I know what I have now, but
I must never forget what I was and who made the difference. And what I could still be were
it not for His grace. So I come down here and I remember. You know, Paul said in 1 Corinthians
4 verse 7, maketh you to differ. What do you have that you didn't
receive? Now, if you received it from
the hand of God as an undeserved, unmerited gift, why do you gloat
as if you didn't receive it? Do you remember what you were
where God found you, and what He did for you, and what a change
He's made in your life. I was preaching in Fairmont,
West Virginia, some time ago. Doris and I were up there visiting
with Martha and Scott, and I was preaching two or three nights.
And one night, God said, let's go out to dinner, let's take
the girls out to dinner, a nice fancy restaurant. So we got in
his baby blue Lincoln Continental, all dressed up, dressed up as
we can get, you know. And we drove down to a fancy
seafood restaurant in the town of Fairmont. They'd taken an
old two-story house. You who've been there to the
conference, you've driven past this house. It's about a block
or two behind Darryl Hardman Service Station, the one in town,
in that area. They'd taken this old two-story
house and they'd fixed it up, remodeled it, and made a real
nice seafood restaurant. So we parked out in front of
this converted house that had been made into a nice seafood
restaurant, and we walked in, and we were escorted by the hostess
to the table. And we were afforded the royal
treatment, you know. We had shrimp and clams and all
the rest of it, you know, and even had a linen napkin and a
tablecloth on the table. It was a beautiful place. We
were sitting there eating and Brother Scott said to me, I used
to live in this house over 50 years ago. He said my mom and dad divorced
and my mom left town, took my brother, left me with my daddy. And he said we were very, very
poor, very poor. My dad couldn't take care of
me all the time, so he farmed me out. He'd send me someplace
to stay. I was eight, nine years old,
seven, eight, nine years old. And the lady that owned this
house ran a boarding house. And my dad gave her an old chest
of drawers to keep me for a few weeks. And he said, I lived up
in an attic. Just a poor old country miner's
boy lived up in an attic. And he said, I'd run errands
for the boarders. This is where I lived. I said, well, Scott, did it ever
in your wildest imagination ever enter your mind when you were
a little barefoot country, West Virginia miner's son, living
here in this boarding house up in the attic. Did it ever enter
your mind that one day you'd drive up here in a blue Lincoln
Continental and get out and walk in and be
escorted to a table and serve the best food in the
house? and have sufficient money in
your pocket to pay for it, or for anything else that they had." He said, no. Oh, that never entered
my mind. No little country boy, coal miner's
son ever entertains thoughts like that. So we sat there and spent some
time remembering. remembering what we were and
where we are and who made the difference. That's a pretty good
outline, isn't it? What we were and what we are
and who made the difference. And that's the theme of Ephesians
chapter 2. Here in verse 11, which I read
to you, Paul says to the Ephesians, you remember It's like remember
the pit from which you were digged. Remember the rock from which
you were hewn. Remember the dunghill on which
you were found. Remember what? Remember that
you being in time past, and this is a dirty word here to a Jew,
Gentiles. You were Gentiles. You know what
they call Gentiles? Dogs. You were dogs. That's what our Lord said to
that Gentile woman who came to Him. She said, Lord have mercy,
and first He didn't even answer. And she kept saying, Lord have
mercy. He said, I'm not sent but to
the lost sheep of the house of Israel. She said, Lord have mercy. He
said it's not right to give the children's bread to dogs. She knew what he was saying.
You see, we were not only dead in sin and not only pagan heathen,
but we were Gentile dogs. Dogs. It's not meat to give children's
bread to dogs in the flesh. in the flesh. Listen to this
next line. We were called uncircumcision. That's a title of reproach. You see, Abraham was given this
token of the covenant, God's covenant with Abraham. And the
token or sign of that covenant, every male was to be circumcised.
And these were the sons of Abraham, these were the descendants of
Abraham who had the sign of circumcision. And everybody who didn't was
an outsider, pagan. And they called them the uncircumcised,
the uncircumcised. Those people, see, by that which
is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands, We were
not the children of Abraham. We did not, our fathers did not
bear in their flesh the sign, the token of God's covenant. Pagans, heathens, called circumcision,
called uncircumcision. And listen to verse 12. And at
that time, remember in times past, and at that time you were
without Christ. You were without the Christ.
You see, the Christ is the mediator. The Christ is the Messiah. The
Messiah was promised to Israel and not to Gentile dogs. We were
without a Messiah. We were without a mediator. We
were, listen, aliens. Not even citizens, but aliens,
foreigners. from the Commonwealth of Israel,
no priest. The Gentiles didn't have a priest.
Israel didn't really know God, but they had a priest. Israel
didn't really know God, but they had an atonement, they had a
mercy seat, they had a tabernacle, they had an approach to God,
they had a way to God. We Gentiles didn't even have
that. no priest, no atonement, no mercy
seat, no covenant, strangers, listen,
aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the
covenant of promise, listen, having no hope, no hope, no hope, no hope of salvation,
no hope of the resurrection, no hope. and without God. Without God. He said, remember
what you were. Remember what you were. Without
God. You know what that means? That
means no knowledge of God. Not even the knowledge that Israel
had. No knowledge of God. No prescribed
worship. Oh, we worship gods, all right.
We worship heathen gods, idol gods. But no knowledge of God,
no prescribed worship of God, and no way to God. That's what
you were. And that's what our fathers were.
And that's what I was. It is said, he that's an alien
from the commonwealth of Israel, dwelling outside of Israel, is
like a man who has no God. No God. That's what you were. Remember that. See, this is what
they're saying back here in verse 1, Ephesians 2 verse 1, And you,
you, hath he quickened who were but dead? dead in trespasses
and sin. We're in time past. He keeps
talking about what we were in time past. We walked according
to the course of this world, according to the Prince of the
Power of the Air. The Spirit that now worketh in the children
of disobedience worked in us, among whom also we all, every
one of us without exception. had our citizenship and our conversation
in times past in what? In the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires and passions
and wills of our flesh and of our minds. And we were by nature,
by birth, by nature, by choice, by practice, children of wrath,
just like everybody else, even as others. That's what we were. But now, drop down to verse 13.
Verse 11, he said, now you remember what you were. Went through all
these things. Verse 13, but now, but now, it's
like Scott and I were sitting there in that fine restaurant, folks nodding, speaking to us,
gentlemen, well-received. waited on. Just a few years before
that up in the attic was a little boy nobody knew, and nobody spoke
to, nobody paid attention to. That's what you were. But now,
but now, listen, but now in Christ Jesus, in Christ Jesus, don't
forget where it is, in Christ Jesus, you who were at one time
so far off so very tall, are made near, nigh, by the blood
of Christ. But now, but now. You see, this is what he's saying
up here in verse 4, but God, but God. What? But God. Here's what we were, pagans,
uncircumcised, Gentiles, strangers, without hope, without a Messiah,
without Christ, without God. But now, but God. It wasn't something
we did. It's something God did. It wasn't a change of heart we
had. It wasn't a change of mind that
occurred to us. It wasn't something we did. It
all was something God purposed and planned. It's something God
did. Listen, verse 4, "...but God,
who is rich in mercy, if thou, Lord, shouldest mark the iniquity,
who could stand? But there is mercy with thee,
there is forgiveness with thee. God is rich in mercy, for his
great love wherewith he loved us." We didn't love him. He loved
us. We didn't know him. He knew us.
We didn't seek him. He sought us. He came where we
were. became what we are, that we might
be what he is and be where he is. But God, but God. That's
the difference. Here we are, worthless, alien,
strangers, foreigners. It's not but I, but we, but the
preacher. It's but God. But God. For his great love, wherewith
he loved us, listen to verse 5, even where we were, even what
we were, even when we were dead in sin. Dead in sin. He quickened us. He gave us life. He made us live. Ezekiel's infant is my story. In the day that you were born,
your mother was a Hittite and your father was an Amorite, no
one wanted you. And when you were born, you were
cast out into the open field to the loathing, to the stench
of your person, and left for the wild beast to devour. None
eyed pitied thee, or had mercy or compassion on thee, and God
said, I pass by. I pass by. And when I passed by and saw
you polluted in your blood, it was a time of love. It was a
time of love. You didn't love me. You didn't
know me. It was a time of love. Here is love. Not that we loved
God. He loved us. And I said to you, I said, live. He quickened, quickened us together
with Christ. Christ died for us and in Him
we died. He was buried for us as our scapegoat. In Him we were buried. He was
raised for our justification. And when He was raised, we were
raised up. Together! That's not me and you
together, that's us and him together. By grace you're saved. By grace
you're saved. He, verse 6, hath raised us up
together and made us sit. And when a fellow's sitting,
he's resting. When a fellow's sitting, he's
not working. When a fellow's sitting, he's reached his goal.
When a fellow's sitting, he's victorious. When Christ finished
his work, he sat down. The Old Testament priest never
sat down. There wasn't a chair anywhere around that place. He
never sat down because his work was never finished. But Christ,
when he made one sacrifice for sin forever, sat down. And we
were quickened with him and sat down. Sat down. made us sit together,
where? In heavenly places, in Christ
Jesus, in Christ Jesus. Well, that's what but God, but
now, but God. Why did He do this? Why did God
pass by this wretched, polluted infant and give it life? And He said, I brought you to
myself and I gave you life and you grew and I clothed you with
satin and purple and fine linen and put earrings in your ears
and you developed and you became a beauty. But your beauty was
my beauty. Why do you do that? Listen to
verse 7. That in the ages to come, not that he might line
us up and to decorate us for our valor in His service. Not
that He might line us up and give us little trinkets and rewards
for the souls we won to Jesus. Not that He might line us up
and show off our faithfulness. He did it that in the ages to
come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace of His grace
toward us. There's going to be some glory
in heaven, but it won't be yours, it'll be His. There's going to
be some credit given to somebody, but it won't be given to you,
it'll be given to Him. There'll be some crowns worn
by somebody, but you won't have it on He with that in the ages
to come He might show to this whole universe the exceeding
riches of His grace in His kindness. In His kindness. Oh, David prayed
for God's loving kindness. He prayed in Psalm 51, according
to your loving kindness. Have mercy upon me, O God. According
to what, Charlie? Thy loving kindness. Thy loving
kindness. Toward us. Where? Through Christ
Jesus. If you look for a moment at chapter
1, the first five verses tell how God chose us in Christ, predestinated
us to be children by Christ, called us by Christ in verse
6. Why? Verse 6, to the praise of
the glory of His grace. That's why. To the praise of
the glory of His grace. That throughout all eternity,
every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that He's
the Lord. That's why. Wherein He made us
except in the Beloved. Then look down at verse 12. Talked
about the Lord Jesus, how He redeemed us how He enriched us
and how He enlightened us. Why did He do that? It says,
verse 12, that we should be to the praise of His glory. That
we should be to the praise of His glory. And He talked about
the Holy Spirit who quickened us and enabled us to hear the
Word of Truth and sealed us. That Holy Spirit of promise,
verse 14, which is a token of our inheritance and the redemption
of the purchased possessions. Why? to the praise of His glory. That's why. How? Well, go back
to chapter 2. What but God? Why? That He might show the exceeding
riches of His grace? How? Verse 8, How can God be
just and justify? How can He be cleanest born of
a woman? Not by works. Verse 8, For by
grace Ah, the hymn writer said, ah,
but for free sovereign grace I'd still live away from God
till hell proved my destined place, my deserved, earned, and
dreaded abode. But, oh, amazed, I see the hand
that stopped me in my evil career. A miracle of God's grace I stand,
for he hath taught my heart to fear. By grace have you been saved,
through faith, not apart from faith, not without faith, through
faith. God who gives the grace gives
the faith. God who awakens a sinner gives
the will, for by grace, God's grace, free grace, sovereign
grace, effectual grace, are you saved through faith. And that's
not of yourselves. None of it is of yourselves.
It's the gift of God. Eternal life is the gift of God,
not some of it, all of it. Not the majority of it, all of
it. It's not of work. lest any man should boast. For
we are His workmanship. We are His workmanship, and we
are created out of nothing, out of nothing, under good works. God doesn't take your natural
works and improve on them, your natural gifts and improve on
them, your natural wisdom and improve on it, your natural talent
and improve on it, everything God Almighty blesses or uses. Creates. That's right. Created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained,
determined that we should walk in them. Look at verse 13 again. But now, what you were. Remember
what you were. Remember where you were. But
now, where are you? But now, in Christ Jesus, in
Christ Jesus, through Christ Jesus, by Christ Jesus, because
of Christ Jesus, for the glory of Christ Jesus, you aliens,
foreigners, strangers who were at one time far off. I sat there at my desk this morning
and I thought, how far off? How far off? Just how far off were we? I'll
tell you, as far off as a devil from an angel. That's how far
off. How far off? As far off as a
lump of coal from a diamond. How far off? As far off as darkness
is from light. How far off? As far off as an
enemy is from a beloved son. That's how far off. You who were
far off. Oh, so far off, you can't even
see where you were. How deep, how dark the dungeon. How far off from God. Without
Christ, without hope, without God. No tabernacle, no mercy
seat, no priest, no atonement, no covenant, no mark of a covenant.
Far off! But you who were so far off,
you Gentile dogs, are made near, near. How near? How near? I'm going to be careful here,
but this is true. How near, Jim? How near? As near as His only
begotten, well-beloved Son, Christ Jesus. That's how near. I'm seated
in Him. That's how near. Near, so near
to God, nearer I cannot be in the person of His Son. I'm just
as near as He. That's what He said in John 17. Hold that Ephesians 2 and turn
to John 17 and listen to the Master. Listen to the great high
priest. Listen to our Lord pray. In John
17, verse 20, listen, John 17, 20, He said, Neither pray I for these alone, I pray for them also, which shall
believe on me through their word, that they all may be one, as
thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee. That they also may
be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent
me, and the glory which thou gavest me I have given them,
that they may be one even as we are one, I in them, thou in
me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may
know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast
loved me." Think about it. But now, in Christ Jesus, you
who were at one time so far away, so far away, are made now. But in the very presence of God, Why? Verse 14, for he's our peace. There's no more war. The war
is over. What are you saying, Mike? It's
finished. The battle's over. It's finished. He's our peace. God has nothing against one believer. Not nothing against a single
believer. It's all been paid. The law's been honored. There's
not one jot or tittle left undone. The sin debt's been paid. He
is our peace. He made peace with the blood
of his cross. Who made both one? Who's this
both? Jew and Gentile. This Jew and
Gentile business is over. For in Christ, there's neither
Jew nor Gentile, bond nor free, male nor female. That's right.
He hath made both one, listen, and hath broken down that middle
wall of petition between us. That veil in the temple has gone
down. That wall between the court of
the Gentiles and the main tabernacle is down. It's all down. It's
in ruin. Don't build it back. It's done. He abolished all the differences. Oh, we have a tabernacle. He
tabernacled amongst us. We don't need that other one.
We have a high priest. We don't need anyone. We have
a mercy seat. You needn't look for the Ark
of the Covenant. It wouldn't do you any good if you found
it. It used to. A fellow opened it,
he'd kill him. But it wouldn't do any harm now. You could find
the Ten Commandments and it wouldn't do you any good. You could find
the cross on which Christ died, it wouldn't do you any good.
He's our mercy savior. He. We have an altar, we have
an atonement, we have a circumcision, not in the flesh, in the heart. All that's, what did he say,
verse 15, having abolished In His flesh, by His sacrifice,
the enmity, the law of commandments, the dos and the don'ts and the
ceremonies and the ordinances and all the types and the patterns
and the pictures and the Sabbath days and the holy days and the
touch not, taste not, handle not, all of the commandments
contained in the ordinances, He hath abolished them. As He
abolished them, He fulfilled them. But not without law. We're under the law of His love. We're not without a priest. He's
our priest. We're not without worship. We're
not without a tabernacle. We're not without an altar. We're
not without an atonement. That's right. We're not without
the incense, His prayers. We're not without direction.
We have His Spirit. But He hath abolished all those
things to make, you can't say a man's an alien from that covenant
now because it's a new covenant. He's an alien from the covenant.
He's alien from Christ. Not from Israel. To make of him,
in him, in, to make in himself, Jew and Gentile, one new man.
So make in peace. And that he might, listen, that
he might reconcile, reconcile both Jew and Gentile unto God. And if a Jew is saved, he'll
be saved the same way you were, if you hear the gospel of Christ.
There's no new gospel, there's no other gospel, there's no kingdom
gospel, there's no millennium gospel, there's no other kind
of, it's the gospel of Christ Jesus. Because He reconciled
both unto God in one body. What's that body? Well, it could
be one of two things, it could be both. His body on the tree, or His body the church? His body. By the cross, having slain the
enmity, He paid the price. God didn't save us by hook or
crook. He saved us by fulfillment of all that He could require.
Christ did it. And He came, verse 17, and preached
this gospel of peace to you. He came by His Spirit. came by His apostles, came by
those that followed Him. He came and preached this gospel
of peace to you, to you who were far off, far off, and to them that were
not, Gentile and Jew. For through Him, through Christ,
we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father, having therefore
a high priest over the house of God, whether you're Jew or
Gentile, male or female, bond or free, having a high priest
over the house of God, let us come boldly before his throne
of grace and find grace to help, mercy to help, and grace in whatever
need you have. Now, therefore, remember what
you were. Now therefore, you're no more
strangers, you're no more foreigners, you're no more aliens, you're
fellow citizens with the saints, with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. And of the household of God,
beloved, now are we sons of God. And we are built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the
chief cornerstone, in whom all the buildings fitly framed together. I tell you, in God Almighty's
living temple, there's not going to be a stone missing. in whom all the building fitly
framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord, in
whom you also are built together by habitation of God through
the Spirit." This is a beautiful building
here. It just didn't happen to be here. Everything you see came out of the ground. Those
bricks were one-time dirt. That plaster one time was dirt.
This wood that made these pews and doors and other things grew
out of the dirt. Everything in there came out
of the dirt, clay. But somebody sat down one day
back yonder in 1955 and drew a blueprint. Everything here was on that blueprint. And then we began to bring together
these pieces and these parts that came from, the brick came
from Alabama, the wood came from somewhere else, and the other
things came from somewhere else, and the skilled artist Ed Stevers
and his men put it together. And here it is. Let me tell you
something. This building, this living temple
of living stones, of which Jesus Christ himself is the cornerstone,
is being built and brought together. And everything in it came out
of the dirt, came from the dunghill, came from the clay. But God Almighty,
back before the foundation of the world, drew the pattern and
the blueprint known unto God are all his works from the beginning.
for his eternal kingdom and his eternal living temple. And he's
putting the stones together. That's right. He's sending out
his preachers and his apostles and his missionaries and evangelists,
and they're preaching this gospel. And those stones laying around
there in the dirt are hearing that gospel. And he's putting
them in his temple. I don't know how close to completion
it is. But I rather think it won't be
long till that last stone is taken by the hand of God from
wherever He finds it and put in that temple. And then Christ
will come. And then Christ will come. So
remember what you were and where He found you. Don't get too far
away from that. Remember what he did, and why
he did it, and what you are now. And you know what you'll do?
You'll give him all the praise and the glory. And if you learn
to sing that song here, you'll be able to sing it up there.
That's what the old Puritan said. Roland Hill, I believe it was,
dreamed he died and went to heaven. And he said when he walked through
the gates, he heard the most beautiful, beautiful singing
he'd ever heard in all his life. Just no comparison. Oh, praises
to God were echoing through the halls of glory. And he said he
saw that as he walked on, he saw that huge choir, all of them
singing the song of Moses and the Lamb. He said, I thought
I wish I could sing like that. I wish I was a member of that
choir. And as he walked, he saw a sea way up there in the back,
up high. He said, there's an empty sea.
So he said, in my dream, I started climbing toward that sea. And
he said, I kept climbing those stairs, and that music was all
around me. And he said, I got to that sea,
and there it was empty. It had my name on it. And I sat
down. And I began to sing with them
that song of glory to God. And I knew it because I've been
singing it all these years down here on earth. Unto Him who loved
us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, to Him be the
glory both now and forever. Amen. All right, Mike, come lead
us in a hymn.
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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