Bootstrap
Henry Mahan

The Voice of the Lord

Psalm 29
Henry Mahan • June, 6 1990 • Audio
0 Comments
Message: 0969a
Henry Mahan Tape Ministry
6088 Zebulon Highway
Pikeville, KY 41501
What does the Bible say about the voice of the Lord?

The Bible teaches that the voice of the Lord is powerful and majestic, capable of commanding nature and providing strength to His people (Psalm 29).

Psalm 29 highlights the voice of the Lord as a powerful and majestic force. The psalmist repeatedly notes the voice of the Lord, stating that it thunders over the waters and is full of strength and glory. In this context, God's voice is not only a metaphor for His will but also illustrates His sovereign authority over creation, capable of breaking the cedars of Lebanon and shaking the wilderness. The importance of God's voice is underscored in how it commands respect and worship, reminding us to ascribe to Him the glory due to His name.

Psalm 29:1-11

How do we know God's sovereignty is true?

God's sovereignty is evidenced by His control over creation and history, as shown in the powerful manifestations of His voice and kingship (Psalm 29).

The sovereignty of God is a central tenet of Reformed theology, rooted in the belief that He is in total control of all creation and history. Psalm 29 presents a vivid picture of God's power and authority through His voice. When the psalmist describes His voice as thundering over the waters or breaking the cedars, it serves to illustrate that nothing exists outside His influence. Additionally, scripture asserts that 'the Lord sitteth, King forever,' affirming that God reigns over all circumstances and events, which is foundational for understanding His sovereign governance in both grace and judgment.

Psalm 29:10-11

Why is worshiping God in holiness important for Christians?

Worshiping God in holiness is essential because it acknowledges His divine majesty and reflects a sincere heart towards Him (Psalm 29).

Worshiping God in the beauty of holiness, as articulated in Psalm 29, emphasizes the necessity of approach that combines reverence, sincerity, and purity of heart. In the Old Testament, worship was often associated with ceremonial practices, but the New Testament reveals that true worship is spiritual and heartfelt. To worship in holiness means to acknowledge God’s holiness, to come before Him with a clean conscience, and to recognize His sovereignty over our lives. This form of worship is what draws us closer to God and allows us to encounter His presence genuinely. Consequently, Christians are called not just to perform rituals but to embody a worship that is sincere, honoring, and reflective of our relationship with the Almighty.

Psalm 29:2

Sermon Transcript

Auto-generated transcript • May contain errors

100%
Let's open our Bibles to the
book of Psalms tonight. Psalm 29. Now, you're familiar
with the eighth psalm, which reads
something like this, When I consider the heavens the sun, the moon,
the stars, the things which thou hast ordained. What is man that
thou art mindful of him?" Someone suggested that that psalm
ought to be read by the moonlight, when the moon and the stars are
shining their brightest, and without the overcast skies, you
can see so many millions of them out there in the heavens. What is man that thou art mindful
of him? And then you're familiar with
the 19th Psalm, which reads something like this, The heavens declare
the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork. in them,
in the heavens, and the firmament, he hath set a tabernacle for
the sun, who comes forth like a bridegroom." And the same writer
suggested that that psalm ought to be read in the morning, when
the sun is just beginning to rise in the east. and making its appearance across
the heavens. And then, of course, all of us
are familiar with the 23rd Psalm, and the same person suggested
that that would most profitably be read, should be read on a
grassy slope beside a rippling stream, while peaceful sheep
grazed before us. The Lord is my shepherd, and
I shall not walk. He leadeth me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leadeth
me in paths of righteousness for his namesake." And then the
man came to this psalm, Psalm 29, Psalm 29. And this is the one that I turn
to this morning. and read and prepared to preach
for you tonight. And he said about this psalm
that it should be read while the thunder rolls, and while
the lightning flashes about the sky, and while the waters rush
down the hillside, and the power of God is seen across the heavens. And you'll see why he said that
in a moment. So why don't we read it, and
then we'll go back and touch on some things. And you'll see
why the writer said that and why I was drawn to this psalm
upon which I've never preached, why I do not know, except it's
for tonight. O ye leaders, O ye mighty men,
give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord
the glory due unto his name. Worship the Lord in the beauty
of holiness. The voice of the Lord is upon
the waters that God of glory thundereth. The Lord is upon
many waters Notice he uses this phrase, the voice of the Lord,
six times. That's the first thing I saw
when I read this, the voice of the Lord, the voice of the Lord,
the voice of the Lord, the voice of Jehovah. Verse four, the voice
of Jehovah is powerful. The voice of the Lord is full
of majesty, thundering, powerfully, majestic. For so the Lord breaketh
the cedars, yea, the Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon. He maketh them also to skip like
a calf." Lebanon and Sirion, that's Mount Hermon is what that
is. Talking about the mountains there where the cedars grew in
Lebanon and Mount Hermon, like a young wild ox. The voice of
the Lord defieth the flames of fire like forked lightning. That's what it says in the Amplified
Version. The voice of the Lord is like
forked lightning. The voice of the Lord shaketh
the wilderness. The Lord shaketh the wilderness
of Kadesh. The voice of the Lord maketh
the female deer, a hind is a female deer, maketh the hinds to give
birth, and discovereth the forest, makes the leaves to fall. And
in his temple doth every one speak of his glory, in his temple,
in his kingdom. The Lord sitteth upon the Yea, the Lord is King forever. The Lord will give strength to
his people. The Lord will bless his people
with peace. Verse 1, give unto the Lord.
Three times he says this, give unto the Lord, give unto the
Lord, give unto the Lord. Neither men nor angels can give
anything unto the Lord. or confer anything upon Jehovah. Now, down here in the last verse,
the Lord gives things. He's the giver. Isn't that right? So what does the word mean in
verse 1 and verse 2 when he keeps saying, Give unto the Lord? Give
unto the Lord, O ye mighty, give unto the Lord glory and strength.
Give unto the Lord the glory, do his name. The word is, ascribe
to the Lord. attribute to the Lord. The glory
is here. You don't give it to him. You
see what I'm saying? You recognize it. You attribute
it. You attest to the fact. You agree. You ascribe to the Lord. He's
saying, you great men. You say, we're not great men.
Yes, you are. You're heads of households. your
men with important jobs, your leaders, your leaders in your
community, your leaders where you live, you mighty men, you
leaders, you men with authority, bow your heads and humble your
spirits and lift your voice and tell people who God is. A tribute to the Lord, the glory
and the strength and the power, let's do his name. Our Lord taught
us to pray that way, thine is the power and the glory forever. Three times he repeats it, ascribing
to the Lord, glory and power. Ascribing to the Lord the glory,
do his name. Given to the Lord, given to the
Lord. Why am I so backward in praising the Lord? We praise ourselves. We praise one another. We have
special days in which we praise our leaders. We have Washington's
birthday, and Lincoln's birthday, and somebody else's birthday,
and mother's day, and father's day, and parents' day, and grandparents'
day. Where is the praise for the Lord? It ought to come natural, shouldn't
Praise the Lord. Thank God. And not as a byword,
but just a tribute and a scribe unto the Lord, the glory. That's
due his name. That's what it says. It's due
unto him. It's due unto him. And then he says he'll worship
the Lord in the beauty of holiness. What does that mean? Worship
the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power in the beauty of holiness in the morning."
Well, in olden times, worship, the worship of the Lord, was
cumbered about with ceremonies. I know they were typical, and
they were patterns, but nevertheless, they were ceremonies. And there
was a dedicated building, and there were designated priests,
and there were certain clothing. solemn robes and symbols and
all of these things, and the old-time worship was cumbered
about with all those typical things. But our worship of the
Lord is spiritual. It's spiritual worship. The tabernacle
and the priest and the sacrifice which existed in those days is
fulfilled in our Lord. He is my tabernacle. He is my
priest, he is my atonement, he is my sacrifice, so the building
and the garments are of no importance. Well, what is of importance?
The sincerity of heart. A holy motive and a sincere heart. Our Lord said to the woman at
the well, when she had just said, now your fathers worshiped in
Jerusalem, our fathers worshiped in the mountains. He said, you
don't know what you worship. He said, God is spirit. And they
that worship God, worship him in spirit, in heart, in sincerity,
in devotion, in consecration, in the beauty of holiness. That's
what we're talking about. in the beauty of holiness. All
right, now verse 3, and here I read into the voice of the
Lord, for the voice of the Lord. The voice of the Lord is upon the waters. What would
you do with that? Now here I am, pastor, supposed
to be a student of the teach you scripture. Those first two
verses there, I can enter into that hurriedly, wholeheartedly,
genuinely, I believe. But then I come to this, given
to the Lord, O ye mighty, ye leaders, glory, power, strength,
because the voice of the Lord is upon the waters. The Lord
our God is a great God. What do we mean, the waters?
It says here, the voice of the Lord is upon the waters, the
Lord of glory thundereth in the voice, the Lord is upon many
great waters. Well, first thing I thought of,
first thing, Genesis. In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth And the earth became without form
and void, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, the voice of the
Lord, moved upon the waters and said, Let there be light. And there was light. Let the dry land appear. And
up from the waters came the mountains, fourteen thousand feet high. The voice of my God spake, and
it was so." You believe that? I do. I don't have any trouble
with creation, and any man who has trouble with creation has
trouble with God, because you can't believe both evolution
and God. in the beginning God created.
And then I thought of something else as I sat there. God, the
voice of the Lord, is upon the waters. It says over there in Genesis
7.24, And the water prevailed on the earth a hundred and fifty
days. And I sat back in my chair and
thought about the flood. And the water, it rained all
that time and the water just kept climbing until it climbed
to the highest hill and mountain. And again, the whole earth was
under water. And the voice of God spoke in
judgment. My spirit will not always strive
with man. His days will be 120 years. And
God cut him off. voice of God upon the waters.
And then I thought about the rain, what a blessing the rain
is, how impossible it would be to do without rain. And yet,
he said to Job, have you entered into the treasures of the snow
and the rain and these things? God makes it rain on the just
and the unjust. It's God's And when the gentle
rain falls upon the grass and upon the fields and fills our
lakes and rivers, that's God in mercy blessing us, isn't it?
God, the voice of God's in the rain. And then, he leaves me
beside still waters, the water of his word is the comfort of
the believer. And then I thought about this,
when our Lord hung on that cross and that soldier took that spear
and rammed it into his side, the scripture said, from thy riven side which flowed
blood and water, blood to justify and water to sanctify, his voice
always upon the waters, the God of glory thundereth." You hear
the, you see the lightning flash through the sky, and then the
thunder rolls. Oh, I know there's a still, small
voice, but I'll tell you, the true servants of God are sons
of thunder. That's what they are. That's
right. Sons of thunder. because they
hear the heavens roar with thunder that shakes the earth. And they
know when God speaks, he shakes the earth. God shakes the earth. And then
it says down here, the Lord is upon many waters, great waters. Some of you have been through
some great waters, haven't you? I think when I saw that, That
word is great waters there, deep waters. That's troubles and trials. And God is with his people when
they're going through those great trials. And you know when we're
walking through that deep water and through those heavy trials,
water appears somewhere else. It appears on the cheek. Isn't
that right? When the heart's broken, what
comes out of the eyes? Water. Tears. And you know something? He who in such power and greatness
walks upon the waters of creation and judgment even takes notice
of and dwells in the tear on the cheek of one of His beloved.
That's right. You want me to show you that?
Turn to Psalm 56. Psalm 56. Now listen. Psalm 56, verse 8. David knew something about tears. When his heart was broken, can
you hear him saying, O Absalom, Absalom, my son, would God I
had died for you? Would God I had died for you?
And his tears streamed down his cheeks. And he said in verse
8 of Psalm 56, Thou tellest my wonderings, put thou my tears
into thy bottle. Are my tears not in thy book? What's a tear bottle? Long time
ago, back in these days, back in these days, this is not a tale, this is truth. They had tear bottles. When someone
was in great trouble and sorrow and trial, friends would come
over to the house where the person was weeping. in this great sorrow
and they catch the tears in a bottle. Have you read that before? Have
you all read that? Tear bottle truck? And they seal
it up and put that bottle away in memory of that time of great
sorrow. It's a tear bottle. He's talking
about it here. God, you tell all my wanderings. And I tell you, this pilgrimage
is a place of wonder, and it's a valley of tears. Lots of them
aren't there. But he says, Lord, put thou my
tears in your bottle. Are they not in your remembrance
and in your purpose? Just as every drop of rain and
every flowing river will serve the purpose of my God, every
tear that moves down this cheek will serve his purpose and his glory. For him, his glory
and my glory. So the voice of God moves upon
the waters. Now verse 4, the voice of the
Lord, Jehovah is powerful. We're not talking here about
a bar of wine. I told Arch last night, we turned
the television on, some preacher's on. I said, I could tell he's
a preacher before he opened his mouth. That sissy look on his
face, that, you know, it's so, they're just so sissy. I'm serious. I mean, they're
just so, you can tell them, you can smell them. You can tell
them when they talk. They're just, they're not men. They're trying to do with their
charisma and all what only the Spirit of God can do. The voice
of God is powerful. It's not a timid invitation.
It's not a bare whine. It's not a sissified invitation. It's a voice of power. I believe
that. God speaks. powerful voice. It's the voice
of the Lord that's full of majesty. I know this, old David wasn't a
whiny king. When David spoke, things happened.
David wrote this, where the word of the king is, there's power.
David wrote this, power belongeth to my God. David wrote this,
thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. David wrote
this, great is the Lord and of great power. Verse 3, he said the God of glory
thundereth. The God of present day religion
begs. Doesn't he? He's a beggar. They're
beggars and their God's a beggar. They're impotent and they're
God's impotent, but our God is powerful. He thunders like the
lightning. Somebody called the lightning
the unconquerable lightning. I like that. You know why lightning's
unconquerable? Five reasons. Number one, lightning. I love it, don't you? Anybody
here like lightning? Am I that strange? But I do. I like to drive down the highway
and watch it crack over here, crack over there, split the heavens
and fork across the sky. Do you? Lightning. I see the
power of God. Lightning is light with the intensity
of the sun. It's so bright that when it lightens
over there, it leaves an image after it's gone. Have you ever
noticed that? And it leaves an image of your
eyeball after it's gone. You can still see that jagged.
And lightning is heat. It's capable of fusing the rocks,
I read. Blast furnace down, he ain't
that hot. Fusing the rocks. Lightning is force, able to paralyze
men and animals. Lightning is power to even change
the gravity, the pull of gravity. It'll lift the earth. Lightning
is energy capable of turning the world. That's the voice of
God now, when God speaks. And you tell me God has that
little whiny voice, you're going to have to listen carefully or
you won't hear Him. You'll hear Him if He speaks to you. Thing is, He's not speaking to
many people. But you'll hear Him. Because
my God, the God of glory, thunder. That's the difference. The God
of glory, thunder, verse 4, the voice of the Lord is powerful,
the voice of the Lord is full of majesty, a king! And the voice of the Lord, verse
5, it breaks the cedars. The poet put it this way, black from the stroke above The
smoldering cedar stands, a sad and shattered trunk. One bolt of lightning and that
bold 250-year-old cedar becomes nothing but a sad, stripped,
shattered trunk. That's what the voice of my God
can do. Break the cedars, the voice of
God. Break at the cedars. Do you see
it? Noble cedars fall prostrate beneath the boat from the sky,
or they stand stripped in desolation as mementos of His power. The voice of the Lord. Listen
to the next line. Break at the cedars of Lebanon,
the biggest ones. The poorest ones. You read the
Bible very much, you'll run into the cedars of Lebanon. That wasn't
just cedars now, bud. Like down in Alabama, they ain't
just pine trees, they're Alabama pine trees. These are cedars
of Lebanon. That's what they are, but none
are immune from the voice of my Lord. If he dares, if he decrees, if he purposes
to strike it, if he strikes in grace, he'll
break the proudest heart. If he strikes in grace and speaks
in mercy through his Son, he'll bring down the highest mountain
and the proudest cedar. He'll speak in judgment, and
He'll break them all. That's right. He'll break them,
the voice of the Lord. My, my, I like that. You see
why I like this song? Not only the cedars, verse 6,
He makes the mountains to skip like a calf. He has such control, all he has
to do is speak, and Lebanon and Mount Hermon will run around
like a wild ox, split the mountain in half. He can cause the rocks to rend
and the graves to open. The voice of my God, all that
he would speak You can see in most cases today
he doesn't and hasn't, can't you? The voice of the Lord is upon
the waters, the voice of the Lord is the God of glory thundereth. The voice of the Lord is powerful,
full of majesty, breaks the cedars, makes the mountains to jump around
like a little calf. And the voice of the Lord It
divides the flames of fire, the voice of the Lord is like forked
lightning. I drew a picture of it here on
my notes. You ever see it? It's not just
a straight bolt of lightning, it's forked lightning. Splits, this
is the way the Amplified reads it, the voice of the Lord splits
and flashes forth forked lightning, flames of fire, again and again
and again and again, it splits the sky, and here and there and
everywhere it touches. When it goes away, the smoke
and the flame, comes a lightning of fire, heat and fire. And if it ever touches anything, it's affected. That's the reason
God hasn't touched many places. If he does, lightning. Folks run in the house when lightning's
flashing and they're holding golf clubs. You wouldn't want to pull a TV
antenna when it's lightning, would you? Because everything it touches,
it affects. And when my God speaks with forked
lightning and flames of fire, everything he touches is affected. I guarantee you. If it hadn't been affected, it
hasn't felt the lightning. Because it divides. Watch this. The voice of Christ in the gospel
burns away the goodness of men and reveals the righteousness
of God. Same time. The voice of Christ
in the gospel divides the heart and lays bare and open the secrets
of men. Sharp two-edged sword that pierces
to the dividing asunder, soul and spirit, bones and marrow.
That's what that lightning You'll never be the same. That
forked lightning will melt your goodness and reveal his grace. It'll open your heart and lay
bare your secrets. The voice of Christ in the gospel
will reveal the rebel and the freeing, dividing even households. Christ said there'll be three
against two and two against three. Man's enemies will be his own
household. When the lightning strikes, it'll
divide the house. The voice of Christ in the gospel
is like to expose my sin and reveal his mercy. Same time.
Isn't that something? Farked lightning. It's not just
one mission. No, it's... And the same lightning exposes
my sin and reveals his mercy. The same lightning, the same
voice in the gospel consumes my dress and purifies his gold. Same lightning, same voice, same
sermon. The voice of my God is like forked
lightning. And watch this, verse 8, And
the voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness. Where does lightning strike?
Where it pleases. Where is the voice of thunder
heard? Where it will be heard. Where will God speak in grace
and move on purpose to save where he will, when he will, on whom
he will. That's the lightning, that's
the thunder, that's the voice of the Lord that'll shake the
wilderness. There's nobody in the wilderness. God doesn't court the applause
of men. His gravest deeds are done where
the crowds are not. You ever notice that? He speaks where there's no sound
of man, even her. Moses says, show me your glory.
He said, I'll be merciful to whom I will. I'll be gracious
to whom I will. I'll raise up a church in Thadjibuchen,
Yucatan, and pass by Chicago. I'll raise up a church in Gogno,
or Gayo, Africa. with just a bunch of barefooted,
dirty fellows running around singing praise to the Lord Jesus. And I'll pass by New York City
in Washington, D.C. I'll speak in the wilderness.
My lightning will flash and my voice will be heard in the wilderness. That's right, the Lord shaketh
the wilderness of Kadesh. You see, your calling, brethren,
not many mighty, not many noble, not many wise are called, but
God has chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the
things which are mighty, and the base things of this world,
and the things that are not, hath the Lord chosen, that no
flesh should glory in his presence. The mighty voice of God speaks,
but he speaks where he will. The lightning is flashing, and
the thunder is rolling, and the rain is falling, and the blessings
are coming down from heaven. But they're where God pleases,
not where we please. That's right. Years and years ago, in fact,
fifty some odd years ago, in Fairmont, West Virginia, with two houses standing. One of them such a mansion, if
you haven't seen it, you won't believe it if I describe it to
you. Their garage is bigger than my
old mansion. That's right. isn't it? The garage and the servant's
quarters, as big as my old mansion. The house is a good deal larger. There lived there a coal baron,
a man of great prestige and power and might, in the center of Fairmont,
West Virginia, on Route 250 north, with a The mansion rearing itself
up into the sky and iron gates all around and winding driveways. Not three blocks from that mansion,
there's a boarding house, an old boarding house. And upstairs
on the third floor in a room by himself was a little boy whose
mama had left him when he was just seven or eight. and whose
daddy had farmed him out and given a lady a bureau, a chest
of drawers to keep him, a little barefooted coal miner's son. And the voice of God spoke to
one of those two people. And the lightning struck and
the thunder rolled, and God saved one of them. Would you want to
guess which one? The old coal barons dead and
where most coal barons are. And that little boy stood in
this pulpit a few weeks ago, 65 years old now, and preached
the glorious, saving, God-honoring gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what I'm talking about.
Gospel, my friend, is sovereign, and the voice of my God shakes
the wilderness. He'll shake the wilderness. Watch verse 9. I heard the voice
of the Lord maketh the female dear to give birth to a calf. You mean the voice of the Lord
moves on the face of the waters in creation, the voice of God?
that deals in judgment and saves and gives grace to a man like
no one, wipes out a well, and the God who hung on a cross and
gave forth from his side the sanctifying, pure, cleansing
water of life, cares about a female deer who is struggling and travailing
to bring forth a calf? He sure does. Not a sparrow falls
to the ground without him. They're his birds. And he discovereth the forest,
puts the buds on the trees and the leaves, and then he picks
them off one at a time. That's my God. And he numbers
Herman the hairs of your head. That's right. He knows about
those tears too, doesn't he? That's why that in his temple,
folks that are in his temple, folks that are in his house,
folks that are in his kingdom, folks that know him, every one
of them gives him the glory. Every one of them. These little
fellas here, they even give him the glory. That little thing
there gives him the glory. That's right. Us old men and
us kids. Guarantee you, if you're in his
temple, in his kingdom, you give him all the glory. That's right. All right. Because, watch this now. The
Lord sitteth, the Lord sitteth. The Lord, he's the Lord. He's
the Lord. The Lord sitteth. The Lord sitteth king forever.
He sitteth upon the flood. The flood follows the tempest,
and the drought follows the flood, but God sits through them both,
because he's calm and got everything under control. He sits. That's right, he sits. He keeps
saying, the Lord sits. Sit down, my right hand. He ascended
to heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. A king in total, absolute, sovereign
control does not walk the floor. He's not nettled nor disturbed.
He sits, even upon the flood. He sits. Because he's king forever. He's king forever. He's not going
to be king in Jerusalem for a thousand years. He is king forever. The government is on his shoulders.
And verse 11, the Lord will give strength to his people. The Lord
will bless his people. One Lord, the Lord. The Lord. One people, his people. He keeps calling them his people.
And the Lord, two blessings he's going to give them. He's going
to give them strength, and he's going to give them peace. I don't have any strength. People
talk about holding out. He holds me out. And in, I'm
kept by the power of God through faith. But He gives me strength. And
I tell you, when I'm weak, that's when I'm really strong. That's
when I'm really strong. When I am totally unable, that's
when I'm strong. Because that's His strength.
And he gives his people strength, and he gives them peace. And
one author said peace is threefold. It's internal, it's external,
and it's eternal. Peace. Peace is internal. Therefore, being justified by
faith, we have peace with God internally. It's external, but
peace of God that passes understanding will keep your heart. And it's
eternal. He that believeth will never
be confounded. Never. Never be confused and
never be confounded. If you believe on Christ, you
see, if you walk around or shake a preacher's hand or make a decision
or trust your feelings or give your time and keep the Sabbath
day and do all these things, you're going to always be confused.
You'll always be confused. Those things come and go, feelings
come and feelings go, and feelings are deceiving. But if you believe
on Christ, trust Christ, rest in Christ, look to Christ, you're
never confused. You just believe on Christ. You
just look to Christ. There's no alternative. There's
no debate. There's no discussion. There's
no argument. It's not confusing. It's not
confounding, is it? It's just Christ. Well, who's
your righteousness? Christ. Who's your atonement? Christ.
Well, how do you sanctify Him? Christ. Well, what do you know? Do you know anything? Christ.
Well, what's your hope? Christ. Well, surely you've got some
words. He is. It ain't confusing as Richard. Even you can understand that. He that believeth on him will
never be confounded, never be confused. Jim, you understand
that? I do. Took a long time, didn't
it? I think we're so human and mixed
up, it takes a long time to rest in simplicity.
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