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Henry Mahan

The Rattling of Dry Bones

Ezekiel 37:7-8
Henry Mahan • August, 27 1978 • Audio
1,528 Articles 3,940 Sermons 760 Books
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Henry Mahan
Henry Mahan • August, 27 1978
1,528 articles 3,940 sermons 760 books
Message 0342b
Henry Mahan Tape Ministry
6088 Zebulon Highway
Pikeville, KY 41501

Sermon Transcript

Auto-generated transcript • May contain errors

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Now if you'll open your Bibles
again to Ezekiel 37, the Lord leaves no doubt as to the first meaning of this
scripture. I don't think there's any doubt
at all but what he's speaking of the return of Israel, the
return of the Jews, to their own land in these last days. You'll see that in verse 11 through
14. Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole
house of Israel. It's very plain. Behold, they
say our bones are dried, our hope is lost, we're cut off from
our parts, it was scattered all over the world in every nation
for nearly 2,000 years. There is no Israel, people would
say. But he said, I'll bring you back.
I'll bring you up out of the grave. I'll bring you back, he
said, verse 12, into the land of Israel. There's a good possibility
that we're seeing this scripture fulfilled in these days. The
future is not ours to know, not ours to understand, but there's
so many scriptures that indicate to me that God will do a great
work for the nation Israel. This chapter in Ezekiel, the
next chapter, if you'll read the next chapter later tonight
when you get home or sometime this week, There's a prophecy
of a great war against Israel that looks like it's in the immediate
future. I don't know, but it looks that
way, and God will intervene. He says that he's going to intervene
in this war. He's going to fight for Israel.
Turn to chapter 38 verse 23 and let's look at this last, this
last verse. He says, thus will I magnify
myself and sanctify myself and I'll be known in the eyes of
many nations and they shall know that I'm the Lord. Now you'll
find that chapter interesting. It looks like that we're seeing
the fulfillment of these things now. I do not know, it's not
mine to say. One of the best ways to look
upon what's going to happen, prophecy, the return of Christ
and these things, you remember over after our Lord had died
on the cross, was buried and rose again, appeared to many
and then he left the disciples and he promised them the Holy
Spirit and the Holy Spirit came. Great cloven tongues of fire
sat upon them and they spake with other tongues and other
nations, heard them preach the gospel in their own language
and Peter said, this is that of which the prophet Joel wrote.
Now nobody knew that was going to happen or when it was going
to happen or the way that was going to happen, but when it
happened Peter recognized what Joel had written. Oh, he said,
now suppose some preacher had risen 100 years before this and
says now there's going to be a day when Pentecost, at Pentecost
when a people will gather together in the name of Christ and the
Holy Spirit will come and they'll speak with other languages. No.
It was in the Word. Joel wrote about it, but nobody
understood it till it happened. And then they understood it.
Then they saw this, he said, is that of which the prophet
Joel spake. And I believe when Christ comes,
whatever takes place then, that you and I are going to see it.
We're going to see whatever wars are fought or whatever events
transpire. We're going to see those things
come to pass. We'll say, oh, that's what Ezekiel
meant here. That's what he meant in chapter
37. That's what Daniel was talking about. Oh, this is that of which
Jeremiah spake. This is what John saw on the
Isle of Patmos. Let's not make fools of ourselves.
Let's not try to project ourselves into the future. Let's don't
become so opinionated and indoctrinated and so positive and dogmatic
that we make fools out of ourselves. And we try to prophesy what we
don't understand. These secret things belong to
God. But here's a great old song that they used to sing years
ago. I got it out of one of the old hymn books, talking about
Israel's return to their land and the blessings of God upon
them. Yet not in vain, O Israel's land, God's glory yet will shine,
and He, the once rejected King, Messiah, shall be Thine. His
chosen bride, ordained with him to reign over all the earth,
shall first be called, ere Israel shall know the Savior's matchless
worth. Then thou, beneath the peaceful
reign of Jesus and his bride, shall sound his grace and glory
forth to all the earth beside." That may be so. I don't know. But I do know this. I know chapter
37 of Ezekiel has to do, and chapter 38 also, with the return
of Israel back to their own land. He says that. It's as plain as
words can be spoken. If words mean anything, that's
what this means. But there's always a spiritual
application. It's bifocal. There's always
a word to us. God didn't just put this in here
as an account of what's going to happen to Israel. There's
something for me, the preacher. There's something for you, the
elder. There's something for you, the deacon. There's something
for you, the believer. There's something for you, the
unbeliever. There's some lessons here to be learned, and I want
us to look at them. There's a spiritual application,
and as we think about Israel's resurrection from the dead back
to their own land, We see a picture here of the resurrection, the
regeneration, the quickening, the awakening of every believer
whom God calls to himself. Five lessons that I've learned
from this scripture and you can learn too. The first thing is
verse 1 and 2. Now here's the preacher's vision.
The preacher's vision. The hand of the Lord was upon
me, and carried me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and sent
me down in the midst, in the center of the valley which was
full of bones, and caused me to pass by them round about.
And, behold, there were very many in the open valley, and,
lo, they were very dry. The first thing that God teaches
his prophet, his preacher, the first thing he teaches him, the
first thing he shows him, the first thing he does for him,
is to give him a good understanding of the state and condition of
his congregation. If he doesn't understand the
disease, he cannot deal with it. If he doesn't understand
the condition of men by nature, he cannot preach to them. Now,
Ezekiel is often pictured as standing up on a mountain looking
down in the valley of dry bones, but that's not the case. It says
here that God took him by the spirit and sent him right down
in the middle of them. Right down in the middle, in
the center of a valley full of dead, dry, bleached, parched
bones. Evidently a terrible battle had
been fought here, I do not know. But evidently a battle had been
fought here, and they just left the dead lying there, years and
years, probably centuries ago, and all these folks were just
left there, and the beasts picked the skin off their bones, and
the birds picked the skin off, and finally there was nothing
but bones left, and the sun bleached them, and the sand blew over
them, and the wind blew the sand off again, and the wind dried
them out, and they were very dry. They'd been there a long,
long time, and there were a lot of them, and they were very dry. What's that a picture of? There
was a battle fought in the Garden of Eden, and it left a lot of
dead folks. It left a lot of the sons of
Adam dead and lifeless. Turn to Romans chapter 5 with
me, and this is something the preacher has to learn. It's the first thing that he
has to learn, that he's in the midst of a valley full of dry,
dead bones. That's man's condition by birth.
That's his condition by nature. In Romans 5 verse 12, Wherefore
by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so death. Now natural death, it passed
upon all men then too, but we're talking about spiritual death.
Death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. Turn to
verse 17. For if by one man's offense death
reigned by one, much more they which receive abundance of grace
and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus
Christ." Men are dead, spiritually dead. They're without life, they're
without hope, they're without help, they're without Christ,
they're without God. They're dead in trespasses and
sin. When Paul, writing in the book
of Ephesians about salvation, he said, you hath be quickened
who were dead, dead in trespasses and sin. No goodness, no righteousness,
no life. We'll have no effectual ministry. We'll have no effective ministry
until we learn the condition of the people to whom we preach.
We'll have no effectual witnessing until we learn the condition
of the people to whom we witness. They're dead. They do not know
God. They do not love God. They have not the life of God
in them. They have not the love of God in them. When I pastored
in Chattanooga, Tennessee, A long time ago, back in 1948, I had
a missionary come to visit with us from Africa. Some of you remember
this man. You heard him here in Ashland
20 some odd years ago, Paris Reedhead. Paris had ministered
for several years in Africa as a missionary. And he told an
illustration that never has left me. It's a powerful illustration. He said that he was out one Sunday
afternoon going from one African village to another. He had several
natives with him. They were carrying his equipment
and his tent and his recorder and all these different things.
He played records and sang and preached and so forth. And they
were going from one village to another, right through the jungle.
They were hacking their way and going through deep undergrowth
and underbrush and these things. And he said as he walked along,
he heard a voice way up ahead, and that voice was crying in
the native tongue, help me, won't somebody help me. Help me, oh
help me, won't somebody help me. And he said they quickened
their pace, they began to run, and they rounded a bend in the
jungle growth and the voice was getting louder and leading them
right to it, and he said he rounded this bend and they're sitting
on the ground. was undoubtedly the worst sight he'd ever seen.
He said, there sat a man just almost totally eaten away by
leprosy. Just nothing but bones, skin
covering bones. And his face, Readhead said,
was just one big open ulcer, flies all over, nothing but slits
for eyes and a slit for a mouth. And his fingers were about all
gone, and he was just unbelievably, unbelievably wretched and helpless
and hopeless and just beyond any measure of comfort or help
at all. He just held up those stubs and
sightless eyes and said, won't somebody help me? And he said,
I stood there and I thought to myself, that's what God sees
when he sees me. and every son of Adam and every
daughter of Eve. That's our nature. That's the
awful exceeding wretchedness and corruption of human nature.
The leprosy of the soul. Don't talk to me about man's
goodness. It's not there. God said even
our righteousness is a filthy rag. God says the best state
of man is altogether vanity. Don't get haughty and proud and
lift it up with your righteousness before God. There's no goodness
in any person's flesh. It's wretched and vile and filthy,
and we're not going to be able to minister to anybody if we
try to appeal to their righteousness. They don't have any. Get up,
fella, and go down here about four miles down is an aid station,
a medical aid station, and they can't do anything for him. Even
if he could get to them, they couldn't do anything for him.
He's beyond human assistance. He's beyond human help. He's
beyond human aid. He's beyond, where would you
put a needle if you wanted to give him a shot? Where would
you put medicine if you wanted to apply it? He's past health,
and that's the condition. He stood Ezekiel out here in
this valley of dry bones, and he looked around a bit, and they
were dead. They were parched and dry and bleached, and there
were many of them. They were dead. Dead. They're dead. That's what we're
going to have to learn. There's no use going appealing
to men's righteousness and goodness. There's nothing to appeal to.
There's nothing to work on. There's no place to start from.
They're dead. You talk about God, they don't
know God. You appeal to them to look to God, they can't see
God. You appeal to them to cry to God, they've got no voice
to cry. They're dead. Alright, notice the second lesson.
Verse 3, the Lord's question. He stood his prophet out here
in the midst of this valley of lifeless bones, and he hears
the question, the Lord's question. And he said to me, son of man,
can these bones live? Can these bones live? Now let me tell you, a fellow
that enters the ministry, a church that enters the ministry, And
most of them aren't in the ministry. I used to wonder when I was a
kid what Brother Barnard meant when he'd come around me and
he'd shake his head and frown. He'd say, Henry, one of these
days I'm going to enter the ministry. I used to wonder what he's talking
about. One of these days I'm going to enter the ministry.
Not many folks have entered the ministry. Not many churches in
the middle, they're playing church, they've got a little social club
going, they've got a little, and heaven is the goal. It's
just like a politician in a party, their goal is good times and
wealth, health and wealth for everybody, and that's most churches
are political organizations, ecclesiastical political organizations,
the goal is health and wealth for everybody. But some people
are going to enter the ministry, and the first thing they're going
to ponder when they enter the ministry, they're going to see
the condition of the people with whom they're dealing, and secondly,
the question's going to come to them, can these dead, dry,
lifeless bones live? Can they live? Can life be restored? Can whatever they were before
this happen, can it be done again? The friends of Job ask it. Turn
to Job 25. Turn to Job 25. These friends
of Job ask it. It was a question asked back
then. Job chapter 25. Turn over there. Hold that place
in Ezekiel now and let's go to Job 25 verse 4 through 6. How can man be justified with
God? How can he be clean that's born
of a woman? That's what we're asking. Behold
to the moon it shineth not, the stars are not pure in God's sight,
how much less man that is a worm and the Son of man which is a
worm. Can these bones live? We're not talking about a decision
to go to heaven now. We're not asking can these bones
be put to use. Now you could tie them together
and sell them to a doctor for what do you call that thing he
hangs in his office to study, you could find all the different
bones and put them together, and they could serve some practical
purpose. But can they live? I'm not asking
can you get a crowd of people to sing, Oh, how I love Jesus,
but can they live? Can those dead, dry sinners live
again? Can those who hate God praise
his name? Can those who love evil by nature
pant after holiness? Can men who despise Christ, the
sovereign Christ, bow to him as king? Can men who love flesh
and serve flesh turn away from it and love and serve God? Can
men who are law unto themselves bow to a spiritual law of love?
Can the self-will surrender to God's will? That's what I'm asking.
It's not hard to get a fella to decide to go to heaven, but
can, can he live under God? It's not hard to, you sit a fella
down, now you think about this a little bit, here's a fella
sitting across the table, are you a sinner? Yeah, I'm a sinner.
You know, if you die, you'll go to hell. Yeah, I know that.
Well, you may die tonight. Well, I know that too. I had
a brother who died younger than I am, and I had a friend who
who died just the other day and Then mother died just recently,
you know, and yeah, that's right I may die where you want to go
to hell not all the hell you would you like to go to heaven?
What certainly I'd like to go to heaven. Well, the way to heaven
is to believe on Jesus. Is that so? Yeah way to heaven
to believe on Jesus now now all you have to do friend is to Here's
the Bible. Let's read some verses. All is
sin. I know that. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
He died on the cross, was buried again. Well, I know that. I believe
that. I believe Jesus died and rose again. Will you accept him?
You mean if I accept Jesus right here, if I accept Him and believe
on Him, when I die, if I die tonight or next week or next
year, He'll take me to heaven when I die and give me a mansion
I'll live always and never cry or hurt or suffer or bleed or
die and never know any darkness or unhappiness. He'll take me.
That's right. Bless your heart, I'll take you up on that, honey.
Yeah, I'll accept Him. Well, now, the thing for you
to do is come down to the front of the church. Do I have to wait? Yes,
you have to okay. I'll do that next time be baptized.
Well, I have to do that, too Yeah, that's the only way to
get in the church be baptized. Well, I'll do so here we come
praise the Lord, you know, he's sorry No, no, no, wait a minute
Now wait a minute Now you you put him to some practical use
he's giving you something to brag about you want another soul
and he's put another number up on your Sunday school board he
served that practical purpose and and he's back on a number
your church and y'all grown from 50 to 100 in less than a year
and you bragged about that that's so and and he'll give a little
money and you can pay the light bill he served some practical
purpose but he still did he did I read a paper last night this
lady her husband was converted and made a profession of religion,
joined the church, and said he was saved, he wanted his wife
to be saved. So the church started witnessing
to her and visiting her, and finally she made a profession.
And this was the question. Somebody asked her, why did you
decide to get saved? She said, because they visited
me 50 times. That was her answer. That's her,
that's the reason. Can these bones live? Now here's
the question I'm asking. Question God's asking his prophet
here. Can these bones live? Can they live can lie the life
of God be put within them Can they live? Now you can get a
man to join the church and be baptized and say he believes
in Jesus and say he's going to heaven. You can get him to quit
going to the movies and quit smoking and drinking and gambling
and cussing and swearing. And you can get him to read his
Bible and pray, but you can't give him life. God has to do that. And we'd
better learn that. And when you wonder what's happening,
you wonder why all these folks are walking the aisle, and still
it hadn't changed their attitude, and it hadn't changed their spirit,
and it hadn't changed their home, and it hadn't changed their motives,
and it hasn't changed their spirit at all, their conduct, their
conversation, they're still the same old dead. Because you talked
them into religion, that they're still dry, dead bones, that's
all they are. That's all they are. And what
the question that when a man enters the ministry, he stands
out there in the midst of these dead, dry bones. And Christ said,
can they live? All right, let's see the prophet's
answer. And it's the third lesson he
learns. Ezekiel 37, verse 3, he says, can they live? And I
answered, O Lord God, thou knowest. The third work done by God for
those who enter the ministry is to bring them to totally,
completely, and absolutely depend upon the sovereign Redeemer to
work a work of grace in the human heart. Lord, there's no way in
the world. Ezekiel examined these dry bones. He surveyed these dry bones. He took inventory of his own
abilities, and he finally came to the conclusion Lord, I can't
give them life. I cannot give them life. I can't
do it. I can weep over them. I can pray
for them. I can pity them. I can think
back about what they used to be, but they're not anymore.
I can look at them with terrible regret that I can't give them
life. And they can't give themselves
life. There they lay, dead, dead. I can't do a thing. And they
can't do a thing. Somebody who can, though. Lord
God, you know. You know. It's not in the power
of the human will, devices, methods. I know, turn these soul winners
loose on the public. Turn them loose. Get them out
there, wire them dry dead bones together. Hanging them up on
the wall and counting them. Oh Lord God, I'll know it. Here's
the power, here's the source. Lord God. Jehovah God. Savior God. Jesus Christ. There's the one who can do it.
The Lord God. I know it's because you have
the power to do it. Turn to John 17. Let me show
you something here. This is what our Lord is talking
about in that priestly prayer. You do what you want to with
this. I'm telling you the truth. In John 17. And when we learn this, it will
straighten out our methods. You say, They argue about, in
the sovereign grace movement, whether to give an invitation
or not give an invitation, whether to go out and visit or not to
visit, whether to do this, that, and the other. When we learn
the condition of men, when we ponder the question, can they
live, when we shut up to God thou knowest, You won't establish
methods and all these things. You'll just, you'll ask for the
Spirit of God's leadership and you'll do whatever he tells you
to do. He'll reveal to you what to say and what to do, just like
we'll show you in just a moment. But he's the only one who can
give them life. John 17, 2, he says, Thou as thou hast given
him authority, power, over all flesh, that he should give eternal
life to as many as thou hast given him. Now turn to John 5,
the scripture I read this morning. John 5, verse 21. Verse 21. For as the Father raiseth
up the dead, and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom
he will. Very, very I say unto you. The
hour is coming and now is, when the dead, the dead shall hear
the voice of the Son of God. Not my voice, not your voice,
not our pleadings and prayers and weepings and cryings and
methods and all these things, trickery and devices. Hear the
voice of the Son of God, Lazarus! Come forth. But he came out. Lazarus had
died. Mary and Martha loved him. And
I know Mary and Martha stood over his casket and they said,
Lazarus, wish you hadn't have died. Lazarus, wish you hadn't
have died. Lazarus, wish you'd come back.
And he didn't hear them. He didn't hear anything they
had to say. He was dead. lying in his grave four days
already decaying and rotten, dead, dry, bloated body. And his ears heard someone's
voice. He never heard Mary or Martha's
or his neighbor's or the synagogue pastor. Lazarus! Boy, when he
heard that voice, His ears began to operate, and his eyes began
to see, and his heart began to beat, and he got up and walked
out of that grave. And I'm telling you this, anybody
who lives is going to have to hear the voice of the Son of
God. And I mean not the voice of a
preacher from Hollywood or Bourbon Street or Lynchburg or anywhere
else. You're going to have to hear
the voice of the Son of God. And he doesn't hear his voice,
he's not going to live. You can dress him up, make him
look good and put perfume on him, make him smell good and
put a rock over his grave and make the community a better place
in which to live, but only my Lord can give him life. That's
so. Okay, verse 4, the Lord's command. Here's the fourth lesson. They
who enter the ministry learn. He says, Lord God, thou knowest. And again he said to me, Son
of man, Preach to those bones. Preach to them. I've had people
say to me, Bruce, they'd say, if I believed what you believed,
I wouldn't preach. But old Ezekiel, he believed
these fellows were dead. He was convinced of them. He
was standing there in the middle of them. He knew their condition. And his Lord asked him, can these
bones live? And he said, Lord, I can't give
them life. They can't give themselves life.
People who killed them can't give them life. Well, Ezekiel
preached to them. Preached to them, Lord? That's right, Ezekiel preached
to them. And say to them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the
Lord. Now, here's what the preacher
learns and his congregation learns. They learn to depend on the preaching
of the word and they learn the importance of the preaching of
the word. Preach to them. Stand there and preach to them.
All right. What do I preach to them? Well, here's something
people wrassle about. What did Ezekiel preach to them?
Did he say, hey bones, I've got a real opportunity for you here.
I got a real opportunity. I got an opportunity you can't
pass up. I want you, God's sitting out
there waiting, and He wants you to do something for Him. He wants
you to serve Him and love Him and trust Him and believe on
Him. That's what He wants you to do, dry bone. God's done all
He can do, now it's up to you. Now, if you take the first step,
God will meet you halfway. If you start down that aisle,
God will embrace you. He's just waiting on you to do
something. Would you listen to what He preached to them? Verse
5. Here's what you preach to them, God said. Thus saith the
Lord God to these bones. Behold, I, God, will cause breath
to enter you, and you shall live. Now something you're going to
do, something I'm going to do, God said. Behold, I, verse 6, will lay
sinners upon you. I will bring up flesh upon you.
I will cover you with skin. I will put breath in you, and
you shall live, and you shall know that I'm the Lord. What kind of sermon is that to
appeal to people to try to get them to do something for God?
Well, that's not what I'm trying to do. You've missed my message.
I'm not trying to get you to do anything for God. I'm praying
God to do something for you. I'm praying God to show you your
need. I'm praying God to show you that you're a blind Bartimaeus
sitting by the roadside who will cry, Lord, son of David, I need
some help. I can't help myself. Or like
you're a thief hanging on a cross, and right beside you is the Lord
of glory, and you'll cry, Lord, remember me! Or you're a crawling,
afflicted, emaciated, dying woman with 12 years of hemorrhaging,
and you say, Lord, if I can just touch him, I'll receive from
him all the strength I need. Ezekiel don't go down and tell
those bones I'm depending on them the church needs you you
ever heard preachers say that the church needs you Church doesn't
need any more dry bones. We got all we can have Got an
abundance of them. We need some living people We
don't need any dry bones. What in the world would we do
with more of them? God done all he can do. Poor
little Jesus up there crying his eyes out cuz those dry bones
won't get up and walk No, sir. You get out there and tell them,
I said, the Lord said, I'm going to do something for you. You
stand out there and preach it. Well, you shouldn't preach sovereignty
to dead sinners. That's what Ezekiel preached
to them. He preached the Lord God, the living Lord God, the
sovereign Lord God, the life-giving Lord God, the quickening Lord
God. God's going to do something for
you. He's going to give you life. Verse 7, I like this, it's a
hard lesson to learn. So I prophesied what I thought
would be best, no sir, as I was commanded. So I prophesied what
they taught me in the seminary to do, no sir, as I was commanded. So I prophesied what I thought
wouldn't offend the most people, and would be a blessing to the
greater number, and wouldn't offend the people who were the
supporters of the church, and I prophesied as I was commanded.
Come flame or flood, as old brother Faust said, I preached the word.
And as I prophesied, there was a rattling of dry bubbles. Oh
boy, there was a noise, there was a shaking, there was a coming
together. Bone upon his bone, as I preached, something took
place. And I'll tell you this, if somebody will lie on his face
before God and get a message, if somebody will get into this
book, if somebody will enter the ministry somewhere and get
a message from the throne with a broken heart, with a concern,
with an understanding, and stand up and preach it, something will
happen. Something will happen. It did when Paul preached. There
was a riot or a revival. It's not always something good.
Now, when Mr. Roberts says something good is
going to happen to you, that's not necessarily so. You might
wind up getting thrown out the front door. It may not be too
good. It may be good in the long run.
It may be for our eternal good and God's glory, but it may not
be something good. Paul never had any trouble until
he started preaching the gospel. Nobody ever threw a rock at him
until he started preaching Christ. Nobody ever put him in jail until
he started preaching Christ. Nobody ever whipped him with
rods until he started preaching Christ. No, sir. No, sir. So I preached, and there was
a rattling, and there was a coming together, and all this. But look
at verse 8. And this bothered me a little
bit. And when I beheld, lo, the sinners, and the flesh came upon
them, and the skin covered them, But there was no breath in them.
Now here's the fifth lesson God teaches his preachers. All the
preaching in the world will not effect a life-giving relationship
with Christ without the Holy Spirit. All of the doctrine, you can
get your doctrine just right. Now here's the problem. You can
believe all these doctrines, you can get all, everything in
the right pigeon hole. everything in the right dispensation,
everything in the right order, everything on the chart, you
know, just right. You can have a lot of noise and a lot of rattling
and a lot of thunder and a lot of all this hoop-de-doo, you
know, everybody happy, say amen. You can have all of that. You
can have all this noise and rattling of dry bones, but there was no
breath in them. The life of God was missing.
And this concerns me, all the preaching in the world, whether
it's orthodox or unorthodox, whether it's fundamental or whether
it's liberal or whether it's conservative or whether it's
Calvinistic, all the preaching in the world, it gets some bones
rattling and it can bring some noise and it can bring some activity,
commotion. God's bound to be in this, look
what's happening. We got numbers, we got hundreds,
we got thousands, God has to be in this, does he? There are
more Mohammedans than there are Christians, maybe God's in that. There were more Knoxies than
there were English people, but maybe God was in that. Maybe
numbers are important, but there was no life in them. And so he
said to me, son of man, verse 9, you've got to have the Holy
Spirit, prophesy to the wind, son of man, say to the wind,
thus saith the Lord God, come from the four winds, O breath,
and breathe upon these slain that they may live. God's got
to say it, though. God said, Holy Spirit, give them
life. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation
is of the Lord. It's not by might nor by power,
it's by my Spirit, saith the Lord. Except a man be born of
water and of the Spirit, he'll never enter the kingdom of God. Yeah, this is about Israel, I
know. But the Lord Jesus Christ, when
he preached the gospel to his people, he began at Moses and
the Psalms and the Prophets, and he spoke to them the things
concerning himself. And this is where it is, right
here. That's the way God saves sinners. And that's the way God
saved you. He sought me, he bought me with
his own precious blood. Where does this bring you, preacher?
Well, it brings you to understand the condition of the sinner.
It brings you to understand, you know, Paul said, who's sufficient
for these things? I'm not. It brings you to depend
upon the Holy Spirit. It brings you to preach the truth,
the Word of God. Don't manipulate God's Word.
Don't, you know, they're those who frustrate the gospel. the
grace of God. They manipulate, they pick out
little parts to preach here and there and we mustn't be guilty
of that. Just preach his word and wait
upon God and pray that the Holy Spirit will do something that
you can't do and I can't do. And I'll tell you this, you say,
well how will we know if people are really converted? How did Ezekiel know those people
were alive? They didn't have look at me Ezekiel.
I'm alive. I got a birth certificate. It
happened 20 years ago as they could say that that he knew they
were alive They manifested signs of life evidences of life all
of the different functions of life, and they continued to live
and God led to our number God will bless his word I know he
will he may not do it when we want him to the way we want our
Lord labored three and a half years with those twelve apostles
one of them was a devil and And then the apostles, Paul, went
through all of these rigorous, unhappy trials, but God blessed
his ministry. The Lord will add to his church
daily such as should be said. Don't get in a hurry. Don't wait
on the Lord. He'll strengthen thine heart.
Whether it's your husband or wife or children or loved ones
or neighbors or friends or the man down the road for whom you're
praying, God will have to do it. And let me tell you this,
I want us to come to this place, he said what you do, you do for
the glory of God. Now I wonder, I asked a preacher
this last week, I wonder how much of what we do and how much
of what we say is really for the glory of God. You say you
want that man to be saved, why? Do you want him to be saved for
the glory of God? Or do you want him to be saved as a feather
in your cap, to let people know how good a soul winner you are,
and how good a preacher you are, and how God's blessing your ministry,
and blessing your life, and you've been effective, you've been a
blessing to him. Do we want it for the glory of
God? God's not going to bless anything else. Whatever you're
doing, word or deed, do it for the glory of God. Why are we
here? The glory of God. Sometimes you have to check yourself,
Brother Collier, don't you? I sure hope there's a good crowd
tonight, you know, so I can preach to a good crowd. I hope there's
a good crowd so it'll impress the church down the road that
we're doing more than they're doing. I hope there's a good offering
so we can do this, that, and the other. Wait a minute now.
Whatever you do in word or deed, do it for the glory of God. God, if you can glorify yourself
through ten, more than ten thousand, give me the ten. That's tough,
isn't it? If you can glorify yourself through
my failure, more than my success, then rack me up. That's tough,
isn't it? But that's so. It's glory. Our Father in heaven, use the
word that's preached today in a fumbling, too often fleshly
manner. But you can take thy word spoken
in ignorance, in wrath, even in contention, and use it for
your glory. Use the message, whatever purpose
it may please thee. May we be converted and become
as little children, and yea, even be able to learn from the
little children, broken at the feet of our Lord, beholding with
amazement his unusual, mysterious ways of performing that which
he's purposed to perform for his glory and his glory alone. When the instrument is sharp
enough to be effective, he'll lay it on the shelf and pick
up a dull one. When an instrument is sufficiently prepared to be
of use to the Lord of glory, he'll lay it aside and raise
up that which is naught to bring to naught the things that are.
Empty us, reveal unto us our ignorance, bring us to depend
upon thee solely and completely that Christ may be glorified.
Speak life where death reigns. that Christ may be honored in
his name. Amen.
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.

Broadcaster:
Henry T. Mahan / Zebulon Grace Church
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1co 01v01-02 Christ and Him Crucified.pdf PDF · 0.1 MB
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