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Henry Mahan

Beloved - Beware

2 Peter 3:17-18
Henry Mahan • July, 30 1978 • Audio
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Message 0337b
Henry Mahan Tape Ministry
6088 Zebulon Highway
Pikeville, KY 41501

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2 Peter 3, 17, You therefore, beloved,
seeing you know these things before, beware, lest you also
be led away with the error of the wicked. fall from your own
steadfastness, but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and
forever. Amen. I want to begin the message tonight
with a word which the Apostle uses, and I imagine that everyone
here knows the word already. Because each time I read it,
I read it with emphasis. This word is used five times
in this one chapter. Verse one, this second epistle,
Beloved, I write unto you. Verse 8, but beloved, be not
ignorant of this one thing. Verse 14, wherefore beloved,
seeing that you look for such things. Verse 15, even our beloved
brother Paul. And verse 17, you therefore beloved. Now this was not just a title. a religious title. I hear preachers
preach occasionally who use this word frequently throughout their
message, and I hope they really mean it, not as a byword, but
they mean it like the Apostle Paul meant it here, as a genuine,
enduring term. A genuine, enduring term. He loved these people. He genuinely
loved them. This is not a byword. This is
not just a title. He really loved them. It was
genuine. It was true. It was sincere.
He called them over and over again, beloved. When he spoke
of Paul, he said, My beloved brother, Paul. Now, I've known
people in churches to call each other brother and sister, brother
this and sister that, which is fine. I'm not complaining about
that at all. But these same people who call
each other brother and sister continually at the same time
can be gossiping away that very brother's character. can be strongly
criticizing and finding fault with these brothers and sisters
they call by these enduring terms. Brother this and sister this
and brother that and sister that and at the same time their tongues
be so sharp and critical and like razor blades just cutting
away the character and reputation of these people. That is not
love. And then I've known preachers and religious people who boast
of their love, their love for Christ and their love for His
Word, who are always getting offended. You have to be so careful
with them because you'll hurt their feelings. You'll offend
them. They'll fall out with you. They're
always falling out with a preacher, falling out with a deacon, or
falling out with a song leader, falling out with a Sunday school
teacher. falling out with a person across the aisle, they're always
offended and have their feelings hurt, and falling out and misunderstanding,
that's not love. And you can use the title brother,
sister, beloved, or any other kind of title you want to use,
but it's not genuine love. And then I've known preachers
and church people who talk about their love for Christ, oh, how
they love Jesus, and how concerned they are for His doctrine and
His glory, And I find them full of envy and jealousy and self-seeking
traits and pride. No way that they can blend into
a congregation. No way that they can blend into
a spiritual family. No way that they can blend into
a spiritual effort. No way that they can blend as
branches into the vine. They've got to be the main spark.
They've got to be the main branch. They've got to be the special
one. They've got to have the attention. That's not love. There's only one that's called
the branch. The rest of us are branches.
There's only one head, the rest of us are members of the body.
And Paul said those insignificant members are more important or
most important. This is not love. Love can be
identified in a threefold way. And I want you to get this, and
I feel it's so important that I'm putting it in the bulletin
Sunday morning. There are three things about
love. This love that I think Feel the heart of the Apostle
Peter here when he wrote to this church and call him beloved,
beloved, beloved, beloved, and my beloved brother. First of
all, there is the grace of love. There is the grace of love. Now
get this, this is true. The grace of love, like the grace
of faith, is the gift of God. There ain't no way you can produce
faith or love either one. It's the gift of God. I don't
care what anybody says. The grace of love, like the grace
of faith, is the gift of God. The grace of love, like the grace
of hope, is the gift of God. The grace of love, like the grace
of perseverance, is the gift of God. We're born loving ourselves
and hating God Almighty. That's what the Bible says. the
book of Romans. Turn over there if you will.
I believe it's Romans chapter 8 verse 7. Romans 8, let's see
if it's verse 7. The carnal mind. Because the
carnal mind, the natural mind is enmity against God. It doesn't say it's at enmity,
it says it is enmity. You're not born loving anybody
but yourself. Christ said, you love those that
love you, sinners do the same. You give to those from whom you
hope to receive something in return, sinners do the same.
You greet those that greet you, sinners do the same. But I say
unto you, love your enemies, impossible by nature. Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, impossible by nature. And thy neighbors thyself, impossible
by nature. The grace of love comes only
in the new birth. It's the work of the Holy Spirit.
Turn to 1 John. You're right there at 2 Peter
3. Just go over two pages to 1 John 4, verse 7. It says, Beloved, let us love
one another, for love is of God. Look at it. 1 John 4, 7. Beloved,
let us love one another, for love is of God. And everyone
that loveth is born of God. And there's no other way to love
unless you've been born of God. The grace of love is the gift
of God. It cannot be produced by a natural
man. It cannot be, it is not a flower
that blooms in the garden of the natural heart. It is the
gift of God. It's the gift of God. And love
is listed in Galatians 5.22 there with faith, joy, peace,
and is the work of the Holy Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace, faith, meekness, longsuffering, patience, and
so forth. It's the work of the Spirit. All right, the second
identification of love is the gift of grace. It's the grace
of love. Secondly, the Spirit of love. Now the grace of love gives birth
to a spirit or attitude of love. The love of God is shed abroad
in our hearts for the Holy Spirit and when it is there, when it's
put there by the Holy Spirit, when this, just like when the
new birth, when a man is born again, when the Holy Spirit comes
and gives him life, he believes. He has an attitude of faith.
He walks not by sight, but by faith. He has the comfort of
faith. He has the joy of faith. He has
the consolation of faith. He has the strength of faith.
These things, when faith is given, then you have the byproducts
of faith. And when love is put in our heart for the Holy Spirit,
then we have an attitude of love. We have a spirit of love. He
went about doing good. Why? Because he loves. He that
loveth not knoweth not God. If I have not the fruit of the
Spirit, I have every reason to doubt that I have the Spirit.
So if I don't have the attitude of love or the spirit of love,
I have every reason to doubt that I have the root of love.
Now the third is the works of love. There's the grace of love,
which gives birth to the spirit or attitude of love, which gives
birth to the labor of love, or the works of love. We love ourselves,
therefore we think of ourselves. When we begin to love others,
we'll start thinking about them. We love ourselves, therefore
we make ourselves comfortable. When we begin to love others,
we'll start making an effort to make them comfortable. We
love ourselves, therefore we entertain ourselves, or we see
that we are entertained. We buy things for ourselves.
We lavish all of our possessions upon ourselves. Why? We love
ourselves. When we begin to love somebody
else, when the grace of love is put in our hearts, and it
produces an attitude of love and a spirit of love, it will
produce a labor of love. It cannot help it. It has to
produce a labor of love. When we receive the grace of
love, we will have the spirit of love, and then we will begin
to produce the works of love and not of death. John is generally called the
apostle of love, Here, Peter gives us a good lesson. Beloved. All right, let's move on. Here
in verse 17. You therefore, beloved. You've
got a message for somebody, you've got to love them. He has a message
here, a warning, and something of a rebuke. But if we don't
learn to preach in love, then we're not going to get the ear
of the people. Don't you know, he got their ear here. He kept
talking about how much he loved them. He called them by that
endearing term, beloved. And then he said, you therefore,
beloved, here's the next word, seeing. Seeing. Seeing you know these things.
What things? Well, let's go back to verse
3, beginning of the chapter. Seeing, beloved, you know these
things. What do you know? Well, you know this, verse 3,
knowing this first. that there shall come in the
last days. And aren't we in the last days?
Haven't we been in the last days since Christ died and rose again?
Aren't these in particular the last days? You know that in the
last days, scoffers, and Paul calls them in his book of Timothy,
seducers, they shall come in the last days
walking after their own lust, and saying, where is the promise
of His covenant? These scoffers, these seducers,
are not only in the world, but unfortunately
they're in the pulpit. Their object of scoffing and
scorn is this book right here. This is their object of scorn.
In the last days these scoffers, these seducers shall come and
their object of scorn and scoffing is this book right here. They
question the creation. In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth. God said, let us make man. They
question the miracles of the Old Testament. They begin to
try to explain away the Red Sea being divided, explain away the
flood and Noah's ark and all those animals going aboard the
ark. And then they seek to explain away the fiery furnace Hebrew
children and Daniel and the lion's den and Jonah and the great fish. They go through saying these
things are figurative, they're not literal. They question the
deity of Christ. They question the fall of man.
They question the sovereignty of God. They put a question mark
on the purpose of God, the covenant of God's grace. the elective
grace of God, they question the return of Christ, they question
the moral law of God. I was in the banquet last night
up in Chillicothe, the prisoners up there in the penitentiary.
I have a real close friend up there who invited me to come
and share this time with him, this fellowship, the banquet. And he was talking to me about
religion in the penitentiary. He said it's like it is everywhere
else. It's filled with self-seekers
and phony professors and homosexuals, covetous men, idolaters. Religion's filled with that corrupt,
filthy, evil, No question about that. And that's why he says, you know
this, you know that in these last days, scoffers and seducers shall come walking
after their own lust." You know that. Turn to verse 8 now, and
you know something else. And here's what, I don't mean
to make reference to individuals and personalities, but I tuned
in with Brother Groover the other night to this 700 Club, and it's
a new thing. It's a new direction. It's a
new dimension, they say. This is a new day. We're not
living in the 17th century. We're not living in the 15th
century. We're not living in the 1st century. We've got to
reach today's modern man. If he's a homosexual, let him
stay so. If he's this, that, and the other,
let him... Let's get a religion that meets every lifestyle. A
religion that fits in with anybody. Let's have rock music to worship
God. Let's dress like the world. Let's
laugh and carry on our foolishness and our joking and all of these
other things because it's a new day. Now wait a minute. Look
at verse 8. Beloved, don't be ignorant of this one thing. That one day is with the Lord
is a thousand years, and a thousand years is one day. God is the
same. His Word is the same. He does
not change. The passing of time means nothing
to God. It makes no change in God. It
makes no change in God's Word. It makes no change in anything
that's written. He's the same yesterday, today,
and forever. And what was the message? And
what was the way of worship that Mike just sang, be still and
know that I'm God, was true when it was written 3,000 years ago
and it's true right now. Be still and know that I'm God.
God is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence.
If it was true then it's true now. It's true now. And if he said back yonder in
the Old Testament, when you come into the presence of God, put
a watch upon your lips and be careful what you say. If it's
true then, it's true now. If it's true now, it's true then.
It's no different. God Almighty, a thousand years
is but a day. What was true yesterday is true
today. You know that. And then verse
9 he says, and you know this, the Lord is not slack concerning
His promise, His purpose. He has a people. He has determined
to redeem a people. He gave to His Son a people.
He made a promise to Abraham and his seed, and that seed is
Christ. He's not slack concerning that
promise, as some men clout slackness. He's long-suffering to us. He's
long-suffering through this world, through these years. Our Lord
gave Adam the promise of the Redeemer, the virgin's seed,
the woman's seed, the Son of God, and it was 4,000 years before
he came. He gave to Moses the promise
of that prophet. It was 2,000 years before he
came. He gave the promise to Aaron
that a priest, like unto himself, would someday stand before the
presence of the living God. It was 2,000 years before he
came today. God made a promise to his son.
He's long-suffering. He's going to keep that promise.
He's not willing that any should perish. Not a single one that
he gave to his son. You turn to John 7, and I'll
show you what I mean. In John chapter 7, verse 37.
John 7, 37. Listen to this. John 6, 37. John 6, 37. All that
the Father giveth me shall come to me. Now if He gave some people
to Christ in the year of 2000, God's going to be long-suffering
and patient, not slack concerning His promise, and they're going
to come to Christ. If He gave some to Christ in the year of
2010 or 2020 or 2200, then time will go on until those
particular ones come to Christ. He's going to bring everyone
to Christ whom he gave to Christ. Not willing that one of them
should perish. Beloved, he's writing Beloved
to you. Read on. And him that cometh
to me out of no wise cast out. I came down from heaven not to
do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me, and this
is the will of him that sent me, this is the Father's will
which is sent me, that of all which he hath given me I'll lose
nothing, not a one of them should perish, but I'll raise them up
again at the last day." That's what that verse is saying. Beloved,
you know, seeing you know, that in these last days, scoffers,
seducers, twisters of the Scriptures, they shall come. And the thing
is, they're going to deceive many, and if it were possible,
they'd deceive the elect. That's what he said, if it were
possible. And you know that with God, a thousand years is but
a day, and a day is a thousand years. There's no change in God.
We're not in a different age that needs a different gospel.
We're in a different age that needs the same gospel. And you know that God's not slack
concerning His promise. He's long-suffering to us. He's
not willing that any should perish. Not a one should perish, and
they're not going to. But that all of them should come
to repentance. You know that. All right, look
at another thing in verse 14. Here's the word seeing again. Seeing you look for such things.
You know some things and you look for some things. You know
some things. You look for some things. What
are you looking for? Well, we're looking for the coming
of the Lord. Verse 12, looking far and hastening to the coming
of the day of the Lord. I'm looking for Him to come.
Not only that, but we look for the old earth to be dissolved.
He says, and the elements shall melt with a fervent heat. But
not only that, but we look according to His promise for new heavens
and new earth. And we look for a land wherein
dwelleth righteousness. That's what we're looking for.
Just like Abraham, he journeyed, he lived in tents, he was a sojourner. This was not his home. He was
looking for a city which had foundations whose builder and
maker is God. That's what Abraham was looking
for. That's what we're looking for. We know that the way will
not be easy. We know that the road will not
be smooth. We know that scoffers are coming and seducers are coming
and perilous times are coming in these last days. We know all
of these things. All right, now watch the next
word. Therefore, beloved, seeing you know something, seeing you
look for something, beware. Beware. Beware lest you be led
away. and beware lest you fall from
your steadfastness. Do you read scriptures like that
and make no personal application? Do you dare? I hope I never take
for granted the mercies of God. I hope I never fall into a state
of presumption when scriptures like this do not make me start
and tremble. Others have fallen The great Spurgeon, I have the
history of his tabernacle over there on the table, I've been
referring to it over and over again. Do you know, Ronnie Lewis,
one year he had no increase in his church membership,
not one increase. He had 378 additions and 378
losses. That's right. One year he had 30 additions.
He had over 400 people come in, over 400 people go out. That's
of course by death, transfer of membership, dropping out and
so forth. I've got the whole thing there.
Every year he passed it. Gross increase, total increase. One year it was 30. A lot of
years it was 100, 150, 200. God sent revival. But at some
years, one year there was not one increase. One year it was
30. This is a man preaching in the
heart of London to 5,000 people every Sunday. And I tell you, in 30 years of
ministering, I've seen some I've seen some folks fall away, let
away, depart, fall from their own steadfastness. Some happen, and we need to read this. Peter
said, Beloved, you know, you know these things, you know that
scoffers and seducers shall arise with their books and their sermons
and their Sabbath days and their feast days and their holy days
and their idolatry and their satanic ways of taking you away
from Christ. I tell you, if a man with the
brilliance and holiness and righteousness and fellowship with God that
Adam had could fall, why can't I? Why can't you? Beware, he said. What should...
Alright, let's see some things. Turn to Matthew 7. First of all,
he says, beware of false prophets. They can do you a lot of damage.
You beware of false prophets. Listen here in Matthew 7 verse
15. Our Lord is speaking here and
He says, Beware of false prophets. They are not going to come to
you with a sign on their lapel saying, I am a false prophet.
They are going to come to you in sheep's clothing. Satan changes
himself into an angel of light. His ministers make themselves
ministers of righteousness. They are clever, they're crafty,
they're covetous. They come with enticing words,
and they come with attractive books, and they come with entertaining
sermons. How am I going to know false
prophets? Verse 16, you know them by their fruits. What are
the fruits of a false prophet? His followers, his converts. That's right, his converts. Look at Matthew 16, now watch
this care, beware beloved. Peter says, beware you know these
things, beware lest you be led away, lest you fall from the
place of steadfastness. In Matthew 16, verse 6, our Lord
speaking again, Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of
the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The disciples didn't understand.
Then verse 12, look at verse 12. Then after he spoke to them,
then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the
leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Beware of their doctrine. You
know what it is? Turn to Matthew 23, and I'll
show you the doctrine of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
Our Lord gives us their doctrine, Matthew 23. Beware of the doctrine. You beware of false prophets,
you beware of the doctrine of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
What is their doctrine? This is important. In Matthew
23, He began to speak about these people, and He says in verse
3, the last line, they say and do not. They say and do not. What they preach and what they
teach is only words and not conduct. The next verse, verse 5, they
said, and all their works they do for to be seen of me. They've got to get credit for
everything they do. They've got to get recognition
for everything they do. They've got to get praise for
everything they do. Somebody's got to know what they're doing.
They've got to keep everybody informed about all of their actions
and all of their deeds. Verse 6, and they love, they
love the uppermost rooms at feasts. They love the chief seats in
the synagogue. They love greetings in the markets. They love to be called Reverend,
Doctor, Master, Rabbi. They like titles. They love those
titles. Verse 4, verse 13 rather, warn
you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, you shut up the kingdom of God
against men. You neither go in yourselves,
nor suffer ye them that are entering to go in." They try to keep the
true gospel away from people. That's right, these preachers.
They try to keep the true gospel away. I started going up to Lucasville
Penitentiary preaching. I went up there three times.
You know who it was that stopped me from coming anymore? One of
the convicts? No, sir. They wanted me to come.
The superintendent? No, sir. the chaplain. Verse 15, he says, You scribes,
Pharisees, you come for sea and land. They're great soul winners.
They come for sea and land to make one pestilence. And when
they've made him, he's twofold more the child of hell than they
are. Any means, any means at their disposal to get somebody
to make a profession of religion, to join their group, their church,
their denomination, or make a profession of faith, any means. They compass
sea and land, they sweep the land, they go up and down the
street, they just do anything to make converts. Verse 16, warning
you, you blind gods which say whosoever sweareth by the temple
is nothing but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple.
Oh, you can't come to church and send your offering. That's
what we're interested in anyway. That's right. That's what they're
interested in. If you don't believe it, you
listen to them on television, you go to their churches, their
finance committees, the most important committee in the church.
not interested in individuals, they're not interested in hearts,
they're not interested in people, they're not interested in men's
souls, they're interested in possessions, gold and silver. Verse 23, warn you scribes and
Pharisees, oh, they've got some rules and regulations, they tithe
10%, they preach it, they insist on it, they tithe everything,
but they've omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment,
mercy, faith. It's important that you do this
and do that and do the other, but mercy, judgment, and faith. Warned you, verse 25, scribes,
Pharisees, hypocrites, you may clean the outside of the cup
and the platter. They've got all the rules and
regulations. There are people who believe
in total abstinence. There are people who believe
in not watching television. There are people who believe
in not doing this, that, and not going to a ball game. All
these different things on the outside. Oh, the gutter that's
in here, the envy, the hatred, the prejudice, the bigotry, the
lust, and all these things, these animals, these terrible bats
and snakes and spiders that live on the inside. Verse 29, Warning
you, scribes, Pharisees, and hypocrites, you build the tombs
of the prophets, you brag on Abraham, you brag on Moses, and
you brag on Paul, and you brag on all these prophets. And you
say, if we'd have lived in the days of the prophets, we wouldn't
have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.
But you kill living prophets. That's what Christ said there.
When Moses was here, they hated him. When Moses was gone, they
bragged on Moses and hated Christ. When Christ was here, they hated
him. Now Christ is gone, they're bragging on Christ and hating
those that are preaching Christ. When Calvin and Luther and Zwingli
and those men were here, they hated them. They hounded them.
They chased them from city to city. They did everything they
could to destroy them. Now they're dead and gone, everybody's
building monuments to them all over the world. That is the leaven
of the scribes and Pharisees. That's the doctrine of the scribes
and Pharisees. All right, Luke 12. Let me hurry.
Luke 12, 15. Beloved, beware. Luke 12, verse
15. Listen to this. It says, And
he said to them, our Lord speak, Take heed and beware of covetousness. Covetousness. A man's life consists
if not in the abundance of the things which he possesses. And this is something we better
watch. Oh, how we better watch this in 1978 in this affluent,
abundant society. We're rich. We're increased with
goods. We've got health insurance, security. We've got fine homes. We've got
good clothes. We've got good food. We've got
everything. We don't need anything. I hope we're not physically and
materially affluent and spiritually poverty-stricken. I hope not.
But there's a great danger. Beware of covetousness. The same Lord who tells us, beware
of a false prophet. Treat him like you would a rattlesnake. Stay away from him. Beware of
the leaven, of the scribes and Pharisees, those religious leaders
and hypocrites and their pride and all of the... The same Lord
said, beware of covetousness. It's idolatry. Now you can make
idols of a lot of things, I can too. And then Philippians 3,
let's look over here a minute. Philippians chapter 3, quickly
he says, Beware of flesh peddlers. That's about what it is, Philippians.
Let's look at it there. I coined that phrase myself,
Joe Wilson, flesh peddlers. That's what they're, Philippians
3 verse 2. He said, Beware of dogs. That's what Paul calls
them. Beware of dogs, beware of evil
workers, beware of the concision, the circumcision. Well, we are
the circumcision which worship God in the spirit and rejoice
in Jesus Christ and have no confidence in the flesh. Who are these flesh
peddlers? They're people who come exhorting
you to do something in order to be saved. These men exhorted
these people to be circumcised, to keep the law of Moses. There
are people today who are coming with the same message. They're
coming with the message of infant sprinkling. They're coming with
the message of Sabbath-keeping, seven-day Adventist. They're
emphasizing one thing, and that's a day and not a person. They
give you a fleshly law or ceremony or ritual or ordinance to keep,
and we know this. That our confidence is not in
the flesh, it's in Christ. And then turn to Colossians 2.
Let me show you another beware. Colossians 2 verse 8. Colossians
2 verse 8. Beware lest any man spoil you
through philosophy. and vain deceit, after the tradition
of men, the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
Let me read that to you in an amplified version. See to it
that no one carries you off as spoil. That's what the old kings
used to go to a town and conquer it and take the people off as
spoil. They called whatever they stole and took away, their spoil
of battle, the spoils of battle. Be careful that nobody takes
you off as spoil and makes you a captive by his so-called philosophy
and his intellectualism and his vain deceit following human tradition,
men's ideas of the material rather than the spiritual world, and
disregarding the teachings of Christ. For in Christ the whole
fullness of deity continues to dwell, giving complete expression
of the divine nature." And then the last, beware, turn to Deuteronomy
6. I went back to the Old Testament,
picked this up because I think it fits in right here. In Deuteronomy
6, verse 12, Deuteronomy 6.12. Then he says,
Beware lest thou forget the Lord which brought thee forth out
of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage. Thou shalt
fear the Lord thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name.
You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the people
which are round about you. For the Lord thy God is a jealous
God among you, lest the anger of the Lord thy God be kindled
against thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth.
The gods of the people round about you." That's what they'll do. They'll
wear, Beloved, Peter says, Beloved, Seeing, you've been warned, you've
been taught. You know these things. You're
looking for God's mercies and blessings. Beware. Beware. Don't follow the gods of the
people around about you. No matter how much noise they
make, and how many people, numbers they have, and how impressed
you are with them. Follow the Word of God. Follow
the Living God. Make it say so here. It's something
that, if you're watching these people carrying on like they
do, and saying what to do, and you don't be impressed with the
numbers and the noise and the edifices and the attractiveness
and all that. Measure it by God's Word, and
try the spirits, whether they be of God. And when you look
at that mess and say, it just does not witness with my spirit. It does not glorify my Lord. It does not magnify his grace. It does not put man in the dust. It does not make Christ the master
and the Lord. It does not make us dependent
upon him. It does not bring him glory for
his grace. Then turn it off and turn away. They're the gods of this world. God's a jealous God. Our Father,
bless the word which we have read. And Lord, speak powerfully,
convincingly, personally to me, to every one of our beloved ones
in this congregation tonight. Thank Thee for the grace of love,
and thank Thee, O Lord, for the degree of the Spirit of love
which Thou hast given us and to which Thou hast brought us.
And thank You for this congregation with its labors of love, and
may they increase. its works of faith and labors
of love, may they increase. May we grow in grace, and grow
in humility, and grow in hope, and grow in faith, and grow in
love, and grow in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. In his name we pray, 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.

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