Bootstrap
Henry Mahan

God Gave Them Up

Romans 1:24
Henry Mahan • July, 19 1978 • Audio
0 Comments
Message 0338a
Henry Mahan Tape Ministry
6088 Zebulon Highway
Pikeville, KY 41501

Sermon Transcript

Auto-generated transcript • May contain errors

100%
Chapter 1, verse 14, in which Paul says, I am a debtor both to the Greeks and to the
barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise. In other words,
he's saying, I have an obligation. I'm a debtor. I have a debt.
I have an obligation. By the call of God, by the anointing of God's Spirit,
by the grace of God to me, who was a persecutor and injurious,
I have an obligation to preach the gospel of Christ, to be true
to men's And that to all men, to all people, to the cultured,
represented by the Greek, and to the uncultured, to the pagan
tribes and heathen people of all nations, to the wise, or
those who think themselves wise, and to the unwise, to the foolish.
I have an obligation. I have a debt to pay. I have
a responsibility to declare the gospel of Jesus Christ to all
people. And then in verse 15 he says,
I am ready, so much as in me is, I am ready to preach the
gospel, the gospel of Christ Jesus and him crucified, to you
who are in Rome, which was a center of persecution, going right into
the very center of persecution, to the heart of the enemy's power. Spurgeon called it the seat of
Satan. The capital of pagan power and
politics. Paul says, I'm ready to preach
the gospel thereto. Not just on the outskirts, but
I'm ready to come to the center of political power and persecution
and preach the gospel. For, verse 16, I am not ashamed. I'm not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ. It is the gospel of God in that
he purposed it. And I'm not ashamed. I'm not
ashamed to own it. I'm not ashamed to believe it.
I'm not ashamed to preach it, whether it be to the cultured
or to the uncultured, to the wise or to the unwise, even to
Rome. I'm not ashamed of the gospel.
It's the gospel of God. And it's the gospel of a crucified
substitute. That's right. It's the gospel
of Christ who came into this world in human flesh. bone of
our bone and flesh of our flesh as our representative to do for
us what we couldn't do for ourselves. It's the gospel of divine visitation
that Christ came here and as a man met and obeyed God's holy
law and went to the cross of Calvary there under the burden
and weight and guilt of our awful sins he died under God's wrath
And there he redeemed us with his blood, without the shedding
of blood. There's no remission. Paul said,
I'm not ashamed of that. I'm not ashamed to believe it,
to rest my soul upon it, to trust it, to own it, to preach it to
anybody. I'm not ashamed of it. It's the
gospel of mercy. It's the gospel of free grace.
It's the gospel for sinners. Christ died sinners. He died for the ungodly. That
was the message he delivered to Rome. Christ died for the
ungodly. This is a true saying, and it's
worthy of acceptation by all men, that Christ Jesus came into
this world to save sinners. It's not by works. It's by God's
grace. It's not by your righteousness.
It's by his. And he said, I'm not ashamed
of it because, now listen, it's the power of It's the power of
God unto salvation. It is the gospel that quickens
dead sinners. I know the Holy Spirit's the
agent, but the seed's the word of God. And without the preaching
of the gospel, there is no sinner going to be made alive. There's
no dead going to be quickened. It's the power of God unto salvation. It's the power of God that quickens
dead sinners. It's the gospel of God which
convicts men of sin. No man's going to be convicted
of his sins without hearing God's word preached. He's not just
going to suddenly wake up and discover he's lost. He's going
to have to hear the word of God preached. It's the gospel that
reveals Christ. How shall they call on him in
whom they've not heard? How shall they call on him in
whom they have not believed, and how shall they believe in
him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher?" So he said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel, the
gospel of redeeming grace, the gospel of God's glory, the gospel
of Christ suffering, the gospel of his resurrection and his ascension,
the gospel of divine intercession. It's Christ who saves. And he
said, I'm not ashamed of that because that's the power of God,
the salvation to the Jew first. Christ came to the Jew. He was
a Jew. He fulfilled the prophecies of
the Jewish prophets. He fulfilled the types of Jewish
tabernacle. He fulfilled all of the promises
to the Jewish nation. He came to his own, and his own
received him not. But as many as received him,
to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on his name, Jew and Gentile. Verse 17, for therein, that is
in the gospel, is the righteousness of God revealed. It's revealed
in the gospel. The righteousness of God, Christ's
obedience. By the disobedience of Adam we
fell, by the obedience of Christ we're made righteous. The justice
of God is revealed in the gospel. How God can be just and justify
folks like us? How God can be holy and at the
same time be merciful. How God can be truth and also
be love. It's all in the gospel. It's
revealed in the gospel. The mercy of God is revealed
in the gospel. Not in the stars, in the gospel.
The stars don't say anything about mercy. The trees say nothing
about mercy. The trees. Somebody says I can
worship God by going out and looking at the stars and the
moon, the sun, the trees and the flowers. You can worship
God if you already know him, but if you don't know him, you
can never learn him looking at nature. The only way to learn
God or to know God or to discover God or to understand anything
about God is in Christ, in the Word of God. How can you worship a God whom
you do not know? The mercy of God revealed in
the gospel. How do you know God will save
sinners? Well, the gospel says so. How do you know God will
redeem the lost? The gospel says so. How do you
know God is merciful to sinners? The gospel says so. Therein is the righteousness
of God revealed, the justice of God revealed, the mercy of
God revealed from faith to faith. What does that mean? From one
degree of faith to the other. As we grow in faith, we grow
in the knowledge of God's righteousness. As we grow in faith, we grow
in the knowledge of God's justice, God's wisdom, God's grace. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God. That's the reason we need to
preach the Word. That's the reason we need to
open this book in our services, in our Sunday school classes,
our Bible classes, or whatever, in our discussions. Nothing's
so because I say it's so. It's so because God says it's
so. You build faith on the Word of God. And as your faith grows
from one degree to the other, You understand more and more
fully, more completely, how God can be just and deal with you
in mercy, the righteousness of God. Verse 18, for the wrath
of God, God's righteousness is in Christ in the gospel, for
the wrath of God is revealed from heaven. against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men. In the flesh dwelleth no good
thing, and God's angry with the flesh. In the flesh no man can
please God, and God's angry with the flesh. So the wrath of God,
the holy indignation of God, is revealed from heaven, and
let's don't try to escape this now, let's look at it square
in the face. Turn with me to Psalm 5. I mean,
my sin, your sin, all sin. God hates sin. God hates and
despises sin. God despises all of the products
and by-products of the flesh. In Psalm 5, verse 5, "...the
foolish shall not stand in thy sight, thou hatest all workers
of iniquity." Turn to Psalm 7, 11. Psalm 7, of God judgeth the
righteous, and God's angry with the wicked every day. You say,
don't paint the picture too black, preacher. That's an impossibility. That's an impossibility. Number
one, I don't understand the picture as it should be understood. I
can't present it as it really is, and you couldn't stand to
hear it as it really is. God hates sin. The wrath, the
holy indignation, the divine wrath of God is revealed from
heaven against all unrighteousness, all ungodliness of men. who hold the truth in unrighteousness,
especially, now listen, especially, is God's wrath kindled against
those who sin against the light of revelation. This is what we're
getting into. Now listen, especially, look
at that verse again. For the wrath of God, the holy
indignation of God, is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness,
that's so, and all unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in
unrighteousness, who come face to face with the truth and turn
away from it. This is what our Lord said to
Capernaum. He said, Woe unto thee, Capernaum!
Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! If the mighty works had been
done in Sodom, that had been done in you, they would have
repented. It'll be easier. It'll be more tolerable for the
cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, those perverted cities of the
plains, than for you, wherein my mighty works have been done.
You've sinned against the light. You've sinned against revelation.
You sinned against knowledge. You sinned against truth. This
is what we're talking about. You'll see this as we go on.
Because, verse 19, because the reason God's holy indignation
and wrath from heaven is turned against all unrighteousness and
ungodliness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness is because
that which may be known of God is manifest to them. God has showed it to them, he
said. His holiness. Take a cross-section
of the world and ask about anybody in 1978. Give me some sort of definition
of God. They say, well, he's a supreme
being. True. He's got a law which requires
obedience, holy, so he's holy, that's true. They'll have some
debate about whether he created things, but most of them believe
he sustains things. His majesty, his greatness, so
these things, this generation is not ignorant of God. We have a foundation laid back
there, our forefathers laid it. We know what these men preached,
this generation knows. This generation is not ignorant
of God. We have his word. We have his
law written on our hearts. Our consciences are preachers
to us. We are without excuse. That's
what he's saying, verse 20. The invisible things of him from
the creation of this world are clearly seen. From the time that
this world was made, God has not left himself without a witness.
Adam knew something about God. Being understood with the things
of the made even his eternal power and Godhead so there with
there without excuse There are degrees of revelation. I know
that There are degrees of light. I know that But that which may
be known of God is revealed. God Almighty has not left this
generation in the dark They use God's name all the time they
put a damn on the end of it, but they use it They know there's
a God, they know he's holy, they know he's almighty, they know
he's majestic, they know he's great, they know there's a God.
God has written his law on their consciences as a light that lighteth
every man that comes into this world. These churches, Catholic,
Protestant, Jew, Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, Camelot, whatever,
they know something about God. Now I want you to look at verse
21, but when they knew God, when they had some knowledge of God,
when they had some revelation of God, some degree of understanding
of God, what was their response? Now watch this, point number
one, they glorified him not as God, as God. They glorified him not as God. Now let me lay a foundation here. Moses one day was out taking
care of sheep. On the back side, they say, of
the desert. He's 80 years old. And he saw a bush that burned
but was not consumed. And he went over to investigate
and a voice said, The ground on which you're standing
is holy ground. Take off your shoes. The first
thing God said to Moses is, I am God. I am holy. You take off your shoes. You
come before me with awe and fear and reverence. Job and his friends,
when God had bested Job with affliction through the instrumentality
of Satan, Job and his friends sat around, they yacked a long
time, said some good things and so forth. That's while God spoke.
He said, God spoke to Job out of the whirlwind and said, who
is this? darkeneth counsel with words
without knowledge. And he began to reveal himself
as the sovereign God who even tells the bird how to lay her
eggs and build her nest and fly south for the winter and feed
her young. God who controls the rain and the snow, who causes
the whales to swim and the little fish to live. God Almighty who
takes care of even the little insects that crawl in the rocks.
I'm God, he said to Job, you bow down. Old Job said, I put
my hand on my mouth and I said, I've said some things I ought
not to have said, I'll never speak again. I've heard of God, but now I
seek God, wherefore I hate myself." God revealed himself to Job and
shut his mouth. He revealed himself as God. As
God. All that the word implies, God. Isaiah. Isaiah said I saw the
Lord high lifted up his train filled the temple It was all
God even the cherubims and seraphim shut their mouths. It was all
God And I cried oh woe is me Now these men knew something
about the almighty, sovereign, awesome, majestic God who reigns
and rules over all things, even the heart of the king, which
is in the hands of the Lord. God, last Sunday Mike sang, or
Sunday before, God's in his holy temple, that all the earth keep
silent. God's in his holy temple. Not this generation. Not the
BTL club. Not the 700 club. Not the Baptist
and Methodist churches. Not the Nazarene. Not the Catholics. Not this generation. They made
God something else. God's their buddy now. It's sweet little Jesus, boy. That's our language. It's me
and God got a good thing going. It's the man upstairs. He's the
superstar. He's become our ballet. He's
become our personal savior. He's become our personal healer. He's become something he never
was. He's not God. They glorify him
not as God. And they got the caboose before
the engine. It used to be that lepers would
come and say, Lord, if you will, you can make me whole. And now
we got God begging for the leper to do something, to let him do
something for him. We turn that thing around. They glorified him not as a God. Every sermon and every song preached
and sung in the average church today will glorify one person,
and that's man and not God. Preachers will brag on their
congregation, they'll brag on their people, they'll give a
cassard to the oldest mother and the youngest mother and the
one with the most children, they'll recognize the oldest daddy and
the couple that's been married the longest, they'll recognize
the mayor and the city councilmen, the senators and the congressmen,
they'll go through their whole service trying to make an honored
guest out of every visitor. The only honored guest here today
is God Almighty. We'll try to see how many people
we can have in our Sunday school. There's only one presence of
one person that matters, and that's if God there. God is there. Where two or three are met in
my name, I'll bless them. They glorified him not as God. They made him something else.
You know what I'm talking about? He says, read on verse 21, because
when they knew some things about God, they didn't let Him be God. They didn't glorify Him as God.
They didn't recognize Him as God. They didn't worship Him
as God. They didn't bow down before Him
as God. They didn't preach Him as God.
And they weren't thankful. They weren't thankful. Are you
here today because you're thankful? You know, you have to entertain
people now to get them to go to church. You know that? They
don't come just because they're thankful. They don't come just
to worship God. They don't come to hear from
God. You've got to invite them to come. You've got to beg them
to come. You've got to advertise in the paper, we have a friendly
church. You've got to give something
away. You've got to run your buses right to their door. You've
got to somehow, some way, appeal to them. You've got to have a
good musical program. You've got to have a good social
program. To get young people to come to church, you've got
to organize a ball team. And that's what it says. It says
they weren't thankful, so they became vain in their imaginations. This is what it led to. They
think these things are acceptable with God. In the first place,
they didn't glorify him as God and they weren't thankful, so
they made their churches social circles and three-ring circuses.
They began to offer things to entice people to come. They weren't
thankful. They had to appeal to something
else. in that old center to get him
to come to church. So now they have goals for the
Sunday school. They divide the classes so they'll
grow. They recognize people. They cater
to the flesh. Be sure and make everybody welcome
this morning. They may not come back. That's
our thinking. They're not thankful. They didn't
come to worship God. They glorified him not as God.
They become vain in their imagination. My friend, you haven't seen anything
yet. I'll show you why in a minute.
We have puppets and muppets. We have chalk artists and trumpet
players. We have youth choirs, children's
choirs, adults' choirs, and special music, and quartets, and all-night
singings. You've got to do something to
get people to come to God's house. They're not thankful. They don't
know God. So we become vain in our imaginations,
our imaginations have run to vanity, not to God, to vanity,
not to his word, to vanity, to appeal to the flesh. Claiming, listen to it, verse
22, claiming to be wise, they have become absolute fools. That's what they are. Oh, we're
smart. We've got a Master of Divinity
and a Doctor of Theology and a Doctor of Divinity. We're smart
in this day. We know the Bible from cover
to cover. We got it on our ancestors. They're
just poor old farmers that read in the Bible that God was on
the throne. Well, we know all about it. We've
got our theology systematized. We can catechize, and we got
it down in the Creed. We're white, you fools, God said. And watch this, watch verse 23,
and they've changed the glory of God, the glory of the uncorruptible
God, into an image made like the corruptible man. What are
you going to do with that picture? Go through the churches and see
the statues, images of men. Go through the churches and see
the crucifixes. Get the ladies to show you their
crucifixes, images of men. See the statues of our great
reformers, images of men. Christmas, we're going to celebrate
the birthday of Christ, get us a Santa Claus, images of men. Those who worship God, worship
God in spirit, not with images, or statues, or beads, or rosaries,
or crucifixes, or candles, or anything else. They worship God
in spirit and truth. And birds. You got any pictures
of the dove of peace flying around with an olive branch in its mouth?
That's religious. They got it on the stained glass
windows of the churches. four-footed beast. How many of
you got an Easter bunny last Easter? That's the resurrection
of the Lord. We get us an Easter bunny, a
four-footed beast. Am I stretching this? God, they changed the globe. When they knew God, they knew
God at least to a degree, to a measure. This generation's
not dumb. They're not ignorant. They know
there's a God. He's revealed right here in His Word. But they're
not satisfied to glorify Him as God, Sovereign, Eternal, Omnipotent,
Omniscient, Omnipresent. They're not thankful. They don't
come together on the Lord's Day, praise God for all of His mercies
and blessings to us. Preach, you don't need to invite
me to the house of God. I got as much right there as
you have. You don't need to sell me a bill of goods to get me
to come to your church. You preach the gospel, I'll come
hear you. I'm going to worship God on the Lord's Day. It's the
Lord's Day. It's not the Baptist Day or the
Presbyterian or the Methodist Day. It's God's Day. And I'll
tell you, people who know God, if they're on a desert island,
they're going to gather around together and give thanks to God,
if they know it. But we've become vain and our
imaginations have run wild. You get your church paper on
Saturday, the church page of the Herald-Dispatcher, the Ashland
paper, and read about these vain imaginations, the Wonderbuses,
the Muppets, the chalk artists, the pantomimes, the giveaways,
the begging, the advertising, all of these things. Why? To
try to entice people to come to church. Wonder if some preacher
someday just put in there. We're gonna worship God at 11
o'clock next Sunday morning ball come worships welcome All right read on listen wherefore
verse 24 God gave him up God Gave him up and that word up.
He gave him over He gave him over. This is what he's saying
God gave them over to these practices. He just turned them loose. He
removed his restraining hand. He removed his restraining grace. He left them to the lusts. of
their own hearts. The word lust doesn't always
have a sexual implication. You can lust for power. You can
lust for fame. You can lust for recognition.
All of these things. And this is what this is saying
here. God's just turned this generation of religious people
loose to do what their hearts devise. And you haven't seen
anything yet. up in procter ville one sunday
morning through a deacon fully clothed into the river to see
if they could get three hundred People come out to see the deacons.
Up in Canova, a pastor ate his Thanksgiving dinner on the roof
of the church if he could get 200 in Sunday school. You ain't
seen nothing yet. One church out in California
had a nude dance performed on the platform of the church to
get people to come to church. You ain't seen nothing yet. God
has turned this generation over to their own lusts. And it's
going to amaze you. And the thing is, they knew God.
They know who God is. But they glorified Him not as
God. Their preachers dare not declare
who God is. The power of God, the sovereignty
of God, the rights of God, the omnipotence of God. They didn't
glorify Him as God. They're not thankful. They've
become vain in their imaginations and God gave them up. God has
given them up. And there's no telling where
we'll go from here because the hand of God has been lifted and
men have been turned over to the lust of their own hearts
to dishonor their own bodies. They've just like down there
when Moses left and went up in the mountain and left that outfit
all by itself to do what it will and when he came back they were
dancing around a cave worshiping an idol. Dishonored their bodies. followed the lust and imaginations
of their heart, and that's what's happening right now. You mark
my words, I'm telling you the truth. Now, if we can reverse this thing
here, or wherever God is moving, and we can glorify him as God.
And we can be thankful. It may be he won't turn us over
to ourselves. It may be he'll still direct,
and purpose, and plan, and we can say our times are in his
hands. It may be. It may be. But now watch the
next thing. It says, verse 25, they changed
the truth of God into a lie. That is, they exchanged the truth
of God for a lie. And they served and worshipped,
they worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator,
who is blessed forever. Now, our Lord said in John 5,
43, I've come in my Father's name, and you won't receive me. Let another come in his own name,
and him you will receive. Ever since the Garden of Eden,
men have exchanged the truth of God for a lie. The Bible says
man fell. Sin and death passed upon all
men. Man says no. There's some good
in all. The Bible says salvation is the
work of God by grace through Christ. Man says no. In a sense
it is, but in another sense it's by work. The scripture says there's
one mediator between God and men. Man says no, there's several
mediators. The Bible says if they speak
not according to the law and the prophets, there's no light
in them. Man says no, what our denominational leaders say is
equal to the Bible. Man has exchanged the truth of
God for lies. The Bible says that men were
baptized by immersion. Man says, no, we'll do it a convenient
way, we'll sprinkle. And not only that, but we'll
sprinkle our babies. The Word of God says, Christ
said himself, this bread is my body and this wine is my blood,
this do in remembrance of me. We say, no, we're not going to
do it as a memorial feast, we're going to do it as a saving feast.
This is the way we're saved. They've exchanged the truth of
God for a lie. They believe and serve the creature,
not the Creator, not the Word of the Creator. Somebody says,
well, preacher, you almost make that Bible a God. Well, now,
wait a minute. This Bible is the Word of God. This Bible is the Word of God.
And it's to be followed. I don't claim to understand everything
that's written in this book by no means. The secret things belong
to God, but the revealed things belong to them to whom it's given.
But I'll tell you this, we need to come back to this book. We
need to come back to the Word of God. So they took the Word of God,
they took the truth of God, and they laid it aside and they exchanged
it for a lie. They exchanged it for their books
and their doctrines. And their professors and their
teachers, instead of bowing to the Creator, they bowed to the
words of the creature. They worshipped and followed
the creature. This is what Dr. So-and-so said. This is what
Rev. So-and-so said. It doesn't really
matter. It's what God said. And because
they did that, look at the next line, verse 26. For this cause,
God gave them up. God gave them up. And this is
a horrible result. God gave them up to vile affections. Now over here, they didn't glorify,
they didn't preach a sovereign God, they didn't glorify him
as God. They didn't worship a sovereign
God. They weren't thankful to a God who saved. But they became
vain in their imagination. Their foolish hearts were darkened.
God gave them over. God gave them over to all these
plans and ridiculous circuses and all of this sort of thing.
And then, instead of receiving the truth of God, they believed
a lie. They exchanged the truth of God
for a lie, and so God gave them over further to vile affections. Born out of that horrible mess
were the lesbians and homosexuals of our day. If men and women will not acknowledge
the Creator in spiritual worship, if they will not obey the living
God, then God will lift his restraining hand. God will give them up.
God will leave them to their vile nature and to their vile
flesh. You want to know what God's Word
says about San Francisco and these other cities where this
thing is going on so rampant? He revealed his wrath against
such practices when he visited Sodom with a personal visitation
of fire and brimstone. And not only that, but he visited
one with judgment who even looked back in sympathy. That's right. Lot's wife was
not a lesbian or homosexual, but she didn't want to leave
them. She didn't want to lose them. She pitied them. She looked back in sympathy,
and God destroyed her. God destroyed her. Now, you do
what you want to with that. But she left that place. She didn't want to live there,
you know, because Lot was leaving, the daughters were leaving. But
in her heart, she still looked back. God destroyed her. God gave them up. God gave them
up. Look at verse 28. And even they
did not like to retain God in their knowledge. They did not
like to retain God, to acknowledge God. He gave them over to a reprobate
mind. That's a mind void of judgment,
void of truth. Where does all this start? You
say, what's happening? I'll tell you what's happening.
When they knew God, when God gave them some light, God's given
us some light, some revelation, the book. They started at this
first point. They didn't glorify Him as God.
They were not thankful. So God turned, following their
vain imaginations, they made three-ringed circuses out of
their churches, and they did things the way they thought they
ought to be done, that appealed to the flesh, and God gave them
over to these things. He just took his hand off and
gave them over. And they just kept rolling and kept rolling.
And so finally they just closed this old book and put it aside.
We don't need that. We've got these other things.
They exchanged the truth of God for a lie. It's not truth. Then God just turned them over
to their vile affliction. And they became so twisted and
so perverted that their women and men both left that which
God had designed as the natural youth and started performing
things between themselves that were evil in God's sight. So
finally, God just gave them over totally to a reprobate mind with
no restraining hand. They're gone. Gone. No hope. They've got a mind now
that's totally void of judgment. They call night day and day night
and bittersweet and sweet bitter. That's what's happening. 1970, that's what's happening
to the churches of this day. I don't expect to recover the year
of 1492, no, or 1620 or 1740, but I'm just saying, why can't
I in 1978 bow before the living God, worship Him in thanksgiving and
praise and adoration, leave myself totally dependent on Him for
any mercy or grace, and just come together on the Lord's Day
because it's the Lord's Day. Open the book because it's the
Word of Believe it no matter if it crosses my grain or crosses
my denomination or creed or whatever. This is God's Word And I want
to know the truth for the truth will make you free God don't
Turn me over to myself And that's what he's doing That's what he's
doing. That's what he will do turn people
over to themselves Our Heavenly Father, we pray
for ourselves. We pray for an anointing of thy
Spirit. Give us a new mind and a new
heart and a new nature. Deliver us from what we think.
Our thoughts are not thy thoughts, our ways are not thy ways. Shut
our mouths. Open our hearts. Lay us down
in the dust at our feet. Make us to realize our total
ignorance. O Lord, deliver us from our plans
and our blueprints. We have a way that seems right
to us, and it's nothing but death and destruction. May we be a
people who wait on the Lord. May we be a people who bow humbly
broken at the throne of the living God. May we be a people who are
shut up to the hand of God, the voice of God, and the word of
God. Let us worship, O Lord, at thy
throne, but let us follow thy word. Make it a lamp unto our
feet and a light unto our path, and give us a thankful heart,
wherever we are, to be able to praise the Lord, to thank God. to give him the glory. He alone
is worthy. Make this place a place where
the Lord is pleased to reveal himself in his true glory and
power, where men can come and hear a word from God. In his
matchless name we pray for the sake of thy beloved son. 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.

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