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Henry Mahan

What About Rewards In Heaven

Matthew 20:12
Henry Mahan • May, 15 1977 • Audio
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Message 0259a
Henry Mahan Tape Ministry
6088 Zebulon Highway
Pikeville, KY 41501

Sermon Transcript

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Now will you open your Bibles
again to Matthew chapter 19. The message tonight is on the
subject, what about rewards in heaven? It's a study of the parable
of the laborers. And the occasion for this parable
is found in Matthew 19, verse 27. The Apostle Peter stated
the position of the first disciples He reminded the Lord of their
sacrifice, of their devotion, of their faithful service, and
then he asked the Lord what reward will we have. In Matthew 19,
27, Peter answered and said to him, to the Master, Behold, we
have forsaken all and followed Thee. What shall we have therefore? And then the Lord Jesus Christ
spake the parable of Matthew 20, the parable of the laborers.
And of that parable, Charles Haddon Spurgeon had this to say.
Now listen carefully to this. This parable is a rebuke. This parable is a rebuke to those
who fall into a legal spirit, and this is a treacherous, treacherous
pit. And it's easy for any of us to
fall into it. And this parable is a rebuke
to those who fall into a legal spirit and begin calculating
what their reward ought to be in the Kingdom of Heaven, where
no legal spirit can survive, and where a legal spirit is entirely
out of place. since heaven's rewards are not
of debt, but of grace." Now, I'm going to state the whole
case at the outset. We've already read the parable,
and so I'm going to state exactly what the Lord's teaching here.
And if I had the slightest doubt about what his teaching was in
this case, I wouldn't bring it to you in this fashion, but I
have not the faintest, slightest doubt what I'm teaching tonight.
And this is what it is. I state the case at the outset.
All believers, Jew and Gentile, Old Testament and New Testament,
all believers, those saved early in life and those saved late
in life, all believers, those who are martyrs, who actually
gave their lives for their testimony, for their faith, and those who
lived out their lives even in the lap of luxury, all believers,
whether they're missionaries or the simplest native believers,
all believers, whether they were evangelists or prophets or apostles
or teachers or pastors or the least of the saints in the kingdom
of God, all believers, those who gave fortunes to be used
to preach the gospel and those who gave pittance All of these
believers are loved with the same everlasting love. All of these believers are chosen
by God in his Son at the same time in eternity past. And all of these believers in
the same way were chosen by God as recipients of the same grace. And all of these believers are
redeemed with the same blood, justified by the same righteousness,
called by the same Spirit to the same hope, to be like Christ. All of these believers are equally
the sons of God. Did you notice what that fellow
said in verse 12 over here? He said, while these last have
worked but one hour, and you've made them equal to us. All believers are equally the
sons of God with a kingdom, a crown, and an inheritance. All believers
are equally heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ
of the same kingdom and the same glory. And all believers have
been called to sit on the same throne in the person of the same
Lord, will wear the same crown of righteousness, and enjoy the
same uninterrupted communion with the Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. Now, that's what our Lord said.
Now, my friends, I know, and you know, and anybody in here
with just a little bit of common sense knows, that all believers
don't have the same office and the same gifts here on this earth.
We know that. The Bible teaches that they are
gifts of the Spirit, and he gives them severally to whom he will,
according to his own purpose and his own providence and for
his own reasons, according to his own wisdom. All believers
do not have the same gifts. All believers cannot preach like
Paul, they cannot sing like David, all believers cannot do the same
thing, they don't have the same gift. But in glory, now watch
this, in glory all of these offices and gifts will cease. And all
of us will be with Christ and like Christ to behold his glory
and we won't need apostles and preachers and pastors and teachers
and these to instruct us and help us. We know that all believers do
not have the same measure of grace. Let's face it. Some have
more grace than others. Some have less grace than others.
But in glory, we're all going to be perfect, absolutely perfect
and complete, just like the Master. You may have, and I'm sure you
do, more grace than I have now. But I'll tell you then, you won't.
Nobody else will. I'm going to be like him. I'm
going to have perfect love. I'm going to have a perfect temperament,
a perfect personality. I'm going to be like Christ.
And there's not going to be any degrees of grace. There is now,
no question about that. He said there are babes in Christ,
and young men in Christ, and elders in Christ. We grow in
grace and in the knowledge of Christ, and some of us in different
stages of growth, but not in glory. And then we know that
all believers do not have the same capacity for knowledge.
We do not all have the same capacity for service or for works. We
can't all do the same thing. And this differs according to
personality, according to temperament, according to education, according
to age, according to opportunity, according to location, according
to time, according to God's sovereign mercy, according to God Almighty's
sovereign plan. But in glory, every vessel of
mercy in glory, prepared for glory, will be equally capable
of receiving glory. In other words, there may be
degrees of punishment in hell, and I think there will be. And
there are several verses I could give you that back up the reason
I think that. To him that knoweth to do his
master's will, and doeth it not, he shall be beaten with many
stripes. To him that knoweth not the master's will, and doeth
it not, shall be beaten with few stripes." When Abraham said
to the rich man in hell, Son, remember, remember that thou,
during thy lifetime, had the good things, that some folks
are going to have more to remember. Some folks had more light than
others. Some folks had more opportunity. Another verse, our Lord said,
it will be more tolerable. for the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah
in judgment in hell than for you, Capernaum, because if the
mighty works had been done in them which were done in you,
they would have repented long ago. It'll be easier in hell
for them. Like Barnard said, if you're
determined to go to hell, it'd be a good idea for you to move
to the heart of Africa where there's no gospel preached, no
Bible sold, and no missionaries, and no pastors, and no life. and to go to hell from sitting
under the sound of this marvelous message of grace. But my friends,
there cannot be and there is not degrees of glory. Now the
reason there are degrees of punishment in hell is because hell is according
to light and hell is according to sin and hell is according
to the works of men. But there can be no degrees in
glory because glory does not depend on the works of men, but
entirely on the free grace of God. Almighty God in hell is
giving men what they earn. What's he giving us in heaven? Pure grace, pure mercy, not what
we earn. What God is doing in hell is
giving men what they deserve. In heaven, he's not giving any
man what he deserves. He wouldn't be that. He's giving
us pure grace. Now let me say this. I knew when
I started this message that some folks who will hear it by tape,
not here, But there are some who are not as mature as others,
and there are some who have bowed down with tradition, and there
are some who have heard rewards all their lives, and tears in
heaven, and all these different things. Some of them have heard
that stuff, and they've bowed down with tradition, and they're
not going to like this message. And that's the reason I chose
for my text verse 11 and 12. Because if any verses in all
of God's Word would destroy this degrees of glory and rewards
in heaven, this verse, these verses will do it. And these
people that had received the penny came and murmured against
the good men of the house, and they said, why, these last fellows
here didn't work but an hour, and we toil all day. You're making
them equal with us! I had a preacher say that to
me a few months ago. I mentioned this subject in his
pulpit, and bless his heart, he's a close friend of mine,
he got upset. After the first time he'd ever, I've held meetings
in his church for years, the first time he had ever taken
issue with me. We left the church and I saw
something was bothering him, and after a while it came out.
He said, you mean to tell me that you think that a fellow
that just that lived his whole life in drunkenness and rapturous
living and gambling and swearing and profanity and hating God
and got saved when he was 60 or 70 years of age, he's going
to be treated the same in heaven and get the same reward as you
who've preached for 30 years?" I said, yes, sir. That's exactly
what I believe. He didn't like that at all. And
there are a lot of folks who don't like it. And that's what
these fellas said, here, you mean to tell me that this fella
just works an hour and I work 12 hours and he gets the same
as I? Well, let's go back to the parable. Let's look at it. Let's take
a few minutes here and look at it. This is what the Master said,
and this ought to settle the whole issue. Verse 1, he said,
The Kingdom of Heaven is likened to a man that's a householder,
and he went out early in the morning to hire laborers into
his vineyard. Now, this man owned the vineyard.
It was his vineyard. It didn't belong to these laborers,
and he went out to hire men to work in his vineyard. They had
no claim on it. They had no claim to it. It was
his vineyard. And the kingdom of glory belongs
to our Lord. And I have no claim on it, and
I have no claim to it, and neither do you. And this man went out
on his own. They weren't seeking him. They
weren't knocking his door down saying, give us work, give us
work, give us work. We want to work for you. We're
dying to work for you. No, he went down there in the
marketplace where they were lazy, idle, doing nothing. And that's
where he found them. And he called them, and he made
them willing to serve him. And verse 2 said, And when he
had agreed with the laborers for a penny a day, he sent them
to his vineyard. Now he went down there to them,
and he said, I've got a vineyard over there, and I'd like to have
you work in it. Would you work for a penny a
day? Yes, sir, we sure will. We sure will. We'll be happy
to work for a penny a day. We'll be delighted to work for
you. We're just glad you came and got us. We're glad you called
us. And they willingly went to the vineyard, and they went to
work for a penny a day. He hired them very early in the
morning. Now, our Lord Jesus Christ has been sent by his Father
into this world to call out a people for his name. And he comes to
us, and in his precious promises, that's what Peter calls them,
precious promises, based on the precious blood. to you who believe
he's precious and his blood's precious and his word's precious.
And he comes and he says, I'll give you pardon for all your
sins. He says to us, I'll give you sufficient grace for every
trial. He says to us, I'll give you the gift of the Holy Spirit.
I'll go away and I'll send you a comforter and he will abide
with you. And I'll supply all your needs according to my riches
in glory. And I'll give you eternal glory
in heaven. Will you come to me?" Yes, sir,
I sure will. You made me willing. I'd just
be glad to, and I'm glad you came, and I'm glad you called
me, Lord. And I want, where's your vineyard? I want to get
in your vineyard, in the church of the living God, in the kingdom
of the living God. I want to be a part of these
who serve you and labor in your service. I want to. I want to. They came, he came after them,
and he saw them, and he offered, and they came willingly. All
right, now look at verse 3. And he went out about 9 o'clock
in the morning. Now, he had gone out in the early
morning, real early. And then he went out again at
9 o'clock. And then he went out again at 12 o'clock. And then
he went out again at 3 o'clock. And then he went out again at
5 o'clock. He found them all in the same place. You who were
dead in sin have to equip them. I don't care when God saves a
man, he finds him dead in sin. He found them all in the marketplace.
He found them all unemployed. He found them all idle, he found
them all in rags, he found them all empty-handed, he found them
all needing help. But he found them at different times
during the day, and there's only one thing that this can represent.
It doesn't represent the four dispensations, don't believe
that at all. It represents the ages of life
in which God calls the senses. Some he calls very early in the
morning, like Timothy. From a child, Paul said, thou
hast known the holy scriptures that are able to make thee wise
unto salvation. I'm not talking about when God
actually saves a person in the sense that that person comes
to a realization of his sins, like he will someday, and a real
faith in Christ, like he will someday. But God begins a work
of grace in the hearts of some people very early in life. Some
of you can attest to that fact. that God began to work with you
when you were just a child, when you were 7 or 8 or 9 years of
age. You began to listen to the Scripture,
you began to love the Scripture, you began to seek the Lord, you
began to show an interest in the things of God. But some of
you, he called it 9 o'clock in the morning. That's around somewhere
between 15 and 25 years of age. You were not in the early morning
hours of life, but you were already up there at 9 o'clock in the
morning. You were up there around 20 or 21 or 22 or 25. God called
you the same, but he found you in the same place, quickened
you by spirit, brought you to himself, made you willing to
work for him and love him and serve him. Some of you God came
to you at noon, halfway. Life was half, the day was half
gone, the day was half spent, but he found you at noon. You
were 45 years old, or you were 40 years of age, but life was
half gone. But he sweetly called you. His
mercy found you. You weren't seeking him. Those
called in early life weren't seeking him. Those called at
nine weren't seeking him. Nobody was. They were content
to stand around idle, doing nothing, unemployed. empty-handed, clothed
in rags, needing help. But he came and he sweetly presented
his proposition, and he says, Whatsoever is right, I'll give
you. Shall not the judge of the earth
do right? He'll do right. I can tell any sinner that. I
don't care whether he's ten years old or ninety years old. God
will treat you right, I guarantee you. And that righteousness won't
be based upon justice, but upon Christ. It won't be based upon
what you deserve, but what he accomplished. He'll do right.
Whatever's right, that's what I'll give you. You know, I have
not seen. He went out to these men, the
first bunch, now he told them what he'd give them. But that
2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th bunch, he just said, whatever's right,
that's what I'll give you. And I thought of that verse in
1 Corinthians 2, 9, which says, I have not seen, ear hath not
heard, neither hath it entered the heart of man, the things
God's prepared for them that love him. Oh, when the day's
over, you just don't know what he's going to do, but he's going
to do what's right. He's going to do what's right.
So he called them, and then 3 o'clock in the afternoon, David's almost
gone. He's 60 years old. He's lived, he's stood there
the days nearly completely spent. He's done nothing all day. His
life is as empty and void and idle as it could be. All day long he's stood around
doing nothing. And God the Holy Ghost comes
and calls him. He called Paul at 12 noon. He
called Timothy in the early morning hours. And then 3 o'clock in
the afternoon, he calls these fellas, about 60 years old. But
by his grace, at 5 o'clock in the evening, the day's almost
gone, and he comes out there and there's some fellas standing.
He says, why are you standing here idle all day? Nobody's hired
us. We haven't heard the word. We
haven't heard the offer. We haven't received the message.
But I'm giving it to you. Come on. You come on and work
for me. And whatever's right, I'll give you. You remember that
dear old man that walked down this aisle a few weeks ago that
was 88 years old? Eighty-eight years old? And I
said, you mean you've never made a profession of faith? No, sir.
You've never joined anybody's church? No, sir. Why are you
coming? I want to trust the Lord. Man,
it's five o'clock. I want to trust the Lord. I said,
isn't it wonderful that God's permitted you to live 88 years? And he's permitted you to keep
your sanity and keep your faculties and keep your mind enough to
have some spiritual appetite. Most people that age don't have
any. They've grown dull in sin and dull in indifference and
dull in carelessness and dull in human works and dull in self-righteousness. But here's a man with an acute
desire to know Christ. Five o'clock in the evening,
a man seventy-five years old, or eighty, and God comes like
the thief on the cross in the eleventh hour of life, and he
says, You want to work for me? You come on. Whatever's right,
I'll give you. Alright, now look at verse eighty.
So when the day was over, life is over, the sun has set, the
Lord of the vineyard, and don't you ever forget, He is the Lord
of the vineyard. And brother, that's the key to
understanding anything in this book. He's the Lord. It's his
vineyard. It's not yours. It's his. And the Lord of the vineyard
said to his steward, call the laborers, give them their hire,
give them their reward, beginning from the last. That old boy,
75 years old, call him in here. Call him in here. And then when
you call him, call those fellas that started at three, and those
at twelve, and those at nine. And then when you've got all
them in, go and get that fella out there that's, he's sweated
and worked like old Milton down there in Mexico. He's gone up
the mountains, and he's slept under that sleeping bag, hoping
a snake wouldn't crawl in there with him, and slept under that
tarpaulin, and eat those old beans out of a can, and gone
out there and preached to those ignorant people, and been mistreated,
and rocked out, and run out, done that for about 45 years.
After you get all of them in, go call Milton. That's right. Poor Walter and Betty went down
there to Mexico and nearly died the first year they was there.
Been there 10 or 12 years preaching faithfully. After you get that
fellow 88 years old that came down 13th Street Isle and welcomed
him into the kingdom, go out there and call Walter in. And Paul and Jack and Charlie
and Eddie Oh, you thought, Jeff, boy, are we going to be the last
ones called? That's right. Oh, John Gill says, "...when
life is over, and the redeemed of all ages are gathered unto
the Savior, and they will enter into the joys of their Lord,
beginning with the last, which indicates that some such method
will be used to introduce the saints into the kingdom of God." Well, some of them didn't like
it, and they let him know it. Look at verse 10. But when the
first came, they thought that they should receive a yo-yo,
Barnard used to say. He used to make people so mad.
I think he did it on purpose. He'd get that bunch of folks
that, you know, bleating all these crowns, sevenfold crowns,
and all these stars, and he's going to get called up and recognized
in heaven one at a time. God's going to pat you on the
head and give you a yo-yo, and let you go off yo-yoing. Some
of them is going to have diamonds on them, and some is going to
have rubies, and some is just going to be a plain old Duncan
yo-yo, you know. You could tell a fella how long
he worked on earth by the size of his yo-yo. He used to make
people so mad when he'd do that. But like I say, I think it's
effective. But these folks, they thought
they ought to get a yo-yo. They thought they ought to get
more than these other people, and they let him know it. They
murmured. They said, you've made these
folks equal with us. Now, the master, this household
holder, this good man, now he spoke, and this is what he said.
He said, I gave you what you agreed to work for, didn't I?
When I talked to you about this matter down in the marketplace,
what, I told you I'd give you a penny? I gave you a penny. That's what I told you you'd
get. And secondly, he said, can I not do with my own what I wish?
This is mine. Can I not do with my own what
I will? And then thirdly, he said, because I am gracious,
does that cause evil to rise up in your heart? Does the goodness
of God, does the grace of God cause you to think evil? Now
be honest. Do you think this is right? Or
do you think this is wrong? These people thought it was wrong.
And the Lord, this Master, said to him, My goodness has brought
out the evil and the selfishness and the covetousness in your
heart. And bless that dear pastor friend of mine, that's what happened.
When I preached the grace of God unto all men, equally to
all men, it brought out, that's right, and there's plenty of
it in our hearts too, it brought out the envy and evil out of
his heart. Is it not lawful for me to do,
verse 15, what I will with my own? God is on the throne. I'm
going to sum up this parable, and I'm going to give you several
observations for your consideration. And if anybody listens to this
message later, and you believe in degrees of glory, and you
believe that God's going to call us into heaven and reward us
and give us some trinkets to play with in glory in order to
recompense us for the little bit of service we've offered
unto him on this earth, I want you to think about these things.
I want you to think about them. And here they are. First of all,
the very fact that God called us early in life and permitted
us to know his grace throughout our lives and to know his peace
throughout our lives and to know his joy throughout our lives.
That's not sacrifice. That's not work. That's a blessing. Hadn't you rather know the Lord
all your life than to wait and only know him at the end of your
life and live a whole lifetime of fear and doubt and need and
want and loneliness? Lord, I served you longer than
Joe did. I deserve more than Joe. But
what you ought to be doing is thanking God that he didn't leave
you in your darkness like he did Joe. But he called you early. And you had a life of joy and
peace and fellowship with God, and he didn't. Right here on
the earth. And then watch this. What is any gift that we give
him? And you know, we think about
giving the Lord gifts, but what have we given him compared to
what he has given us? What sacrifice? Now, you just
think about it. We think we've gone through a
little persecution. What about the way they treated
him for us? What about the sacrifice of Christ
for us? Our gifts and sacrifice are nothing! And he didn't do it for a reward,
he did it because he loved us. He loved us. Suppose we preach. Well, it's his grace that enables
us to preach. Suppose we sing. Wish I could
sing like Mike. But it's his grace that gave
him the gift. Suppose we can speak Spanish like Milton. I
have to get down there sometimes, those missionaries, and see them
up preaching in Spanish. And I think sometimes I'd give
just about anything to be able to stand up there in front of
300 people and preach the gospel to folks that never have heard
it before. But God didn't give me that give. He gave it to Him.
But God gave it to Him. If we serve, it's His grace that
uses us. If we give, it's His grace that
prospered us. The Lord maketh rich and the
Lord maketh poor. If I got a hundred dollars to
give next Sunday, thank God I got it to give. He gave it to me.
I don't have but one dollar to give. That's what he gave me
to give. It's his. He could make me a blabbering
idiot. He could empty my pockets totally. He could put me on welfare. How
can we accept a reward for something we didn't do? Now, you answer
that. God calls me up at the end of
life, and he says, well, you preached for so many years, and
you labored and served in my kingdom. Well, I didn't. I didn't. I didn't do except
what he gave me the ability to do. I didn't do anything. It's
not I, it's Christ. That's what Paul said. I'm crucified
with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I, it's Christ that liveth
in me. Why should I expect a reward
for something I didn't do, something I didn't produce, something I
didn't create? I think it's wicked. And I'll
tell you this, this disturbs me more than anything else. This
disturbs me as I thought about this today. This bothers me more
than anything else. It bothers me to think that any
true believer would want a higher seat, would want a larger mansion,
would want a brighter crown than some other believer. That bothers
me. That's a denial of the principle
of mercy. That's a total denial of everything
this Bible teaches. For me to covet a closer fellowship
with Christ than you? For me to covet a bigger mansion,
a brighter crown, a higher seat, that destroys this thing of I'm
the chief of saints. That destroys this thing of I'm
less than the least. That destroys this teaching that
I'm not worthy. That's saying I am worthy and
you're not worthy. But I'll tell you the fifth thing.
Christ is our reward. He is our reward. What could
possibly be of any interest to those who are made like Christ
and dwell in his presence and have him? What could you give
to interest them? Now you tell me. What could be
greater than Christ? When God Almighty, the Heavenly
Father, lets me stand in the presence of my Lord, the delight
of my soul, the lover of my very being, My aspirations and desires,
David said, I shall be satisfied when I awake with his likeness.
Now, what on earth could he add to that? What on earth? Just tell me. And then you listen to me when
I read you something John Gill said. When we have rendered to
our Lord our best, the best we can render, And we haven't come
up to that yet. We're still unprofitable service. Still unprofitable service. And
when we have rendered our greatest service, it's still imperfect
and impure. And Jesus Christ, our Lord, has
to make it even acceptable to God. We've got to see this. We've
got to see that even as we bring our gifts, There's sin in it. There's self in it. And if Christ
doesn't make it holy, even that act, that righteousness, being
filthy rags, would condemn us. That's right. We get up, we study
and preach our best sermon, but it's so full of ourselves that
if Christ didn't make it holy, God'd have to send us to hell
for that sermon. That's right. We can get on our
knees and pray tonight our most pious prayer. But it's so full
of sin and so full of self and so full of flesh that if Jesus
Christ, the great high priest, through his sacrifice, didn't
make that prayer holy, that prayer would damn us. So what are we
going to be rewarded for? Our righteousness is our filthy
rags. You think God's going to reward
us for running around here in filthy rags? I believe in my heart. I wrote
this little thing down. If from my heart I believe that
the child of God who walked with the Savior all his life, all
the day, would stand beside the man who was saved at the last
hour of life, the thief on the cross, and he would say to the
Heavenly Father, Lord, you opened my eyes early in the day, you
could have left me in darkness as you did this man. Lord, you
walked with me in joy and comfort all the days of my life, you
could have left me alone in doubt and fear like you did this man.
Lord, you blessed me with the fellowship of your people, how
sweet it was, the knowledge of your Son, how precious the comfort
of your word, and you enabled me to know the joy of living,
loving, and giving. You could have left me to the
loneliness of a self-centered life as you did this man. And
Lord, you made me so often to lie down in green pastures, and
you led me beside the still waters, and you restored my soul, and
you led me in paths of righteousness, and my cup ran over." This man's
life on earth never knew those mercies. Don't reward me for what you
did. Lay all the crowns at the feet of my Lord. Besides, my
joy, my greatest joy would be, oh God, if you'd give me the
grace to see you reward him, because I've had my reward. I've
been with Christ. I've been with Christ. You see
what I'm saying? If there's any doubt in my mind about that parable,
I'd tell you. But that's exactly what our Lord's
teaching. And I believe the grace that he brings into the hearts
of his children make them see. That's the only way it can be.
It's all Christ. It's all of grace. It's all the
gift of His love. Our Father, bless the word to
our hearts, give us understanding of what we have read. We believe
that Thou hast spoken to us. Make this prayer acceptable,
all our words. We want just to come before Thee
in groanings which cannot be uttered. We feel our guilt and
our sin and our unworthiness and insufficiency, but then we
know Christ is sufficient. And we're told by thy servant
Paul to rejoice in the Lord always, and again rejoice. And we have
forgiveness of sin. We are thy sons. It doth not
appear what we shall be, but when he shall appear we shall
be like him. We have forgiveness, pardon, eternal life. O Lord,
make us to understand the blessings that we have in Christ. and the
joy that we shall have when we all stand in his presence perfectly
conformed to his blessed image. Now anoint this message and use
it for thy glory. In Christ's 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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