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Henry Mahan

Who Is God?

Hebrews 1:12
Henry Mahan • January, 4 1976 • Audio
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Message 0171b
Henry Mahan Tape Ministry
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Sermon Transcript

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Now the message that I'm going
to bring this evening is a message that I feel like that God gave
me over the past several days. Now the people in Mexico whom
we visited last week and the week before are religious people. The name
God is very familiar to them. The name Jesus is their familiar
name. The cross is a very familiar
figure. In fact, in all of the cities
and pueblos of the Yucatan, you see crosses everywhere. Almost
every woman in the Yucatan wears a cross around her neck. They
have big temples. and cathedrals, some of them
still standing after two hundred and forty and fifty years in
all of these little pueblos. Most of them have no services
now, but they're there with their wooden crosses, with their roofs,
some of them fallen in, but they're still there. It's a religious
nation. They're religious people. And
as I walked through these pueblos and as I'd stand in these broken
down cathedrals and temples. And as I watch these poor, blinded,
superstitious people in the same town where they go through all
these parades worshiping the Virgin Mary, they have a witch
doctor. They throw firecrackers at demon spirits. They burn candles
to drive away demon spirits. They'll just do anything, anything
at all that someone religious tells them to do because they
know about heaven and they know a little bit about hell. It's
a word they use frequently in their language. And I thought
while I was walking among these ruins and these, some of them
very thriving, active groups and churches, this question kept
coming to my mind, who is God? Who is God? David said in Psalm 51, verse
21, Psalm 50, it is, verse 21, David said, as he wrote, Psalm
50, verse 21, These things hast thou done, and I kept silence. Thou thoughtest that I was altogether
such a one as thyself. God is not who we think He is. God is who He is. God is not who you think He is.
He's not who I think He is. He's not who that poor native
thinks He is. He's not who the high ecclesiastical
power thinks He is. God is not who we think He is.
He's who He is. Isaiah said in Isaiah 55, your
thoughts, God said, are not my thoughts. If you come to know
the living God, you've got to forsake your thoughts. You've
got to turn from your thoughts. God is not who you think. Well,
I'll tell you what I think. God is not who you think He is.
God is who He is. We've got to find out who God
is. Not who we think He is, who somebody else thinks He is. Everybody's
got an idea about God, but He's not who you think He is. He's
who He is. God is God. He who is who He
is, not who we think He is. And then God is not who we say
He is. God is who he says he is. God is not who I say he is. I've
got a religion, I've got a doctrine, I've got a creed, I've got a
theology. God is not necessarily who I
say he is. God is not who that priest says he is. God is not
who the evangelist says he is. I don't care where he got his
doctrine, God is who he says he is. And I've got to find out
who he says he is, not who somebody else says he is. I've got to
find out who God says he is, because that's who he is. The
heathen down there bow before their idols of stone, and idols
of marble, and wood, and all over this world. They bow to
the sun, they bow to Mecca, they bow to something else, and they
say, here is God, but that's not God. God is not who they
say he is, God is who he says he is. The Romanist brings forth
his statues of saints and prays to them. They bring forth the
sacrament. They say, here is God. God's
in the wafer. God's in the wine. No, He's not.
They bring forth their pictures of Mary and open the school day
with, Hail Mary, Mother of God, full of grace and truth. Pray
for us poor sinners. But God's not Mary, and Mary's
not God. God's not who they say He is,
God's who He says He is. And the ritualist, he goes through
all of his holy days, and his ceremonies, and his processionals,
and he says, here is God! Here is God in the well-ordered,
organized, religious processional, with all of our uniforms and
our special banners, the banners of the church, and the banners
of the Father, and the banners of the denomination. Here is
God! And then the legalist, he brings
forth his laws, his rules of religion, his do's and don'ts,
and he says, here's God, God's in the law. But the law is not
God. And the processional is not God,
and the ritual's not God, and the holy day's not God, and the
ceremony's not God. And the theologian digs in all
of his old books, Here's old rusty volumes, and he comes up
with all the old creeds, the Heidelberg, and the New London,
and the Westminster, and the Philadelphia, and this creed,
and that creed, and this synod, and that synod, and he comes
up with all of his doctrines, and creeds, and charts, and he
says, Here's God! Here's God! And then the experientialist,
he talks about being having a super-piety. I heard a dear lady trying to
preach on the radio this afternoon, and she says, they tell me, you
can't live above sin, you can't live free from sin. She says,
I do. I live a clean, holy life, and
if you want to get to heaven, you've got to live a clean, holy
life. And these people profess a super-piety,
which they don't have. They talk in a gibberish tongue
which nobody can understand. They dream dreams and see visions
that no one can interpret. And they say, here is God. It's
not God either. God's not who you say He is.
God is who He says He is. And I'm not going to listen to
your descriptions of God. I want to hear what He says about
Himself. And the worldly religionist,
he goes through the motions of his denominational program. We've
got those all around us. They went to church this morning
and now they're through till next Sunday morning. They might
make it out next Sunday morning if they have nothing else of
greater value or more importance to do. They play church on Sunday
and they sit in their churches and they say, God's with us,
here's God, come to us world and we'll show you God. And the
fundamentalist the high-pressure evangelist, the Hollywood promoter. He talks about the terrors of
hell and the joys of heaven, and he calls everybody, make
a decision for Jesus. Come to the front. Here's God. No, He's not here. God's not
here. This isn't God. Where is God? Turn to Psalm 42. I'm dead serious about this. You get out and walk among all
that ritualism and ceremonialism and legalism and all other kind
of isms, and you think, where did it all come from, and where
is it all going? And everybody's got a different
description of God, a different version of God, and I keep asking
myself, who is God? Where is God? There's not but
one God. The Scripture says there's one
God, the true and living God. And before I die, I want to know
Him, don't you? Before this life is spent, I
want to know Him. And so did David, and he says
in Psalms 42, 1, as the heart, the deer panteth after the water
brook, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth
for God, for the living God. The Living God, not the Catholic
God, or the Baptist God, or the Presbyterian God, or the Holy
Roller God, or the Pentecostal God. My soul thirsteth for the
Living God. When shall I come and appear
before God? And on another occasion he said,
I pant and and search for God in a dry and thirsty land. And
nobody's ever lived in a drier nor a more thirsty land than
the one we're living in. Then if you'll turn to Philippians
3, you'll hear in the New Testament the Apostle Paul using similar
language. In Philippians chapter 3, verse
8 through 10, he says, doubtless. You talk about a ritualist, you
talk about a legalist. You talk about a doctrinalist.
You talk about a theologian. You talk about an orthodox fundamentalist. Paul was one. He was playing
church and wrapped up in religion all his life. And he said, doubtless,
Philippians 3, 8, I count all things but loss for the excellency
of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered
the loss of all things, and I do count them but A little stronger
now, dull, that I may win Christ and be found in Him, not having
mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which
is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of
God by faith, that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection,
and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto his
death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection
of the dead." Christ said, you don't know me
and you don't know my Father. Christ said, this is eternal
life, that they might know thee, the living God, the true God,
and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. Where is God? I seriously, for the past few
days, and Charlie and I and Walter and David have been talking on
this subject, who is God? I want to know the living God.
I want to preach the living God. I'm not interested in names and
buildings and programs and success and numbers or anything else.
I want, for myself and for all who hear me, to know the living
God. Know him not just by name, but
know him by heart. Know him not just as an historical
figure, but a living person. Know him in such a way that he
walks with me and talks with me along life's narrow way, and
the joys we share as we tarry there none other has ever known. I want to be able to say, we
know him, whom to know is life eternal. And I want to hear him
say at the judgment, I know you. A true knowledge of God. Now
listen to me. Turn to Hebrews chapter 1 again.
A true knowledge of God. He's not who we think he is. He's who he is. Don't be satisfied
with thinking anything about God, because he says, your thoughts
are not my thoughts. And there's a way that seemeth
right unto man. This seems logical, but logic
and spirit are two different things. Just because it's logical doesn't
mean it's true. Your wisdom, God said, is foolishness,
and you think His wisdom is foolishness. The preaching of the cross is
foolishness, sheer nonsense to them who have perished. But it
is the wisdom of God. You thought I was altogether
such a one as yourself. Have you built God according
to your own dimensions and specifications and plans and blueprint? Or have
you tried to find out who He is and who He says He is? It
says here in Hebrews chapter 1, a true knowledge of God must
come by divine revelation. God, who at sundry times and
in diverse manners spake in times past under the fathers by the
prophets, that's the first way that God reveals himself, through
his hath in these last days spoken
unto us by his Son." That's the second way God reveals himself,
through his Son, who is called the Living Word. The Living Word. You don't know
God if you don't know his Word. And you don't know God if you
don't know his Son. He's never spoken to anybody. Oh, I know
the heavens declare the glory of God, but what can you learn
from the stars about the redemptive purposes of God, you tell me?
What can you learn from the trees and the rivers and the mountains
and the valleys and the sun and the moon and the stars about
the purpose of God in redeeming sinners, about the love of God,
the grace of God, the mercy of God, the death of God, huh? Nothing. That's got to come from the Word.
It's got to come by divine revelation. Turn to Job 11. Listen to this,
in Job chapter 11. It's got to come by divine revelation. In Job chapter 11, Job says this,
verse 7, Can you, by searching, find out God? Somebody may leave
here tonight when I finish preaching and say, I'm going out, and I'm
not going to stop until I find out God. But I'll tell you this,
you best start right here in this book. Don't go anywhere
else, just go to the book. Because that's where God's revealed. Can you by searching find out
God? Can you find out the Almighty under perfection? Why, it's as
high as the heavens. What can you do? It's deeper
than hell. What can you know? Can your finite
mind contain an infinite God? Can your limited thoughts contain
an unlimited God? The measure thereof is longer
than the earth and broader than the sea. Then in 1 Corinthians chapter
2, listen to this, 1 Corinthians 2, Paul writing says this, 1
Corinthians 2 verse 9, as it is written, but as it is written
in Isaiah, I hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entered
into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for them
that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God." Now, what man knoweth
the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him?
You don't know what I'm thinking. You don't know what kind of person
I am. If you met someone new today,
Someone introduced you. Somebody said, Mr. Brown, this
is Ronnie Lewis. Now Mr. Brown's never seen Ronnie
Lewis ever in his life. He just heard his name. Mr. Brown doesn't know one thing
about Ronnie Lewis, not one single thing, until Ronnie opens his
mouth. And the more Ronnie talks, and
the more Ronnie identifies himself, the more Ronnie tells about himself,
his family, his background, where he works, what he does, what
his hobbies are, what his interests are. The more he talks, the more
the man is going to know him. If he keeps silent, the man will
know nothing about him. That's the reason this generation
doesn't know God. They've deserted this book. They've
turned their backs away from Him who is the brightness of
the Father's glory and the image of His person. And they've turned
to stone, and idols, and ceremonies, and processionals, and rituals,
and play in church. They don't know God. Read on. He said, What man knoweth the
things of a man save the spirit of man that's in him? Even so,
the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Verse 14 says, But the natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, their foolishness
to him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned, as God taught you about himself. God must speak to us if we are
to know God. And there are only two ways that
you can know the living God, and both are vital. You can't
have one without the other. God speaks through his word.
God, who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in times
past to the fathers but the prophets. What did he say but the prophets?
Well, let's look at some of them. Let me just quote some of these
scriptures. In Genesis 1-1, God said through Moses that he's
God the creator. In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth. The only way you can know the
one who created the heavens and the earth is because he said
he created the heavens and the earth. And he took Job, turn
to Job 38, and he took Job across his vast creation. He took Job
across his vast universe, and he declared in Job 38, verse
2, Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?
gird up now your loins like a man, and I'll demand of you, and you
answer me." Where were you when I laid the
foundations of the earth? I run into people standing on
their little soap boxes saying, I don't believe there's a God.
I run into other people who say they're agnostics. That's a word
that came from the word ignorant. If you want to claim to be an
agnostic, you know what you're saying? You're ignorant. God
says, Who is this popping off down here without any knowledge?
You gird up your loins. I've got something to ask you.
Verse 4, Where were you when I laid the foundations of this
earth? Declare, if you have any understanding, who hath laid
the measures thereof? If you know, who stretched the
line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations
thereof fastened, and who laid the cornerstone thereof? When
the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted
for joy, who shut up the sea with doors when it break forth,
as if it had issued out of a womb? Where were you, Job, when I made
these things? When God spake to our fathers
by the prophets, He said, I am God the Creator. I hung the moon
and the stars and the sun. I created the world and I created
man in my own image." And then God tells us that he's holy.
He took Israel to Sinai in Exodus chapter 20, verse 1, and he says,
"'I, Israel, I am the Lord your God.'" Exodus 20, "'I am the
Lord thy God, which brought thee out of Egypt. Thou shalt have
no other gods before me.'" I shall not make unto thee any graven
image." Who is God? God's holy. He's the God of creation. He's the God of holiness. He
revealed His holiness to Isaiah. Isaiah said, When King Uzziah
died, I saw the Lord high and lifted up, and His train filled
the temple, and even the cherubims and seraphims hid their faces
and cried, Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty. He said to Moses,
his servant, take off your shoes. You're in God's presence. You're
on holy ground. I know just as soon as some person
tells me they're living free from sin, they're also living
free from God. Because the minute you come into
the presence of a holy God, you recognize His holiness and your
unholiness. You recognize His perfection
and your imperfection. You recognize His strength in
your weakness, His glory in your shame. God is holy. He is to be feared
and had in reverence by them that are before Him. God is sovereign. What did He say to us through
David? Turn to Psalms 135 and listen to what David wrote. God spake by David to the fathers,
and this is what he said in Psalms 135, beginning with verse 4. The Lord hath chosen Jacob unto
himself, and Israel for his peculiar treasure. I know that the Lord
is great, and that our Lord, capital L-O-R-D, is above all
God's little g-o-d-s. And whatever the Lord pleased,
that did he in heaven, in earth, in the seas, in all deep places.
God's sovereign. That's what he said to the fathers
through the prophets. He says, I am the Lord. I create
darkness. I create light. I create good. I create evil. I, the Lord, do
all these things. He took old Jeremiah down to
the potter's house, and he said, What's that potter? And that
potter was for him in the the vessel from clay on the wheel,
and as he formed it, it broke in the potter's hand. He cast
it aside, and he got the lump, and he started a new vessel.
And God says, Can I not do with my own what I will? Hath not
the potter power over the clay to make of one lump of the same
lump a vessel under honor, and a vessel under dishonor? God
declared at the end, from the beginning and from ancient times,
the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand. And Paul said, He worketh all
things after the counsel of His own will. Who is God? He's the
Creator. That's what He said. He's holy. That's what He said. He's sovereign. That's what He said. And He's
our Savior. You know what Mary said when
the angel came announced to her the birth of Jesus Christ. She
said, My soul rejoices in God my Savior. God my Savior. His name, Jehovah, is Savior. Turn to Psalm 68. Let me show
you this little verse here in the book of Psalm 68, verse 20. Psalm 68, verse 20. It says here,
David writing, He that is our God is the God of salvation,
and unto God the Lord belong the issues of death. He's a sovereign
Savior. He said Moses. Moses said, Lord,
show me your glory. Show me your glory. Brethren,
I want to see God's glory, don't you? I want to see God glorified
in himself and in his work. I want to see his glory. Moses
had seen the Red Sea divide. Moses had seen the pillar of
fire and the cloud by day. Moses had seen the death of the
firstborn. Moses had seen the river turn
to blood. Moses had seen these things that
folks say, This is God! Look at the miracle! A man was
healed! Here's God! Moses had seen all that. But
he wanted to see God's glory. And God said, I'll let you see
my glory. I'll make all my goodness pass
before you. And Moses, I'll be merciful to
whom I will be merciful, and I'll be gracious to whom I will
be gracious." If God leaves you alone, you'll go to hell. But
if God Almighty is pleased to reach down in that cesspool of
sin in which you were born, and in which you by nature have laid,
and in which you by choice have continued and which you by affection
love. If he reaches down and begets
in you a new nature that hates sin and loves holiness and hates
yourself and loves God and reveals himself to you, then you'll be
saved, but he's going to have to do it. God is sovereign. He's sovereign in all things,
not only in creation, not only in providence, but in salvation. God is sovereign, and God is
a Savior. He showed that to Israel when
he showed them the blood on the door, and he said, When I see
that blood, I'll pass over you. There's the Savior. He took Abraham
up on Mount Moriah, and he said, Abraham, don't touch your boy.
Look behind you. And there was a ram. He said,
Put that ram on the altar and take Isaac off. There's substitution. He said, Moses, make a serpent
of brass in the same form as the serpent that had bitten the
people and lifted up, and whosoever looketh shall live. They're a
substitution. That high priest crawls under
the veil and puts that blood on the mercy seat, covering the
law, and God forgives. That's substitution. Can't know
God unless you listen to His Word. His Word says he will punish
sin. He showed Adam that in the garden, Pharaoh that at the Red
Sea, Sodom and Gomorrah that, the cities of the plain. God
will punish sin. He said, I'll let no wise clear
the guilty. Turn to Psalm 50. Listen to this
verse. God owns all things. Who is God? Oh, I want to know Him. I just
enjoyed looking up these verses. I said, Lord, speak through Your
Word. as you spoke to the fathers, but the prophets speak to this
child, and reveal yourself." And he says, I own all things.
Psalm 50, look at verse 7, "'Hear, O my people, I'll speak! O Israel,
I'll testify against you! I'm God,' that's who I am, I
will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices, or thy burnt offerings,
to have been continually before me. I'll take no bullock out
of your house, nor he goat out of your foal, for every beast
of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills are
mine. I know all the fowls of the mountain,
and the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I
wouldn't tell you. The world is mine, and the fullness
thereof." Don't feel too sorry for God. How about that? God owns all things. Who is He?
He's eternal. Thy throne, O God, is forever,
having no beginning or ending. God is omnipresent. Whither shall
I flee from thy presence? If I ascend into heaven, thou
art there. If I make my bed in hell, thou art there. If I take
the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts
of the sea, God is there. Don't run down to some building
and try to meet God. He's everywhere. God gives life. He said, Jeremiah, before I formed
thee in the belly, I knew thee. Who formed thee? I did. God takes
life. Job 14 says, Man's days are determined
the number of his months, so with the Lord he cannot pass.
God takes life, and thank God he'll forgive sin. He said, their
sins will I remember no more. I'll blot out their transgressions.
I'll separate their sins from them as far as the east is from
the west." How many times did our Lord Jesus Christ reach out
and say, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee? Do you know God? God's not in worshiping on Saturday
or Sunday, either one. God's in having a broken heart
of worship twenty-four hours a day. There's a way to be baptized,
but that's not God. There's a way to observe the
Lord's table, but you can observe it right and go to hell. There are doctrines that are
true. There's truth that is true, but a man can follow what we
call truth and not know God. God is a person. He's a living
God. He's a spirit. They that worship
Him worship Him in spirit and in truth. This mechanical religion
of the twentieth century is nauseating to all who even think about it,
especially those who understand it. Oh, my heart, my soul, panteth
for thee, the living God. God's not just a name, He's a
person, not just a historical character, a living, indwelling
Spirit. who makes my heart throb and
my mind rejoice and my lips praise Him. He's not a fire escape to heaven
out of hell. He's not a doormat called Jesus. He's not a poor, defeated, frustrated
little Lord that can't do what He wants to do. He'll tell you
who He is. If you want to know, He'll tell
you. He said He spoke to our fathers with the prophets, and
they know Him. They listened to the prophets. They listened
to the Word. I sat in the car coming up here. Charles was driving.
I was reading the book of Psalms, and I thought, you know, I think
some Wednesday night I'll just start with Psalms 1 and just
read the Psalms. Oh, how it gives God the glory. How it reveals the person and
character of the living God. David knew God. And then he hath spoken to us
by his Son. Turn to 1 John 5. Let me read
you a verse here. 1 John 5, verse 20. Listen to this. And we know,
we know that the Son of God is come, and he hath given us an
understanding. That's what I want. Not just
a doctrine. I want an understanding. Not
just a denomination. I want an understanding. Not
just a profession. not just some mechanical orthodoxy. I want
an understanding. The Son of God hath come and
given us an understanding that we may know Him that is true,
and that we're in Him that is true, even in His Son, Jesus
Christ. This is the true God, and this
is eternal life. And I know some of you charitable,
you're more charitable than the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul
said, if anybody comes preaching any other gospel, even if it's
an angel from heaven, let him be accursed. And I know some
of you think you're being goody-goody and you're being nicey-nicey
when you say, well, everybody's striving for the same place.
That's what I'm afraid. They're all going to the same
place. It's called H-E-L-L hell. We're not supposed to call the
names of religion. We're not supposed to find fault
with other people's religion. Let every man settle it in his
own heart. That's not what Scripture says. It says, to the law and
to the prophets, if they speak not according to this word, there's
no light in them. You know what it says? God's
not who you think He is. He's who He is. You'd better
find out who He is, not who you think He is. God's not who I
say He is. Or anybody else, he's who he
says he is. And that's what I'm interested
in. I'm interested in these poor people in the Yucatan coming
to know, find out who God is. And he said, the Son of God has
come and has given us an understanding that we may know the true God. This is eternal life. If you
don't know the true God, you don't have eternal life. No man knoweth the Father save
the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him." You know what
he said? And in closing, in Bethlehem's
manger, we see God incarnate, the Word made flesh. In the home of sinners, we see
God's love for the guilty, friend of sinners. We see him reaching
down and lifting a fallen woman. We see him lying there while
a harlot bathes his feet in tears. We see him coming under a tree
and calling down a tax collector, a publican. We see him hanging
on a cross in death, forgiving a thief. He loves sinners. That's God! God's not in your
temples of gold and silver. God is down there in the house
of that sinner. God delights to show mercy. King
to seek and to save the lost. Watch Jesus Christ as he rebukes
the Pharisee, and he rebukes hypocrisy, and he rebukes false
religion. That's God. God hates hypocrisy. God hates your lies. God hates
your false religious show. God hates your superiority. God
hates your false profession. See the woman at the well, God's
mercy to the undeserving. See Him on the cross, God in
Christ, reconciling the world to Himself. You want to know
God? Come to Calvary. There's God. Turn to John 5.22,
and I close by reading this scripture. John 5.22. You want to know God? You make up your mind, you don't
by nature know Him. An actual man doesn't know God.
A religious man doesn't know God. He said, you call me Lord
with your lips, but your heart's a long ways away from me. You
want to know the living God? You'll find him right here in
this book. Right here in this book. And you'll find him in
the person of his son. If you want to know God, listen
to John 5.22. For the Father judges no man, he's committed
all judgment to the Son, that all men should honor the Son.
Even as they honour the Father, and he that honoureth not the
Son honoureth not the Father that sent him." Philip said,
Lord, show me the Father. And Christ said, Philip, have
I been with you so long, and yet you don't know me? He that
hath seen me hath seen the Father. I and my Father want to know
Christ is to know God. To love Christ, not to claim
you love Him, to love Him is to love God. To honor Christ
is to honor God. To ignore this book is to ignore
the only source of information you have in order to know the
living God. You want to know why you don't
know Him? Because you don't know His Word. That's why people don't know
the Lord. They've got all these strange ideas that have been
handed down to them by every Tom, Dick, and Harry. But they
don't know God. Oh, like old Brother Barnard
used to say, sinner, before you go to hell, buy your Bible and
find out who God is. Our Father in heaven Let us not call upon an idol
of our imagination and think we're calling on thee. Let us not call upon some idol
handed down to us through religious custom and tradition and think
we're calling on thee. Let us in awe and reverence and
fear stand in the presence of him who's revealed in his who revealed in his Son, who
hath come to give us an understanding that we might know thee, the
true and living God. Open our eyes that we might see,
and our ears that we might hear, and our hearts that we might
understand, who thou art. O where is God? My soul thirsteth
for God, for the living God, in a dry and thirsty land where
no water is. There's nothing here to satisfy
our souls but the knowledge of the Lord. So wilt thou in Christ reveal
thyself to us for his glory, for his praise, in his name. Amen.
Henry Mahan
About Henry Mahan

Henry T. Mahan was born in Birmingham, Alabama in August 1926. He joined the United States Navy in 1944 and served as a signalman on an L.S.T. in the Pacific during World War II. In 1946, he married his wife Doris, and the Lord blessed them with four children.

At the age of 21, he entered the pastoral ministry and gained broad experience as a pastor, teacher, conference speaker, and evangelist. In 1950, through the preaching of evangelist Rolfe Barnard, God was pleased to establish Henry in sovereign free grace teaching. At that time, he was serving as an assistant pastor at Pollard Baptist Church (off of Blackburn ave.) in Ashland, Kentucky.

In 1955, Thirteenth Street Baptist Church was formed in Ashland, Kentucky, and Henry was called to be its pastor. He faithfully served that congregation for more than 50 years, continuing in the same message throughout his ministry. His preaching was centered on the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified, in full accord with the Scriptures. He consistently proclaimed God’s sovereign purpose in salvation and the glory of Christ in redeeming sinners through His blood and righteousness.

Henry T. Mahan also traveled widely, preaching in conferences and churches across the United States and beyond. His ministry was marked by a clear and unwavering emphasis on Christ, not the preacher, but the One preached. Those who heard him recognized that his sermons honored the Savior and exalted the name of the Lord Jesus Christ above all.

Henry T. Mahan served as pastor and teacher of Thirteenth Street Baptist Church in Ashland, Kentucky for over half a century. His life and ministry were devoted to proclaiming the sovereign grace of God and directing sinners to the finished work of Christ. He entered into the presence of the Lord in 2019, leaving behind a lasting testimony to the gospel he faithfully preached.

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