Old Age

Q: What does the Bible say about old age?

The Bible affirms that God cares for us even in our old age, promising to carry and deliver us (Isaiah 46:4). The Scriptures emphasize the significance of old age as a time for reflecting on God's faithfulness. Isaiah 46:4 states, 'And even to your old age I am he, and even to white hairs will I carry you. I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you.' This verse comforts believers, assuring them that God remains steadfast and unwavering in His promises, regardless of their age. The memories and experiences gained over a lifetime are invaluable, as they provide ample testimony to God's grace and mercy in our lives.

Q: Why is the hope of old age important for Christians?

The hope of old age for Christians lies in the assurance of eternal life and fulfillment in God's promises. As Christians age, their hope transitions from earthly ambitions to eternal truths. The old believer recognizes that this world is temporal and that true hope lies in Jesus Christ and the promises of Scripture. For instance, 1 Peter 1:3-4 introduces this living hope through the resurrection of Christ, which secures an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled. While younger generations might hope for material success, the seasoned believer looks forward to eternal glory and the fulfillment of God’s covenant promises. This shift in focus is vital as it influences how they approach the twilight years of life.

Q: How should older Christians view their memories?

Older Christians view their memories as a treasure trove of God's faithfulness and grace throughout their lives. In the context of faith, memories are an essential aspect of the Christian walk, especially for older believers who have witnessed God's hand throughout their lives. As noted in Psalm 63:6, David reflects on God's past mercies, affirming their significance in his current faith journey. Memories remind older Christians of God's provision, strength in trials, and the assurance of His promises. They become living testimonies that can not only bolster their faith but also inspire younger generations by sharing experiences of grace during trials and triumphs.

Q: What are the duties of older Christians?

Older Christians have a duty to testify about God's grace and to be examples of faithfulness and encouragement to others. The responsibilities of older Christians encompass several essential duties, such as sharing their testimony and being living examples of God's grace. They are called to encourage younger believers in their struggles while practicing faithfulness in their actions. As seen in Scripture, their life experiences lend weight to their words, making them crucial in the spiritual development of the church. They are tasked with sounding forth their testimony for the grace of God and encouraging others, recognizing the unique position they hold as seasoned Christians who can impart wisdom and insight gained through years of trusting in God's faithfulness.

Read our text again, Isaiah 46,
verse 5. And even to your old age I am
he, and even to white hairs will I carry you. I have made and
I will bear, even I will carry and will deliver you. I have five points in my message
tonight on the subject old age. I shall be dealing with the memories
of old age. I shall look into the hopes of
old age. I shall God willing deal with
the glory of old age. and we shall think together on
the blessedness of old age. And then in closing the message,
we're going to think on the duties of old age. Now, like in everything
else, I'm sorry to say this generation is warped and twisted in our
attitude and in our philosophy toward getting older. It's a
shame, it's a tragedy, but we are twisted and we're warped
in our attitude toward getting old and in our philosophy of
old age. For example, most people over
45 are reluctant to tell their age, and the reason is they seem
to be embarrassed because they're not young. And then I find many times when
older people are in a gathering, in a social event, they usually
ignore it. And if they do speak, which is
seldom, a tolerant smile comes across the face of most of the
people until they're finished, and then the youth pick up the
conversation. Their counsel goes, sad to say,
unsought. and their advice unheeded. Everything
in our day is gauged and geared toward young people, and this
is a serious mistake. Even when a pastor is sought
for a church, the first question that's always asked, can he work
with the young people? Our program must entice the young
people, and this is a tragedy. And I think it is the gross failure
of most churches in our cities, in our city, and in other cities.
And then I find that we make jokes about getting older. I
find that most of my friends dread getting older. I find that
we've been so brainwashed by this terrible philosophy of youth
that even our older people have accepted it. And most of them
have crawled off in a corner of self-pity and inactivity. Withdrawn, reserved, timid, silent,
lonely, and dead while they're living. When old age, middle
age, ought to be the righteous richest, wisest, fullest years
of a person's life. Our God said about old age, My
people shall bear fruit in their old age. When Mr. Spurgeon was only 22
years of age, he walked up to an old, old man in a church service
one day, and he made the following observation. Taking the old man
by the hand, he said, Brother, there's no man in this whole
church I envy so much as I envy you. And the old man was taken
aback, and he said, You envy me. My son, I'm eighty-seven
years old. And Mr. Spurgeon replied, Yes,
sir. I repeat, there's no man in this
whole church I envy so much as I envy you. And I'll tell you
why. First of all, you're much nearer
home than I am. In a very short time, you're
going to see the Lord. I envy you. You're going to share
his eternal glory. The wearied journey of life is
almost over for you, and I envy you. Another reason why I envy
you, and these are the words of Spurgeon, is a man your age
can talk of experiences of grace. The young people have only the
promises of grace. Suppose the young man stands
up in the church service and says, I have not seen the righteous
forsaken, nor his seed begging bread." Someone replies, young
man, what do you know about that? You haven't been around long
enough to know. But the old man who wrote that,
name was David, and he wrote it this way, I have been young
and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken,
nor his seed begging bread. The old man can sing, when through
fiery trials my pathway shall lie, his grace all sufficient
shall be my supply. What does the young man know
of this? Not a thing. The old man can talk of experiences
of grace, of a life of grace, of the applications of grace.
The young man has only its promises. And then I envy you for another
reason, Spurgeon continued. I envy you because you know the
promises of God are true. You have tried them. The young
man can read the accounts of God's promises, he can believe
in them, he can hope for them, he can look to them, but the
old man can take out the counsel checks And he can show the young
man how often he has drawn on the bank of mercy and the bank
of grace and the bank of God's goodness. Like an old soldier
who sits down and talks to the young soldier who's never been
in a battle. And the old retired veteran can
take out his medals of victory. You can say, son, I got this
one at Anzio. I got this one at Bunker Hill. I got this one at Chattanooga.
I got this one somewhere else. The old believer can say, let
me tell you how good God was to me when I lost my job. Let
me tell you how good God was to me when the house burned down.
We had no place to live. Let me tell you how good God
was to me when I lost my companion, when I buried my wife. Let me
tell you, son, how good God was to me. Let me tell you about
His grace when my child was killed. Let me tell you, son, of God's
comfort in the dark days of sickness and trial. Oh, yes. His promises
are sweet and they're true and they're steadfast. What do youth
know about that? And I'll tell you another reason
why I envy you, Spurgeon said. The old man does not have any
doubts about the doctrines of God's word, not like the young. The young look for the new approach.
The young look for the new revelation. The young are always seeking
new proofs of God's existence, or new proofs of God's word,
or new proofs of something else. Not the old man. He has all the
proof he needs in his heart and in his experience. He needs no
new gospel. The old gospel is sufficient.
Hasn't he often proved it sufficient? He needs no new revelation. He
needs no new proof of God's presence. He walked with God down through
the valley. He's not driven and tossed by
every new leader that comes along, every new Messiah that appears
on the scene. God's grace is sufficient. And
God's Son is his Lord. And the Holy Spirit dwells within
him. And he has proved God again and
again and again. And the old words are ever sweet
and precious to his soul. I'll tell you another reason
Spurgeon said why I envy you, old man. I'm 22 years of age. You're 87. But I envy you because
you and all the other old believers are not alarmed by the loud claims
of new converts. You're not swayed by the loud
claims of new believers, and you're not alarmed by the fall
of religious professors, for you have experimentally learned
to put no confidence in the flesh. And one may rise in the kingdom
of God and make great boasts, but you're not alarmed. You sit
back and you observe and you pray for him and you watch him
And one who has walked the path with you may fall along the wayside,
but you've seen others fall. And you can say with a hymn writer,
should all the works that hell devised assail my faith with
treacherous art, I'll call them all vanities and lies, and I'll
bind that old gospel to my heart. It's never failed me yet. And
I'll tell you, old man, another reason why I envy you. The old
believer's failures have left him less cocksure of his own
strength. The old believer's failures have
left him less confident of his own ability, and left him more
dependent on the arms of the Lord and His grace. Yes, old man, of all the people
in this church today, I envy you the most." Look at our text one more time,
Isaiah 46, verse 4, and even to old age. I am He. Now, the doctrine of
this text is twofold. I'm not going to deal with the
doctrine of it as much as with the application of it. But the doctrine of this text
is twofold. First of all, the Lord is saying,
I am the same, I never change. Whatever change takes place in
me, whatever change takes place about me, whatever change takes
place in reference to me, He's the same. The sun may wax old
and the moon may cease to shine and the earth and heavens may
pass away, but God is the same. yesterday, today, and forever. He never changes. And the other application of
this doctrine, our God is the same, but also our God is the
same in His dealings with me, even down to old age. Even down to old age, all my
people shall prove my sovereign, eternal, unchangeable And when
hoary hairs shall their temples adorn, like lambs they shall
still, like lambs in my bosom be born. He never changes, whether
I am twenty-five or whether I'm seventy-five, because there's
no time with God. That's what he's saying here.
Even to your old age I am He, and even to white hairs will
I carry you. I've made you, I've created you,
And I'll bear you. Even I will carry you and I'll
deliver you. And it's the same all the way.
God is no less my God and no less my Savior and no less my
Redeemer when I'm old and when I'm young. He's the same. That's
what it's saying. It's the same relationship, Father
and Son. But now let's look at these five
things I mentioned at the beginning. First of all, the memories of
old age. Memories are precious. The old believer, as we get older
in the faith, we can remember the joys of life, how pleasant
it is for me in my lifetime to go back and remember the days
of walking with men like A. D. Muse, things they said, sermons
he preached, men like Ralph Barnard, men like Clarence Walker who
came to Ashland twenty some odd years ago and preached that great
sermon. I got out the other day and listened
to it again, that climactic sermon of the 1954 conference. What
a pleasant memory. Thinking back on that first conference
and that great message, the highlight of the whole conference. How
many joys we can remember. How many friends we have known.
How many great services we've attended. How many good sermons
we've heard. How many times God's met our
needs. Can you go back over your life
and remember how that God has met your needs so many times. How many times your home has
been filled with family and filled with friends. How many times
you've had the joy of making somebody happy, seeing your children
rejoice and your friends rejoice? How many sweet communion times
have you had with Christ that you can call to mind? As you
look back, you can string God's mercies together by the thousands
and you can say, surely goodness and mercy has followed me all
the days of my life. Memory is precious. Go back and
remember your father and the table of your parents and your
brothers and sisters and your old family church and the day
when God brought you to know the Savior and how he's met your
needs down through the years. David did this. Turn to Psalm
63. David delighted in remembering the past. There's nothing wrong
with that. It's a wonderful, blessed employment,
enjoyment. In Psalm 63, verse 6 and 7, listen
to David. In Psalm 63, verse 6, he said,
When I remember thee on my bed, and I meditate on thee in the
night, watch it. What do you suppose that he's
talking about there? Lying on his bed at night and
remembering the mercies of God, remembering the joys of life. Because, verse 7, thou hast been
my help, past tense. Therefore in the shadow of thy
wings will I rejoice." Turn to Psalms 143. In Psalms 143, listen
to this, verse 5. Psalms 143, verse 5. David, writing again, says this,
I remember the days of old. I meditate on all thy works. Don't you know David thought
back at the time when Samuel was going to come and anoint
the king and his dad sent him out to the field. And then somebody
came out there and told him, said, David, your father wants
you up at the house because Samuel won't anoint the king until you
come. And he walked in and he heard the voice of that great
prophet of old say, This is God's man. And that day he remembered
back when Israel was in great straits, when the Philistines
had backed them off in a corner and were beating them, defeating
them, and that great nine-foot giant was standing out there.
And he came to the leader and he said, I'll fight the giant
in the strength of the Lord. And he could go back in his memory
and see that giant fall. And when all the voices of Israel
rejoiced and praised God in David's victory, as he lay there on his
bed at night, he could think of the victories and joys when
he became king of Israel. And they marched down the street
and said, Saul has killed his thousands and David his ten thousand. He could think of all those joys
and those pleasant memories. And David said, I remember the
days of old. I meditate on all thy works.
I muse on the work of thy hands. Now, the young can't do that.
They can't do that. They don't know anything about
memory. And then the old remember their
sorrows, looking back on their sorrows. And we can say our tears
have been our teachers. And we can look back on those
days of great bereavement. those days when God visited us
with the rod and with the staff, and the presence of the Lord
was never more real, the presence of the Lord was never more precious,
than that day in that valley, and how good it was to walk with
Him, and to find His Word to be all that He said it was, and
His arm to be as strong as He said it was, and His grace to
be as rich as He said it was, a trial of faith, and to find
that that faith was genuine. And then as we lie on our beds
and our memory recalls our sins, I'm sure David recalled his sins,
and he recalled the death of his son Absalom, he recalled
the time he was cast out of the kingdom, he recalled all these
things, and he loved God all the more. For to whom much is
forgiven, he'll love much. And if we look back over our
past and think about our sins, and David said, they're ever
before me, we know they're all under the blood of Christ. And
that makes us even happier. To whom much is forgiven, he'll
love much. What do young people know about
that? Why any person in the world who knows God would dread to
grow old? I don't know why. when we have
these precious memories of old age. And then there's the hope
of old age. The hope of the old man, the
old believer, and the hope of the young man, they're so different.
The young man hopes he can build a bigger, better, finer house
for his family. The young man hopes that he can
get a promotion in his job. The young man hopes that he can
drive the finer automobile. The young man hopes that he can
get a promotion. The young man hopes that his
boys and girls, his sons and daughters, will be important
people. He hopes this, he hopes that. His hopes are all geared
to the vanities of this life, but the old man He has few hopes
in regard to the vanities of this earth because this earth
has proved to him through the years to really be nothing. He has his bags packed. This
world's not his home. He's discovered. He's discovered
the pearl of great price. He's discovered something of
eternal value. He's discovered a relationship
that time doesn't affect. He's discovered, as Mike sang
about, a land where we never grow old. Your garment never
waxes old. He's discovered what David discovered
in his old age. Turn to 2 Samuel, verse chapter
23. 2 Samuel, chapter 23. Listen
to this. What is the hope of the old believer?
Well, it's not connected to this earth. It's not tied to the vanities
of flesh. It has to do with God. David
said in 2 Samuel 23, verse 1, these be the last words of David. Verse 5, Although my house be
not so with God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant,
ordered in all things and sure, for this is all my salvation
and all my desire. That's it. That's it. 1 Peter 1, look over here, 1
Peter 1, verse 3 and 4. Listen to the Apostle Peter in
regard to our hope, the hope of the believer, the hope of
the old believer, the one seasoned in grace, the one that's been
over the road, the one that's proved, as Solomon proved, that
all is vanity, vanity of vanities, all is vanity. 1 Peter 1 verse
3, "...blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus, which
according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a
living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, that fadeth not
away, reserved in heaven." That's where it all is. That's where
it is. That's what matters, that's what
counts. And the old believer knows this. He knows this. And the ground of that hope is
Christ. That's the ground of that hope.
All my hope on Christ is laid. All my help from him I bring.
He covers my defenseless head with the shadows of his wing. And the reason for that hope
is God's Word. The word of God to the old believer,
and I can speak from experience here, ceases to be a doctrinal
guideline or devotional book. But the word of God to the aged
becomes words of life. He eats the word, he lives the
word, he breathes the word. The word of God becomes living
words. It's not something to prove anything.
It's the life of his soul. It's the life of his existence.
It's the word of God. God speaking to him in a dry
and thirsty land. It's the precious word of God
in a desert. It's the living water to a thirsty
soul. It's God's word. He can look there in my text
tonight and he can read. even down to old age. And then the object of his hope
is eternal glory. He knows what it means to sing.
What do young people know about this? On Jordan's stormy banks
I stand and cast a wishful eye to Canaan's fair and happy land
where my possessions lie. This old house is falling down. But he's not worried about the
condition of this old house. He's got a building, eternal
in the heavens, and he's waiting to move. And he becomes less
concerned about this old house and more concerned about that
one. That's his hope. That's his hope. Christ is the
foundation of it. The Word of God is the reason
for it. And that eternal home is the
object of it. Hope. And he that hath this hope
purifies himself as God is pure. Want to know something about
the glory of old age? Turn to the book of Job. Job
chapter 19. Job chapter 19. Job was surrounded
by cruel friends. Cruel friends. But he had a true
friend among those cruel friends. Job was sitting here and he'd
seen all his property drift away, destroyed, melt before his But
he had real property amid all this poverty. Job saw his whole family die. But he had a living family amid
this dying family. Job used to be a prominent man
in his community. He had servants. He had friends. His counsel was sought. And now,
among these uncertain affairs, people laughed at him and ridiculed
him and pointed at him, and his wife said, why don't you curse
God and die, but Job had absolute certainty amid these uncertain
affairs. For he wrote, verse 23 of Job
19, O that my words were now written, O that they were printed
in a book, my biography, Oh, that they were graven with an
iron pin, and laid in the rock, put them on my tombstone, and
let everybody read them forever. I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the
latter day upon this earth. And though after my skin worms
destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. whom I shall see for myself,
and my eyes shall behold, and not another, though my reins
be consumed within me, I know my Redeemer lives." Yes, death
is near, but that means heaven is a lot nearer too. That's the
glory of old age. Yes, earth is less lovely. I
think every older person here tonight would have to agree with
me that this earth And this age and this scene that surrounds
us is a lot less lovely than it's ever been, but heaven is
a lot more lovely. Old age's glory is the glory
of graduation. We've been through the tribulation.
It's the glory of a continued faith, the man of God who can
say, I have fought a good fight, I have kept the faith. It's the
glory of a crown promised and a crown secured. Henceforth there's
laid up for me a crown of righteousness. That's the glory of old age. Finishing my course with joy. There's nothing that is more
tragic than a wicked old person. There's nothing more precious
than an old believer. There's nothing more disconcerting
and uninteresting than a filthy-mouthed, vulgar, vile old sinner. But there's nothing that God
can bless a family or a church or a community with any more
than a faithful, godly, white-haired old believer. Don't you tell
me there's not glory to old age. I know better Like Spurgeon,
I believe I could say to that 87-year-old white-haired man,
my friend, I envy you. Sure, death is near, but glory
is nearer too. You're standing on the precipice
of walking into New Jerusalem. You're standing there at the
very gate of the kingdom of God. You are just about to see the
Lord. You're about to graduate. The people who get the attention
in the universities are those who are graduating, not the freshmen
who haven't even got their feet wet. But we got this thing twisted. We got this thing warped. We've
got the freshmen, the fuzzy-faced, fuzzy-cheeked people that haven't
even got their feet wet. We've got them out in the forefront,
trying to cater to them and pacify them and please them, while we
relegate those who know God and who walk with God and who could
tell us something about the experiences of life. We've closed their mouths
and pushed them off in the corner somewhere. The glory of old age
is the glory of graduation. They can talk because they've
got something to say. Old Brother Ralph used to say,
you can't tell what you don't know any more than you can come
back from where you ain't been. And then I can tell you something
about the blessedness of old age, and I think it can best
be described in the words of Roland Hill. One day Roland Hill
was up preaching, and he seemed to The person writing the story,
he seemed to just come to a lapse of memory. He seemed to forget
his sermon, and he paused, and in a moment he opened his eyes
and he looked over the congregation. He said, young men, this is what
he said, young men, there's nothing like having your hearts fixed.
Oh Lord, my heart is fixed. I have been all these years seeking
the Lord. Now my heart is fixed. I have
no doubts about his election of grace. I have no doubts about
his substitutionary work. I have no doubts about the salvation
of the Lord in our great High Priest, in our great Mediator.
If any man comes in and brings me a new theory, I say, I stand
hard and fast on the grace of God in Christ Jesus. Thank God
at last, he said, my heart is fixed, and I shall not be moved. Nobody can move me. Nobody can
move me, for my heart is fixed. That's the blessedness of old
age. Can we remember back those days when we were driven and
tossed about by every wind of doctrine, by this comes along
and that comes along, and the disturbances and our sails were
in the wrong positions, and we were blown here and there, but
now God fixed them in a straight line. He set the rudder, and
our hearts are fixed. I shall not be moved. That's
the blessedness of old age. And then last of all, I close.
the duties of old age. Now God says of his people, they
shall bring forth fruit in their old age. Now we who are getting
older have some serious responsibilities. We have some things that we can
do. We may not get the ear of many
people, but we can get the ear of one another And God may, in
His providence and in His grace, give us the ear of some wise
young people. But the first thing we can do
is this. Our testimony for the grace of
God, we can sound it forth. We must bear testimony in our
conduct and in our bearing and in our words to the grace and
goodness of God. and let us bear witness to his
grace in joy and with certainty, and let us be a witness to his
mercy. Nothing comes with such an impact
as that which comes to us from one who knows, from one who knows. I went out to visit a lady who
lost her son a few weeks ago, and I opened the front door and
went in, and she was sitting there weeping, and she got up
and walked to meet me. And she said, You can help me. You've been there, haven't you? And she was willing to listen
to me. And we can bear testimony when
we have an opportunity. You older people, you've been
there. You've been there. You've got
something to say. Somebody may hear us. We've got
something to say. Let us say it with compassion.
Let us say it with certainty. Let us say it with joy. Let us
give God all the glory. Well, let's say it. Let's say
it. Let's be heard. And then another area where we
have a duty is faithfulness. The example of older Christians,
Mr. Spurgeon says, carries more weight. And the failure of older Christians
does more damage. Now nobody's paying much attention
to what a young person does because they expect him to do that. And
I'm not, I wouldn't offend you young people with anything, but
you who've got some sense, you know what I'm talking about,
you're going to make plenty of mistakes. But when an older person who's
been in the Lord for as long as I have, as long as some of
you have, what we do, people watch us, what we do and how
we act and how we react, carries a whale of a lot of weight. And
if it's a good example, it can bring glory to God. But the failure
of an old believer does more damage than he can ever imagine. I'll tell you something else
we can do, and that is, it is our duty to encourage those who
fall. Doesn't the Bible say, if a brother
be overtaken in a fault, ye which are what? Spiritual. Restore
such a woman in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself. Let us not lay, and this is one
of the faults of older people. We go through these same things,
and then when we get older, we condemn people who are doing
just what we did. And that's a mistake. Let's don't
lay burdens on their backs that we couldn't carry. Let's don't
expect of them what we couldn't produce. Let's don't demand of
them who are coming through that place we've already been through.
Let's don't demand of them something we couldn't do ourselves. Let's comfort those who are weak.
Let's be an encouragement to those who have fallen. Let us,
the older believers, be the first one to understand and to sympathize
and to lend a hand. And then another duty that falls
upon those who are elders in Christ, who are old in the faith,
who've got a little mileage on the speedometer. And you know somebody said one
time, these gray hairs And these wrinkles are land birds. You
know what a land bird is? When the ship has been out to
sea for about six months, and it's coming home, it can't see
land yet, but one of the sailors looks up one afternoon and the
bird's flying over. It's a land bird. And he hollers
to the captain, land's got to be very close because there's
a bird, there's a land bird, there's another one, there's
another one, there's another one, we're getting close to home.
And these gray hairs and these wrinkles are land birds that
fly out to meet us and tell us that we're getting close to home.
The journey's about over. The haven is near, we're about
to drop anchor. We're about to get home. These
are land birds that fly out to meet us. We've got to be a warning
to the wayward. We've got to stand fast. You
men here, you've got to keep this pulpit, this church, in
the right direction. You've got to stand up and be
counted. I love young people, but it's got to be, this church
has got to be directed in its path by men of experience in
grace and men of sound, fundamental doctrines in grace, men who cannot
be moved and shaken, whose hearts are fixed. Brother Barnard went up to Olney,
Illinois one time in a meeting years ago, 1950, after he left over here. And
he went up there and he told me about it. He said he was preaching
in that church and He's preaching how God saves sinners. And he
was staying in the pastor's home with the pastor and his wife
and children, and everybody got mad at him. They didn't like
what he preached. The pastor's wife wouldn't even speak to him.
She'd set his breakfast on the table and pour his coffee and
wouldn't even speak to him. The pastor wouldn't hardly talk
to him. He's all by himself. He'd stay
in his room all day, and he'd go to church and preach at night.
The song leader wouldn't have anything to do with him. And he said one night he preached
a sermon, and the pastor got up when he got through, and he
said, I want to meet all the deacons in my study after the
benediction. Ross said, I went on home. I
knew what they was going to do. He said, they was going to fire
me. I knew exactly what they was going to do. He said, the
pastor had already told me I was ruining his church. And so the
pastor went in that study and gathered all the deacons around
him. And he began to walk the floor. And he said, men, he said,
this man is going to ruin our church. He's going to split our
church. We've got to get rid of him.
We've got to close this meeting. One of the deacons who had a
little money, he said, I'll tell you what I'll do, Pastor. He
said, I'll give him $300 and get him out of town if you'll
fire him. Roth said they went on talking.
All of them were almost in perfect agreement. Fire the preacher. Get rid of the evangelist. Close
the meeting. Finally, one old white-haired
man, a deacon, stood up and he said, Now, I've got something
to say. And I know it took courage because those men were men that
he lived with and worshiped with and worked with, men of his community. Me and he lived next door to.
He stood up and he said, Now I got something to say. He said,
Pastor, you sit down. And the pastor sat down. He said,
Pastor, this man we've got in your pulpit is preaching the
gospel. You never have heard it. You never have preached it. You don't know the gospel. You
men, every one of you, you've never heard the gospel. I know
the gospel. I was raised on that message
he's preaching. I was saved by that Lord he's
preaching. He's rejoicing my heart, and
I want to warn you, pastor, and I want to warn all you deacons,
you better not touch that man. That's God's man. If you run
that man off, God Almighty will kill every one of you." And he
sat down, and there wasn't a word said in that study. And finally
all those men got up and went out. The pastor was left sitting
there. The old white-haired man got
up and went out, and left him with his thoughts. And Roth told
me the next night he got up to preach, and he preached in the
power of the Holy Ghost. And the song leader stood up
to sing, Why should he love me so? Love sent my Savior to die
on a cross. Why should he love me so? Meekly
to Calvary's cross he was led. Why should he love me so? The
pastor's wife was playing the organ. She stopped playing and
started weeping. The pastor was sitting up there
in the chair and he started weeping. Before that service was over,
the pastor's wife and the pastor and seven of those deacons said
they came to knowledge of God's grace and of God's mercy. Because one old white-haired
gentleman who knew what he was talking about dared to stand

Old Age

What does the Bible say about old age?

Why is the hope of old age important for Christians?

How should older Christians view their memories?

What are the duties of older Christians?

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Old Age

What does the Bible say about old age?

Why is the hope of old age important for Christians?

How should older Christians view their memories?

What are the duties of older Christians?

Sermon Transcript

About Henry Mahan

Comments

More from Henry Mahan

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