The Importance of the Church that Christ Built
Dr. Rudy Shepard
Rudy Shepard is the founder and pastor of Peace Baptist Church in Wilmington, North Carolina.
When I went to bed Monday night. I was a tenor. I woke up Tuesday morning and I’m a bass singer! It’s been one of those things where I kept saying, well, maybe I should just call and tell him I can’t make it. Then I got to thinking, “No, this is a treat of a lifetime to be able to come to Ambassador. For awhile Dr. Johnston was driving back and forth to Wilmington and helped us for over a year with our Korean work. He is a go-getter and I thank the Lord for him. I thought, ‘Well, you know, I’ll get to speak in chapel today, and I can use as an excuse that I’m sick.’ So if this sermon is not good, just remember I’m sick, and if I was well, maybe I could do better! I don’t know. But I’m just very thankful for the opportunity to come. This is a great privilege for me.
By the way, the truths of the Gospel don’t change. All this change you’re seeing in America today is not necessarily truth. It’s just change. Human nature, our flesh, desires change. Be careful what you’re changing to. A friend of mine, I won’t call his name, had his God in the wrong place. He was worshiping a man. Let me warn you fellows of this. Men are men. That’s all they are. Don’t put them on a pedestal. Because if the pedestal falls and the man falls, then if he’s your God, your God has fallen. This friend had a large church. He was one of those fellows that worshipped a man so much that his whole preaching was like that man. When trouble came to the ministry of his idol, it destroyed my friend, and he took his church contemporary and changed everything.
He had no sooner made the move and he realized, “I have messed up.” Once you start down that road, it’s hard to turn around. He ended up resigning his church. I was walking through a store one night, and I met this security guard. It was my friend, no longer in the ministry, a night watchman.
I wept. I tried to talk to him, and his word to me was, “Brother Shepard, we’re different. We didn’t used to be. used to preach the same Gospel out of the same Book.” But he changed.
Be careful, fellas. One problem with America today is we have too many places we can go to for knowledge. I don’t read behind modern day thinkers. I am told that there’s a fellow out on the West coast who has become a millionaire with the books and commentaries that he wrote. I’ve never read one of his commentaries. I don’t listen to his radio program because he and I are different. Why would I want to waste my time listening to things that I’m going to be in conflict with? I just love to hear good old time Gospel preaching.
It’s amazing. I was thinking driving over here, when you hear Oliver Green, he’s as current today as when he preached those messages years ago. I remember when he died, I was a disc jockey in a Christian radio station. That was back during the days when we had records. Do you all remember what a record is? We had to put them on the turntable and spin them and get them just right, and we’d flip a little switch and couldn’t have any dead air. I was still doing that after I started Peace Baptist Church. We were meeting in a Cape Fear hotel, and we only had 20-some adults. All the money that was coming in, it was taking just for me and my family to pay the bills. So I said to the church one morning, “We’re not getting anywhere. I’ll support my family. We’ll save the money and buy a piece of land.”
So I went to work for a Christian radio station at night. I ran a gas station in the daytime, go to work at 7 o’clock in the morning, open up the gas station. I would work till 11 o’clock in the morning, go home, go to bed. My wife would get me up after four hours, and I’d get ready and go back to the gas station, and I’d stay there till it closed. Then I would go to the radio station and work all night long.
This dear old lady would call me about 3 o’clock in the morning, the record would be going, “kshk, kshk, kshk, kshk.” She’d say, “Brother Shepard, have you gone to sleep again?” And I had. I’d fall asleep right there at the microphone, working as a disc jockey. I did that for years. During that period of time, we bought a four-acre tract of land, gave $18,000 for it. My dad said to me, “Why did you buy way out here in the woods?” We were seven miles outside the city limits. Brother Johnston will tell you now, we’re definitely in the city limits. They’ve moved all the way out to where we are. The land that I gave $18,000 for four acres now sells for one million for half an acre of road frontage. That’s what’s happened to Wilmington. It has become a city that has grown from 40,000 to now inside the city limits it’s 90,000. The majority of the people came from up north. Now I’m not against northern people. It’s just that they’re a little different than we are. They want to change things like it was back home and I keep wondering, if it was so wonderful back home, why did you come down here?
But that’s all you hear on the radio. We did it this way back home. Well, we’ve never done it that way in Wilmington until now. Our roads are like Charlotte, packed. We don’t have big multi-lane roads like you’ve got in Charlotte. We just have two-lane roads, and it’s bumper to bumper. The folks in Wilmington don’t know how to drive in that kind of traffic, so just going four or five miles, you’ll see two wrecks. It’s usually two young people who can’t get out of the way of the old people. But I love Wilmington. God put me there, and I’ve tried to bloom where I’m planted, but I’m about to run out of time. I knew I would get older, but I didn’t expect it to happen this fast!
I’m amazed by the solid quality I see in this ministry, and I believe it’s because the leadership concentrated on doing just one thing. The Gospel of Luke tells us very simply that Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost. So we have the idea that the whole ministry of Jesus was about reaching the lost. But if you have that idea, you’re wrong. The majority of Jesus’ time was spent training men to take the Gospel into the world. He invested Himself in 12 men, and those 12 men, as you well know, just moving Judas Iscariot aside, they turned the world upside down. Or as one preacher said, they turned the world right side up, because the world’s always been upside down.
The message that they brought was a message that gave men something to live for and a work that changed people’s lives. It’s called the New Testament Church. I hear a lot of folks today that don’t understand the importance of the church. I was saved in church. When I was a small boy, before I can remember, mom and dad carried me to church and we were there every Sunday. It was not a thing where there was a question about, “What are we going to do today?” We knew what we were doing on Sunday. It was not long before a preacher came and he preached the Gospel. I did not know that he was preaching another man’s sermon. Fellas, you won’t hurt yourself by reading great sermons. But that preacher was preaching a Billy Sunday sermon, and he used a lot of the theatrics, the kind of things that Billy Sunday did. If you’ve ever picked up one of the old books about Billy Sunday, you’ll know that he actually wrote reminders in his sermon, like ‘break the chair here.’ And he would outline all of that. I mean, there was nothing that was left to chance. This fellow must have had his book, because he tried to break our chair, and he couldn’t! That got my attention!
But the thing that really got my attention was when he was preaching about Ahab and Jezebel, that the dogs are on your trail. I was from the country. I knew what it was to go hunting. My granddad had a deer dog.
Now I don’t hunt anymore, folks. I feed deer out the back door, go down and buy bags of corn and throw it out there. Somebody said the other day, said, Brother Shepherd, you could shoot one of those deer. I said, “Don’t shoot, no, no, no. I don’t want to shoot nothing.” I feed the deer, feed the squirrels, feed the coons. All that stuff comes up to my door, and we talk together.
But Granddaddy would turn the deer dogs loose on the deer, and the dogs would go running, then somebody would shoot and cripple the deer. The dogs would be after them. That’s the reason I don’t go hunting. I can’t stand to hear anything cry. If you’ve ever heard a deer when it’s wounded and the dogs are after it, he sounds just like a baby crying. I heard that one time and I quit. Now, if you hunt, that’s fine with me, I don’t care.
But when I heard that sermon about the hounds being on my trail, I went home and God began to work on my heart. Brother Bill, I was 12 years old, but I’m ashamed to tell that because so many people have the idea that 12 years old is the age you’re supposed to do everything. But I was 12 years old when I heard that sermon and God began to work in my heart. We were working in tobacco that summer. My preacher was a farmer and he brought us a Pepsi Cola and a moon pie at 9 o’clock. Now, if you’ve never worked on the farm, you just don’t realize that’s the way the whole day goes. You get Pepsi colas and moon pies at 9 o’clock and at 3 o’clock. If they don’t bring you a Pepsi cola and a moon pie, we went on strike! That was necessary for us to keep working.
So he brought us a drink and we stood there beside the John Deere tractor, one of those that goes, putt, putt, putt, putt, putt, putt. I said to him, “You know, I haven’t been able to sleep for two nights.” ‘
He said, “What’s wrong?”
I said, “That sermon. I go to sleep, but then I keep hearing them dogs.” He said, “Rudy, I believe you’re under conviction.” Now, I was raised in a Free Will Baptist church. Don’t hold that against me. Dr. Malone was saved in a Methodist church, and he became a pretty good preacher, didn’t he? So I think you can get saved in these places. I’ve been saved about 200 times, because in the Free Will Baptist Church, they tell you that you can get saved, and then you can get lost. Then you can get saved again. Then you can get lost again. It wasn’t hard for me to get lost because I was mean as a devil.
But here I was, under conviction and I said to my preacher, “I can’t sleep at night.”
He said, “Wednesday night, you come up. and you accept Jesus.” So, he preached. They sang, Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior. As soon as he announced the song, I went to the altar. Nobody went up there with me. I wish they had. I wish somebody had taken the Bible and showed me what Jesus did for me. Nobody did. But I got saved. I know I did. You say, “Well, how’d you do it?” I prayed four words. “Lord Jesus, save me!”
Now I know a lot of my independent Baptist friends might say you can’t get saved like that. They say you’ve got to repent for a long time. You’ve got to really be sorry for sin and then you’ve got to pray a certain way. If you don’t say all these things, then you don’t get saved. But nobody told the Lord that, and He saved me that night, no doubt about it, and I’m thankful that He did, because my life suddenly changed.
We went down to the country store. I was standing in the store. Remember, nobody came up to the altar and talked to me. Preacher didn’t ask me what I did. Nothing happened. Nothing was announced. We just left and went home to the country store.
So I was there in the country store. My uncle owned it. I bought a Pepsi Cola and a pack of Lance peanuts. I know y’all don’t know a thing in the world about this stuff. You have never had the best stuff in life. You take two swallows out of the Pepsi Cola, and then you pour the peanuts in the drink. It’ll start fizzing with all the salt. and you drink that.
So I’m standing in the country store drinking my Pepsi Cola, and my preacher’s wife came up to me. She said, “I’m gonna pray for you.” That was the only excitement there was when I got saved. One person said, “I’ll pray for you.”
I went home from the country store and told my mama. I said, “Mama, I got saved tonight.”
My mama said, “That’s good for you. Get ready for bed.” And I went to bed. That began my walk with the Lord. I was not sure what I got. Not sure of how long it would last. I struggled.
That year God called me to preach, 12 years of age. I went to my preacher and said, “I believe God’s calling me to preach.”
He said, “Well, that’s good.” He said, “You just go ahead and get your education, and if God’s really serious, He’ll let you know later.” So that’s what I did. But I drifted away from the Lord. Nobody took an interest in me.
Then at 18 years of age, God said to me again, “I’ve got a job for you.” I went off to college, graduated, and took my first church. I didn’t know how to lead anybody to Christ because they didn’t tell us. All of my professors were from Duke University and educated beyond their brains. They didn’t believe that this Book was the Word of God. They kept telling me, “You need to go down and get you a Oxford annotated Bible.” We preacher fellows, we used to call it an Oxford medicated Bible. We never bought one, none of us.
So I took my first church and didn’t know how to win a soul to Christ. A little Presbyterian fellow down in Florida wrote a book, Evangelism Explosion, and somebody gave me one. I got to reading that thing and I got hungry. I was pastoring a church, didn’t know how to lead anybody to Jesus. I took evangelism explosion and in the back of it there was a whole sheet of verses you’re supposed to memorize.
I started going door to door. About that time, 1971, I don’t know who, but somebody started sending me the Sword of the Lord. It came every two weeks. I’d be standing at the box when it would come, and I’d get it and go back in and sit down and I’d read it. Dr. Rice was talking about people that were winning thousands of people to Christ. So I began to hear about where he’d be preaching and I’d go hear him. God began to do something in my heart.
About that time I really got concerned about our college, so I went and I talked to them. Didn’t do any good. So I brought a motion on the floor, that the denomination quit supporting the college until they came in line with what the Bible was teaching. That was my beginnings of my Waterloo. I did not know that my old preacher friends were as liberal as they were. One of them that day walked out and said, “Brother Shepard, don’t you do anything you’ll be sorry of.
I said, “Okay.” I went back home and I talked to my wife. Always talk to your wife before you do anything. So I talked to her and we prayed about it. I took my credentials off the wall, rolled them up in an envelope with a two-page letter and sent it to the ordaining board. I told them I quit. Two days later, I got a certified letter. I knew what was in it, but I didn’t even open it. I told the postman, “I don’t pastor that church anymore. Just tell them you don’t know where I am.” So they sent it back.
That was when I made my decision. I went to see a little independent Baptist preacher. He was an old man. His name was B.R., last name Lakin. I sat down with him and I said, “Dr. Lakin, what am I supposed to do? I’ve left my denomination. I’ve left my church. What am I supposed to do?”
He asked me, “How much education you got?” I told him. He said, “Go back home, buy you some good books, start reading them, and start knocking on doors.” It was 1975, I became an independent Baptist. I started knocking on doors.
What a time! I have now been pastor of the same church for nearly 50 years. I love my people. And the amazing thing is, some of them love me! I mean, it’s great. I love all of them, and some of them love me. But we have fun serving the Lord. We have fun.
I began to realize, “This is what it’s all about.” Jesus built the church and left it here on this earth, and the church is supposed to do something. We’re supposed to reach the world. Dr. B.R. Lakin used to say, “There are no small churches, because every church has been told to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. So you may not have but a few people, but you’ve got a big work.” Mr. Moody said, “The world is my parish.” Every person you meet is a possible convert to Jesus. The church is a local assembly, it is. But the church is also the body of Christ. As such, the church has been left here to do a great work.
When I think about the church, I think about what’s written in the book of Ephesians, chapter number five. The Bible says in Ephesians 5, we use this for the family. We talk about husbands and wives, but I want you to notice it’s not about husbands and wives. That’s an application of the text, but that’s not the interpretation of the text. The interpretation of the text is very simple. Verse 32 says, “This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.” This text is about our Lord’s church, and when I read about the church, the first thing I read in verse 21, it says, “Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the savior of the body.”
You know, the local church has a Head. The Pope said way back in 1800 and something that he was the head of the church. He’s not the head of nothing. Jesus is the Head of the church. And the headquarters of the church is not in Knoxville, Tennessee. It’s not in Nashville, Tennessee. It’s in Heaven, and our Head is coming back one day to take over Planet Earth. I look forward to that time!
The church has a Head. When I think about it, I think about that fact that it’s not a man, but it’s the Lord. The Lord who gave Himself, the Lord who called His disciples, the Lord who trained them, the Lord who sent them into all the world. You know, the gospel of Mark says, “Preach the Gospel to every creature.” My heart breaks today. Through FBN, Fundamental Broadcasting Network, Brother Ebern started. If you’ve never met Brother Ebern, he is a miracle man, 85 years of age, and still going strong for the Lord. He had a vision back in 1988 to build a radio work, and now that radio work is heard in 44 cities in America and in other cities that it broadcast into from that city. By Internet, he’s now preaching around the world.
So one year after he started, he called me and said, “Would you like to have a program on the radio?” Remember I was once a radio disc jockey. I love radio. Here was a preacher giving me a chance to have 15 minutes a day to do what Jesus said, to preach the Gospel to every creature. By means of internet, this old rough voice is heard around the world. Of course, they put me on at 6.30 in the evening. That’s when most people are watching the news. So, I can’t do a whole lot of damage there, right? But you know, it’s not 6:30 everywhere at the same time. So I just try to envision in my mind while I’m sitting in the church office doing my broadcast that I’ve got a whole house full of people listening. I try to envision their faces and preach to them through that microphone. Jesus said do it.
Not only that, but I began to realize that not only is Christ the Head of the church, but did you know that Jesus is also more than just our Head? Notice it says, “Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.” The church is subject unto Christ. We’re supposed to do what He says. You know, He gave us our orders. He gave us our commandments. In America today, we don’t know what it is to follow orders. For the first time ever that I can remember we just turned a man loose who disobeyed his orders in the military, and caused his comrade-in-arms to have to go look for him. Some of them were injured trying to save his sorry hide.
In World War II, in our little community, there was a man by the name of Henderson. He had a wife and two children. They sent him over in the army and he ran away and came home. They came looking for him. They found him laying between the mattresses. They arrested him and sent him to the front lines. He never came home. He was killed in battle. How was he killed? Nobody knows. Was he killed fighting or was he killed by his own men because he was a traitor? That’s just what people did.
There’s a lot of traitors in the church today who are disobeying their Lord. He has told us that we are to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, then what else does He say? Love your neighbors as yourself. We’re to love people. Fellas, a lot of y’all are going to be preachers, and you girls, some may be preachers’ wives. If any of you decide to read the Bible first, it’ll help you. Do you know, fellas, the Bible says if you’re going to be successful as a preacher, you’re going to have to love your people. That’s where a lot of preachers go wrong. You think your people are supposed to serve you. The word minister means servant. You’re going to be their servant. That’s a job in serving people.
But not only that, Christ loves His church. Did you know that? Look at verse 25. “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it:” He loves the church. There’s many times in 40 some years that I thought about leaving. Times I was discouraged. Times I wanted to quit. Times I was despondent. Times I thought somebody else could come do better than I was doing. But you know, this one thing always came to my mind. There might be a lot of fellows who can out-preach me. There may be a lot of fellows who have more Bible knowledge than I do. But I don’t know of anybody who can love Peace Baptist Church like I do. I love our people. Being there over 40 years, I’ve married some of them. Now I’m marrying their children. Soon I’ll be marrying their grandchildren. But you know, I just thank the Lord that I can be their pastor.
Fourthly, Jesus cleansed the church. Notice it says, “That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word.” Make much of the word! Tom Malone’s church ran 5,000 people, one of the greatest churches in America, Emmanuel Baptist Church. When I started Peace Baptist, I wanted to name it Emmanuel Baptist Church. But there was already an Emmanuel Baptist in Wilmington, so I couldn’t use that name. Now that church is closed down. I could use it now, but I’ve fallen in love with Peace now. “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (John 14:27) Peace has become a part of me.
But I think about the great Emmanuel Baptist Church in Pontiac, Michigan, and you know today it doesn’t even exist. One of the reasons it doesn’t exist is because the preachers who followed Dr. Malone didn’t love the people, they loved their computers. You cannot build a church sitting in a study. You gotta get out there where the people are. You have to knock on their doors. You got to hold their hand and cry with them. You’ve got to love them. You got to look for their children.
If you’re not willing to give yourself 100% to the ministry, get out! We need men who are dedicated. Jesus loved His church and He cleansed it. Then verse 27 says “That he might present it to himself, a glorious church.” Do you know what’s going to happen one day? I was reading the book of Revelation and it talked about the New Jerusalem. I began to envision the New Jerusalem. Your Jerusalem is made out of something like glass, jasper. It says it’s clear as glass. That means you can look right into it. You know who lives in there? The Bride of Christ. Jesus is building a city for his Bride to be on display.
I love my wife. We’ve been married 54 years. My memory is not as good as it used to be. I keep saying things over. Like what’s your name? We older fellas, we have to keep saying things. I say to my wife, “Honey, don’t be gone too long, I’ll forget who you are.” Jesus loves his Bride. He wants to put her on display for the whole universe to look at. Because you know what? He gave himself for her. Jesus died for me. One day he’s coming back for me.
Number five, the church is presented to Christ. Number six, it’s nourished and cherished by Christ, verse 29. Then verse 32 says, “This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.” Nearly 50 years I’ve pastored Peace Baptist Church, but it’s not my church. A friend of mine who was a wealthy man came to me almost 40 years ago. He said, “Brother Rudy, you’re my best friend.” And he was my best friend. He said, “But you’re the stupidest man I’ve ever seen.” You see, I’ve spent all my life, 40 some odd years, building something that one of these days I’ll die and my family won’t inherit nothing. They won’t sell it and give it to them. My wife’s not going to be taken care of by them the day that I quit being pastor. The relationship between Peace Baptist and my family, other than their attendance at that church, will be over.
Because it’s not my church, it’s His church. Fellas, we work for Him. One of these days, I just want to hear Him say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant,” I’ll be happy.
Men, I’m glad you’re working with us. Give it all you’ve got. Surrender everything to the Lord. Let’s stand together and let’s spread the Gospel message until it has reached every person on earth. Oh, God, give us faithful men! Here today, are boys and girls, men and women, just starting out in the ministry. We’re excited. We’re going to turn the world upside down. We’re going to serve the King of Kings, Lord of Lords. We’re going to take His message. We’re going to see people’s lives changed. Lord, help us just to be faithful to love You and love people and love the book. Help us to love and serve Jesus Christ and His church.
By the way, the truths of the Gospel don’t change. All this change you’re seeing in America today is not necessarily truth. It’s just change. Human nature, our flesh, desires change. Be careful what you’re changing to. A friend of mine, I won’t call his name, had his God in the wrong place. He was worshiping a man. Let me warn you fellows of this. Men are men. That’s all they are. Don’t put them on a pedestal. Because if the pedestal falls and the man falls, then if he’s your God, your God has fallen. This friend had a large church. He was one of those fellows that worshipped a man so much that his whole preaching was like that man. When trouble came to the ministry of his idol, it destroyed my friend, and he took his church contemporary and changed everything.
He had no sooner made the move and he realized, “I have messed up.” Once you start down that road, it’s hard to turn around. He ended up resigning his church. I was walking through a store one night, and I met this security guard. It was my friend, no longer in the ministry, a night watchman.
I wept. I tried to talk to him, and his word to me was, “Brother Shepard, we’re different. We didn’t used to be. used to preach the same Gospel out of the same Book.” But he changed.
Be careful, fellas. One problem with America today is we have too many places we can go to for knowledge. I don’t read behind modern day thinkers. I am told that there’s a fellow out on the West coast who has become a millionaire with the books and commentaries that he wrote. I’ve never read one of his commentaries. I don’t listen to his radio program because he and I are different. Why would I want to waste my time listening to things that I’m going to be in conflict with? I just love to hear good old time Gospel preaching.
It’s amazing. I was thinking driving over here, when you hear Oliver Green, he’s as current today as when he preached those messages years ago. I remember when he died, I was a disc jockey in a Christian radio station. That was back during the days when we had records. Do you all remember what a record is? We had to put them on the turntable and spin them and get them just right, and we’d flip a little switch and couldn’t have any dead air. I was still doing that after I started Peace Baptist Church. We were meeting in a Cape Fear hotel, and we only had 20-some adults. All the money that was coming in, it was taking just for me and my family to pay the bills. So I said to the church one morning, “We’re not getting anywhere. I’ll support my family. We’ll save the money and buy a piece of land.”
So I went to work for a Christian radio station at night. I ran a gas station in the daytime, go to work at 7 o’clock in the morning, open up the gas station. I would work till 11 o’clock in the morning, go home, go to bed. My wife would get me up after four hours, and I’d get ready and go back to the gas station, and I’d stay there till it closed. Then I would go to the radio station and work all night long.
This dear old lady would call me about 3 o’clock in the morning, the record would be going, “kshk, kshk, kshk, kshk.” She’d say, “Brother Shepard, have you gone to sleep again?” And I had. I’d fall asleep right there at the microphone, working as a disc jockey. I did that for years. During that period of time, we bought a four-acre tract of land, gave $18,000 for it. My dad said to me, “Why did you buy way out here in the woods?” We were seven miles outside the city limits. Brother Johnston will tell you now, we’re definitely in the city limits. They’ve moved all the way out to where we are. The land that I gave $18,000 for four acres now sells for one million for half an acre of road frontage. That’s what’s happened to Wilmington. It has become a city that has grown from 40,000 to now inside the city limits it’s 90,000. The majority of the people came from up north. Now I’m not against northern people. It’s just that they’re a little different than we are. They want to change things like it was back home and I keep wondering, if it was so wonderful back home, why did you come down here?
But that’s all you hear on the radio. We did it this way back home. Well, we’ve never done it that way in Wilmington until now. Our roads are like Charlotte, packed. We don’t have big multi-lane roads like you’ve got in Charlotte. We just have two-lane roads, and it’s bumper to bumper. The folks in Wilmington don’t know how to drive in that kind of traffic, so just going four or five miles, you’ll see two wrecks. It’s usually two young people who can’t get out of the way of the old people. But I love Wilmington. God put me there, and I’ve tried to bloom where I’m planted, but I’m about to run out of time. I knew I would get older, but I didn’t expect it to happen this fast!
I’m amazed by the solid quality I see in this ministry, and I believe it’s because the leadership concentrated on doing just one thing. The Gospel of Luke tells us very simply that Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost. So we have the idea that the whole ministry of Jesus was about reaching the lost. But if you have that idea, you’re wrong. The majority of Jesus’ time was spent training men to take the Gospel into the world. He invested Himself in 12 men, and those 12 men, as you well know, just moving Judas Iscariot aside, they turned the world upside down. Or as one preacher said, they turned the world right side up, because the world’s always been upside down.
The message that they brought was a message that gave men something to live for and a work that changed people’s lives. It’s called the New Testament Church. I hear a lot of folks today that don’t understand the importance of the church. I was saved in church. When I was a small boy, before I can remember, mom and dad carried me to church and we were there every Sunday. It was not a thing where there was a question about, “What are we going to do today?” We knew what we were doing on Sunday. It was not long before a preacher came and he preached the Gospel. I did not know that he was preaching another man’s sermon. Fellas, you won’t hurt yourself by reading great sermons. But that preacher was preaching a Billy Sunday sermon, and he used a lot of the theatrics, the kind of things that Billy Sunday did. If you’ve ever picked up one of the old books about Billy Sunday, you’ll know that he actually wrote reminders in his sermon, like ‘break the chair here.’ And he would outline all of that. I mean, there was nothing that was left to chance. This fellow must have had his book, because he tried to break our chair, and he couldn’t! That got my attention!
But the thing that really got my attention was when he was preaching about Ahab and Jezebel, that the dogs are on your trail. I was from the country. I knew what it was to go hunting. My granddad had a deer dog.
Now I don’t hunt anymore, folks. I feed deer out the back door, go down and buy bags of corn and throw it out there. Somebody said the other day, said, Brother Shepherd, you could shoot one of those deer. I said, “Don’t shoot, no, no, no. I don’t want to shoot nothing.” I feed the deer, feed the squirrels, feed the coons. All that stuff comes up to my door, and we talk together.
But Granddaddy would turn the deer dogs loose on the deer, and the dogs would go running, then somebody would shoot and cripple the deer. The dogs would be after them. That’s the reason I don’t go hunting. I can’t stand to hear anything cry. If you’ve ever heard a deer when it’s wounded and the dogs are after it, he sounds just like a baby crying. I heard that one time and I quit. Now, if you hunt, that’s fine with me, I don’t care.
But when I heard that sermon about the hounds being on my trail, I went home and God began to work on my heart. Brother Bill, I was 12 years old, but I’m ashamed to tell that because so many people have the idea that 12 years old is the age you’re supposed to do everything. But I was 12 years old when I heard that sermon and God began to work in my heart. We were working in tobacco that summer. My preacher was a farmer and he brought us a Pepsi Cola and a moon pie at 9 o’clock. Now, if you’ve never worked on the farm, you just don’t realize that’s the way the whole day goes. You get Pepsi colas and moon pies at 9 o’clock and at 3 o’clock. If they don’t bring you a Pepsi cola and a moon pie, we went on strike! That was necessary for us to keep working.
So he brought us a drink and we stood there beside the John Deere tractor, one of those that goes, putt, putt, putt, putt, putt, putt. I said to him, “You know, I haven’t been able to sleep for two nights.” ‘
He said, “What’s wrong?”
I said, “That sermon. I go to sleep, but then I keep hearing them dogs.” He said, “Rudy, I believe you’re under conviction.” Now, I was raised in a Free Will Baptist church. Don’t hold that against me. Dr. Malone was saved in a Methodist church, and he became a pretty good preacher, didn’t he? So I think you can get saved in these places. I’ve been saved about 200 times, because in the Free Will Baptist Church, they tell you that you can get saved, and then you can get lost. Then you can get saved again. Then you can get lost again. It wasn’t hard for me to get lost because I was mean as a devil.
But here I was, under conviction and I said to my preacher, “I can’t sleep at night.”
He said, “Wednesday night, you come up. and you accept Jesus.” So, he preached. They sang, Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior. As soon as he announced the song, I went to the altar. Nobody went up there with me. I wish they had. I wish somebody had taken the Bible and showed me what Jesus did for me. Nobody did. But I got saved. I know I did. You say, “Well, how’d you do it?” I prayed four words. “Lord Jesus, save me!”
Now I know a lot of my independent Baptist friends might say you can’t get saved like that. They say you’ve got to repent for a long time. You’ve got to really be sorry for sin and then you’ve got to pray a certain way. If you don’t say all these things, then you don’t get saved. But nobody told the Lord that, and He saved me that night, no doubt about it, and I’m thankful that He did, because my life suddenly changed.
We went down to the country store. I was standing in the store. Remember, nobody came up to the altar and talked to me. Preacher didn’t ask me what I did. Nothing happened. Nothing was announced. We just left and went home to the country store.
So I was there in the country store. My uncle owned it. I bought a Pepsi Cola and a pack of Lance peanuts. I know y’all don’t know a thing in the world about this stuff. You have never had the best stuff in life. You take two swallows out of the Pepsi Cola, and then you pour the peanuts in the drink. It’ll start fizzing with all the salt. and you drink that.
So I’m standing in the country store drinking my Pepsi Cola, and my preacher’s wife came up to me. She said, “I’m gonna pray for you.” That was the only excitement there was when I got saved. One person said, “I’ll pray for you.”
I went home from the country store and told my mama. I said, “Mama, I got saved tonight.”
My mama said, “That’s good for you. Get ready for bed.” And I went to bed. That began my walk with the Lord. I was not sure what I got. Not sure of how long it would last. I struggled.
That year God called me to preach, 12 years of age. I went to my preacher and said, “I believe God’s calling me to preach.”
He said, “Well, that’s good.” He said, “You just go ahead and get your education, and if God’s really serious, He’ll let you know later.” So that’s what I did. But I drifted away from the Lord. Nobody took an interest in me.
Then at 18 years of age, God said to me again, “I’ve got a job for you.” I went off to college, graduated, and took my first church. I didn’t know how to lead anybody to Christ because they didn’t tell us. All of my professors were from Duke University and educated beyond their brains. They didn’t believe that this Book was the Word of God. They kept telling me, “You need to go down and get you a Oxford annotated Bible.” We preacher fellows, we used to call it an Oxford medicated Bible. We never bought one, none of us.
So I took my first church and didn’t know how to win a soul to Christ. A little Presbyterian fellow down in Florida wrote a book, Evangelism Explosion, and somebody gave me one. I got to reading that thing and I got hungry. I was pastoring a church, didn’t know how to lead anybody to Jesus. I took evangelism explosion and in the back of it there was a whole sheet of verses you’re supposed to memorize.
I started going door to door. About that time, 1971, I don’t know who, but somebody started sending me the Sword of the Lord. It came every two weeks. I’d be standing at the box when it would come, and I’d get it and go back in and sit down and I’d read it. Dr. Rice was talking about people that were winning thousands of people to Christ. So I began to hear about where he’d be preaching and I’d go hear him. God began to do something in my heart.
About that time I really got concerned about our college, so I went and I talked to them. Didn’t do any good. So I brought a motion on the floor, that the denomination quit supporting the college until they came in line with what the Bible was teaching. That was my beginnings of my Waterloo. I did not know that my old preacher friends were as liberal as they were. One of them that day walked out and said, “Brother Shepard, don’t you do anything you’ll be sorry of.
I said, “Okay.” I went back home and I talked to my wife. Always talk to your wife before you do anything. So I talked to her and we prayed about it. I took my credentials off the wall, rolled them up in an envelope with a two-page letter and sent it to the ordaining board. I told them I quit. Two days later, I got a certified letter. I knew what was in it, but I didn’t even open it. I told the postman, “I don’t pastor that church anymore. Just tell them you don’t know where I am.” So they sent it back.
That was when I made my decision. I went to see a little independent Baptist preacher. He was an old man. His name was B.R., last name Lakin. I sat down with him and I said, “Dr. Lakin, what am I supposed to do? I’ve left my denomination. I’ve left my church. What am I supposed to do?”
He asked me, “How much education you got?” I told him. He said, “Go back home, buy you some good books, start reading them, and start knocking on doors.” It was 1975, I became an independent Baptist. I started knocking on doors.
What a time! I have now been pastor of the same church for nearly 50 years. I love my people. And the amazing thing is, some of them love me! I mean, it’s great. I love all of them, and some of them love me. But we have fun serving the Lord. We have fun.
I began to realize, “This is what it’s all about.” Jesus built the church and left it here on this earth, and the church is supposed to do something. We’re supposed to reach the world. Dr. B.R. Lakin used to say, “There are no small churches, because every church has been told to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. So you may not have but a few people, but you’ve got a big work.” Mr. Moody said, “The world is my parish.” Every person you meet is a possible convert to Jesus. The church is a local assembly, it is. But the church is also the body of Christ. As such, the church has been left here to do a great work.
When I think about the church, I think about what’s written in the book of Ephesians, chapter number five. The Bible says in Ephesians 5, we use this for the family. We talk about husbands and wives, but I want you to notice it’s not about husbands and wives. That’s an application of the text, but that’s not the interpretation of the text. The interpretation of the text is very simple. Verse 32 says, “This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.” This text is about our Lord’s church, and when I read about the church, the first thing I read in verse 21, it says, “Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the savior of the body.”
You know, the local church has a Head. The Pope said way back in 1800 and something that he was the head of the church. He’s not the head of nothing. Jesus is the Head of the church. And the headquarters of the church is not in Knoxville, Tennessee. It’s not in Nashville, Tennessee. It’s in Heaven, and our Head is coming back one day to take over Planet Earth. I look forward to that time!
The church has a Head. When I think about it, I think about that fact that it’s not a man, but it’s the Lord. The Lord who gave Himself, the Lord who called His disciples, the Lord who trained them, the Lord who sent them into all the world. You know, the gospel of Mark says, “Preach the Gospel to every creature.” My heart breaks today. Through FBN, Fundamental Broadcasting Network, Brother Ebern started. If you’ve never met Brother Ebern, he is a miracle man, 85 years of age, and still going strong for the Lord. He had a vision back in 1988 to build a radio work, and now that radio work is heard in 44 cities in America and in other cities that it broadcast into from that city. By Internet, he’s now preaching around the world.
So one year after he started, he called me and said, “Would you like to have a program on the radio?” Remember I was once a radio disc jockey. I love radio. Here was a preacher giving me a chance to have 15 minutes a day to do what Jesus said, to preach the Gospel to every creature. By means of internet, this old rough voice is heard around the world. Of course, they put me on at 6.30 in the evening. That’s when most people are watching the news. So, I can’t do a whole lot of damage there, right? But you know, it’s not 6:30 everywhere at the same time. So I just try to envision in my mind while I’m sitting in the church office doing my broadcast that I’ve got a whole house full of people listening. I try to envision their faces and preach to them through that microphone. Jesus said do it.
Not only that, but I began to realize that not only is Christ the Head of the church, but did you know that Jesus is also more than just our Head? Notice it says, “Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.” The church is subject unto Christ. We’re supposed to do what He says. You know, He gave us our orders. He gave us our commandments. In America today, we don’t know what it is to follow orders. For the first time ever that I can remember we just turned a man loose who disobeyed his orders in the military, and caused his comrade-in-arms to have to go look for him. Some of them were injured trying to save his sorry hide.
In World War II, in our little community, there was a man by the name of Henderson. He had a wife and two children. They sent him over in the army and he ran away and came home. They came looking for him. They found him laying between the mattresses. They arrested him and sent him to the front lines. He never came home. He was killed in battle. How was he killed? Nobody knows. Was he killed fighting or was he killed by his own men because he was a traitor? That’s just what people did.
There’s a lot of traitors in the church today who are disobeying their Lord. He has told us that we are to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, then what else does He say? Love your neighbors as yourself. We’re to love people. Fellas, a lot of y’all are going to be preachers, and you girls, some may be preachers’ wives. If any of you decide to read the Bible first, it’ll help you. Do you know, fellas, the Bible says if you’re going to be successful as a preacher, you’re going to have to love your people. That’s where a lot of preachers go wrong. You think your people are supposed to serve you. The word minister means servant. You’re going to be their servant. That’s a job in serving people.
But not only that, Christ loves His church. Did you know that? Look at verse 25. “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it:” He loves the church. There’s many times in 40 some years that I thought about leaving. Times I was discouraged. Times I wanted to quit. Times I was despondent. Times I thought somebody else could come do better than I was doing. But you know, this one thing always came to my mind. There might be a lot of fellows who can out-preach me. There may be a lot of fellows who have more Bible knowledge than I do. But I don’t know of anybody who can love Peace Baptist Church like I do. I love our people. Being there over 40 years, I’ve married some of them. Now I’m marrying their children. Soon I’ll be marrying their grandchildren. But you know, I just thank the Lord that I can be their pastor.
Fourthly, Jesus cleansed the church. Notice it says, “That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word.” Make much of the word! Tom Malone’s church ran 5,000 people, one of the greatest churches in America, Emmanuel Baptist Church. When I started Peace Baptist, I wanted to name it Emmanuel Baptist Church. But there was already an Emmanuel Baptist in Wilmington, so I couldn’t use that name. Now that church is closed down. I could use it now, but I’ve fallen in love with Peace now. “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (John 14:27) Peace has become a part of me.
But I think about the great Emmanuel Baptist Church in Pontiac, Michigan, and you know today it doesn’t even exist. One of the reasons it doesn’t exist is because the preachers who followed Dr. Malone didn’t love the people, they loved their computers. You cannot build a church sitting in a study. You gotta get out there where the people are. You have to knock on their doors. You got to hold their hand and cry with them. You’ve got to love them. You got to look for their children.
If you’re not willing to give yourself 100% to the ministry, get out! We need men who are dedicated. Jesus loved His church and He cleansed it. Then verse 27 says “That he might present it to himself, a glorious church.” Do you know what’s going to happen one day? I was reading the book of Revelation and it talked about the New Jerusalem. I began to envision the New Jerusalem. Your Jerusalem is made out of something like glass, jasper. It says it’s clear as glass. That means you can look right into it. You know who lives in there? The Bride of Christ. Jesus is building a city for his Bride to be on display.
I love my wife. We’ve been married 54 years. My memory is not as good as it used to be. I keep saying things over. Like what’s your name? We older fellas, we have to keep saying things. I say to my wife, “Honey, don’t be gone too long, I’ll forget who you are.” Jesus loves his Bride. He wants to put her on display for the whole universe to look at. Because you know what? He gave himself for her. Jesus died for me. One day he’s coming back for me.
Number five, the church is presented to Christ. Number six, it’s nourished and cherished by Christ, verse 29. Then verse 32 says, “This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.” Nearly 50 years I’ve pastored Peace Baptist Church, but it’s not my church. A friend of mine who was a wealthy man came to me almost 40 years ago. He said, “Brother Rudy, you’re my best friend.” And he was my best friend. He said, “But you’re the stupidest man I’ve ever seen.” You see, I’ve spent all my life, 40 some odd years, building something that one of these days I’ll die and my family won’t inherit nothing. They won’t sell it and give it to them. My wife’s not going to be taken care of by them the day that I quit being pastor. The relationship between Peace Baptist and my family, other than their attendance at that church, will be over.
Because it’s not my church, it’s His church. Fellas, we work for Him. One of these days, I just want to hear Him say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant,” I’ll be happy.
Men, I’m glad you’re working with us. Give it all you’ve got. Surrender everything to the Lord. Let’s stand together and let’s spread the Gospel message until it has reached every person on earth. Oh, God, give us faithful men! Here today, are boys and girls, men and women, just starting out in the ministry. We’re excited. We’re going to turn the world upside down. We’re going to serve the King of Kings, Lord of Lords. We’re going to take His message. We’re going to see people’s lives changed. Lord, help us just to be faithful to love You and love people and love the book. Help us to love and serve Jesus Christ and His church.
