Here is a man who grew up in a totally secular environment and was ushered into the world of Hip Hop as a promoter. But all that changed when his Karate instructor became a Christian and quit because of his newfound beliefs.

�'s to proclaim the sufficiency of scripture. We're here today to glorify the God who saves sinners and we have Rob Ventura here to tell us the story of his life. Hey Rob, welcome. Hi brothers, thanks for having me. Good deal, can't wait to hear your story.

So what we do here from time to time is have the men who preach at our conferences give their testimonies tell their life stories and Rob is going to do that for us. Today he's going to be with us at our next national conference, and so we're excited about that, but he's gonna tell us the story of his life, Hey, also to Rob is not only the pastor of Grace Community Church in North Providence, Rhode Island, but he's also coming out with two books next year. One of them is a commentary on the 1689 Baptist confession, and also a commentary on the book of Romans later on in the year. Look for those. I'm gonna buy them soon as they come out and I hope maybe you'll check it out as well.

Okay, So Jason, we've got Rob Ventura here. Long time friend. Yeah. Yes. Good deal.

Okay. So Hey, telling the story of your life, we hope will help the people who listen to you know you better and see a little bit deeper than just a guy who comes and gives a sermon. So Rob, tell us the story of your life. Yes, summarily I can say I'm a sinner saved by grace. That's my whole story.

But to elaborate on that, because I know we've got some more time, I will expound that for you. But at the end of the day, brothers, I know you could say with me that we're sinners saved by grace. So I was born and raised in Long Island and... That's a Long Island. Long Island.

Some say Long Island. We used to say Strong Island when we were there. Born and raised in Long Island in Holtzville, New York, and we were put on the map because the IRS Center was there in Holtzville, New York. That was our claim to fame there in Suffolk County. Suffolk County, Long Island was really a beautiful place to be raised.

I was raised about 30 minutes from the Hamptons and again a beautiful place to grow up, very, very thankful for it. I have a Jewish father and I have a Roman Catholic mother and my name interestingly enough Ventura. My father's family is from Spain so Ventura you might think is Spanish, rather Italian, but it's actually Spanish. There are Italian Venturas, but I am a Spanish Ventura, and as I said, my father's family is from Spain, and he's Jewish, so if you know anything about the Hebrew language, you know that, really the Spanish language, you know that the V and B can be used interchangeably. So for example, you could say, Vamanos, which in Spanish means come here, or you could say, bámanos, you could use a B or a V, come here, come here.

Well, that whole matter of Spanish in connection to what I'm going to say now is interesting because, as I said, my father's Jewish and his family's from Spain. They were Sephardic Jews who migrated there for protection when the Jews are being persecuted. So if you take this Spanish aspect with my name Ventura and if you happen to make it with a B, it now becomes Ben Torah. And if you know Hebrew, you know that the word בן means son, and תורה, as we know, means book or law. So technically speaking, בן תורה could be translated, and I've confirmed this with many people as Ben Torah.

So Ben Torah means son of the book or son of the law. So there you've got Rob Ventura. And my dad always says to me, if you don't make it as a pastor, you could always be a rabbi. So Rob Ventura, son of the book, son of the law, born in Long Island. And again, as I say, I have a Jewish father and a Roman Catholic mother.

And when I was raised in my household, my parents are very very nominal. So my dad is a nominal Jewish person, my mom a very nominal Roman Catholic, which means I never went to church or synagogue. I went to the Catholic Church probably twice in my whole life being raised in Long Island. So, and as far as evangelical or reformed anything like that, I didn't know of any Protestant churches and evangelical churches in Long Island at all. It was just dominated top heavy with Catholicism.

And again, there are some I'm sure synagogues around, but my father never went. So I was raised really with no religion at all. My parents were moral people, they were super kind and they're both still alive. I'm very thankful for them. Neither one of them are saved but still very thankful for them and common grace they were good parents but I was raised with no religion never heard about god at all and actually I would never hear the things of god never heard john 3 16 until I was 22 years old actually if you could imagine 20 22 years old before I ever heard the most famous verse in the Word of God which tells us that God loved the World, That he gave his only begotten Son, That aware believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.

So that's how pagan I was 22 years old before I heard that verse and I know Scott for you and certainly Jason I mean you guys are raised I'm sure with these things to one degree or another who are just complete complete pagan again never heard never heard the word of God at all so the first person who ever told me they became a Christian was actually my kung fu instructor you know I'm a tall guy you can't tell in this video how tall I am but I'll be the tallest guy at the conference I'm sure I'm 6'6 and my kung fu instructor he was the first guy I knew who's ever converted you actually stopped teaching me kung fu at 16 years old because he said he wanted to follow Christ So I had no idea what that meant. He said to become born again and he was going to follow you know the ways of Jesus. I thought okay that's interesting but God used him to plant a seed in my mind at 16 years old which again when I was 22 years old and converted it would come to fruition. So there I was in Long Island just completely pagan, unsaved, living to the flesh, totally into the world and all that kind of nonsense.

So, yeah, no idea about the gospel, no idea of my sinnerhood before God, just completely lost and in darkness, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance which was within me. So there I am in Long Island and my parents get divorced when I was about 14 or 15 years old and I would say to some degree that led me on a spiritual search for truth thinking there must be something more out there there must be some reason as to why we live with the purpose of life is etc But of course in a home where there's no religion, there's no Bible, there's no family worship and devotion, I was just completely at a loss for any truth. Well, my mom got remarried when I was about 15 or 16, and this gentleman, who my mom married, her second husband, was very much into positive thinking, into all this, you know, sky's the limit kind of Wayne Dyer you know Tony Robbins kind of stuff and I thought oh this is just what I needed so I got very much into positive thinking and all this kind of nonsense not knowing for example that the Old Testament prophet said that the way of man is not in himself.

And as you know, positive thinking and all these things, they point you to your own self, trust your heart, believe in yourself, etc. Well, that whole understanding of things just led me further, further down a dark road again, not knowing God, not knowing the gospel, not knowing my true lostness before the God of heaven and earth well at 18 years old I moved from long island to manhattan my stepfather was a professional bowler at the time funny enough his name was bill lane bill lane was a professional bowler that's just how it goes I guess and he he had pro shops or I think you have two pro shops in New York City so from Long Island I would go to New York City with him all the time and when I would go to the city at 15 16 years old again we're talking about Manhattan I was totally enthralled with New York City and raptured with all the things that were going on just completely engrossed in again the sin and the sensuality and all the stuff that was there I mean it's just it's a cesspool of godlessness and at 18 years old I left Long Island and I moved to Manhattan and I again continued to be very much in the world partying you know women fornication drinking all that kind of stuff well what were you do what were you doing for work Rob during that time yeah I was just I was just gonna go there yeah just as all unconverted people do they live to the flesh So I did different things in new york city I just whether it was managing stores or clothing stores or retail it's sort of whatever it was but I did have a desire to get into the music industry So and that happened because when I was around 15 16 years old, I had a friend with some of my friends.

Her name was Rita Lane, and she actually is the first white girl to ever do a rap record, I did say rap record, that is R.A.P. And she actually performed on the Apollo Theater, which is a famous show, the Apollo was a show where they would perform or present all kinds of artists and the Apollo, that's on 125th street in Manhattan, the Apollo Theater is a famous place in New York City, so this white girl from Long Island performed on the � ཧི་ེ་ ུ་ཫ་ཉདད་ད཮།ཝཔ་཭པཉ་མ་ I was very much into hip-hop very much into all of that kind of stuff and I learned a lot of things about the music industry from her manager a guy named Sam Jacobs so I went to New York City and I was working at different stores and all that but I had a desire to be in the music industry but of course if you're gonna do that you need a group and lo and behold I stumbled on a demo from a group in Long Island I'm in New York City now but the group was from Long Island from central Iceland and I was able to mix with the right people and eventually signed my first record deal at 22 years old for this group I manage for a rap group.

And the name of the group is Intense N-T-E-N-S-E. And we signed a record deal again at 22 years old to what was called Strictly Rhythm Records. Their rap side of their label was called Fat Wax Records. Fat Wax. That's P-H-A-T.

I love that so much. At 22 years old here I am with my first record deal and my group is playing all over New York City and in California friends are calling me, hey you know Intense is on the radio blah blah blah and all that. So that was 1992, so at that time externally things were going very well for me again I'm living in New York City, I'm a single guy at the time and I'm in the clubs and play my records blah blah blah blah blah all that and even though all those things were true externally internally again my life was just a complete mess it was just I was further and further into my sins I was feeling my loss the state ultimately before god but I did not quite know that at the time well lo and behold I would meet some christians in the providence of god and they would ask me would I want to study the bible Did I want to study the Bible? And I thought, yeah, I'll take a look at the Bible. I've never read the Bible, never touched the Bible.

I have no problem with the Bible, whatever problem with the Bible. So I started studying with the Bible with this group. The only problem is this group was a cult. There you go. It was the Church of Christ, and you all remember the Church of Christ.

They used to be quite popular in the 90s. Well, I started studying the Bible with them, and I did what they said as far as how you become a Christian, you know, do these eight steps, get baptized. And then, of course, baptism, they teach us what saves you they hold to a false doctrine of baptism or regeneration based on a wrong exegesis of Acts 2.38. So I was baptized, came out of the water wet and I thought okay now I'm a Christian and turns out I wasn't a Christian because I wasn't born again I never heard the gospel I never heard what Christ did in my place as the only ground of my acceptance before a holy God well there I am in New York City and again I'm now part of this group for just a short while. And in the midst of that, my group would get picked up by Arista Records.

We did a single on Fat Wex Records, but then we got picked up by Arista Records, which at that time was the biggest record label in the world. That's Whitney Houston's record label. So now my group would get bought off of the one label and onto Arista Records and they would do a big compilation album with a bunch of big rappers. So in the midst of all of this again I'm still not saved still in this false group etc well then eventually I met a guy I used to run with in the streets you know that means hang out with and his name is Renee He was a Spanish guy and he invited me to his church and he said, hey, you want to come to my church? And I said, sure, I'll check it out.

Well, I checked it out and it was a broader evangelical church and I got to go to the church and I saw all these Christians there studying their Bibles, et cetera, et cetera. And I said to this guy, Renee, so when did you get baptized? He said, well, I haven't been baptized yet. And I said, well, you haven't been baptized. How could you be a Christian?

And he said, well, baptism doesn't save you. Jesus saved you. And I said, huh? What do you mean Jesus saved you? I thought water saves you, right?

Isn't that what Peter says? Well, long story short, I met with the teachers from that church and the pastors and they showed me from the word of God that we're not saved based on anything that we do. We're only saved based upon what Christ has done for us already. And the way to receive that is by repenting of our sins and putting our faith exclusively in the finished work of Jesus Christ our Lord who died as a sacrifice for our sins. So they were able to undo the really sacerdotalism of the Church of Christ and preached a pure gospel to me that was saved by grace alone through faith alone in the finished work of Christ alone and so when I heard that good news I realized by the grace of God the baptism doesn't save but Jesus saves I cried out to him 22 years old while living in my same building as my pastor did there on 326 West 49th Street between 8th and 9th avenues.

I cried out to Christ to save me and I was radically converted, radically converted. I knew I wasn't saved when I met this guy, Rene. I saw he was bearing the fruits of the spirit. He loved Jesus, and I was just, you know, just a guy who had been baptized by the Church of Christ. But when I heard the Gospel, God radically got hold of me and made me something that I could not make myself to be.

So that was 22 years old, and again, I'm so thankful as I think about that night there in my pastor's apartment. I said, so if baptism doesn't save you, how do you get saved? And they said ask Jesus �. And so I remember crying out to Christ and asking him to save me saying I know I can't be saved by what I do. I can't be saved by being dunked under the water.

You're the Savior who died for my sins. Make me a Christian and change my life. And when I left my pastor's house that night 30 years ago almost to date, I knew that my whole life had changed. I was absolutely transformed. I now love the word of God and I love Jesus.

Of course, I left the Church of Christ. I would go into the other church and like the human writer says now I'm happy all the day. So that was 30 years ago and from that young time. You're 22 right? Exactly, 22 years old and from that time on I just had a real earnest desire to preach Christ.

I would begin preaching open air in New York City I preached open air for many many years and I preach in front of the clubs I used to go to and hang out and all that nonsense I eventually left the music industry. I continued on my contract for a few years because I was bound legally to Arister. But when my contract came up, my four years came up, I left Arister. Or even though I had another four years built into my contract, so it was an eight-year contract total, but I had an option halfway through to make my exit. So I remember being there at Arister and they knew I was going to walk away from the contract.

And the secretary said to me, nobody leaves Arester when you're signed to them and I said you do if you get saved and that's what I did I left Arester I went to Bible school in New York City, New York City school of the Bible, New York school of the Bible, and studied there for about a year and then I started getting influenced by a gentleman who was going to Al Martin's church he was living in the New York area he was that he was driving to Al Martin's church we met in New York City through some friends and he started influencing me with reformed theology around 24 25 years old and then instead of living Manhattan to go all the way to Montevideo, New Jersey, where Pastor Martin was at the time, which was about an hour and 25 minutes, I decided to go to kind of a halfway house for a church, which wound up being the Christian and Missionary Alliance. So, you know, the alliances, AW Tozer, et cetera. And you had some Calvinists in there and you had some, you know, Armenians and I'm sure some tongue-talkers and non-tongue-talkers, etc. So it's kind of a mixed bag.

But as I continued to study my Bible and listen to Albert and Martin, I continued to get reform, not just Calvinistic, but also understand regular worship, understand saboteurism, understand, again, the family life and all of that stuff. So at that point, I came to see myself that I was a reformed Baptist and I was holding to this wonderful confession of faith which put forth those things most surely believed among us. So that was 1996-97. And lo and behold, I found out about a Reformed Baptist Church that was right over the bridge now and that would be in Queens. And I'll put my wife into the story in just a moment.

We were married at the time and right over the bridge from Queens to Anglewood, New Jersey, there was an RB church that was there for some time and the man there was Pastor Jim Dom and Jim was a graduate from Al Martin's Academy so was way closer to us again as opposed to traveling all the way out to Montville and we were able to be there for nine and a half years at the Reformed Baptist Church and I would go to reform back to seminary through that church I would be ordained and installed at that church. And then in 2007, I was called here to the Reform Baptist Church in North Providence, Rhode Island. And I've been here 15 years serving the Lord, a wonderful congregation, confessional, they've been around for well, probably 40 years now as a confessional church. The founding pastor, Sherwood Becker, died, went to glory about three years after I was here. He knew he was dying, so he wanted the younger man to come.

And so that's what I did with my family. And again, we've been here just over 15 years and we're delighted to serve Christ and his people in this congregation. So let me jump back to one point. So the last girlfriend I had before I was converted was Vanessa, my beautiful bride Vanessa. Her picture is in various places in my office.

If they zoom in there, you can probably see my wedding photo back there. My beloved bride Vanessa. So she was the last girl I dated before I was converted. And as God was working on my heart, we're dating, we're non-Christians, we're not saved, we're dating in the flesh. I'm reading the bible and I said we need to break up because because we're in sin and I'm going to follow jesus to which she replied saying that's the most original breakup line I've ever heard go vanessa and indeed it was so but I I did break up with her to follow jesus because I saw in my bible that we're not living right in god's eyes we need to break up and � and save her a few months later after that.

And then about a year and a half later we got back together and would be married I guess a year after that, so maybe two and a half years after that. And we've been married thankfully for 26 years and three kids later and here we are. Oh my, that's great. So in terms of authors that have influenced you the most, give us a couple. Well, man there are so many.

A.W. Pink, one of my all-time favorites. I mean, who knows the Bible like Pink, such a fantastic writer, sovereignty of God. J.C. Ryle, my family and I are using him for devotions even now.

Loved Ryle. You know, there's so many of the Puritans, you know, Thomas Watson, Boston, Flavel, Joseph A. Lee, one of my all-time favorite books, A Call to the Unconverted. Unfortunately they changed the title to A Sure Guide to Heaven. Oh, that's not as good.

The original one was actually Alarm to the Unconverted and Baxter's I think was a call to the unconverted, something like that. But all of the Puritan paperbacks I was reading back in the early 90s, and again, listening to Al Martin, because actually, so Pastor Martin would be like, you know, listening to the Puritans live, nobody preached like Pastor Martin, that was just applicatory preaching, It was very Puritan-esque. So to hear it and to see it and to read it through these great writers, it was just tremendous. So yeah, so again, Spurgeon, my all-time favorite, right? My paper pastor, as I'm sure he is with you guys.

You know, so many, so many of the good reformed writers are such a blessing to me. Even now. I mean, again, I just reading Jeremiah Burroughs and reading, who is it upstairs that I'm reading now is Rutherford's letters from prison. You want to talk about a Christ glorifying letters. I mean, the guy is just elated like Paul there writing to the Philippians, he's bound, but he's rejoicing.

So those are the things that have been really helpful for me over the years, really sticking with the older men, the men who are, you know, tried and proven and are dead, not to say they're not good guys in our day, there are good guys in our day, but yeah, the old standard guys are the guys who speak to my soul the most. Yeah. Hey, so let's wind up with this. So you were 22 and you were saved, you know, you were right in the the hot �ꜩꜦꜫꜧꜩꜯꜹꜬꜦꜳꜺꜱꜰꜻꜸꜰꜹꜺꜱꜴꜰꜹꜰꜱꜺꜽꜴꜻꜴꜰꜺꜲꜴꜹꜱꜺꜰꜴꜰꜫꜰꜰꜰꜮꜼꜸꜰꜰꜶꜻꜴꜲꜴꜾꜻꜴꜱꜺꜱꜱꜶꜹꜮꜻꜴꜲꜴꜴꜴꜴꜸꜰꜶꜱ� � of the hip-hop world there out of Bronx and you're you were just right there in the middle of it. So what do you, what would you say to the 22 year old person and who's all wrapped up in whatever is happening?

What would you say to that person? Talk to the 21 year old Rob Ventura. Yeah, I would say everything you're believing is a lie. And I would say all the people you're listening to are false. It really is.

These rappers and whoever else is singing in our day, you know, they're prophets. The problem is they're false prophets. They're all putting forth an agenda. They're spewing an ideology which is completely antithetical to the Word of God. There's no hope in it.

There's no truth in it. And so all it does is lead you further and further down the broad road which leads to destruction. It's hopeless. It's aimless. We need Christ.

And when God saved me, according to the word of God, he put a new song in my heart. And when he put that new song in my heart, I was able to praise him the rest of my days. I'm very thankful. Amen. Praise the Lord for that.

Yeah, the prophets are everywhere. People read about the false prophets in the Bible and they think there's some thing out there. No, no, no. The false prophets today are the great communicators, the great musicians. They're the false prophets.

That's so they're all over the place. Thank you. Thank the Lord that God's voice breaks through the all the, all the prophets, the false prophets. Amen. The gospel is the power of God unto deliverance for everyone who believes.

That's why we're here, amen? Amen. Rob, thank you so much. That was thrilling to hear. Hope people can come and hear you preach at our conference.

And until we meet again, thanks. Thanks, brothers. A real pleasure. And Thank you for joining us on the Church and Family Life podcast. Hope to see you next time.