Born in Elmhood, Michigan, Sam Waldron was raised by parents who converted to Christ shortly before his birth. Though still young in the faith, they were the biggest influences on his life, regularly reading the Bible as a family and attending church together, and faithfully disciplining him for misbehavior. After confessing Christ and being baptized at age 7, Sam struggled with assurance of salvation for years until he came to understand that salvation was by God’s free grace alone. Since then, God has raised him up as a leading Reformed Baptist pastor whose passion for sound doctrine and the importance of the local church has blessed many.  

Welcome to the Church and Family Life podcast. Today we've got Sam Waldron. He's gonna tell his life story. He's gonna be a speaker at our national conference coming up soon on Christ's Promises to Parents, Raising Children in Babylon. Should be a thrilling message.

I hope you can make it to the conference. It's gonna be a really neat conference. But I hope you enjoy the discussion with Sam Waldron as he tells his life story. And now you know the man behind the pulpit. ["The Man Behind the Pulpit"] Okay, Jason, we've got one of the neatest things we're going to do right now to have hear a life story of one of our speakers at our national conference.

I think Sam Walter has been for a number of years in a row. Sam, do you know how many years it is? Oh, 10 or 15 on and off. Oh, wow. It's been a long time.

I'm so glad you cut off the time to do this, Sam. I just have so much confidence and joy in listening to your messages. And you know, he's going to talk about Christ's promises to parents raising children in Babylon. And here's the deal, Sam, this is going to be a really encouraging conference. We, we really want to encourage families, you know, not to curse the darkness, but you know, shine a light.

And your message is going to help us do that. So, So we want to hear the story of your life. Who's the real Sam Waldron, you know, behind the pulpit. Tell us about your childhood and things you experienced. Yeah.

I was, I was born into a recently but truly converted home. My mom and dad had become Christians in their teenage years, later teenage years. And since they were married when he was 19 and my mom was 18 and I was born 11 months later, it was shortly after they were converted. But they were truly converted, yeah. And I was raised in a fundamentalist Baptist church, which was both good in many respects, but also because the gospel, and we can talk about this in a minute, I think, I was taught was tainted by some air, it led to real struggles in my life.

What are some of your memories from your childhood? I told you that I told the people a story yesterday. One of my keen vivid memories of my childhood is knowing that every Sunday I misbehave and I'd get taken out and I'd get spanked. That's what my dad, I don't remember what I was doing wrong. I'm sure my parents had a good reason, but I would get taken out and I would get spanked.

I don't know how, how old I was when that stopped happening, but that's what would happen. I didn't scar you. You're not still a trauma. Nor do I doubt if my parents loved me. A poor pastor labored tirelessly over those sermons and that's what you remember.

He doesn't even remember a word of the sermon. The good thing about the church I was raised in is that the pastors, even though I think some of their theology was off, they did preach the Bible to us for 45 minutes in the morning and 45 minutes in the evening. And last week we had a Billy Graham movie at night, which, you know, of course I don't approve of now, but. I remember those. I saw you seen a few of those.

Yeah. So now where were you born? Where'd you, and where did you grow up? I was born in a place called Elm of Michigan. I was raised in Stanton, Michigan, which if you know how Michiganders do it, they put their hand up and say, I was born right there, right in the middle of the mitten.

And that's where Stanton is. And the Lord began to convince me of the truth of the gospel when I was three years old. I don't know if I was actually converted then, but my dad led me in a sinner's prayer after some evangelistic services. No one else liked the preacher because he preached fire and brimstone hell, but it affected a three-year-old boy who was there. That's amazing.

So, so what were the other, in your childhood? So you, I guess the first way point is three years old. What were the other significant ones? Well, yeah, I was baptized when I was seven, at least I have to put it in quotes because later on I, I was baptized many years later when I became convinced that I probably wasn't a believer when I was seven years old, even though I was convicted of sin and things like that throughout my, Throughout my late, my teen years until I went to college, I struggled very deeply with assurance of salvation. And I didn't come to assurance of salvation until I was in my college years and came and do reformed theology and the doctrines of grace.

And that taught me some things that led me to a prevailing assurance of salvation at that point, which I hadn't had for many years. What was it that fomented your understanding that you weren't converted and that you needed to be baptized? Well, yeah, that's a little bit difficult question to answer. Let me tell you what I learned that brought me to a prevailing assurance of salvation. And then I'll talk about that.

The two things I learned was coming into the doctrines of grace, I learned that salvation was all of that, all of grace. And it wasn't something that I manipulated by praying the right center's prayer and I, and it wasn't something that depended on whether I said the right words in the center's prayer when I was a boy. And along with that knowledge that salvation was all of God came the knowledge that where the free grace of God touches a sinner, it transforms his heart and his life. And so I learned the great confessional truth that it is a factual calling that's the mark of election, and that a factual calling is accompanied by the marks of grace in a person's life. And so I began to, at that point, that was just like brand new to me, dawned on me.

And I realized, hey, you know, so if a person's a Christian, if he's chosen of God, These are the things that happen in this life. Oh, but those things are true of me. And the text that I remember most vividly is in 1 John 3. We know that we've passed out of death into life because we love the brethren. I knew that that text wasn't teaching that I saved myself by loving the brethren.

I knew it was teaching that loving the brethren was a result of God's sovereign grace. But when I looked at my life, I said to myself, hey, who are my people? And at that point, I could say very clearly and definitively, my people are not the world, they're not the unconverted rascals I went to public high school with. My people are the church of Christ, and that's who I love and that's who I want to be with. And this reflects the fact that God has planted love for himself and my soul.

So that was the way in the space of two or three months after learning those things and having doubted my salvation for years and years, God brought me to assurance of salvation. Well, with regard to my getting baptized, I was actually a pastor and kept trying to stare back and determine whether my baptism at age seven was valid or not. And I had to finally come to the place where I said all things considered, I'm not sure it was. And I want to be sure that I was, I was biblically baptized. So I was baptized when I was 26.

And that was a short time after I became a pastor of the reformed Baptist church of Brad Rapids. You know, we did a podcast with you on baptizing children. So you've really thought this through. We also did one on the same subject as the Jeff Johnson, another one with my fellow elder, Trent Moody, on how should we think about childhood conversions. Man, I really appreciate you doing that.

Anybody, you ought to just go check it out on our podcast website. Sam's interview is there. Sam, where did you meet your wife and how did you meet your wife and what did you like about her? Well, that's a little bit of a funny story. I met my wife at her brother's wedding.

Her brother was Jim Huffstetler. He was pastor of the Church of Grand Rapids for a long time, fell into sin, but came back and repented. But he was very influential in my life. He came to many years before that he came to Grand Rapids Baptist College where I was a student He was actually booted out of Bob Jones University for Calvinism. And very unfairly so, I think still.

And we got to become friends. We were attending the same local church that was Calvinistic in a stockroom. And, at the last moment, one of his good friends backed out of being in his wedding. So in the summer of, I think it was 1970, we drove at his maverick from Grand Rapids, Michigan, down to the Panhandle of Texas, where there was a week-long celebration of the wedding. And it was there that I met his sister for the first time, my wife Charlene now, and we spent the week talking about theology and we were thrown together because we were like the only unmarried people in the wedding party.

So we kind of got to know each other that way. So she came, she was going to Grand Rapids Baptist College And when we got back there in the fall, we dated a couple of times. Sorry. What was before the reformation, but, we just got to drift and depart. She was a missionary kid and It was a really tough adjustment coming back to the States and basically being by herself there in an entirely new culture for her.

She was raised in the Philippines and actually graduated from high school at Faith Academy there. So we drifted apart. We actually double dated with other people I got my heart broken and also got my head fixed and my heart fixed with regard to what priorities ought to be and the kind of woman you're looking for and And I'm not saying I ever dated a non-Christian. I don't believe I did, but I got my head straightened out. And when I got my head straightened out, I thought about Char and the friendship we had had, and I called her up.

It wasn't terribly encouraging at first because I was living with her grandparents near the college where I was going. And I called her up where She lived in Grand Rapids. She's going to the nursing school. I said, hi, this is Sam. And her response was Sam who?

So, so that was incredibly encouraging. But actually, I think about a year and a half later we were married. Wonderful. So, truth serum, when you met, who was more theologically adapt? I was, you were, okay.

But she was, she was knowledgeable that we spent, We spent the whole week of the wedding down in Texas, her asking me probing questions about particular redemption and my responding to them. She was impressed because I didn't get mad at her. Okay. I tried to answer her questions reasonably. But I sort of know from that experience that I was not marrying a pushover theologically.

I would have my hands full for a long time. Yes, may God increase her tribe. That's right. So What do you like about her? Oh, what do I like about my wife?

Well, you know, I, let me say this first. I like her more than I did 50 years ago when we were married. It'll be 50 years this summer. But she is solid, Christian to the core. And, though, neither of us were very perfect, we were talking the other day and thought, said to ourselves, boy, was there a lot we didn't know about each other and about ourselves when we first got married.

But she had the commitment to the marriage covenant through thick and thin that you promise when you get married. And God gave me that as well. And so through a lot of trials and sorrows and things, God has brought us through and he's preserved her. And frankly, we're happier with each other in terms of our relationship than we've ever been 50 years later. Sweet, love it, love it.

Hey, tell us about some of the people who influenced you the most coming up the line. Yeah, I was looking at that question that you thank you for sending it to me. And of course, the next one you're going to ask me is about influential preachers. So I'm, I've tried to separate the two, but when I did that, I was having a tough time and then I thought to myself, you know, most influential people in my life were my mom and dad. Not because of, not because of all they taught, I mean, they did teach me a lot, but it was more by way of example, you know, just by being who and what they were and being faithful.

Dad tried to have family worship, was he was a very young Christian when I was born and hadn't been raised in a Christian home at all and didn't have good teaching for that matter. He tried to have family worship, but what I do remember is that the Bible was a live issue in our home. We talked about the Bible, even if we didn't have regular family worship, you know? So that's something I remember. I remember they're just being faithful to each other and faithful to love me.

And the longer I've lived, and the more I've seen how messed up other people are by their parents, I'm just thankful for a set of parents that didn't mess me up the way I've seen so many people messed up by their wicked unwise foolish parents. Amen. Wow. So what about what about preachers? Well, Well, influential preachers.

I have to say first of all, Pastor Alan Martin, his three-volume pastoral theology is getting, I think, a lot of attention and deserves it. And his preaching is what was very influential in deepening my understanding of the doctrines of grace and of Reformed faith. Came to Michigan a couple of times, preached on repentance and the tree of repentance at one conference, And I remember preaching on the new creation at another conference. And, his preaching was just really influential on me. Is, I had the privilege at Trinity Ministerial Academy of sitting for six semesters through his entire pastoral theology course.

And just was profoundly influenced by it, still thankful for that experience. Another man that was preaching influenced me, and it was Pastor Greg Nichols, who was his co-pastor for a period of time then, and then my co-pastor in Grand Rapids, reformed Baptist Church of Grand Rapids for a number of years. And then my brother-in-law, who was the pastor of the church in Grand Rapids from, well, at the time we joined in 75 to 96 or so, we went to be a missionary. His preaching was very influential on me now. Some people wouldn't want to say that because he did fall seriously into sin and then God gave him repentance later.

And I'm thankful for that. But I can't deny all the good I was done when he was walking with the Lord and preaching the rich biblical messages he preached to us in Grand Rapids. That's great. Important books. Yeah, important books.

Yeah, well, John Murray, commentary on Romans, John Murray, redemption accomplished and applied, John Murray, principles of conduct. Sensing a trend. And later on, Hooks him as a hook him as, Anthony hook him as the Bible in the future. And at the same time, your hardest boss, Pauline eschatology. Those are some of the major books.

Fantastic. I'll have to go get a couple of those Murray volumes for sure. Yeah, I'm a... I've got him in Rome. Everything but, everything but his pedobaptism.

Right, right. Hey, what are... And his interpretation of Romans 11, but that's another story. So, so what are you doing now? Get to talk to us about what you're grinding on now.

I know you've got some great things going on with covenant Baptist theological seminary, And that's really thriving and just talk, talk to everybody about what's burning in your soul in terms of your work life. Yeah. My life revolves around three things that I love. And one of them is my family. I have four children and well, the 16th grandchild is on the way now.

There you go. We've been stuck at 15 for several years, but the 16th is coming. And we're thankful for that. Thankful that all of my children are walking with the Lord now, even though that, like Amazing Grace says, it was through many dangers, toils and snares that that happened. I'm thankful that that's true.

So my family. But I'm so thankful for what God has done in the Grace Reformed Baptist Church of Owensboro. We've just seen God bless us and bless us and bless us. And when I, in a very difficult time in my life, came to the church back in 2013, I think Shar and I were like the 14th and 15th members. And we're thankful to say that at our last check-in in 2025, last month, we're 105 members, I think now.

And we're just so thankful for the way God has grown the church there and the wonderful spirit that is in the church. And then I'm very thankful for Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary. We have CovCon 2025 this week in Montgomery, Alabama at Morning View Baptist Church there. We've got someplace between all around 325 people coming, and we're going to be We're going to be talking about the law of God. And it's we're just thankful to have the testimony to the truth that the seminary is.

God has kept us and blessed us in so many different ways at the seminary. I'm thankful that we can have a conference on the law of God. And that very much abused subject in our day. I was just writing a preface to one of my messages this morning and reflecting on the fact that A lot of people love the confession, except the chapter on the law of God and the doctrine of the Sabbath. Hey, I'm so glad you're doing a conference on the law of God.

You know, about a while back, over a decade ago, I preached for three years to Deuteronomy. It completely altered my view of the law of God and it made the confession live, the chapter on the law of God and the confession, which is such a fantastic way to understand it. After I did that, I started having my interns memorize that chapter. Because there are so few things that people misunderstand. And the confession just sets you straight on how to interpret it.

And it's freeing, really. Yeah, there's vast misunderstanding on the subject. That's why I'm so glad we're dedicating this conference to it. Yeah, if you're watching this podcast and you're cloudy on your understanding of the law of God, go to the 1689 confession and read the chapter on it. It's so clear and helpful.

And then go down to Montgomery, Alabama to morning view Baptist Church and see Sam roll hard on it. Yeah, it's gonna be our speakers. I get to preach twice. Dr. Tom Hicks is preaching twice on the subject.

And then Joel's beaky is gonna be with us for three times as well. That's fantastic. Well, Sam, thank you. It was such a delight to hear your life story. I hope people listen to it and they'll see the man behind the curtain there.

It's the real Sam Waldron. Yeah, okay. I don't know about the reference to Wizard of Oz, but that's All right. All right. Thank you, Sam.

We'll see you soon at the conference. Thank you, brother. All right, appreciate you. And thank you for joining us on the Church and Family Life podcast. Hey, I hope you can join us next time.