'An Independent Baptist Church'

Oliver B. Greene
1915 - 1976

"From disgrace to grace" is not our title for one of America's greatly used men of God  -  It was Oliver Greene's own appraisal of himself.  He was born on February 14, 1915 in Greenville, South Carolina. Oliver's youthful life was that of a wastrel, living in wanton wickedness.  Drinking, stealing, bootlegging, immorality-he was a veteran of all those vices.

But at age twenty, God saved that wayward youth when he attended a revival meeting (solely in an attempt to date a pure country girl) and heard a sermon on "The wages of sin is death." That night he was convinced, convicted and converted! Listen to Oliver B. Greene's own words as he describes how he came to know Christ:

"I want to tell you the story of how I was saved.  Now I'm sorry and God knows I'm not bragging about my wickedness. I wish I could forget it.....God has.  I wish I could, but I can't.  I was a very wicked young man. At the age of FIVE I began stealing cigarettes out of my daddy's store. I started smoking at the age of FIVE and continued smoking until I was 20 years old when God called me to preach.  At that time I laid down my cigarettes.  I'm telling you all of this to show you how the devil had me wrapped up lock, stock, and barrel.  I started stealing tobacco out of my daddy's store when I was a child 5 years old.  The worst whipping I ever got in my life was from my daddy when he caught me stealing cigarettes. Now I didn't quit smoking cigarettes to get saved; I quit because I was saved and God called me to preach.  I felt like I should, as a minister, lay them down and my  testimony would go farther.  I felt in my heart it was God's will so I did.  Now I'm saying all this to help you.

 Now listen, at the age of 9, I took my first drink of liquor. At the age of 13, I was getting drunk, and I was riding at night with a seasoned boot-legger hauling liquor.  At the age of 13 and 1/2 my dad took at papers to send me to Reform School, and my sister who came to my bedside for ten years and knelt down and prayed for me....and I'd lie in bed and smoke and swear while she prayed....for 10 years......

She came to my dad and begged him not to put me in the Reform School.  She said if you do, it will be the end of him....he'll go to hell just as sure as you do it....because if he gets in there he will never forgive you...he'll never forgive us....He'll go bad for sure!
So she begged and begged and begged, and I'll never forget - My dad took me out that night on a lonely road....I'll never forget it.....My daddy broke down and wept and bawled and squalled, and he said, "Oliver, you've broken my heart.

 Now my dad wasn't saved, but he was one of the best daddy's any boy could have, but he wasn't born-again.  He would do anything for his family, and you couldn't find a better man on the face of the earth morally. I never heard my dad curse or take God's name in vain, and I never smelled liquor on his breath in my life...but he wasn't saved.   Now he did get saved later on after I did, but then he was not saved then.  He took me out on that lonely road and he agonized with me and wept like a baby.  Well, I went in the community and joined the church......Now that is terrible, but I did - I wanted to fool my daddy and fool my family.  I thought I could.  I joined the church, and brother I got meaner and meaner and meaner.  I went from bad to worse, from bad to worse, to bad to worse.

Now let me tell you about the night I got saved.  I had plans to go to the swimming pool that night with my girlfriend, and I pitched a cussin' fit when my daddy told me I HAD TO TAKE MY SISTER TO CHURCH.  He said if you don't take that girl to church that automobile does not leave this yard tonight.  So there I was - What was I to do?  I had a date with my girlfriend, but my dad said I have to take my sister to church or the car doesn't move....
My back was to the wall...and I had a cussin' fit and he threatened to beat half to death for swearing in front of my sister the way I did....

So I took my sister and this young lady and we went to church.  When we got there, I was happy because the building was jammed packed, crammed full of people. It was a revival meeting.  God's Man was preaching God's Word...and I had to stand back in the door and I was so glad.  My sister and my girlfriend went on down to the very front seat, but I stood in the doorway that night.  Now I was brought under conviction the Sunday night before, but this is the night I was saved.  

As I was standing there in that door, God's preacher, just a dear, humble man of God, in a country-church, a little old framed building....he preached on the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23) and he preached me just as close to hell as a preacher can preach a sinner to hell....I could almost smell the fire and hear the cracking of the flames.  I stood there and I trembled, and I KNEW that I was going to HELL!  I KNEW THAT I WAS LOST! Then he gave the altar call, and I went down.

 I'm sure my sister was praying.  My girlfriend wasn't a Christian. She was a good girl, but she wasn't a Christian, and she's not the girl I married.  I met my wife and married her many years after I was saved and God called me to preach, and she is the only wife I have ever had.  But what I'm saying this...I'm sure my sister was praying and I went down and gave the preacher my hand and he tried to get me to stay and I wouldn't do it!  I said "No Sir," and I went back and stood in the door.

 He gave the altar call and several were converted and the crowd was dismissed.  I went out and sat in the car and turned on the radio and I was listening to some sort of a band, and I fully intended still to go down to the swimming pool afterward.  As I sat there I was miserable.  I was in misery. My sister stayed in the church and spoke to a lot of people and talked, and after about 15 or 20 minutes, I sat in the car waiting.  Wouldn't you know they were the LAST ones to come out!  Well, just as they came out, I got out of the car and went back in!

Now beloved, I'll be honest, it is AMAZING how it happened, but I walked back in that church.  I tell you if somebody would have told me that I would have done it, I would have said, "Never in this world...you couldn't HOG-TIE me and drag me in there!"  But I walked in, and the dear preacher was pulling down the windows and closing up the church by himself....not a soul in there..

God had it all fixed just right.  I said, "Preacher, I'm lost."  He pulled his little black testament out of his lapel pocket and read John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son, that whosever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

He said, "Oliver (He knew me....he knew my name...he knew the family)  He said, "Oliver, do you believe that?"  I said, "Preacher, I've always believed that.  I've always believed that God loved the world and that Jesus died on the cross."  He said, "Yes, that's a HEAD knowledge, son."  He said, "That's an INTELLECTUAL KNOWLEDGE and that's all that hundreds of church members have.  Oliver, that won't save you!  The bible says if you 'Believe on the Son'....that will save you."

 Now he said, "Listen, Son, this is the way you do that"...he said, "Believe with your heart, trust him, trust him!"   He said, "You're lost, aren't you, son?" I said, "Yes."  He said, "You're going to hell, aren't you?" I said, "Yes, I'm lost and on the road to hell!"  He said, "You know it don't you?"  I said, "Yes."  He said, "You don't want to go there, do you?"  I said, "No sir."  He said, "Now listen to me, son, TRUST YOUR SOUL, your inner man, the part of you that will never die."  You just say, "Jesus, here I am, save me now!  Save me now!  Redeem me and wash my sins away....just say it the best you can in your heart."  

I didn't even pray out loud then...I didn't even call on God out loud at that time.  He read that verse of John 3:16 again..  He said, "Oliver, will you give me your hand and will you say 'Preacher, with all the faith and understanding, with all the ability, with all my heart, I'll trust Him...I'll trust Him...?"

  
And I want to tell you there's a lot of water went over the dam and a lot of water went under the bridge...there's been a lot of sunrises and sunsets since that day, but God bless you, I've never doubted the miracle that God worked in my poor lost soul!  I went to the car and I wept all the way home.  I went in my little room and fell down on my knees near the window, and I looked out into the starry night.  I said, "God, I don't know how to pray. I don't know what to say and I don't know how to say what I want to say.  You forgive me...but, I can't help it.  I'm glad I'm not in hell.

 If I hadn't been saved that night, I would be in hell or the penitentiary, one.  That's where I'd be right now, I'd be there! I couldn't be anywhere else.  I'd be in the 'pen' or hell!  God saved me.  I fell down and I looked out into the starry night and I said, "Dear God, I don't know how to pray, but I meant what I said tonight when I said FORGIVE ME, save me, and come into my heart!"   

Just a few night later I went back to the revival in the same church, and I went in the prayer room with the minister and sat down, and the minister read Romans 10:9 and that is the verse that really gave me the blessed assurance of how I was saved, and here it what it says (It is my favorite verse) :

 "If thou (Oliver Greene - put YOUR name in there)...If thou shalt confess the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him up from the dead, thou shalt be saved."  

Now put YOUR NAME  in there, beloved, just put your name in there!  Do you believe that Jesus was the Son of God who died for our sins?  Are you willing to confess it right now?  Do you believe they crucified him on a cross and he shed his blood....do you believe that?  Do you believe he died on that cross and they buried him, and that he rose again 3 days later?  Then my friend, you can be saved right now, just like I was.  If God can save a wretched person like me, he can save anyone, and He can save you!  
That was Oliver B. Greene's testimony in his own words.

Now friends.... The lesson is this....if God can save someone like Oliver B. Greene, then he can save someone like you and me, no matter how wicked we may have been.

Yes, Oliver Greene's life certainly could be described as "FROM DISGRACE TO GRACE"! He got a mighty good dose of salvation! Five months later God called him to preach. To prepare for this, he attended North Greenville Baptist College but was expelled in his second year because of his reluctance to cooperate with the denominational program. Early in life it was immediately evident Oliver B. Greene was an independent Baptist. All his ministry he carried the honor of being one who "could not be bought."

 In 1939, the 24-year-old bought a tent, and for 35 years he conducted revivals all across America, until failing health forced him to stop. Carefully kept records reveal that over 200,000 found Christ under his ministry. Perhaps his single greatest campaign was in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, where 7,000 professions of faith were registered. Due to failing health, he held his last tent revival in Lynchburg, Virginia in the summer of 1968. 

 But God had a reason and a plan.  He wanted Oliver to develop and expand the radio broadcast which could reach even more people than preaching in Revivals could!  During these years,  his radio ministry grew from one station in 1939 to 180 stations at his death. In any one day Dr. Greene preached to more people by radio than he ever reached in his largest month-long tent revival! The Gospel Hour is still heard coast to coast by his taped messages. He prepared these taped messages "to continue on the Gospel Hour hopefully until Christ comes back."

 Dr. Greene was called Home to be with the Lord on July 26, 1976, but he "being dead, yet speaketh," not only by radio but by his writings. His books, pamphlets, tracts, totaling above 100 titles, are still mailed out by the thousands.

Yes, DISGRACE TO GRACE, was a fitting appraisal as well as a fitting epitaph for a great man of the Gospel and the greatly used messenger of the Gospel Hour-Oliver B. Greene!

 Could there be a teenager or young person in here today, who, like Oliver B. Greene was, is on his or her way either to the "Pen" or to 'Hell'?

  
You need to trust Christ as your Savior before you walk out that door.  Oliver Greene got another chance to trust Christ before it was too late.  You may not.  Young person, trust Jesus as your Savior today.

No matter how wicked and worthless you have been, look what God did through this young man, Oliver Greene.  He can do the same with you.