Words of Grace in a Small Country Church

By Ernie Robinson

Despite our best efforts, grace is not something that can be earned. Grace is the unmerited favor of a God who loved us enough to send His precious Son to die for all our sins. We all need grace!

Words of Grace in a Small Country Church is assembled similar to a 28-day devotional where the reader is invited into the sanctuary of

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trilogy Christian Publishing
• Release date: Nov 3, 2023
• ISBN: 9798890411686

Ernie Robinson

The parents of a wonderfully kind autistic son and uber-talented daughter, Ernie and his loving wife, Angie, felt called to begin work on a series of books focused on the seven words that Ernie received in a dream. Words of Grace seeks to bless the reader through the calm reassurance that we serve a loving God who is activelyseeking out those who will open their hearts to His grace and forgiveness.

Book preview

Dedication

To my precious wife. My life was never the same from the first day that we met. Thank you for choosing to take this journey at my side. You have filled a hole in my heart that I didn’t realize existed.

Acknowledgments

There is an old song written by Fanny J. Crosby which makes the statement, To God be the glory great things He hath done, so loved He the world that He gave us His Son. Who yielded His life an atonement for sin and opened the life gate that all may go in.¹

Let me begin the acknowledgments for this book by acknowledging that not one word of this book would have been possible had God not blessed me through His Holy Spirit with the words of my Savior Jesus Christ. I was and still consider myself today to be a biblical novice, but that didn’t matter; when I sat down at my computer, His words just seemed to flow out of me. He deserves all of the credit for every good and correct word written on the pages of this book.

I also want to thank my very good friend and brother in Christ, Pastor Jeff Fannin of the Bluebank First Church of God. Jeff has been an incredible light in my life for many years and was the first person I told when I finished the manuscript for the first book, Words of Forgiveness in a Small Country Church. It was he who advised me to send a copy to at least one publishing company before beginning down the road of self-published books. This was a truly selfless act, as Jeff owns the local publishing company and would have been the one I would have worked with if I had self-published. I believe him to be one of the best Christian men that I know and a gift to our small town. It was because of his advice that I allowed God to lead me to Trilogy Publishing and the many wonderful people who have worked to make these books a reality.

I also want to say thank you to my precious wife, who took a very active role in helping me put the second book together. Not only did she proofread the book, but she also made several corrections to timeline issues as well as some of my embellishments, an area that I have noticed where pastors seem to have a problem. As parents of an adult autistic son, we felt that it was important to share some of the struggles we have faced, so together we added an introduction to each chapter in this book. It is our hope that this helps the reader develop a greater bond not just with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ but with our small country church who supported us through our trials as young parents and later as the pastor and his wife.

Like Christians around the world, it is my prayer to someday hear those precious words from the book of Matthew 25:21 (NKJV), Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.

Thus, I am very thankful that the Lord has led you to read the words of a lay pastor from a small country church in the foothills of eastern Kentucky. It is my hope to share this same prayer with any who have yet to choose Jesus as their Lord and Savior through the words and pages of this book. May God bless you!

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1 Fanny J. Crosby, To God Be the Glory, 1875.

Foreword

With the release of this second book in the series, Ernie Robinson has blessed us with another set of sermons from his time preaching at the Ringos Mills Christian Church in Kentucky. The exact church where he preached these sermons is significant to my wife and me because we have had the privilege of worshipping there on at least two occasions. Ringos Mills Christian Church illustrates everything that I love about the local church. His sermons will not only bless your life spiritually, but they will also give you a window into this wonderful church in rural Kentucky.

There are so many ways to receive the proclaimed Word of God today. We have seen the rise of services being posted on social media platforms, podcasts, and so forth. A person might even elect to hear a sermon the old-fashioned way…by attending a church service! All of those presentations for the gospel have their place, and I have personally benefited from each of them. But I would like to invite you to do what I did and sit down in a quiet place to read this collection of sermons on grace. I found myself rereading given portions of his sermons to consider his words a second time. You will likely find yourself doing the same thing. His words, and the Scripture contained therein, are meant to be pondered.

We owe Brother Robinson a debt of gratitude for both keeping and sharing these wonderful sermons with us. You may find that your coffee grows cold before you think to drink it, as you picture yourself sitting among friends and family listening to these sermons when they were first proclaimed. So, take your time and enjoy the journey.

—Terry Allcorn, PhD

President

Kentucky Christian University

Preface

Book two explores the many different ways that God sends grace into our lives. In the pages of Words of Grace in a Small Country Church, God sent twenty-eight lessons to me, which He desires to share with everyone. These words of grace illustrate His love for us and lead us to the truth that the only thing we need to do to earn this wonderful love is to give ourselves fully to Him. We can’t work hard enough, we can’t achieve anything great enough, and we can’t give or sacrifice anything valuable enough to earn what He desires to give to us freely. God’s free gift to those who truly love Him and do His will is His grace. In the second (technically third) letter to the Corinthian church, the apostle Paul reveals an incredible statement given to him by our Lord Jesus Christ when he writes, But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me (2 Corinthians 12:9, NIV).

Despite my obvious weaknesses, Jesus’ perfection is brought to the attention of those with whom my life touches. Not because I have extraordinary talent but because He gives to me His grace, and His grace is all that I need. His grace is sufficient for you also, and as you read through the pages that follow, it is my hope that the examples, which He provided to me, will convince you just as I am convinced.

Grace defined is, at its most simple, the unmerited favor of God. May God pour out His perfect will upon you as you journey through this book; may He reveal the grace to you by the time you have completed the story within these pages.

Introduction

Words of Grace in a Small Country Church is the second in the Sermons from the Small Country Church series. Unlike the predecessor to this book, it is focused on a single topic, grace. You will note that while there are seven chapters to the book, each message is essentially its own chapter. I am hopeful that you, as the reader, will enjoy this format and that it will be easy to read, put down, and then pick back up.

The word grace appears 146 times in the New King James Version of the Bible. Ephesians 2:8–9 (NKJV) says, For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.

God gives to us His grace when we accept by faith that Jesus is His one and only Son. Grace is a gift that can never be earned. Despite the greatest efforts of humankind, we can never be good enough or work hard enough to earn grace. If you had millions or even billions of dollars and you gave every penny away to the poor or to the church, it still would not be enough to earn one second of grace. Yet, through the simple confession of belief in Jesus, such as the one below, God will give to you boundless and unending grace.

An example of the Good Confession might be the following: I believe that Jesus Christ is the one and only Son of God, and I accept Him as my Lord and Savior.

Twenty-two simple words that, when formed into a sentence, become the most powerful confession that any person can make. So powerful, in fact, that when someone claims these twenty-two words with all of their mind, heart, and soul, they change the trajectory of their life. So powerful that a life that was bound for the eternal fires of hell can be transformed and turned to clay for the potter’s hands. That clay, which was once but broken lumps of dirt, can be reformed and refit for an eternity in heaven with the Father. Jesus tells us in the book of Revelation, Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me (Revelation 3:20, KJV).

He is simply waiting for you to receive the invitation to come into your new and better life. Through these twenty-two words, we invite Him into our lives. Once we earnestly offer this invitation, our lives will never be the same.

May God bless you!

Chapter 1

Prayer

It had been a typical Sunday morning service at Ringos with good singing, a Bible-based Sunday school lesson, and a wonderful sermon by our pastor. To be honest, between the approach of Christmas the next Sunday, our autistic 10-year-old son, and our 21-month-old daughter, neither Angie nor I could recount what Brother Forest’s message had even been about that day. We were, in the truest sense, the thorns that day.

Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful (Mark 4:18–19, NKJV).

We were not rich by any worldly standard that anyone could name; in fact, too often, there was more month than money. I was working fifty miles away for a small automotive trim supplier, and Angie was just wrapping up her fifth year with the giant retailer who had built a large box store in our small town. Christmas was coming, and I’m not sure we even qualified for a credit card based on our income and net worth. We were barely making ends meet, but we had each other, and that was all we thought we needed.

The message ended, and the invitation song was sung, and neither of us even had a thought of walking to the front to give our lives to Jesus. I do believe that we each were living under conviction, having both grown up in church. Each of us had parents who made sure that we attended very regularly, up to three times a week, in fact. Because of our upbringing, we both knew that for the past ten years we had been away from the Lord and His salvation. We also both had mommas who prayed every night that we would find our way home. That day at the end of the service, during the closing prayer, something changed. I don’t remember a single word of the prayer offered to the Lord that day, but it changed our lives forever. As the prayer ended, a conviction came upon both Angie and me, and we knew that we had messed up by not running up that aisle to give our lives back to Jesus. The following Wednesday night, we would walk down that aisle and give our hearts to the Lord. When Brother Forest asked if we would like to be baptized on Christmas Day, we answered, Yes, that would be wonderful. The prayer of someone we hardly knew had turned our hearts from a bed of thorns to fertile ground, and not just ours; two other ladies in the church came home to Jesus that Christmas Day. Prayer is so powerful, it changes lives. It changed ours. Thank You, Jesus, for the power of prayer and Your Holy Spirit, who worked through it that day and every day.

Grace

August 11, 2019

When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed (Acts 13:48, NIV).

This week’s message is focused on grace. Unlike Karma, which says those who do bad things get their just deserts in the end, grace says that no matter how many mistakes I make, God loves me! And because God loves me, I can be forgiven, thus, escaping the penalties for my sins. In essence, grace is John 3:16 (NIV), For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

I want to start this morning with a story about Dr. Charles Stanley. You see, my mother loves the teaching of Dr. Stanley; in fact, her routine on Sunday morning is to watch him three times. The first time he comes on, she pulls out her notebook and carefully takes notes on his message. The second time she reviews her notes and makes any additions or changes to her notes so that they are very accurate as to his message. On the third showing of the message, she will sit back and finally enjoy the message. My beautiful mother has multiple notebooks filled with nothing but notes from Dr. Stanley’s various messages over the years. I asked her once why she had developed this routine; she replied that Dr. Stanley was a gifted man of God and that she wanted to make sure that she learned all that she could learn from him. My mother, who is a retired school teacher, was always a very good student. Anyway, back to the story about Dr. Stanley, Charles Stanley tells the story about receiving a valuable lesson on grace when he was a student in seminary. And he is quoted as having said: One of my more memorable seminary professors had a practical way of illustrating to his students the concept of grace. At the end of his evangelism course he would distribute the exam with the caution to read it all the way through before beginning to answer it. This caution was written on the exam as well. As they read the test, it became unquestionably clear to each that they had not studied nearly enough. The further they read, the worse it became. About halfway through, audible groans could be heard throughout the lecture hall. On the last page, however, was a note that read, ‘You have a choice. You can either complete the exam as given or sign your name at the bottom and, in so doing, receive an A for this assignment.’ Wow! They sat there stunned. Was he serious? Just sign it and get an A? Slowly, the point dawned on us, and one by one, they turned in our tests and silently filed out of the room.

Dr. Stanley said that when he spoke with the professor about it afterward, the professor shared some of the reactions he had received through the years. Some students began to take the exam without reading it all the way through. And they would sweat it out for the entire two hours of class time before reaching the last page. Others read the first two pages, became angry, turned the test in blank, and stormed out of the room without signing it. They never realized what was available, and as a result, they lost out totally. One fellow, however, read the entire test, including the note at the end, but decided to take the exam anyway. He didn’t want any gifts. He wanted to earn his grade. And he did. He made a C+, but he could easily have had an A.²

Unfortunately, this story clearly illustrates many people’s reaction to God’s simple solution to sin. These people look at God’s standard of moral and ethical perfection—this would be Jesus, by the way—and throw their hands up in surrender. They tell themselves, I could never live up to God’s standards, and they fail, having never opened themselves up to His grace! Others are like the student who read the test through and was aware of the professor’s offer but took the test anyway. Unwilling to simply receive God’s gift of forgiveness, they tried to rack up enough points with God to earn it. Sadly we can never earn our way into heaven. There is only one way, and Jesus said it best when He said, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6, NIV). So, while faith without deeds is useless (James 2:20, NIV), you can’t work your way into heaven either. You have to have faith. But God’s grace truly is like the professor’s offer from Dr. Stanley’s story; it may seem unbelievable, but if we accept it, we will discover that God’s grace truly is free.

I have two points this morning that I want to cover with you concerning God’s grace. Point number one is that you have to choose to accept His grace. If you would like to follow along, I am in the book of Acts 13:44–48, and I chose this passage from the Easy-to-Read Version (ERV), but the King James and NIV are both similar.

On the next Sabbath day, almost all the people in the city came together to hear the word of the Lord. When the Jews there saw all these people, they became very jealous. Shouting insults, they argued against everything Paul said. But Paul and Barnabas spoke very boldly. They said, "We had to tell God’s message to you Jews first, but you refuse to listen. You have made it clear that you are not worthy of having eternal life. So we will now go to those who are not Jews. This is what the Lord told us to do:

‘I have made you a light for the other nations, to show people all over the world the way to be saved.’"

When the non-Jewish people heard Paul say this, they were happy. They gave honor to the message of the Lord, and many of them believed it. These were the ones chosen to have eternal life.

Acts 13:44–48 (ERV)

A little background on the story. Paul had spoken to these same Jews the previous Sabbath concerning Jesus, the prophecy of His coming, and the