Preschool
I will hear what God the Lord will speak. Psalm 85:8
God’s Grace Restored
Memory Verses
Primary
I will hear what God the Lord will speak: for He will speak peace unto His people, and to His saints. Psalm 85:8
Junior
I will hear what God the Lord will speak: for He will speak peace unto His people, and to His saints: but let them not turn again to folly. Psalm 85:8
Background Scripture: Judges 13-16
Lesson Scripture: Judges 16:4-5, 15-22, 28-30
Introduction
“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land” (2 Chron. 7:14).
What a promise! What marvelous grace and redemption. God says, “If you will, I will.” This wonderful promise of God encapsulates His unfathomable love, grace, and mercy. God’s salvation is the only hope for sinful humanity to be “renewed [restored] in knowledge after the image of him that created him” (Col. 3:10).
Grace, by definition, is “the unmerited favor of God.” It is this favor or blessing that man has lost and so desperately needs restored. Because of sin, man is unworthy of God’s kindness or favor (grace). He does not merit it nor is he able to earn it. God freely bestows it as a gift. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph. 2:8-9).
There are many aspects to grace, and truly it covers all of man’s existence, as Paul says, “For in him we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28). This lesson emphasizes the grace of God that brings us to through repentance, forgiveness of sin, restored fellowship with God, and power to be “more than conquerors through him that loved us” (Rom. 8:37).
Key Verse
And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will (2 Tim. 2:26).
Lesson Scripture
Judges 16:4 And it came to pass afterward, that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.
5 And the lords of the Philistines came up unto her, and said unto her, Entice him, and see wherein his great strength lieth, and by what means we may prevail against him, that we may bind him to afflict him: and we will give thee every one of us eleven hundred pieces of silver.
15 And she said unto him, How canst thou say, I love thee, when thine heart is not with me? thou hast mocked me these three times, and hast not told me wherein thy great strength lieth.
16 And it came to pass, when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto death;
17 That he told her all his heart, and said unto her, There hath not come a razor upon mine head; for I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother’s womb: if I be shaven, then my strength will go from me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man.
18 And when Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines, saying, Come up this once, for he hath shewed me all his heart. Then the lords of the Philistines came up unto her, and brought money in their hand.
19 And she made him sleep upon her knees; and she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head; and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him.
20 And she said, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he wist not that the Lord was departed from him.
21 But the Philistines took him, and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he did grind in the prison house.
22 Howbeit the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaven.
28 And Samson called unto the Lord, and said, O Lord God, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.
29 And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood, and on which it was borne up, of the one with his right hand, and of the other with his left.
30 And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life.
Studying the Lesson
After Joshua’s death, Israel lacked a strong, spiritual leader. The land of Canaan had been largely subdued, and the individual tribes were to finish driving out the hostile people in their particular province. Because Israel had backslidden, they were only partially successful, leaving certain warlike tribes, such as the Philistines to trouble them. When the dominance of these enemies became unbearable, the Israelites turned from their idols and revived their devotion to God. The Lord, in mercy, would raise up a judge or leader to deliver them.
Samson was the last of these judges mentioned in the book of Judges. He was a child of prayer, since his mother was barren. Like Isaac, Samuel, and John the Baptist, his birth was announced by an angel visit, and he was to be consecrated to God.
Samson’s life was one of contrasts. We see both his extreme strength and his wretched weakness—one time a total victory over Israel’s enemies and another time a complete defeat. Out of helplessness and hopelessness came his greatest victory and the triumph of his faith was in his death.
The story of Samson contains many types. The Philistines represent the world. Samson’s weakness for the Philistine women could represent the desire of the flesh for the things of the world. He set his love on the world with his marriage to Delilah. Spiritually, he was blinded by his lusts and deceived by his desires. His uncut hair was only an outward symbol of an inward vow of consecration to God. Revealing the source of his strength was the final capitulation to the world. Asleep, his vow broken, his power to resist gone, he was a captive of the world he had loved and “eyeless in Gaza.” 1 Is it any wonder that John wrote to the Christians, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world” (1 John 2:15)? Like Samson, restoration comes by humble acknowledgment of our condition, repentance and faith toward God, and the death of the carnal man.
Practical Truths for Today
The Scripture tells us that God is love. God does not just have love; He is love and consequently the source of all love. Grace flows out of that love to His fallen creation. It is this grace, this love in action, that saves, restores, and empowers a repentant, sinful man, changing him into a new creature who possesses the divine nature. The sin committed in the garden of Eden altered the perfection of God’s creation for as long as the world will stand. In the midst of that devastation, God’s wonderful grace made a way for man to be restored. Jesus, “full of grace and truth,” became the means and the channel for God’s restoration. “And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace” (John 1:16).
We will never fully understand the work of God’s grace in which He enlightens a man to his sinful condition and his eternal destination. No one is excluded from this call to repentance, and we will never be the same after we have experienced God’s call. “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men” (Titus 2:11). God’s call to mankind is a continual work of His love and grace. Yet salvation through grace is conditional upon man’s response. When he responds with outright rejection or procrastination, sin begins to harden his heart, and he will find it difficult to repent. In response to awakening grace, Samson humbled himself and acknowledged the work of the enemy in his life, praying in faith for God’s restoration. When we are awakened to our lost condition by God who “worketh in you both to will and to do” (Phil. 2:13), let us humble ourselves and call upon God with a penitent heart. He will restore His grace and make us His child.
The marvelous power of God’s grace is not limited to the initial act of salvation. Paul wrote, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Cor. 5:17). Thus, grace transforms a person into a new creature. Menno Simons wrote, “Once they were earthly minded, now heavenly; once they were carnal, now spiritual; once they were unrighteous, now righteous; once they were evil, now good; they live no longer after the old corrupted nature, but after the new upright nature. . . . Their poor weak life they daily renew more and more, and that after the image of him who created them.” 2
As we grow in this grace, we “are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor. 3:18). The change that grace makes in one’s life is always visible, whether in conversion or at a time of renewing our consecration. This life of grace in our daily walk is a compelling testimony that reveals the power of God’s grace to the unsaved.
By quenching the Spirit through disobedience we can fall from grace. We may then be inclined to rely on human reasoning and past experiences to find our way back into God’s grace. We must not become our own counselor and decide what God requires. Using human reasoning for a guide causes our hearts to become hardened to the impressions of God. John Holdeman exhorted, “I warn every child of God not to do anything contrary to better knowledge, lest he grieve the Holy Spirit and his own heart be hardened, and he find it difficult to repent.” 3 The pride of one’s heart is very deceptive. Though King Saul acknowledged his disobedience, he desired to be honored. “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble” (James 4:6).
God, who longs for the restoration of every straying soul calls in love “from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof” (Ps. 50:1). He is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9).
Illustration
This verse of song seems to capture God’s grace given to us through Jesus Christ.
On the mount of crucifixion, fountains opened deep and wide;
Through the floodgate of God’s mercy, flowed a vast and gracious tide.
Grace and love, like mighty rivers, poured incessant from above,
And heaven’s peace and perfect justice kissed a guilty world in love. 4
“In that day there shall be a fountain opened . . . for sin and for uncleanness” (Zech. 13:1).
Questions
- In the light of God’s grace, why do we suffer from besetting sins?
- Is the term “sinning away all grace” biblical?
- Explain “growing in grace.”
- 1 Reuben Koehn (1907-1995), “Eyeless in Gaza,” Selected Editorials, pp. 54-56
- 2 The Complete Writings of Menno Simons, Herald Press, p. 93
- 3 John Holdeman (1832-1900), Mirror of Truth, p. 208
- 4 William Rees (1802-1883), “Wondrous Grace”
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Source: COGICM Daily Bible Readings (Daily Bible Readings, PO Box 124, Glenn, CA 95943).