Sunday School: A Promise Inherited

Essential Doctrine: God is Truthful

The Scriptures are clear that God never lies (Titus 1:2; Heb. 6:18)

God represents things as they really are.

Everything He says can be trusted because God guarantees the truth of everything He tells us.

The call for humans to be honest and not lie about themselves or others is rooted in the complete truthfulness of our Creator.

Telling the truth is one way we bear the image of God, whose Son is “the way, the truth, and the life” (see John 14:6)

Essential Connection:

We have been studying how GOd faithfully empowered His people to do His will.

In this session we will see how that faithfulness tems from God’s characters.

We can trust that God will keep His promises to us because that’s who He is.

Now, before we start to dive into today’s Scripture, we are going to watch an Essential Doctrine video from our friends over at Lifeway.

*watch video

Alright, let’s summarize what we just saw!

SUMMARY:

We can trust anything God promises because He can do anything He promises.

Trusting Jesus is trusting ultimate truth.

Hope in God;s promises for tomorrow anchors our trust in God’s plans for today.

Hope in eternity with God keeps us from drifting from Him today.

Video Questions:

How can life’s experiences make it hard to trust others?

We have all ben let down by somebody at some point.

Likewise, we all have let someone down at some point.

Trust is hard, because we can’t see into the future to see if someone ends up being faithful to their promises or not.

We just have to embrace the unknown and hope that they will be.

What does the Bible tell us about God that gives us reasons to trust Him?

God never fails.

He is faithful.

He is sovereign. (in control/above)

What has God done before that gives us hope in what He’s promised for the future?

God was faithful to give us Jesus

So He will be faithful to give us all things (Romans 8)

Alright… let’s take a look at what today’s main point is!

Main Point: Everything God has said can be trusted because it is impossible for Him to lie.

Today, we will see three things about God’s trustworthiness.

God’s trustworthiness demonstrates His greatness

Psalm 118:8–9 (ESV)

It is better to take refuge in the Lord

than to trust in man.

It is better to take refuge in the Lord

than to trust in princes.

Hebrews 6:13–16 (ESV)

For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation.

God has no limitations.

We’re tempted to put our trust in the “great “ people of the world.

They seem great, but everyone is severely limited because we’re human.

It makes way more sense to trust in the Lord.

For proof, look no further than Psalm 118.

There, we see that trusting in God is better than the common man; it is better than the best of men, aka “princes”

Not even a prince holds a candle to God when it comes to trustworthiness.

There are promises people don’t or can’t keep.

The Lord can and will keep every promise He makes.

Why might it seem easier sometimes to trust what people say than to keep trusting what God says?

Because we can see people and audibly hear people.

We can’t see God or audibly hear God

Trusting in man doesn’t require faith in the unseen, but trusting in God does.

No one lives fully for God and regrets it.

No one serves God and finds out He can’t be trusted.

To show His greatness, God used two really old people with kids to build one of the biggest, if not the biggest, families in history.

And to prove it, God swears by something

Did God need to do this in order for it to happen?

Well, no; this is a case of Him adapting Himself to the ways of man

God didn’t need to swear to anything, but He did it anyways so that we could understand it.

And what is it that he swore to? Himself.

Have you ever heard someone say “I promise on the Bible” before? Yeah… not a good thing to do, Biblically speaking.

But what is the idea there? Scripture comes from a higher authority than our own, so we try to solidify our claims with something greater than ourselves

But when it comes to God here… nothing is greater than God, so He swears to Himself!

That’s pretty awesome, right?

God is not only willing to do what He promises, He’s forever able.

How is putting your trust in God different from trusting in people?

It is harder to get to the point of trusting God than it is to trust people, but once you get there, it is much better.

Trusting in God flexes our faith muscles in ways that we can’t even comprehend.

1. God’s trustworthiness demonstrates His greatness

2. God’s trustworthiness reveals His character

Hebrews 6:17–18 (ESV)

So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.

God only speaks what is real, true, and good.

The oath God swore to Abraham didn’t make God’s promises any more real or possible.

The oath shows every heir of the promise-which includes us-that God always tells the truth and follows through.

He wanted to provide “absolute assurance” and “extra affirmation” to His people

And what is it exactly that is ultimately being promised, anyways?

… The promise is eternal salvation to all who believe in Him.

This ultimately points us to Christ

What does “it is impossible for God to lie,” tell us about His character?

For one thing, it tells us that there are some things that God can’t do.

“But Michael,” you might say, “Jeremiah 32:27 and Matthew 19:26 both say that nothing is impossible for God… so how can it be impossible for Him to lie?

Well, let’s not confuse God’s character with His power to do things.

God being unable to lie isn’t an issue of power; it is an issue of Character

Because God is infinitely holy and good, it is completely against His nature to lie.

God promised to use Abraham’s family to bless every group of people on earth (see Gen. 12:3).

Through Abraham’s family, God brought Jesus.

Jesus became the ultimate all-nations blessing.

Isaac’s birth shows that God tells the truth.

Christ’s birth fulfills God’s promise to bless the world through Abraham.

Isaac was only part of the promises God made to Abraham. What does God’s sending Jesus tell us about how thorough God is when fulfilling what He promises?

Partial fulfillment is never enough for God.

When Isaac was born, God’s promise to give him a son and to make him a father of many nations came to pass… but what about being a blessing to all the nations on the earth?

This last part only came through Christ

2/3 isn’t good enough for God!

God doesn’t try hard to tell the truth; He just does.

It’s who He is.

He doesn’t have to make sure He can make good on His promises.

He only promises what He’s willing and able to fulfill.

Jesus said He is truth (see John 14:6).

Trusting Jesus is trusting the ultimate truth.

How can we grow in trusting the Lord?

In your prayers, start intentionally thanking God for being trustworthy.

Say, “God, you are trustworthy… thank you!”

Telling God that He’s trustworthy will align our hearts with this truth

Thus, we’ll trust Him more.

1. God’s trustworthiness demonstrates His greatness.

2. God’s trustworthiness reveals His character.

3. God’s trustworthiness anchors His saints.

Hebrews 6:18–20 (ESV)

so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

A forerunner goes ahead to scout out a path for the rest of the group.

That’s what Jesus did.

You see, Israel’s high priest went into the holy of holies, where Israel could not follow.

The holy of holies represents God’s presence.

Jesus entered God’s eternal presence and, in doing so, gives us His right-of-passage into God’s eternal presence.

Jesus went before us and carved out a path for us to take to get to God

Christ guaranteed that we will enter the sanctuary one day as well, Just like He did.

Jesus led the way.

How does trusting in Jesus help us feel hope and confidence that we will spend eternity with God?

Christ’s past guarantees our future.

Like an anchor on a ship, hope in an eternity with God keeps us from drifting from Him.

Our glorification hasn’t happened yet…

But it is as certain as if it had already happened.

THAT is an anchor.

Not an anchor cast into the wild waves of doubt and despair, but an anchor that takes hold in the heavenly sanctuary.

Hope in what’s coming strengthens our confidence in God right now.

Faith feeds hope, and hope feeds faith.

It’s easy to drift from Jesus without hope.

How would you define hope? Why is hope in our future with God important for our lives right now?

Here is a definition of hope from the Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary:

“Trustful expectation., particular with reference to the fulfillment of God’s promises.”

In the same way that the past solidifies the future, the future enlivens the present.

We have something to look forward to, which adds context to life and gives us endurance.

One of the ways we strengthen hope for the future is by looking to the past.

Think of all the ways God has been trustworthy to His people!

If He’s been trustworthy in the past, we know He’ll be trustworthy in the future.

If He says we’ll spend eternity with Him through Christ, it is the most trustworthy thing we can believe and hope in.

When we’re distracted or discouraged, how does hope keep us from drifting from the Lord?

Hope realigns our beliefs with our character.

When we hope in God, we live and work unto that hope.

Hope propels obedience.

Christ Connection:

All God Says can be trusted because He doesn’t lie.

Jesus said He is the truth.

All who trust in Jesus are saved and given a sure hope that Christ will return and make all things new.

Head: How can we battle doubt and strengthen faith in God?

We have to take captive thoughts of doubting God in order to obey Jesus (see 2 Cor. 10:5)

Either God is true or our doubtful thoughts are true.

When we’re tempted t think God isn’t trustworthy, we have to call that thought what it is; a lie.

Then, we need to replace that thought with words of trust in God.

We do this as often as doubtful thoughts arise in our heads.

Over time, our faith gets stronger in the Lord.

Heart: How does hope keep our hearts loyal to Christ and keep us from devoting our lives to other things?

If you knew you could be exempt from an exam at the end f the school year simply by doing your homework today, you’d probably do your homework.

If you have confident hope that eternity is living under the reign of King Jesus, you’ll live under His reign today.

We can drift into devotion to a million and one different things.

Hope in Jesus’ reign over your endless tomorrows keeps you from drifting from Him today.

Hands: What evidence might show that a person truly believes God is trustworthy?

The ultimate indicator of what we believe is how we behave.

If we don’t believe something is vital to our lives, we won’t do it.

How do we know Abraham believed God was trustworthy?

He walked over 400 miles away from his family to a land God promised to give him.

If we believe God is trustworthy, we’ll obey His command and it will seem crazy to us not to obey Him.

Let’s behave unto our beliefs this week!

PRAY