The Consistency of God - Jerry Wadel

Good morning, and also greetings each of you in the

name of Jesus this morning. Glad to be here with you,

Glad to enjoy a little bit of that beautiful harmony

and singing together, just to get our thoughts into gear

a little bit, change focus a little bit. How many

of you, before you jumped out of bed, or maybe

we don't jump out of bed in our age anymore,

but before you put your feet on the floor, gave

it any thought about whether gravity was still the same

this morning, or whether it had changed at all. Go

up a flight of steps, down a flight of steps.

Gravity still worked the same, didn't it. How many of

us gave it much thought whether the sun was going

to be on schedule this morning, or whether for some

reason it was a little off schedule, like maybe our

clocks are sometimes. I would like this morning to take

your attention, first of all, to Genesis one. I would

like to think for a little bit about the consistency

of God. Now, this is not a term we often

think about, maybe as it relates to an attribute of God.

But I believe there is something here that just helps

us to broaden our view of God and trust this

can be thoughts of worship. As we think about the

greatness of God, we sang part of that song, great

is Thy Faithfulness, And that would be a song that

closely relates to this idea of the consistency of God.

Genesis verse one. In the beginning, God created the heaven

and the earth, and the earth was without form and void,

and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And

the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

And God said, let there be light, and there was light.

Think about this second sentence in verse two, the Spirit

of God moved upon the face of the waters. You know,

you'll know that that word moved translated literally would be

that they had hovered. The Spirit of God was hovering

over the face of the waters. And this is the

picture of I believe, the Holy Spirit while hovering over

the waters of a in a sense, a nonexistent creation

of God. But it marks the beginning of bringing order

out of chaos. And in this is the beginning then

of the creation story as we know it. And of

course verse three talks about the light being created brought

into existence, and I really like that that picture of

the of the Holy Spirit of God hovering over this

dark waters there's darkness, it covered, there's about form and void.

We don't understand what all that means. But you don't

think of the You don't think of beauty when you

see that picture until the creation story unfolds and then

you have the beauty of of of harmony, and the

and the symmetry of beauty that God created. Now, in

thinking of this whole idea of consistency, we're just gonna

leave that thought now, come back to it later. What

do we mean by the word consistency, Well, we understand

we use the word something that is consistent. There's also

there's two words that we use that are closely related.

You know. The word consistent is also closely related to

the word constant. And I may use those little bit interchangeably,

but there is some difference. Consistent refers to something that

continues to happen, continues to behave, or act in a

predictable manner, or is measurable. That would be a dictionary definition.

And we know that with God this is measured against

the essence of his character and his divine nature. And

so what we know about God is what he has

revealed to us. It is not something that is simply

discovered by scientific method. But God chooses to reveal himself

to mankind, and that's how we know God. And there's

different ways in which that is done. Now, for mankind

we measure are we are measured by the consistency to

the triune God, God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Now,

the idea of constant refers to something that continues to

happen or remains unchanged and is faithful, or in a

sense we could say it is always there. In our

general usage of these two words, consistent refers to something

that does not vary from a predictable pattern, and constant

refers to something that does not necessarily stop. In other words,

it continues. And we can think a little bit about

or an illustration of this. There is light and heat

from the sun. It is consistent, but not necessary to

us here on earth is it always constant? Now we

know that the power of the sun is constant in

a sense. But for us we have day and night,

and we have the changing seasons. And of course you

know the angle of the sun makes a difference in

how much heat you feel or how cold it gets

in all of that. But so you see those two.

There Now also this term is related to the faithfulness

of God. Let's just turn to Lamentations chapter three and

just notice a few verses here. Lamentations Chapter three and

verse twenty two. This is speaking of the faithfulness of God.

He says, it is of the Lord's mercies that we

are not consumed because his compassions fail not they are

new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is

my portion, saith my soul. Therefore will I hope in him.

The Lord is good unto them that wait for him,

to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that

a man should both hope and quietly wait for the

salvation of the Lord. Now, the word consistent is not

in this passage, but there's a sense in which that

whole principle is embodied here. When you think about the

faithfulness of God and the fact that we are called

to hope in Him, and we can hope in him

because we serve a God that is consistent, and we're

going to notice a few more of those those thoughts.

We can just hope and quietly wait for the salvation

of the Lord because He's promised that, and there's a

consistency with that in that promise that we have right

with this is the fact that God is also immutable,

or we could say unchangeable in his character and nature

Malachia three, verse six, this familiar verse. For I am

the Lord, I change not. Therefore the sons of Jacob

are not consumed, and so we have that part of it.

There he says, I change not. It's the it's the

basis of his consistency is because he also in that

is immutable, like numbers twenty three. There Where Baalim was prophesying,

by the spirit of God came upon him numbers twenty three.

He said, for God is not a man that he

should lie, neither the son a man that he should repent.

Hath he said? And shall he not do it? Hath

he spoken? And shall he not make it good? Behold,

I haven't received commandment to bless and he hath blessed,

and I cannot reverse it. Baylim there was saying God

is consistent when he says something in his immutability, that's

how it is. God doesn't make mistakes in that he's

consistent with his own nature in everything he does. And

that is in a sense all wrapped up together. And

so you think about this then in relation to life.

He is completely reliable. That's what this means to us.

In the consistency of God, he has come completely reliable.

When a person loses faith in the goodness of God,

we are really out at sea because there's nothing to

hold onto. But in the faithfulness of God and the

reliability of God, the consistency of God, there's there's that anchor,

there's that that hold in life that we can have

when all of life at times seems unstable and unpredictable,

we can always count on God to remain the same.

He's always there in that consistent nature. He chooses to

remain consistent in his attitude and affections toward us. You know,

we could turn to or recite John three point sixteen

about how God so loved the world. Well, that is

just an established fact. Is it's just an absolute and

all the workings of God in relation salvation for his

people are is always going to be consistent to the

fact that God sold up the world. And and so

it's it's a it's a framework, it's a basis of

our faith. And so he chooses to remain consistent in

his attitude and his affections. God does not have mood

swings like humans would we do it maybe, or sudden

outbursts of anger. You know what I you think about

in the scriptures where where God has said you know

that you can turn to Jeremiah eighteen. There a picture

of the of the Potter there that Jeremiah was watching

in the in the Potter's house that day, and he says,

there when God says, I'm going to speak concerning a

nation to bless that nation, but if they turn and

and choose not to follow me, that I'm gonna I'm

going to change the way I deal with them. But

that was prophesied, that was foretold. That was saying that

you have you can exercise your free will, and I'm

going to respond to you on the basis of how

you respond or how you act on that free will.

But it was consistent. You know, when God chooses to

honor and to bless a person that has decided to

serve him, it is there. And God has said what

happens to those who turn away from truth? And so

he's consistent in that. And so there's that aspect where

God follows through on what he says. Now, sometimes I

realize I'm moving fairly quickly here. Preachers don't like clocks either,

but I try to get you out of here on time. Now,

sometimes it may seem like there is an inconsistency between God,

the God of the Old Testament, and the God of

the New Testament. However, how many of you ever thought

that it seemed like there's an inconsistency there, or maybe

struggle a little bit, you know, the way God dealt

with in the Old Testament versus the New Testament. And yeah,

I realized there's a whole, you know, theological side to

that put But sometimes, you know, we can struggle with

a little bit, and it may seem like God was

a lot more abrupt and judgmental in the Old Testament.

He didn't give much grace. But I think it is

more accurate to look at it as a progressive revelation

of God's working with mankind. And you see that flow

from the Old Testament right into the New Testament. And

so when you look at it from that perspective, you

know there's a consistency there that is really beautiful, and

there's a harmony there and it flows right through and

so that is just one illustration. It is really one

consistent story of redemption from cover to cover. You know,

you start from you know, Genesis three point fifteen, the

seed of the woman and bruising the head of the serpent,

and you start there and you move right through the

entire scriptures to the last chapter of the Bible, and

you see that unfolding story of redemption that is consistent

to the very nature of God and the provision of God,

and the love of God for mankind, and his desire

to save, to save all the come to him. So

this morning, our confidence and trusting God is based in

the consistency of his nature. Like Hebraw's thirteen verse eight

says that Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever.

We talked about gravity, we talked about the sun coming up,

and the timing of all of that and the preciseness

of that. And that is interesting. We see something of

God and all of that. But you think this morning,

the fact that Jesus Christ, our redeemer, the one who

came to read Demus, died on the cross, rose again

for our justification is the same day in day out,

when our emotions, our ups and downs of life, the

challenges of life, the tests of life come and go

in all different forms. But the anchor of the Lord Jesus,

when he says, I'm the same, I just don't change.

There never needs to be a surprise. There really never

needs to be a surprise in the sense of something

different from what we can expect of his nature. And

that gives us an anchor as a child of God

in today's world, that anchor to hold on to, and

that hope and understanding of the workings of God. Do

we always understand his methods, his ways, his choices in life. No,

but we don't necessarily need to because we know Him.

And like the song we sing sometimes one of my

favorites above the trembling elements and another one is right

with that is a piece perfect peace in this dark

world is sin. But one of the phrases of that

song later says, but Christ, we know, and he is

on the throne. That's how we can have peace in

the midst of conflict and chaos in the world around us.

The consistency of God is what gives us stability in

a world where mankind is out of control as it were. Well,

I think that also a part of this is that

failure to seek consistency with revealed truth would always lead

to confusion and corruption. You think about the desire of

God for our lives to bring that settled peace within,

which includes consistency to reveal truth. If we turn away

from that, and you watch this in the lives of

people who turn their back on truth, the confusion, the

chaos in their lives, the moorings in a sense are lost,

and there's just a confusion that happens as they turn

away from truth. And so this morning, God is always

calling us to the consistency of truth as it is

revealed to us in our lives. A few examples of

God's consistency. We don't have time to go into these,

but you know, there's the order eness of creation. Sometimes

refer to them as the laws of nature. You know,

each seed producing after its kind is all part of

that consistency that we can expect and know in the

laws laws of nature. There's the accuracy of the universe,

making space travel possible and leaving you know, the Earth's

atmosphere with a rocket at a certain precise time to

land at a certain place, you know, on the moon

or one of the planets or whatever. You know, that

accuracy is because of the consistency of God that he

has built into the whole universe. There are the changing seasons,

you know, and you know, I think sometimes of all

the talk about climate change and all the fear of

people have of all of that. But you know, for us,

you know, God just says, you know, I'm going to

be consistent. You know, after Noah came out out of

the ark there he said, there's going to be sea

time and harvest. There's going to be cold and heat

to the end of the age, to the end of time.

You know, it's like God is consistent and he just

gives us those little reminders. In nature, there's a fulfillment

of prophecy, and that'd be a whole subject in itself,

but the fulfillment of prophecy and the accuracy of that,

again God being consistent with his nature and his desire

for mankind and all that happened. And because we can

see the fulfilled prophecies of the past, we can know

something of the accuracy of the prophecies that God has

promised for the future, even though at times we look

through that glass darkly trying to understand, but it is

there and it will happen exactly the way God intends

because there's a consistency throughout all his work. This last

few days, many of you were involved in the music

camp here and you just think about the harmony and

the beauty of music, and like Brother Lloyd was saying

that the power of that, I think, I'm at the

power in evangelism, you know, whether it's sometimes you know,

we give an imitation at evangelistic meeting revival meetings, and

there's a certain type of music that goes with that

that can facilitate the working and the power of the

Holy Spirit in ways that would not be in any

other way. I think about the power in evangelism, whether

it's in street meetings or places like that. There's something

about singing on the street that is attracted to people.

It's powerful, it moves people, and I believe that the

Spirit of God uses that many in many ways to

touch the hearts of people that would not be touched

in any other way. But there's again, you know, the

godly music that is consistent with the nature of God

and all of the harmony and the beauty that goes

with it. We could also think of some examples of

men who live consistent lives. As a challenge for us.

They're in the book of Job Job one and verse five.

Job offered sacrifices for his children. He said, just in

case they cursed God in their hearts, he would daily

offer a sacrifice for them. And it said, thus did

Job continually. Job was a man who lived a consistent

life in that sense in his worship is in his

desire to be there for his children, and also personally

Job one and verse eight he talks about that he

was a man who feared God and a shoot evil

or King James uses that term a shoot evil, and

that really that word just means to habitually shun evil,

to habitually turn away from it. And so it's explaining

a life of consistency where Job consistently refused evil, turned

away from evil. We have the Ricabites and they're consistently

practicing their convictions as a family for over three hundred years.

You know, that's a definition of consistent living. And they

just they did it, and God blessed them for that.

We could think of the example of Daniel, who lived

a very consistent life. Daniel did not employ situational ethics

in his life. He was just consistent in his worship

of God in his commitment to God. And he was

so consistent that his enemies knew exactly where to find

him after the writing was found Daniel six'. Ten When

daniel knew that the writing was, signed he went into his,

house his windows being opened in his chamber Towards. Jerusalem

he kneeled upon his knees three times a day and

prayed and gave thanks before His, god as he did afore.

Time he was consistent in. That jesus was totally consistent

in his. Life of course we, say, well he was

the God. Man but you know it's interesting when his,

DISCIPLES i think it Was thomas there one, time, said you,

know show us The, father and it Sufficeth, us or

show us The, father and then we would really be.

Satisfied we'd really like to see The. Father what Does jesus,

say if you've seen, me you've seen The. FATHER i

am a consistent pattern of My. Father and that is,

again of course true for us. Today we enjoy reading The,

gospels the stories Of jesus in his ministry and all

that he taught, us and through that we see The,

father we understand The. Godhead he also, SAID i do

all always those things that please The. Father, now what

consistency Is god looking for in our. Lives we talked

about The Holy spirit hovering over the earth at the

beginning of the creation story and how that brought a

consistency out of the. Chaos AND i think we need

to remember that it's the Same Holy spirit that hovers

over our, lives our, souls our hearts and changes our,

heart the hearts of men from chaos to be consistent

with the nature Of. GOD i think it's the same.

Picture to. Me it's a beautiful picture of what The

Holy spirit does in our hearts and the new creation

That god brings into. Effect Tewod Peter chapter one there

and verse. Four he talks about us being made partakers

of the divine, nature and that would be again another vast.

Subject but do you think about the new birth and

The Holy spirit bringing our hearts into conformity or in

a consistent, way to the to the to The heart Of,

god to The spirit Of. God you, know we are

flooded with, Peace we are flooded with divine. Love our

will is changed into the into harmony With his. Will

we love the, truth we shun and turn away from

self and the. World AND i think all of that

relates to the work of The Holy, spirit which brings

us into that, conformity that consistency with the will Of.

God and of course we know that all this is a, growing,

continuing growing experience for. Us but it is it is

part of the work Of god with him to turn

that chaos and confusion into peace and love and. Trying

willy the man that had the, devils all those, devils

And jesus cast them. Out when the disciples came, there

they found him. Clothed he was seated at the feet Of.

Jesus there totally different, picture wasn't? It because of the

work Of god in his? Heart that is a picture for.

Us god has given us everything that we need to

live consistent To his will Two peter one And versus

three and. Four there according as his divine power hath

given unto us all things that pertain unto life and,

godliness through the knowledge Of him that hath called us

to glory and, virtue whereby are given unto us exceeding

great and precious, promises that by these you might be

made partakers of The divine, nature having escaped the corruption

that is in the. World through. Lust so there we

have that promise that bringing into the conformity and to

the knowledge Of his. Will we also need to remember

that we will never be more spiritual or spiritually mature

than we are consistent to the nature Of. Christ, again

it's the consistency Of god in his. Nature it comes

into our life Through His Holy Spirit ephesians. Five one

be therefore followers or imitators Of god as dear. Children

the scripture also teaches us In Pirst corinthians fourteen and

other scriptures that in the church there is to be

a consistency with the body Of christ and to the

nature Of god and the work Of god in our.

Hearts it says there In Pirst corinthians fourteen that church

services are to be orderly and under emotional, control again

consistent with the nature Of. God For god is not

the author of, confusion but a peace as in all

the churches of The. Saints, well there could be some

more practical areas we could think. About i'd just like

to point out maybe one or so here in relation

to our. Lives And i'm thinking especially, now. FATHERS i

guess in the, home as we represent to our, children our,

families the nature Of. GOD i Think god is calling

out for us as fathers to teach our children about

the consistency Of. God and by teaching, them you, know

The bible stories and all the wonderful works Of, god

and it's all very. Important but then with that we

back that up by demonstrating consistency before them in our own.

Lives AND i know we're human and we struggle with

some of that human tendencies at, times BUT i believe

that is it is probably one of the greatest gifts

that we can give our. Children our families is an

example of consistency because it represents the consistency Of. God

and you with me know the heartbreak at times where

that has not happened and children are adrift and they don't,

understand and there could be too much of a difference

between what we can say and teach about the faithfulness

and the consistency Of, god but they don't see it lived,

out and that is. DAMAGING i think that how consistent

or inconsistent we are in our own personal, lives especially as,

fathers will affect their choices in, life probably more than anything.

Else you, know it includes our submission and respect for.

Authority you often think about the challenge there of the

centurion who had the servant that was, sick and he

didn't feel worthy to Have jesus come under his. Roof he,

SAID i also am a man under. Authority that was

that was a statement of his understanding the importance of

him responding properly and right in a humble. Way in

the personal, lives we live before our children every. Day

we will be showing them the example of What god

is in relation to, consistency and they will know where

our hearts. Are they will know what we believe more

about what we tolerate than what we say we. Believe

and that's a challenge for us in our. Lives are

we as fathers providing the stability of consistency for our,

children for our families the Way god would want us to?

Well for all of us this, morning not just. Fathers

but you know how mature are we in relation to being?

Followers we talked about imitators Of? God what is our spiritual?

Mature he Can christ count on me as a brother

a sister in the? Church Can christ count on me

as a child Of god to strive for that consistency

in my? Life the principles Of god do not change

principles of scripture are the? Same AM i following that?

Inconsistency or Is christ grieved by my inconsistency in church?

Life you, know brothers and, sisters you know with each.

Other can my brothers my sisters count on me to

be consistent in my life to live out the principles

that we say we. Believe AM i making my decisions

based on truth and on the principles of The word

Of god and the nurturing of The Holy spirit within my?

Heart or AM i making mostly emotional decisions just in

the in this in the in the given time and

place and. Circumstances daniel did not make emotional decisions. There

he knew the writing was, signed he knew what the stakes,

were he knew the. Punishment he went and did exactly

what he did. Before and we can, say, well did

he really need to pray that exactly that? Day did

he need to open the window to pray that night

or that? Day could he just kept the window closed

or pulled the? BLIND i don't have answered all, that

But i'm just saying that there was consistency about his

life in his. Mind the principle had not changed and

he followed through on. That what about our? Lives how

do we make our? Decisions is it related to our

desire to be consistent with the revealed will Of god for?

Us a song we? Sing sometimes it's like to close with.

This so let our, life lives and lips express the

Holy gospel we. Profess so let our walks and virtues

shine to prove the doctrine all. Divine thus shall we

best proclaim abroad the honor of Our Savior. God when

the salvation reigns within and grace subdues the power of.

Sin our flesh and sense must be denied passion and,

envy lust and, Pride while, justice, temperance truth and love are.

Inward piety, approve religion bears our spirits, up while we

expect that blessed, hope the bright appearance of The, lord

and faith stands leaning on his. Word May god help

us in our lives to live lives of consistency as

we Understand god's desire for us and his revelation of

his consistency and faithfulness to. Us inclosing For corinthians fifteen fifty, Eight,

therefore my beloved, brother and be, steadfast, unmovable always abounding

in the work of The. Lord forasmuch as you know

that your labor is not in vain in The, Lord

god will reward, consistently he. Said even a cup of

cold water is not going to be. Overlooked. Consistent let's

praise The lord and worship him for his consistency in our. Lives,

oh bless. You