God is not hiding. He has revealed himself through creation, through Christ and through the canon of Scripture. Self disclosure is the unique characteristic of our Creator. It distinguishes him as the true and living God who speaks to man. All other gods are bogus deities, dumb incarnations of a depraved religious imagination who can speak to no one. They cannot reveal themselves to man. They can only reflect things about man--such as his profound need to worship something and his perverse propensity to worship anything but the true and living God. What humanity does with divine revelation cannot alter the fact of it. Neither affirmation nor antagonism make true or undo the ultimate reality of the One who brought all things into being. God can be received or refused, but he can never be rejected. Whether we hear him or not, the triune Lord of heaven and earth speaks to us with a crystal clear voice. As the late Francis Schaeffer put it, "He is there and he is not silent."

THE VOICE OF GOD IN CREATION
Creation is a magnificent witness to the God who is there and is not silent. Psalm 19:1 says, "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork." Moreover, because the call of creation is so commanding, the Apostle Paul (in the New Testament) states that since the dawn of the universe God's "invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead (Romans 1:20)." The Apostle wants us to know that the heavens and the earth, even the whole universe, so blatantly manifest the existence and deity of our Creator that both unbelief and idolatry are categorically inexcusable.

As many of you know, I love pheasant hunting. A few seasons ago when I was being outwitted by the pea-brained long-tailed bird, God spoke to me through the grandeur of a chilly November morning. It was so cold that even though the sun shone brightly, the furry blanket of frost which had fallen the night before had not melted off yet. Everything was covered, all the trees and all the grass. The whole area sparkled like gemstones. Illuminated by the bright sunshine, the pattern of each frost crystal was amazingly distinct and exquisitely beautiful. The Lord made himself known to me that morning through his awesome artistry. His deity, his power and his glory were utterly captivating. It makes me wonder, though, whether the other hunters heard the voice of God also, or just the sound of their own as they barked orders to their dogs.

Without question, creation exposes the deity, power and glory of the Creator to public view. The material universe definitely obligates our sincere acknowledgement of his existence and our responsibility to bow before him. Unfortunately, it offers us no help whatsoever with regard to the matter of redemption. The wonders of the world answer the question, "Is there a God?" but say nothing to the question, "What must I do to be saved?" Yet, the Lord has not left mankind without an authoritative word about salvation: "God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things. through whom He made the worlds (Hebrews 1:1-2)."

THE VOICE OF GOD IN CHRIST
The language of sin and salvation is not readily understood anymore. Until the early years of the twentieth century, before the first World War, we appreciated the fundamental difference between right and wrong before God and man. We sensed, in a general way, that the depravity of our nature led to the depravity of our lives. We had a fairly good idea that we did bad things outwardly because we were bad people inwardly. We saw, at least to some extent, that salvation was of the Lord, that it meant deliverance from the penalty, the power, and ultimately the presence of personal sinfulness. Back then our culture allowed biblical theology to make an informative contribution to the contemporary idiom. However, everything has changed within the past hundred years or so. Now the Bible rarely receives a decent hearing in the public arena. The profound distinction between darkness and light is obscured; everything is grey. Evil is called good; good is called evil. Justice is so perverted it can hardly be said to exist anymore. Sin has been redefined as an "issue," sinners have been redefined as "helpless victims," and salvation has been redefined as "coping with the issue." The psychiatrist or counselor is considered a god and his couch becomes the altar upon which men and women sacrifice their souls. But in these last days God has spoken to us by his Son. In Christ the elect subjects of sovereign mercy hear the loving voice of their Father in heaven; in Christ alone they learn the language of redeeming grace.

No one in their right mind would disaffirm the historicity of Jesus Christ. He is news, so much so that he gets more ink than any other man since the world began. As a corrective to heretical verdicts upon God's only begotten Son, it must be emphasized that the historical Jesus and the biblical Jesus are one and the same person. Every effort to separate the Christ of history from the Christ of Scripture deliberately sidesteps the fact that practically everything we know about Jesus is found in the Bible. Of course, this creates a rather unpleasant situation for most people. If we deal with Christ we must deal with the Christ of the Bible, and the Christ of the Bible defies all attempts at domestication. He is terribly offensive to the sensibilities of a politically correct people. He is judgmental: "Those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man...(Matthew 15:18-20)." He is insulting: "You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do (John 8:44)." And he is extremely narrow minded: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6)."

Every historical event recognized by the secular and religious historians is placed "B.C." or "A.D." on the space/time continuum. The Cross is the focal point of human history. Christ cannot be set aside or forgotten; history will not allow it. This poses a major problem for those who want to despise or deny him. Jesus, the one who was crucified, was a real flesh-and-blood man who claimed to be God. He did not market himself merely as a teacher of radical morality; he claimed to be God. The man who was beaten, stretched out upon the Roman cross, and then sealed in a guarded tomb claimed to be God. That disfigured bloody pulp of a person who died under the agony of divine wrath as a substitute for death-deserving sinners claimed to be God. The man who rose from the grave three days after his burial, who was seen alive by hundreds of witnesses, who ascended to heaven forty days after his resurrection from the dead, and who now sits at the right hand of the Father--this flesh-and-blood man claimed to be God Almighty. He has to be dealt with; he will not go away. C.S. Lewis wrote, "A man who is merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic--on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg--or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. We are faced, then, with a frightening alternative. This man we are talking about was (and is) just what He said or else a lunatic, or something worse. Now it seems to me that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God. God has landed on this enemy-occupied world in human form." Lewis' logic is inescapable: liar, lunatic, or Lord, the Devil or God--Jesus had to be one or the other.

Words and numbers are the building blocks of society. Imagine if some strange force suddenly sucked math and human speech right out of the universe. Social and economic collapse would be instantaneous and catastrophic. There would be no bottom lines, no salaries, no computers and no Internet, no laws, no words of encouragement and no way to say, "I love you." Even a song to lift our spirits out of the darkness would be impossible since music is the mathematical arrangement of notes. Words and numbers are essential to life. And, believe it or not, there are two numbers far more important than a six figure annual income, and one word more important than "sex." Those two numbers are "one" and "three," and that one word is "logos."

The number "one" designates how many gods there are. Commissioned by the Lord himself, Moses addressed the nation of Israel in a most significant manner one day. After reiterating the Ten Commandments, he said, "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength (Deuteronomy 6:4-5)." The job description for God makes the position impossibly tough to fill. It tends to exclude every applicant but the One from ever getting a foot in the door, let alone an interview. To be God you would have to be one hundred percent worthy of being worshipped--not simply admired or adulated, but worshipped--and be in exclusive possession of all the perfections belonging to true deity. Further more you would have to be eternal--having no beginning and no end--as well as all-knowing, all-powerful and everywhere-present. On top of that you would have to be eternally perfect in the attributes of sovereignty, holiness, faithfulness, justice, truth, love, grace and wrath. Of course, there is infinitely more, but you get the idea. Obviously there is only one God, and he is not you or I, neither Devil nor an angel, not even the CEO who wishes he were a god or the head of a nation who thinks he is a god. There is one more qualification I need to mention. To be God the applicant would have to be eternally triune. This brings us to that other critical number, the number "three." The biblical job description for deity makes it manifestly clear there can be only one God and one God only. The Bible also teaches that this one true and living God eternally exists in three Persons: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. It is essential that we get the numbers right. There are not three separate gods who coexist in one cohesive divine unit. There is but one single and solitary God--one only and no more--who eternally exists in three distinct Persons. Granted, the Trinity is a mystery, but there are a lot of things which are mysterious yet true.

Now we come that one word which is more important than "sex." In our day it is hard to imagine a word more important than "sex." "Money" and "power" rank right up there, but even those words are insignificant when compared to what I have in mind. I am thinking of the word "logos." "Logos" is a Greek word and we are introduced to it in the very first verse of the Apostle John's gospel: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Three times in John 1:1 we see "Word" mentioned (with a capital "W"). Behind the English in each instance stands the Greek "logos." Read in context it becomes quite apparent that "logos" designates none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. Three particulars of monumental consequence are specified about this Logos. First, he is eternal; he already existed in the beginning. Second, he is a person equal to, but distinct from, the Father. When the verse says, "the Logos was with God," it means that Christ stands face to face with God the Father as an absolute equal in terms of the divine essence, nature and attributes. And third, the Logos is God Almighty, very God of very God: "...the Logos was God." It is essential to comprehend what is actually meant by the past tense of the verb in this last phrase. According to our English translation the text reads, "...and the Word was God." Sometimes precision is lost when translating from one language to another. The New Testament was originally written in Greek, and sprinkled with a bit of Aramaic here and there. In the Greek original the word "was" means "to exist," and the Greek verb tense is the imperfect tense. The imperfect tense indicates a continuous non-stop action in the past. The import of the imperfect tense is this: Prior to his incarnation--his adoption of a genuine humanity--Christ existed as pure unadulterated divinity throughout eternity past. The unspoken implication is that he will continue to exist as divinity, as very God, throughout eternity future. It also implies that Jesus did not divest himself of deity when he assumed flesh-and-blood humanity--a fact fully evidenced by his miracles and resurrection from the dead. Jesus is called the Logos. This very descriptive term for the Son of God denotes an articulate utterance. Applied to Christ, it means that he is the Word of God, the exact expression and revelation of the Creator. The essential idea is well clarified by John 1:18, "No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him." As the Logos--the Word of God--Christ is the declaration of Deity. God has indeed spoken; he revealed himself to a fallen humanity and he did so through his Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity.

As the Word, Christ proclaims the Lord's perspective about matters we prefer to ignore. He shoots straight about the perfections of the glory of God and the ungodliness of man. He is honest about divine holiness and human sinfulness. He deals squarely about death and damnation. He has a lot to say about sin. Fortunately, he has a lot to say about salvation as well. He says we must know him if we are ever to know the Father. He makes it pretty plain that we cannot save ourselves, that he alone is the the Savior. He establishes the horrors of damnation in way calculated to strike terror in the heart of every death-deserving sinner, but he also says he died on the Cross as the sin bearing substitute for all who own him as their Lord. He rose from the dead, ascended to heaven and from the right hand of God he continually calls out to his elect, crying, "No one comes to the Father except through Me."

THE VOICE OF GOD IN THE CANON OF SCRIPTURE
The God who is there is certainly not silent. He addresses men and women through creation and Christ; He speaks to us, also, through the canon of Scripture. Many years ago the Apostle Paul found it necessary to lovingly encourage a man named Timothy, a young pastor who was struggling with the many frustrations of his ministry. Paul penned two letters to Timothy freighted with sage counsel on how to faithfully execute his pastoral responsibilities. In the second letter the Apostle wrote, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16)." Within this one text Paul had set forth a sure foundation upon which Timothy could safely structure his ministerial responsibilities and, most importantly, his entire life. The Scriptures were inspired by the Lord. Inspiration literally means God-breathed. The Bible is the breath of the Almighty, indicating that it is a primary means by which the Lord spoke to Timothy then and to us now. In the canon of Holy Writ we hear the voice of God, and that voice is endowed with the authority to govern what we believe and how we behave. Timothy was told that the Scriptures were profitable for sound theology, as well as correction, reproof and training in righteousness. The Scriptures are authoritative and they are sufficient, touching the fullness of life with divine wisdom. The Bible (for Timothy it was the Old Testament; for us it is New and the Old Testaments) is able to equip the man of God for every good work. Here, the question begs to be asked: If the written word of God is so authoritative and so sufficient, how can we treat it so casually and carelessly?

Everybody knows "Amazing Grace," the grand old hymn that has brought comfort to God's people for hundreds of years now: "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.." The man who wrote that hymn really was a wretch--until he got serious about Scripture. His name was John Newton, and for the longest time he was a very wicked person. His thoughts were dark and his passions were vile. He was guilty of so much evil that change was thought to be impossible. No 12-step program on the planet could have done this guy any good. But God began to speak to John through the Bible. John read and listened, read and believed, read and obeyed, and in due time became one of the godliest men the world has ever known. The Bible brought John Newton to his knees before the Lord Jesus, begging for forgiveness. It showed John the glory of Christ, the greatness of redemption and the grace of sovereign mercy. The Scriptures made Mr. Newton wise unto salvation: "I once was lost, but now I�m found, was blind but now I see."

I knew a man in West Virginia who had the horrible habit of robbing banks. He did around thirteen heists. Eventually he was nailed and jailed. Doing time leaves a lot of time for reading so Cliff picked up the Bible. I met this fine Christian gentleman in 1978 while attending Bible college. He had given up knocking off banks.

I know a woman who husband committed adultery ten times more than you can count on all your fingers and all your toes. Through the Scriptures God spoke to her and to him. He found the grace to repent; she found the grace to forgive.

Centuries ago a very famous king ruled over Israel. He was called a man after God's own heart by the Lord himself. How did David warrant that amazing commendation? He made a promise to God and kept it: "I will meditate on Your precepts, and contemplate Your ways. I will delight in Your statutes; I will not forget your word (Psalm 119:15-16)." David developed the discipline of listening the voice of the God in the sacred writing of Holy Scripture. So should you and I.

CONCLUSION
Whether we like it or not, God is there. We may wish he were silent, but he is not. When the thunder wakes you up in the middle of the night and the rain raps on your windows, do you hear the call of your creator or merely the sound of a storm? When the Father says, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased," do you give heed to Christ or do you hearken to your own heat as it beats out, "Crucify him, crucify him, crucify him?" The Bible is the breath of God. Are you paying attention to the wisdom of his whispers, or does the cacophony of the world drown him out?

God speaks, but he does not turn up the volume. He is not in competition with all the other voices clamoring for your attention. He is not a media mogul. You will not find him on the television or the radio. Forget email. Do not expect a call on your cell phone. The only way you will ever hear at the voice of God this side of eternity by bending your ears towards creation, Christ and the canon of Scripture.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear the voice of the Lord.

John 14:6
Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."

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