Sermon Tone Analysis

BY PASTOR GLENN PEASE

We are sometimes amazed at the fact that no two fingerprints are alike.

But this becomes a minor fact when we consider that no two snowflakes are exactly alike.

This is a mind-boggling number compared to five and a half billion people.

But even this does not scratch the surface of God's creative ability to produce variety in His works.

The psalmist does not ask a question, but exclaims in verse 24, "How many are your works, O Lord."

He was deeply moved by the quantity of what he saw in God's creation.

But what he saw was a mere drop in the bucket.

Today we know enough about the building blocks of nature to know that the term infinite variety is no exaggeration.

DNA is the master molecule of life.

It's structure controls the physical characteristics of every living thing.

Every living thing is at least slightly different from every other living thing, because the DNA is different.

Orientals think we all look alike, and vice versa, and we all think one sun fish is identical to another, and one orange is just like another.

But the fact is, God never makes anything on the assembly line, but everything He makes is a one of a kind work of art.

Isaac Asimov, the great science writer of our day, has studied the mathematical possibilities of different combinations of the DNA molecule.

How many living things can God make with this molecule before He would have to repeat and duplicate something He has already made?

The answer makes the national debt figure look like loose change.

It is 1 followed by 900 zeros.

That is hard to grasp, so he gives us this fascinating supposition.

Suppose that every particle in the universe, and not just every atom, but every part of the atom, every proton, every neutron, every electron, every neutrino, every photon, and on and on, every particle of reality in the entire universe was a different DNA molecule.

If that was the case, the number of possibilities for new molecules would hardly be dented.

It would only be 88 billionths of what could be produced by the potential combinations in the DNA molecule.

Now, if every particle in the universe changed every second to a new DNA molecule not yet used, and this process went on for ten thousand billion billion years, the number of yet new DNA molecules not yet used would still be far greater than what combinations had been used.

To top it all off, he ends by pointing out that all his calculations are based on the DNA possibilities of the smallest living thing- the virus.

The molecules of our cells and other organisms are much more complicated.

We are dealing with numbers that are astronomical, and take us into the realm of the infinite.

This means that the millions of species of animal life on this planet have not begun to exhaust the creative power of God.

There could be universes galore where there are millions of other species we have never seen, and in eternity there is no way of knowing how many millions of marvelous creatures we will enjoy.

Animal lovers may have billions of new animals to love throughout eternity.

God's creation will never get boring.

Science confirms that the stuff life is made of is near infinite in it's potential.

God will never run our of new ideas for living creatures, and that is with what man knows.

God may have a million other ideas for life besides the DNA, but this alone is enough for man to know the Creator of life is an infinite Creator.

This ought to make us lift our voices in praise to God who made all that is.

To worship God in spirit and in truth is to adore God for the truth of what we know of His nature as it is manifested in His creation.

It is not just the quantity of God's works that impressed the psalmist.

He is amazed also at the quality of what God has made.

He says in v. 24, "In wisdom you made them all."

We have all been delighted that man was clever enough to invent air-conditioning.

But it was not man's idea.

God had already built this wisdom into the honey bee.

They are able to maintain a constant temperature in their hives to protect their larvae, and to successfully cure their honey.

Some bees are able to produce heat when it is needed, and other farmer bees are able to vibrate their wings so as to cool and circulate the air.

Spiders and some wasps need live food.

Their babies will not eat anything but live food.

Without refrigerators or ice this seems impossible, for they may only catch a fly once a week.

They have a special liquid they inject into their catch that keeps them paralyzed but alive until needed.

The praying mantis surrounds her eggs with bubbles that work just like a thermos bottle.

No matter how cold or warm the air gets, the eggs within are protected.

We call them dumb animals, but that only means they cannot speak.

They are often more wise than we are, and can do things we cannot do.

Jim Kjelgaard tells of a fox which he found in a trap which had broken its front foot.

He writes, "We carried the creature home and bandaged the foot.

Then we put the fox in a wire cage.

Immediately it ripped the bandages off, dug a small hole with its good foot, placed the wounded one in the hole and padded dirt around it.

For days it lay there refusing to move.

When it finally did stir, although it was thin to the point of starvation and the claws on its broken foot had grown grotesquely long, the foot was healed completely.

That fox had put its broken foot into a self-made cast and kept it there until the bones had mended.

Wild animals often know how to heal themselves.

Rats show amazing dietary wisdom.

If you feed them so they are denied basic vitamins, and then let them have a cafeteria style meal, they will eat those foods which are rich in the vitamins they need.

Rabbits, birds, and some insects also have this wisdom built into them.

One of the most amazing things of all is the common aphid, a small insect.

They are wingless as long as their food supply is plentiful.

But if a shortage develops, the next generation is born with wings.

They can then migrate to a new food supply.

This makes evolutionists look silly, for they tend to say it would take millions of years for such a development.

But when nature is seen as God's work, it can make radical changes in one generation to meet its need, because God has put His wisdom into all He has made.

It is no blind machine, but God's work of art.

Man is proud of his many clever inventions, but almost everything man invents is already in nature and the animal kingdom, revealing that God thought of these ideas first, and man is just copying the wisdom of God in His creation.

Fishermen are forever trying to find a lure that will deceive the fish into coming to their hook.

This is nothing new, for the angler fish itself uses dummy bate to lure other fish into its mouth.

There are 350 different species of angler fish, all with a rod and a lure.

Some of them look just like worms dangling from a pole that comes out of their head.

Others even have a light that attracts fish.

The point is, fish were way ahead of men when it comes to fishing, and its more likely they will get their meal than it is for the fishermen.

Other creatures also have clever lures.

Some insects look just like flowers to attract other insects which they eat.

The point is, all that God has made, He made with wisdom.

There is some unique value in every living creature.

There are some creatures that are not too bright.

But they still have their value, to God, if not to man.

When God went on and on talking to Job about His creation, He came to one creature He admits is not very smart, and that is the ostrich.

She lays her eggs right out on the ground where other animals can trample on them.

Then God in Job 39:17 confesses, "For God did not endow her with wisdom or give her a share of good sense."

God admits there is such a thing as a dumb animal.

But then He goes on in the next verse and says, "Yet when she spreads her feathers to run, she laughs at horse and rider."

God is saying that even His lesser works and His strange creatures have their value and their gifts that add to the total picture of His creation.

God enjoys an ostrich on the run.

No matter what you study in nature, if you look deep enough you will find evidence of the wisdom of God.

The earth is full of God's creatures says the Psalmist.

Notice he says they are God's creatures.

They are not our creatures.

We have dominion over all the animal kingdom, but we may not necessarily enjoy certain creatures.

I have no interest being anywhere near a rattlesnake, but I can still appreciate the gifts that God has given this creature.

Long before man developed his infrared binoculars to see at night, the snake had the same thing.

They have heat ray eyes that can detect a mouse crawling along in pitch black darkness.

I don't have to like them to see the cleverness of God's gift to them.

I don't like ants in my kitchen either, but I am amazed at the wisdom God gave them.

The South American farming ant actually grows his own food.