God of Creation: Plant World (Part 1)

A green leaf is doing more chemistry than most labs, and you’re breathing the results. We follow the plant world from Genesis to everyday life and ask the question that keeps surfacing: can you really look at roots, stems, and photosynthesis and call it an accident? From oceans packed with algae to lichens on rock and plants surviving near snow and ice, the sheer reach and variety of vegetation becomes a living argument for order, purpose, and a Creator who knows what He’s doing. 

We dig into how plants sustain the planet through oxygen production, food, medicine, shelter, and the hidden work of transpiration that lifts water from the ground into the atmosphere. We talk about forests as protection against drought and floods, roots that bind soil in place, and agriculture and forestry as the backbone of daily human life. Then we zoom in closer: root hairs that absorb minerals, transport systems that move water and nutrients, and chlorophyll-driven photosynthesis that turns sunlight into sugars and starches while releasing oxygen back to the world. Keywords you’ll hear woven throughout include God the Creator, Genesis creation, plant design, creation vs evolution, photosynthesis, transpiration, and the plant kingdom. 

The conversation turns personal when Jesus’ words from John 15 take center stage: “I am the true vine.” If you’re connected to the vine, are you bearing fruit, or are you drifting and drying out? We wrestle with pruning, discipline, and the danger of living close enough to Christian truth to claim it while staying far from real obedience and joy. The episode closes with a clear invitation to receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, then keep listening for more Bible teaching. Subscribe, share this with a friend who loves nature and big questions, and leave a review so more people can find the broadcast.

Church Website — BibleBaptistDeLand.com

Ministry Website — JamesWKnox.org 

YouTube Channel — YouTube.com/JamesWKnoxSermons

Sermon Audio — SermonAudio.com/BibleBaptistDeLand

Web Store — Store.JamesWKnox.org

Transcript

Genesis Creation Order Explained

Plant Kinds And Seed Reproduction

Plant Variety Across The Earth

Christ The Vine And Fruitfulness

Practical Uses Of Plants

Roots And Leaf Chemistry

Unusual Roots And Seed Beginnings

Stems Design And Life’s Purpose

Receive Christ And Closing Notes

SPEAKER_01 0:53

Thank you and good day and welcome once again to the Preaching of the Cross Radio Broadcast. I'm Brother James, and I'm very grateful to you for tuning in today. This program, we're very grateful to God for giving us the privilege and the opportunity of speaking to you, and we're very grateful to those in your area who have sponsored this program on this radio station and sort of uh put the icing on the cake, making it all possible. Uh uh God has touched your heart to listen, he's touched our heart to speak to you from his word, and he's touched the heart of someone to make it possible that two of us might come together over this radio station. So we're very grateful and very thankful to each and every one for the part that they've played in this program. We've been discussing now for the last four broadcasts the God of Creation. This is a series that will run many broadcasts as we discuss the uh various truths and aspects of uh of God's universe which manifest and which make evident the grandeur and the glory of our Creator. We have talked about uh bees, we spent three programs talking about that, uh and we talked on the last program about God's waterworks, and we're going to start on the program today and discuss uh plant life. Hope and pray that you'll find it interesting. I believe that you will. Uh so just listen carefully and we'll not only have a uh have another little uh scientific session, but also see how that this uh reveals and manifests and brings glory to our God and our Creator. Now it's interesting to note that the there's a definite and logical order in creation as recorded in the first chapter of Genesis. The beautiful and perfect creation of the first verse. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, uh containing plants and animals and existing for unknown ages, was destroyed by the tremendous uh cosmic disaster of the second verse brought about by the fall of Satan. The Bible says the earth became void and without form, and darkness was upon the face of the deep in Jeremiah four. Also Genesis one and two indicates this. This catastrophe obviously was of stupendous character. It suggests a uh a first flood, as Peter records it, possibly the beginning of what scientists like Paul the Isa. It would appear the result of the devil's hatred of God when he was thrown or cast to the ground, as we're informed in Ezekiel twenty eight verse seventeen. In any case, there was uh great darts and the world was covered with water and torn and disordered by the mighty power of one who wished to destroy God's work. There's no reason to think that God would thus annihilate a beautiful world in which sin had not yet entered, but sin entering in the rebellion of Satan, uh such a chaos came about. As light is necessary for all life, it's commanded to shine on the first day of this period of recreation. It was a dim twilight, but was enough for God's purpose. On the second day the Earth's atmosphere was brought into existence as we have noticed round about us, and the evaporation with all its possibilities appeared at the command of God, which we've discussed already in our series, as well as the various other arrangements which were necessary before life could survive. On the third day the continents of the earth were brought up in the ocean depths as the water surged to the storehouses which the Creator had prepared for them, Psalm thirty three seven, and now it is time for vegetation to appear in all varied forms which were to cover the ground. The Bible says in Genesis one verses eleven and twelve, God settled the earth put forth grass, herbs yielding seed, fruit trees bearing fruit after their kind, wherein is the seed thereof upon the earth, and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, herbs yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit, wherein is the seed thereof after their kind, and God saw that it was good. This botanical classification is remarkable for its simplicity and its up to dates. The three great phyla mentioned, including all that modern science knows. Science may use more ornate language and mention four groups which include the great number of simple plants with and without chlorophyll, such as algae and fungi up through the various forms until we come to the gymnosperms and angiosperms, which are the most highly developed classes of the plant kingdom, but that Moses should have been so skilled in the science of botany as to write down correctly these facts of plant life without the help of a creator is unthinkable. These various plants did not come from seeds through an evolutionary process long and drawn out. This is seen clearly from Genesis chapter two and verse five. No plant of the field was yet in the earth, no herb of the field had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not yet caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. That means obviously that God using his divine power created the plants fully formed and placed them in the soil where they proceeded to grow and reproduce themselves precisely as they do today. The Bible says that God planted a gart eastward in Eden. The loving thoughtfulness of our God is seen in the great variety of all kinds of vegetation, giving us such a wide assortment of grasses, woods, vegetables, and fruits. It's also clearly recognized that he made provision for wide variations within the types, but made it impossible for one kind to develop into another kind. All must reproduce after its kind. This great law effectively prevents the evolutionary changes which an infidel science rejecting creation imagines must have taken place through long millions of years. These acts of God were instantaneous. The Bible says he spake and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast. Wonderful creator, the Lord Jesus Christ. The strange powers conferred upon these living things in order to ensure their continuance by making possible wide distribution of seed, and in many cases remarkable provision for the life of the seed, we've talked about in an earlier lesson, but let me remind you again they show the inventive genius of our God, if we may speak in that way about the Creator's wisdom. Plants are found wherever there is moisture and proper temperature. The presence of hot lava, excessive deposits of alkali or salt, and long continued periods of extreme heat or cold are almost the only condition under which vegetation will not thrive. A bucket of water baled from the ocean sea may contain more tiny one celled plants of the algae type than there are visible stars on a clear night. Even in the desert, there are but few areas without plants of some variety. So called bare rocks are partly covered with mosses and lichens. We may find them even high on the mountains close to perpetual snow. In the icebound interior of Greenland, and the region of the poles, a tiny red plant known as red snow dots the icy whites. Now we've mentioned four great groups. Few more details about these are in order, I suppose. In group or phylum number one containing algae and fungi, there are more than twenty thousand species of the former. Of these are the most familiar, uh pond scums and kelps and rockweeds. In the fungi series, there are about one hundred thousand species. Among these are bacteria, molds, mildews, yeasts, muts, rusts, and mushrooms. Phylum II contains about twenty thousand species of moss. Phylum III, about five thousand species of ferns and their ally. Phylum IV embraces all seeds and flowering plants and is the most important. In this group we find pines, firs, and spruces, known as conifers, five hundred species of them. Then there are thirty thousand species of what is known as uh monocotolitis grasses, plant uh palms, lilies, orchids, etc. Another one hundred species of dicotelins, willows, walnuts, elms, roses, maples, potatoes, melons, etc. And again, we're face to face with God when we attempt to find an adequate explanation of this great number and variety in the plant king. Now in the future talks we'll consider the uses of plants as evidently designed by the Creator, but for now let it suffice it to say that all these multitudes of plants in various forms and fashions uh simply speak to us of a great and marvelous intelligence. Make Jesus compared himself to a plant. Did you know that? That's right, he said in John chapter 15, verses 1 and 2, I am the true vine, my father is the husband. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away, and every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Here is pronounced a great truth. There is a living vine, Jesus Christ, and there are living branches. Some of those living branches, and they are all Christians, bear no fruit. The judgment upon them is not eternal death, but removal they are taken, not cast away. Then there are other branches of this vine that do bear fruit, and the master or husbandman, looking for an increased yield, is compelled to purge or prune these in order to cause them to produce more fruit. Now, think of this for a moment, and I I'm speaking now to Christians who are listening. You're connected with the vine. You have life, but are you bearing fruit? If not, your state is a dangerous one. You may be taken away. Your last opportunity to exalt the Savior and bring glory to his name is law. He's long pleaded with you and you know it. You may have become careless and worldly, having lost your first love. Why don't you come back before the husbandman acts in judgment? Then many of you who know the Lord have served him more or less faithfully. You're in trouble of one kind or another, the burdens press heavily. You hardly know which way to turn for relief, and you're wondering if God has forgotten to be gracious. Why does he permit me to suffer, you think? But remember, blessed is the man whom thou chasteneth. Teachest him out of thy law, Psalm ninety four twelve. Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with as with sons. For what son is there whom his father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastening, then are ye bastards and not sons. Hebrews twelve six to eight. We Christians are the planting of the Lord and are safe for eternity because we read in Matthew fifteen, thirteen of our Lord, every plant which my heavenly father hath not planted shall be rooted up. Well there's no rooting up then of a plant that the heavenly father has planted. But what a disaster if we're bearing little fruit and must be removed, thus losing our reward, even though we do gain heaven. Ah, how blessed it is to abide in Jesus Christ. Yes, he may prune, it may hurt for a little, there may be some suffering, but how blessed to abide in Jesus Christ. Jesus said he that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit. And I ask you a question now, you Christians that are listening. Are you abiding in Jesus Christ? Or one of are you one of those who lightly terms himself a carnal Christian, fails to look back on a day when Jesus Christ meant all to you and not just a little as he does today. Now listen, don't you dare permit anything to come between you and him? If you do, you cannot grow because you're cut off from the source of nourishment. Turn away from the world, and abide genuinely, truly in the true vine. Let Jesus Christ live his life through you, and there'll be joy unspeakable and full of glory, much fruit bearing. Well, as we continue our survey of some of the miracles of plants, for a moment, let's think of some of their uses. Trees and other plants have many uses, one of the greatest perhaps being the purification of the air. They take in the deadly carbonic acid gas, which is produced in great quantities by the breathing of animals and decaying matter and burning material. By a chemical process, the carbonic acid or carbon dioxide is used for the plant's own needs and life giving oxygen is released. Without this wonderful service of the plants, men and animals along with every other form of life would perish. Plants play a large part in helping to beautify the world. They serve as food for man and beast. Many of them also are of untold value as medicine. Many of them provide shelter and raiment for humanity. But you may be surprised to know that possibly the greatest service they render to our world is conveying the moisture of the earth into the atmosphere. Our world would soon become a desert if all the trees were to be cut down. The roots of the trees are constantly bringing up water from below and discharging it through the leaves into the air. It is calculated that one large elm tree through its leaves evaporates as much water as the largest steam boiler kept constantly boiling. If a few cuttings of growing plants are placed in a basin holding about one half pint of water, the water will be taken up and released by the plant in about twelve hours. You ought to try that sometime at home, a little experiment like that, and you'll see how manifold are the uses of plants. But this is not all. Besides serving as safeguards against drought, trees also afford considerable protection against floods and overflow. In some countries, willows are planted to give stability to river banks. The roots of trees are invaluable in binding together the loose shifting soil of sand dunes and bars. Their foliage decays and helps to form a soil in which other trees and plants can live and thrive. Hillside trees fertilize the soil. They hold back moisture that would otherwise escape and afford protection from wind. Plants provide an avenue for the greatest occupation of mankind, agriculture, thinking only of the number of people and amount of capital employed, also the use and value of labor to the world at large. Agriculture, including forestry, goes far toward feeding, clothing, and sheltering the world. It also supplies a great part of the manufacturing interest. These products are too numerous to be mentioned. With the discovery of plastics and all the varied products that can be produced from wood, we begin to see something of the wisdom of God in giving the earth such magnificent supply of forests and vegetation. Every plant is a living thing. It is provided with organs for taking in food materials, for breathing, for protection against its enemies, and for reproducing itself in order to keep up the number of its own kind. From the very beginning, most plants are strugglers for food and room. Rapidly growing plants like pigweed and ragweed will soon crowd out in shade, death, ordinary garden crops. Frost, drought, and floods destroy countless others. Plants are susceptible to diseases that are as catching as the mumps and the measles. For every plant that succeeds in producing a crop of seeds, there are hundreds and thousands of failures. But this also shows design and thoughtfulness when we think of what would happen if each seed belonging to a garden weed were allowed to bring forth its kind. Higher types of plants are made of five very distinct parts roots, stems, leaves, flowers, and fruit. These unite to form a factory for the production of seeds, and each has its own definite part in the job. It is not possible to study in detail these various parts, but we'll look for a moment at one or two of the most interesting features. First of all, it's impossible to understand the life processes of a plant without knowing something of the structure of roots. So necessary are roots that the creator has given them most important functions. They must absorb water in large quantities. This water containing dissolved minerals, which materials are used in the manufacture of starch and other products. The roots also anchor the plant to the ground, often growing deep into the soil, sometimes as far as fifty feet. It has been found that the roots under a two year old clump of prairie grass will stretch out three hundred and nineteen miles. That means that the greater part of the plant is below the ground. The third use of roots is that of storing food, the case of the carrot, the turnip, and the bee. The structure of a root shows beyond any doubt the wisdom of a creator. It has a skin of epidermal covering in the form of a protective layer, just one cell in thicks. Its cell walls are made of thin, soft membranes of cellulose, which permit the absorption of water and dissolved mineral salt. In order to secure a greater absorbing surface, roots are equipped with long, slender, delicate projections called root hairs. Because of their great total surface area and thin walls, they absorb most of the water admitted to the root. Also they secrete an acid which aids in dissolving minerals. In the central part or core of the root are found the conducting tubes for carrying the water, some transporting down from the leaf and others from the root upward, a beautiful system, intricate and accurate in its work. But perhaps the greatest of all marvels is the chemistry of a green leaf. The leaves of a growing plant are arranged in such a way that they have the greatest possible exposure to the sun. There is little overlapping. Blades of grass are thin but grow very long, thus providing an increased area for catching the sun's rays. Plants cultivated indoors tend always to grow in the direction of light. The stems and leaf stalks often twist about or grow to unusual lengths so that the leaves may receive the necessary sunlight. It is this sunlight which provides the energy and vitality that is so important in the process of food manufacture. This astonishing process is known as photosynthesis. Examine under the microscope the cut edge of a green leaf, and one sees little rooms with the tiny chlorophyll chemists doing their miraculous work. These small grains of chlorophyll under the influence of the sun's energy are combining the water drawn up from the ground by the roots, and the carbon dioxide drawn in from the air through thousands of wide open mouths under the underside of the leaf, the water and carbon dioxide are brought together, and as the carbon is separated from the oxygen, the latter is released back into the atmosphere, while the carbon is used to make sugar, which is then changed into starch, so necessary for the life of animals and humans. This process is not understood. It's so great in its intricacy, but without this strange power of the plant to use the sun's rays and the other materials, no life on Earth would be possible. Not only do the plants return to us oxygen which is needed, but they give out much water into the atmosphere, thus in another way making life possible. Only a small part of the water absorbed by the roots is used by the plants in making the complex food substances, and the excess in the form of vapor is passed out through the leaf. It's been estimated that a tree of average size, one tree on a warm day in summer, throws off nearly one thousand pounds of water, and that the grass on a vacant city lot puts into the air about a ton of water in the same length of time. Now, is it possible to know these things and believe there is no God? Why the Bible says in Psalm number fourteen the fool hath said in his heart there is no God. Are you getting the truth that these considerations are designed to press home? What we're trying to get across to you that there is a creator, an almighty God behind the everyday scenes in nature round about it. I'm sure this one thing. If God becomes a real living personality in your life, your whole viewpoint will be changed. If you live from day to day knowing there's a supreme being behind this world scene, working out a plan for nations and individuals, you will, if you're wise, want to know what that plan is, and then you'll desire to fit yourself into it. Now let me ask you, be honest with yourself. Are you satisfied with your life up to this point? Have you taken Jesus Christ into your thinking and giving him his rightful place in your life? There is no way that you can calculate the difference that acknowledging God the Creator and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, will make in your day-to-day life. God help you to do so. God help you to consider him in all your ways and acknowledge him that he may guide and direct your paths and your steps. So what about these root mirrors? It's the business of roots to collect food materials and water from the soil, and to serve as anchors for holding the plant firmly in position. Roots are supposed to do their work underground, but there are many plants whose roots hang suspended in midair from the trunks of trees. Such are called aerial roots, they serve various purposes, chief among them being to absorb moisture and other useful substances from the air, and to take in water which drip from the branches above them. Thus the beautiful orchids of the tropics have aerial roots and sometimes they grow in the greenhouse. The ivy too has tiny aerial roots which act like tiny clutching fingers and help it climb. Do you know that growing corn has roots coming out of the small spirit? Seedlings and swelling to, if you will, at some distance above the ground. These aerial roots then grow downward and outward into the ground, deciding to work in both ways, in air and in soil. So they serve the double purpose of breaking the stalk aga or bracing the stalk against the wind and of supplying additional water from the soil. Some plants like the mistletoe have robber roots which bury themselves in other plants in order to steal the sap. Burglars, yep, thieves in God's garden. All roots have their beginning in a seed. Suppose we examine a bean. You soak it and loosen the tiny uh shiny covering and see how easily the hard part separates into two portions, having two very small points. One of these will grow down into the ground, forming the root of the plant. The other will stretch up into the sunlight to form stem and leaf. Cutting across the mature root, we discover three distinct parts the brown outer bark, the pale corky layer within this covering, and in the center the woody cylinder with ducts and vessels through which air and water travel. Near the tip we see two other distinguished features, the root hairs and the root cap. These root hairs are closed at the end. They are of countless numbers and perform one of the most important works of the plant. As many as four hundred and eighty root hairs have been counted on a small section of a corn rootlet, only one one hundredth of an inch in length, grown in a very damp place. The fibrous roots thrust their firm little points into the soil, drawing up water, potash, iron, and many other elements through their cell walls. Many of these delicacies are washed from the rocks and soil by means of a weak acid secreted by the hairs themselves. These chemical elements are mixed with the soil water and passed on through the many ducts and passages to the stem itself, and thence upward to the chemical laboratory in the leaves. The little root caps are hard and close fitting. There is no life in the outer portion, but the inner part has active growing cells which renew the cap as it wears out. The root cap is constantly being renewed and pushed ahead to open a channel through the soil. Here is nature's diamond drill penetrating deep under the ground. It never needs to be taken out or repaired. It carries its own repair shot. It recaps itself daily without shutting off the power for a moment. I think that's very interesting. I think it's very wonderful. As we've seen, roots go down into the ground much farther than we might have imagined. Winter wheat digs itself some seven feet into the earth. The roots of the oak plant will cut off, if cut off and strung from end to end, would measure about a hundred and fifty feet. Oak trees have roots which extend out more than fifty feet from the tree. Some plants, like the parsnip, beet, turnip, and carrot, store a great amount of nourishment in their roots. They are what are known as biennial plants, that is they take two seasons to make seed. The first summer is entirely given to storing up plant food in their roots. In the second summer, if the root is planted, a stem shoots up quickly from the top of the root. It feeds upon the stored food and grows very rapidly, sending up a wealth of blossoms which presently become veritable miracles of promise. Many plants are grown directly from roots or root cutting, such as a sweet potato or daily root if planted in damp sand. These will quickly send up growing sprouts which spring from buds in the roots. Each sprout, if broken off and properly set out, will develop into a new plant. Stems are most interesting things. They form the framework or body of the plant. They are of various shapes and sizes. In tropical forests where the shade is very dense, there are found many climbing plants which run like great cables for hundreds of feet to reach the sunlight. All our nearly uh early flowering plants, like the snowdrop and crocus and the tulip, have richly stored underground stems. In the desert regions there are many different kinds of cacti, whose flattened stems serve for foliage. The thread like leaves of the asparagus are really not leaves at all, but tiny bracts or stem which do the regular work of leaves. Now, who designed all of this? Who made olives? Who planned olives? Would have to be a mighty god. How does the sap get from the ground to the topmost uh leaf of the tallest tree? It's gotta stagger you when you think about it. When you think about each and every quig working in its perfect detail as God laid it out and made it. And you know, there's a lesson here for us. God's created us not simply to satisfy a passing whim. There's a plan for every life. God's plan. Unless we're careful to find this plan and put it into operation, we'll surely make shipwreck of our loss. Most people obviously are not interested in seeking to discover what God would have them to be and do. In fact, it's the small minority that's concerned even in God's existence. Mankind puts the bit in his teeth and drives madly to destruction and fails to heed the warnings from heaven and earth that there are dire consequences for disregarding God's plan for the individual, but countless individuals will come into this world state, live their brief span, die like animals, and never try to get to know the supreme ruler of the universe. Don't be one of them. You can know Almighty God through the person of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. I admit I don't want to suffer God's death penalty, do you? I don't want to die in my sin and suffer judgment, do you? And this is where God's plan fits in. God tells me that he's accepted a substitute for me, one who died in my place. It's the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. But there's just one thing that I must do. I must come in personal contact with him and accept him as my Savior, making him the ruler of my life. Immediate, right now, free. I can become a child of God by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I have done that. All the glory of my soul. And you can do it too. You bow your head and humbly say, Lord God, I believe that you're the almighty creator, not just of the plant world, but of my own soul. I'm tired of fighting against you and striving with you. I want to receive your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and make you the Lord and Savior of my life. If you'll do that, God has promised to receive any and all who humbly call upon his name.

SPEAKER_00 28:31

Thanks for tuning in today. Join us every weekday for another episode of the Preaching of the Cross Radio Podcast. For hundreds of hours of in-depth expository Bible teaching, please visit our YouTube channel, James W. Knox Service, our sermon audio page, Bible Baptist the Land, or our website, BibleBaptistTeland.com. Until next time and throughout eternity, may Jesus Christ be praised.