God of Creation: Plant World (Part 2)

Trees move water from soil to the topmost leaf without anything like household plumbing, and the deeper you look the stranger it gets. I’m Brother James, and in our God of Creation series we use the plant world as a window into the wisdom, power, and care of the Creator, not as a “song and dance” show, but as clear Bible teaching anchored in what we can observe.

We start with the root system and the mystery of sap rising through tiny cells, then follow the stem’s work as a transport route and a storage bank for sugars and starches. From there we walk through an unforgettable set of seed dispersal mechanisms: berries that recruit animals, tumbleweeds that roll for miles, maple and ash fruits that “fly,” dandelion parachutes that drift on air currents, burrs that hitchhike on fur, and coconuts built for water travel. Along the way we point out why these real-world details fit naturally with a Christian view of creation and intelligent design.

Then the conversation turns from nature’s travel to human travel and prophecy. Daniel’s words about people running to and fro and knowledge increasing feel strikingly modern, and we connect that to Scripture’s accounts of Elijah, Enoch, and Philip, plus the promise of being caught up to meet the Lord. We close with a plain invitation to come to Jesus Christ, trusting the God who cares for every detail in creation to care for your soul as well.

Subscribe for more Bible teaching, share this with someone who loves science and Scripture, and leave a review so more people can find the show. What part of the plant world felt most like “design” to you?

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Transcript

Welcome And Series Overview

SPEAKER_01 0:53

Thank you for that kind introduction. I'm Brother James and a very pleasant good day to each and every one. Thank you for tuning in today to the Preaching of the Cross Radio Broadcast. This 30-minute program features no appeals for financial support, features no uh song and dance entertainment, but rather 30 minutes of Bible teaching, or 30 minutes of teaching about the Bible, as is in the case uh with our series that we're presently engaged in. Now we've been through a long series of broadcasts on the cross and a long series of broadcasts on the doctrine of God. We're presently at uh lesson number six in a very different uh set of programs for us entitled The God of Creation, in which we are examining various facts and facets about the scientific world of nature round about us as they give evidence of our Creator and our glorious God. And we trust that you're finding this very interesting uh series of lessons, uh not only learning much about the world round about you, but about the God that uh made it. Now, we really run out of time on these programs, as you noticed in our last broadcast, we just got caught uh kind of short talking about this uh plant world and about the root system, and we were in the midst of talking about the the stems and the uh definite job they have to perform. The precious soil water with the various minerals, all the nitrogen compounds used by the plants have to enter in through the doors, if you will, which are in the roots. Then it passes from roots to leaves, which complete the chemical transformation into sugars and starches found in all the fruits and vegetables so much enjoyed by us, but how little thought we give to this mirror. We have thought of rising of the rising of the water or sap straight up through these tiny little hair light tubes in the roots and moving slowly to the top. These tubes are not joined together like water pipes in a house. They're a series or a chain of wood cells, like little oblong boxes piled end on end. There's a thin wall that separates each cell from its neighbor, making the situation more wonderful from the standpoint of the onlooker. How does the sap ever get through? If there's no continuous and unbroken tube through which it can pass. And do you know how the sap gets from the ground to the topmost leaf of the tallest tree in the land? Well, the cell sap in the root hair is denser than the soil water. So by a natural law which governs fluid, the soil water seeps through the thin cell wall and mingles with the sap in the root hair. This extra amount of fluid naturally distends the tiny cell chamber until it can hold no more. The sap fluid in this cell, now mixed with dilute soil water, is much thinner than the sap in the next or adjoining cell above it. Following the same rule of attraction, the sap is drawn into the denser cell and so on until it is mounted to the very topmost twig. Science is not certain how to explain this mystery. You know why? Because it staggers them when they think of it. They don't understand the process. It's beyond human skill to grasp it, and so they simply say, well, there's no explanation because they don't recognize that there is any greater intelligence or skill than their own intellect. But I ask you, would this not simply be another evidence of an almighty God displaying his marvelous wisdom and power to the very men who think that they are all wise and all powerful, even as the Bible says in First Corinthians chapter number one that God took the wise in their own conceit? They so trusted in their own intelligence and wisdom that they couldn't find God. Now, food comes down through the stem in one channel. Inside this is another channel which carries the liquid from the root up to the top. In addition to these uses, the stem provides storage for starch and sugar, needed in early springtime for the nourishment of flower buds and young leaves. Think of the sago palm. Yields as much as eight hundred pounds of starchy material in a single trunk. There's similar storehouses in the sweet potato and the dahlia and the gladiolus. The thing that strikes you forcibly about all this is the immense care that God has devoted to every detail, the small as well as the large. His work is perfect. His work is complete. His plan for each plant is divine and mysterious, and under suitable conditions, each plant will fulfill its destiny as the Creator ordered. Now what about you? Doesn't God take just as much care for you? Doesn't God have just as minutely contrived a plan for your life as he does for the life of each and every plant? I believe he does. How it would benefit us to seek the Word of God, to seek out a Bible teaching, Bible believing fellowship of Christians where where we can be taught and learn of God's great plan for our lives. You know, when you consider the wonders of the plant life, you can almost imagine that they're endowed with some kind of a super intelligence, and yet you can't but resist the conclusion that there's a masterm at work behind the plant kingdom. In the Blackberry and Raspberry, for instance, the engineer devised an indigestible pit around each seed. These pits permit the seeds to pass through the digestive canal in their original condition. A bear goes out and has a meal of berries. He doesn't realize that he's actually helping by carrying the seas. So animals are used ingeniously as an effectively operating transportation system for seeds. Sometimes the rinds or seeds themselves are poisonous, both to animals and men, and this serves as a warning. At other times the rind is simply so distasteful that it discourages the marauder from penetrating further. The mechanical devices adopted for the transportation of seeds are most striking. The tumbleweed, with its feathery structure, is able to roll along the ground for long distance. Carried by the wind, the fruit breaks off and is deposited far from the parent plant. Then aeronautics is commonplace in nature. The Chinese lantern is the familiar red plant used as an ornament in many homes. Its uh inflated calyx surrounds the fruit, which when it is ripened is carried high into the air. Winged fruits, or sea, were the precursors of airplanes. The single winged product of the ash and the double winged fruit of the maple are so constructed that they will fly long distances in order to provide for germination away from the parent. The Alanthus bears a fruit, which has a simple propeller. The common milkweed and dandelion surprises with their parachutes. You remember blowing them as a child and watching them float to the ground? The fruits bearing the seeds are wafted high in the air and carried miles away from their birthplace. Usually flowers use air currents for the transference of their pollen. If you doubt this, just ask anybody that suffers from hay fever. These pollen grains are very lightweight. In the case of pines, there is an appendage attached to kind of an air sac. You know many of our common native plants have mechanisms for releasing their seed. The envy of our modern engineers. The violet and the columbine open their pods by means of valves, one to each pod, from which these seeds spring with great force. The mustard plant splits its pods in a peculiar fashion, from the bottom upward, leaving behind a false partition used for decorative effect. In some species this is beautifully dyed. The evening primrose has a capsule which splits along four structures, and from such a trap only a few seeds are allowed to escape at a time, thus ensuring economy. The Jimson weed or thoraple has a similar device. The poppy at the time of maturity has small windows or pores at the apex of the capsule. As the wind moves the long stem of the plant back and forth, the very light seeds are blown out of the pods a few at a time. In plants like the jewel weed or touch me not, the seeds are forced out by spring light gats. A slight jar causes the fruit to shoot its seeds quite a long distance. The witch hazel also ejects its seed with great force, sending them as far as twenty feet. Even the lowly mushroom uses a spring to project its spores through the darkness to some small ray of light. Ferns scatter their spores by means of trigger light devices on the underside of their fronds. The wild geranium uses a catapult to distribute its seed. Each of the five seeds has its own private mechanism. The squirting cucumber of southern Europe is very curious. Its fleshy fruit hangs from a stalk, which acts as a stopper at one end. As the fruit matures, the cork like plug pulls loose, and the seeds are shot out with great violence because of the internal pressure accumulated throughout the growing season. In America, the wild balsam apple, the climbing annual, uh follows a similar plan. You know that some plants are confirmed meat eaters and insist on a diet consisting of the bodies of their animal friends and acquaintances, and so these insect eating plants must have a special device. Usually they're provided with a spring light mechanism. Familiar examples that you may know about are the pitcher plant and the sundew and the Venus flytrap. The pitcher plant actually has modified leaves, forming a structure which which resembles a pitcher. It collects rainwater. The plant nectar sweetens this water, making it attractive to insects. On the inside of the pitcher, which is open at the top, there are stiff hairs pointing downward. The thirsty insect enters the pitcher, takes its drink, and prepares to leave, but finds the way blocked by the hair and is drowned. The plant now enjoys its meal. The sun dew is provided with tiny hairs on the upper surface of its leaves, the hairs secreting a sticky substance from glands located on their tips. This liquid looks like dew, but when the insect alights on it to enjoy the morning dew drop, it gets the surprise of its short life. It is stuck fast. The hairs then bend toward the middle of the leaf which closes and traps the insect, and that is the end of this particular bug. The sundew relishes its meal. The leaves of the venous flytrap have two halves hinged together. On the surface of the leaves or hair like structures which act like triggers. When the worm or fly crawls over these tiny bristles, an immediately immediate impulse is carried to the leaves, resulting in instant closure of the leaves, their hinges permitting this remarkable response. The sensitive plants, such as the common monosa, close their compound leaves in mechanical fashion as a result of excessive heat, shock, or the onset of darts. The huckleberry shoots its pollen from double barreled shotguns. Some pollen grains are rough or adhesive, causing them to adhere to the body or hairs of insect or animals. The stigmas of most flowers are made sticky in order to catch and hold in place pollen, allowing it to germinate. Some common weeds distribute their seeds by supplying them with tiny hooks, which cling to the hair or fur of animals. Examples are the cockle burr, what we call the sticker plant, the burdock, which most of us have had trouble with at one time or another, the burr marigold, the beggar's tick, the stickite. Each of these has hooked or barbed prongs and is loosely attached to the parent planet maturity. Contact with some animal gives it a free ride. Then there's coconuts, palm nuts, Solomon's seal, and many other fruits that prefer water transportation and are so constructed that they will be safely carried to some distant shore without sinking. Now, I've got to ask you again, who but God could devise such an amazing array of unique devices as we have been talking about. You can't help but see that nature has many ways of giving the seeds a ride and free transportation to some unknown destination in this day of travel and people everywhere are on the move, crossing land and sea and flying through the air at incredible speeds. You know, that's one of the signs of the last time. Many centuries ago a strange prediction was given to Daniel, the great seer of Babylon. He was an old man, probably about ninety years of age. And this man of God, one of the most remarkable who ever lived, was given a glimpse into the distant future. He saw certain world shaking events of our time. He is anxious to know the date of these occurrences. When will when will these last time events take place? And the angel wouldn't tell him specifically, but said this. At the time of the end, many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. You know, this can't help but indicate a marked increase in the speed of transportation just before the end of this age. One thing's for certain the world has gone mad after speed. If this is what was suggested by the angel, we're certainly living an exciting day. Tremendous events are now on the offing. Events which indicate all around us that the coming of the Lord is not. You think about another type of travel. One of God's prophets took a strange ride one day long ago. Story is told of Elijah in 2 King chapter 2. There appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire. Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. I'd like to ask Elijah about that trip, wouldn't you? Another servant of God named Enoch. He was a lot older than Daniel. He was three hundred and sixty-five years old. When in Genesis chapter five and verse twenty four he was lifted bodily from earth and taken to heaven, the Bible said Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him. And you know, shortly after the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, Philip the Evangelist, he was doing a little personal work with the Ethiopian eunuch in the desert. He didn't have any means of transportation back to civilization, and he was given a trip on God's fast express. You read in Acts eight thirty nine, the spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, and he was found at Azotis, not very far from the city of Samaria, which he had left a few days before on that great chariot ride. You know our Bible tells us that one day a vast host of people are to be given free heavenward transportation, to be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. The reference is found in Paul's letter to the Thessalonians. It's of sensational interest, I would say. Chapter four, the Bible says the Lord himself should descend from heaven with a shout, the voice of the archangel, the trump of God, the dead in Christ shall be raised first, then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air. You know when you mention this possibility, uh people look at you like you're crazy, eyebrows are raised, and people take a second look, they say something's wrong with you mentally. Do you know something God's not restricted to our crude methods of transportation? If he can empower a lowly cucumber to squirt its seed far into the air, if he can allow the uh dandelion, a parachute to drift across the sea, if he can allow the coconut seed an arc in which to drift across the oceans, he can surely do greater things for you and I when he wills it. There's nothing illogical or childish or fanatical about believing an all powerful creator can transport his creatures from one location to another, why he proves his power to do so in many marvelous ways in the creation, in the plant world round about us. You know, I believe that I'll be caught up to meet the Lord. I'm sure of why? Not because I deserve this honor, but because I belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, How could a lowly seed of a weed be transported far across a wilderness? Well, it attaches itself perhaps to the trouser leg of a man far greater and far more superior in God's order of things than a lowly weed. You know something? I I've considered the Lord Jesus Christ far more superior than I am in God's scheme of things, but you know something? By faith I've joined myself to him, and I'll trust him to transport this lowly little creature that I am from one end of his universe to the other. Yes, I know and believe that I'll make heaven. Not because of my power, not because of my grace, but because I've attached myself to the great God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Alright, now here's a question. Do plants think? What a strange question you might respond, but plants, as you know, they have no brains, they have no word. There is the merest rudiment of a nervous system, and even that remains to be demonstrated. How can a thing think that has nothing to think with? Nevertheless, plants do some strange things, so strange that it is hard to account for them by ordinary process of conjecture. Perhaps the best thing will be to present some facts and leave you to account for the phenomena in your own way. Many plants, some of which may be familiar to us, resort to ingenious devices with an evident purpose in view. It may sound like assuming something to say that plants have a purpose, which is presuming it once that they think. Then let us say that they have something toward which they work, having seemingly definite ends concerning which they display considerable ingenuity. For example, all plants have enemies that threaten their very existence. Some have aggressive methods that they use against their foes, while others are unprotected. Such plants are without military equipment, and so they resort to something to take the place of and find safety in hiding. Royal Dixon calls attention to the fact that quote, weeds frequently hide among plants which are similar to themselves. Wild seedling lilies are often found among Solomon's seal. June grass flourishes undisturbed among beds of flocks, nightshade grows among tomato plants, wild onions slip in among their cultivated cousins, daisies love the company of bachelor's butts. Such plants seem to act on the principle that discretion is the better part of valor. The bull's thorn or horn, the bull's horn thorn, or bull's thorn take your pick, it's called by both names, would be riddled by leaf eating insects if it did not resort to strategy. What it does is to grow little hollow horns in which it places globules of sweets. Ants find the sweets and possess the thorn for the good they get from it. In return for favors received, they defend their benefactor from the incursions of such insects as would damage or kill it. Plain case of each helping the other. Many plants go farther than these examples and offer direct resistance to intruders. Naturalists refer to such growth or secretions produced in this way as protective devices. In some cases where unwelcome insects beset the flower for its sweets and can find no access, they bore through the wall of petals so as to force the bloom to give up its syrup. In that case, the plant pours out a poisonous or hateful juice to rid itself of its troublesome visitor. That is, when the plant needs cooperation of the bee for the purpose of scattering pollen, it attracts it by distilling nectar. But the same plant can manufacture a noxious concoction to keep off harmful invaders. When human beings display such acuteness, we speak of choice, of purpose or plan, all of which implies intelligence. But what are you going to call this in plants? The thistle arms itself with spikes against marauding flies, bugs, and whatnot, but for its friend the bee, it provides a downy resting place so that the guest may bask luxuriously as it goes about its work. The butter and eggs plant closes its petals to all comers except its pollen bearing friends, for whom it provides a flexible lower pedal, which the bee alone operates, its weight being exactly sufficient to bend this petal downward enough to admit the welcome view. The pussy willow has its own tactics. Crawling insects and caterpillars are not wanted because they are detrimental. To meet the necessity, the willow secretes a gum that varnishes the stock so smooth that the invader is unable to climb it. But winged insects, because they carry pollen, are freely admitted to the catkin. Now how does the willow know just how to defend itself in the one case and attract its friends to its service on the other? I ask you, do plants think? Different species resort to different methods of self protection, some using thorns, others poisons, still others prickles, gluey excretions, varnish, foul odors, stinging prickles, and whatnot, while they offer beauty, color, sweets, easy access, perfume, and other inducements to such insects as will render them the favor of scattering pollen, a necessity which all plants recognize. Again, quoting Royal Dixon, this time from his book The Human Side of Plants, he says in plant life there is a rule that all insects which do not give value received must be repelled. Now here's what we have to ask ourselves. Where did this discernment come from? Where did this physical response to situations come from? It cannot be said that these phenomena are mere chance. The occurrence is too frequent to be a coincidence. It cannot be said that they are mere chemical reactions. Elements are not intelligent and not adjustable. It cannot be said that they are the result of tropisms, for tropisms are fixed processes of cause and effect. But plants show discretionary power. A machine cannot do that. A chemical reaction cannot do that. Neither one has the power of choice, and plants do have the power of choice. Why? How? If there be doubt as to the discretionary power of plants, let me give you some more examples. In the case of pussy willows already referred to, the gum that varnishes the stalks and stems is exuded only at the season when insect raids are at their height. When cooler weather appears and insects cease their attacks, there is no longer need of making slippery approaches and the plant gives over its resistance through other functions though other functions continue. The same may be said of the balsam poplars and the horse chestnut. They act specifically when there is need and refrain when the necessity is gone. This evidently and obviously reveals a mastermind behind the plant world. Night blooming flowers resort to different strategy to ensure the same results. Most insects are active in the daytime, but certain moths are abroad at night, and some flowers open only in the dark, thus evading their enemies while they submit themselves to the friendly touch of pollen bearing insects. They are quite human in this respect. Many trucks are found on the highways at night, drivers finding less traffic and less delay. We say that this is the reason for the inverted order. May we not say that the flower inverts the regular order also for a reason? And it is further noticeable that when a departure is made from the established mode, it is always to the advantage of the plant. This would seem to favor the idea that there is inherent in something of a in it something of a purpose, and that the phenomena of various habits of growth are nothing more than God's designs. But this is not all. Some flowers are sought for by only one kind of pollen bearing insect. The remarkable thing here is that such flowers emit their perfume only at those hours of the day when that particular insect is awake and active. Other plants turn upside down when the weather is moist, thus keeping the pollen dry for the visit to the bee. And then there's Mrs. Treat, an American woman. She pinned a live fly one half inch from the leaf of the sundew she was observing. In two hours, the leaf had moved up to the fly and fastened its tentacles upon it. The sundew is one of the many species of the vegetable kingdom that live on animal food. If a fly alight on its leaf, the tentacles close in on the prey and it is devoured. But if a small pebble was placed on the same leaf, the tentacles close over it as before and then drop it immediately. The act is intelligent. It's discriminated. It's immediate, as much so as the act of an animal with a brain. Thus many plant habits show God's marvelous intelligence working in and through them. Fabre, in his delightful volume, The Wonder Book of Plant Life, says that parasites like the daughter and the mistletoe are explained by this. They have no chlorophyll, without which they cannot manufacture their food, in which straits they must resort to stealing a living from such plants as will have these b poverty stricken beggars attached to them. Now how do they know this? How do climbing vines find their way up a pole or a tree? Remove the pole and the plant will find it again? How do they know? Do plants have brains? Do plants think? Or is there a super intelligence, an almighty God ruling and reigning over all his creation? My friend, I think you would have to agree. There is an almighty God. He is all knowing, he is all powerful. If he takes such care for the plant and animal world, you have to know he'll take the same great care for your soul. Why don't you come to him? Commit your very life and being to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let the master of the universe, let the master of the creation, be the master of your life, and you'll never, never regret it. I'm ready to do that? Well, it's very simple. You're a sinner. Jesus Christ is the safe. You come to Jesus as the sinner who desires the Savior and you introduce yourself to him. You say, Lord Jesus Christ, I am a poor sinner who needs a Savior. I know and believe that you are the Savior. Will you please receive me and give me your everlasting life? Jesus has already said that if you'd come to him, he wouldn't turn you away, he wouldn't reject you, but he'd receive you unto himself and give you the gift of God which is eternal life. Oh would to God that you'd be saved today and know that the God of creation is your God and your Savior.

SPEAKER_00 28:46

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 Sermons, our sermon audio page, Bible Baptist the Land, or our website, BibleBaptisttheland.com. Until next time and throughout eternity, may Jesus Christ be praised.