All Creatures Great and Small

Genesis 1:24–25 NLT

24 Then God said, “Let the earth produce every sort of animal, each producing offspring of the same kind—livestock, small animals that scurry along the ground, and wild animals.” And that is what happened. 25 God made all sorts of wild animals, livestock, and small animals, each able to produce offspring of the same kind. And God saw that it was good.

Introduction

Today I want to speak to you on the subject-All Creatures Great and Small, the Lord God Made them All.

I don't know if you have read the books of James Alfred Wight who lived from 1916 until 1995, he is better known by his pen name James Herriot, and he was a British veterinary surgeon and author. Born in Sunderland, Wight graduated from Glasgow Veterinary College in 1939, returning to England to become a veterinary surgeon in Yorkshire, where he practiced for almost 50 years. He is best known for writing a series of eight books set in the 1930s–1950s in the Yorkshire Dales about his veterinary practice, animals, and their owners. Over the decades, the series of books has sold some 60 million copies and have been made into two television series and movies. They are classic books. They are wonderful books.

You may have noticed that those books in a series were built around a hymn. In the course of that hymn there are a couple of lines which say: All creatures great and small, the Lord God made them all. Those words were penned by a lady named Frances Alexander. She was the wife of a preacher.

Some of the young people in her congregation complained to her that they were having difficulty understanding some of the doctrines of the faith. They were a little complicated for them and they expressed a desire that the doctrines of faith might be expressed in a simpler form. In order to meet that need on the part of the young people, she composed some hymns. In those hymns she gave the great doctrines of the faith.

The Doctrine of Creation

The doctrine of creation is one of the fundamental doctrines in all of the Word of God. In Genesis verse 1, chapter 1, it says, ''In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.'' This sets forth the doctrine that the Lord God is the God of creation. So, she wrote the lines, ''All creatures great and small, the Lord God made them all.''

That statement, built upon the truth of the Bible of creation, is in direct contrast and opposition to the theory of evolution. The theory of evolution denies the existence of a creator and says that rather than everything we see being brought into existence by a creator God-an all-powerful, all-knowing-omnipotent, omniscient, omni-present God-that everything you see came into existence by accident. I do not believe the theory of evolution can be maintained scientifically. I believe that when you really examine the scientific evidence, the evidence is against the theory of evolution. In fact, I have come to believe that evolution is not properly called a science, but rather it is a philosophy. It is a philosophy which seeks to explain the existence of everything without the necessity of a divine creator.

When you look at Genesis chapter 1, expressing day after day after day, and seeing the creative, wonderful works of our God. Then you come to the sixth day of creation, you have recorded the creation of the animals and also the creation of man-male and female. We have talked a little bit about this creation of the animals.

Regarding the composition of the animals: I want to point out three statements made in these two verses that summarize for us the composition of the animals. It says in verse 24, ''And God said.'' In verse 25, ''And God made.'' And in verse 25 again, ''And God saw that it was good.''

There you have summarized what the Bible says about the composition of the animals. We know the Bible tells us that the animals were made from the dust of the earth. The Bible also tells us in Genesis chapter 2 that man was created from the dust of the earth. That is, our chemical and physical composition. We also know that the scientists tell us that the DNA of animals is basically the same composition as the earth. We also know that the DNA of animals and of man is very, very similar. In fact, 98% of the DNA of animals and man are the same. There are similarities but it is the 2% which is different which makes all the difference in the world.

Differences: Humans verses Animals

When you want to talk about the difference of man and the animals you do not look at man's chemical or physical composition, but you look for other things. You look for moral aspects. You look for spiritual aspects. The book of Ecclesiastes 3:11 says,

Ecclesiastes 3:11 NLT

11 Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.

There's something about man that relates to God. You will never see an animal on its knees repenting of its sin. You will never see animal receiving Jesus Christ into its heart and its life and receiving a new birth, transforming experience.

St. Augustine said this. ''Our hearts are restless for thee, and they will not rest until they rest in thee.''

God has so composed us that we have more than chemical or a physical nature. We also have a spiritual nature, and we need to relate ourselves to God.

Composition of Animals

So, we have first of all the composition of the animals. There are similarities, but there are significant dissimilarities.

The second thing we notice in these two verses is not only the composition of animals, but we notice secondly the distinction of animals. In the first chapter of Genesis There is a significant phrase which occurs ten times in that chapter. It is the phrase-after his kind. It is rather interesting to me that when you come to the account of the creation of the animals, that phrase is used five times in the two verses which have to do with the creation of the animals. It's as if God has drawn a line between animal life and human life. It's as if God has underscored the truth that man is different from animals. As if to have anticipated, by divine inspiration that there would be those who would teach that man evolved from animals-that man descended from the lower animal existence.

Composition of Humans

So, along the way, there have been attempts to prove that we have descended from the animals. They have sought to prove in the fossil record that there would be transitional forms-that you would find an ape-like creature or a human-like creature. That you would find them moving from one form to another, gradually over a period of years. This is not at all what you find in the fossil record. In fact, scientists talk to us about what is called the Cambrian explosion. That means that during the Cambrian period you have virtually all phylum of animal life appearing fully formed at the same time. It is called the Cambrian explosion. So, you do not find gradual evolution in the fossil record.

There are the so-called ape-men, such as the Piltdown man and the java ape-man. I point out to you that most of those so-called ape-men are colossal hoaxes. Lucy-one of the more famous of them-discovered in 1974 by Professor Donald Johnson. He said that Lucy was a transitional form. He claimed that what you had in Lucy was a creature that was on the way from an animal to a man. He said that what we have here is an upright creature. The Greek word for man is Anthropos which means erect one-walking upright one. So here was a find, supposedly 4 million years old. The find was titled Lucy. What did they find? Well, they found a knee joint. That's all they found. It has been admitted that they found the rest of the skeleton about two miles away from the knee joint. It has been found that Lucy is no transitional form at all. Rather Lucy was a chimpanzee weighing about 35 pounds. No evidence whatsoever for any transitional forms.

God has drawn a line. God has said that the animals will reproduce after their kind. That means that you will never ever see one species of animal transforming itself or being transformed into another specie.

Evolution

There is a difference between microevolution and macroevolution. Most of what some scientists refer to as evolution is really microevolution. That means you will find within species small changes. You will find differences in color. You will find differences in structure. Microevolution is nothing but small changes within species.

What you will never find is macroevolution. You will never, ever see a cow become a donkey. You will never, ever see a sheep become a mule. Macroevolution has been ruled out by God when He says, ''Creation of the animals is after its kind.''

So, we have, first, the composition of the animals. Second, the distinction of the animals. They are animals and they never become humans.

Now, number three, I want to talk to you about the classification of the animals. In these two verses we have a three-fold classification given to us for the animal kingdom.

In verse 25, you will notice in that verse it says that God made the beasts of the earth after its kind. Then God made the cattle after their kind. Then God made everything that creeps upon the earth after his kind. This is not a scientific classification as we classify animals today. But it is God's classification of three kinds of animal creatures. We know that there are all kinds of animals in the animal kingdom. There are broad speculations about just how many kinds of animals there are. It goes all the way from 500 thousand to three million different kinds of animals in existence. If you really want to see this, one of the best things you can do is to buy a ticket to the zoo. Let him go to the zoo and observe God's creation. All creatures great and small, the Lord God made them all. That's how they all came into existence.

Classifications:

I want to talk to you about these classifications for just a few minutes today.

I. The BEASTS of the earth.

There we have wild animal life. I refer to these as the animals which scare us. The beasts of the field. The beasts of the earth. Wild animal life.

I could talk about many of them, but I'll just talk about a couple of them. First, let me introduce you to the elephant. All creatures great and small. The elephant is one of the largest animals in God's creation. Let's talk specifically about the elephant's trunk. How in the world do you think that trunk came into existence? Do you think that trunk came into existence over a period of millions of years? Do you think that once upon a time there was an elephant that did not have a trunk? That somehow that animal just began to evolve itself and accidentally, after millions of years, there was the trunk of the elephant. That trunk of the elephant is so strong that it can lift logs. Yet, it is so sensitive that it can pick up a single peanut. It is the touching organ of the elephant. Yet, this organ of the elephant is also the organ by which the elephant drinks water, by which it breathes, by which it feeds itself. Sometimes it's as long as seven feet in length. It can hold five gallons of water. It is the upper nose, and it is also the upper lip of the elephant. How did that trunk come into existence? All creatures great and small, the Lord God made them all. So much for the elephant.

Let's talk about another of God's creations that scare us. Have you thought about the bear? If you have ever been up to the national and state parks you are warned not to feed the bears. The bears will scare at best and kill you at the worst you. Have you thought about the amazing ability of the bears to hibernate? In the wintertime the bears hibernate. Sometimes they hibernate for as long as seven months. During that period of time their heart rate drops rapidly. It is only about 12 beats per minute. For seven months the bear does not feed. For seven months it sustains itself on stored fat in its body. For seven months there is no necessity for the digestive system and the expulsion system of the bear to work. How did the bear develop that ability to hibernate? And for seven months how does that bear's body have the ability to sustain itself and yet have no need whatsoever to expulse food from its system? Did it just come into existence accidentally? Did all of that come about some evolutionary process that does not have divine design to it? Oh, no. All creatures great and small, the Lord God made them all. The animals which scare us.

II. The Creeping things.

In verse 25 it also says that God made everything that creeps on the earth after his kind. Now, let's talk to you about the animals which surprise us. Have you ever thought about those creeping things, those crawling things? Think about the lizards. Do you like lizards? There are about 2500 species of lizards. How did all of those species come into existences? Did they just accidentally come into existence? Over 2500 species of lizards and they all came into existence accidentally? Dinosaurs are giant lizards. A lizard continues to grow throughout its life. It never gets to maturity. As long as the lizard lives, it continues to grow. I personally believe that the dinosaurs were on the earth before the flood. I believe that because of climatic conditions and because of length of life at that time, those lizards just kept growing and growing and growing and growing and they became dinosaurs.

When you look at the fossil remains of the dinosaurs, you will discover that dinosaurs became extinct because they were drowned in water. I personally believe that when the flood came - that was the extinction of the dinosaurs.

What about the chameleon? Have you thought about the ability of that chameleon to change its color? I have seen chameleons change their color almost before my very eyes. When an enemy approaches, when a predator comes after the chameleon, if that chameleon is on a green leaf, miraculously, stunningly that chameleon changes its color and becomes green, and you can hardly see it. How in the world did that chameleon get the ability to change its color?

The evolutionist says to me, ''Preacher, once upon a time a billion years ago there was a chameleon, and it was being chased by another animal. After a billion years, that chameleon learned to change its colors.'' I have news for you, if that first chameleon couldn't do it instantly, he would be a dead chameleon and what about the rest of them? All creatures great and small, the Lord God made them all.

Have you thought about the bombardier beetle lately? It is found in the deserts of New Mexico. Very amazing little crawling creatures are the bombardier beetles. The bombardier beetles manufacture two different kinds of chemicals in two different stomachs. Both of these chemicals in and of themselves are harmless. But when a predator gets after the bombardier beetle, they produce these two chemicals and combine them, and they become the temperature of boiling water. When combined they become a lethal spray and the bombardier beetle can shoot a predator five consecutive times with that boiling, poisonous water and destroy their enemy. How did the bombardier beetle develop the ability to produce those two chemicals? How did it know to put the two chemicals together and spray them at the enemy? All creatures great and small, the Lord God made them all.

I just want to throw in the platypus. Yes, God has a sense of humor. The platypus is God's joke on the evolutionist. The platypus just drives the evolutionist out of his skull. When you look at the platypus you wonder what in the world is that. Is that platypus a beast or a bird? It has fur like a bear. It has a bill like a duck. It gives milk like a cow. It lays eggs like a bird. It has teeth like a beaver. It has a tail like a raccoon. Tell me, Mr. Evolutionist, what does the platypus come from-a beast or a bird? All creatures great and small, the Lord God made them all.

So, God said make the beasts of the earth-the animals which scare us. God said make the creeping things-the animals that surprise us. Then right there in the middle He said, ''And God made cattle after their kind.''

III. The animals which serve us.

Have you ever thought about the animals serve us? Here the reference is to livestock. Domesticated animal life. So uniquely God has created animals to serve humanity.

Look at the cow. Mr. Cow is an amazing animal which serves us. Here is a brown cow that eats green grass and gives white mile and yellow butter. I don't understand how he does it, but I like milk and I love butter.

Let's talk about the stomach of the cow. You have one stomach. The cow has four stomachs. Let's talk about the digestive process of the cow. How did all of this come about? How is it that cow has four stomachs? The evolutionist says, ''oh, a billion years ago there was a cow with just one stomach, but he ate too much so he had to have another stomach. Then a million years later, there was another cow and it had two stomachs and he ate too much so he needed three stomachs. Then another million years another cow came along, and he was a real glutton and he had to have four stomachs.'' Is that how it came about?

Let me tell you some things about the four stomachs of the cow. The cow eats grass and that and it goes into stomach number one-the rumen. That is a huge stomach-about fifty gallons of containment. It ferments for a day or two and then it converts itself into simple sugars and from there the food is carried into the second stomach-the reticulum, the second stomach. There the grass and hay is mixed with digestive enzymes and with more fermentation bacteria. It rolls the fodder into little balls and infuses them with enzymes of fiber and then regurgitates them and then the cow chews them a little bit more. In fact, the cow normally eats about six hours a day and chews its cud about eight hours a day. Then that cow swallows that cud into the third stomach-the omasum. The omasum takes the excess liquid and absorbs it into the cow's system where it is broken down and now thoroughly refined food passes into the fourth stomach-the abomasum. There it is transferred into nutrients which pass into the cow's blood system and provide vital nutrients for milk production. What an amazing food is milk!

I have known people to live on nothing but milk for a solid year and doubled their weight. I'm referring to babies, of course. But that's an amazing thing. What an amazing food is milk. In addition to milk, there is also the meat. In addition to that there is the skin which can be used for leather. There are the bones which can be ground up for fertilizer. There are the horns which can be used for gelatin. God made the cows to serve man.

Look at the sheep. Think about how the sheep can provide food. Think about how the sheep can be used in medical research. Think about how the wool of the sheep can be used to make clothing either to warm our bodies in the wintertime or to cool our bodies in the summertime. God gave us the sheep. How did all of that come about? The evolutionist says it came about by a colossal, incredible accident. The Bible says God created the cattle of the field.

I reject evolution for two basic reasons. Number one, I reject it because I do not believe it is correct scientifically. Even more serious reason why I reject evolution-I believe it is deadly morally and spiritually.

When Charles Darwin came out with his theory of evolution, two men picked it up. One of those men was Frederick Nietzsche, an Atheist from German. Another man that picked it up was Karl Marx, an Atheist from Russia. Both of these men latched on to the theory of evolution because the theory of evolution gives a philosophy to explain the existence of things without the necessity of a divine creator. So, Nietzsche applied it to philosophy in Germany and the result was German militarism. Karl Marx applied it politically and sociologically and the result was Russian communism. We know the result of the atheistic characteristics of evolution in Germany and in Russia. The results of the evolutionary theory have produced most of damnable, negative results in every field of learning whether it be philosophy or whether it be psychology. The view that man came into existences accidentally, without the creative work of an eternal God, is absolutely devastating to any meaning and purpose in human existence.

One of the characters of Brothers Karamazov said this, ''IF God does not exist, then everything is permissible. You teach a generation of young people that they just came into existence accidentally, you teach young people that they are not different than the animals, why should be surprised if they live their lives on the level of the animals? Why should be surprised if they commit sexual immorality in the back of cars? Why should you be surprised if they grow up believing that there is nothing wrong with exterminating human life in the womb of its own mother? Why should you ever wonder that young people will live on the level of animal if you tell them they came from the animals?

Conclusion

Folks, I'm here to tell you that the Bible teaches that you are not an accident. All creatures great and small, the Lord God made them all.

The Bible says, ''All we like sheep are gone astray.'' The Bible compares us to sheep. What do you know about sheep? It's not a real compliment when the Bible compares us to sheep. The sheep is about the dumbest animal you will ever encounter. You have never seen a sheep get a PhD degree. They are dumb. They get lost easily. That's why the Bible says all we like sheep have gone astray. We not sheep, but we are like sheep. We tend to go astray. Just like every sheep needs a shepherd. Every person needs a Savior. God created you with a built-in need for God. God created you with the need to be forgiven of your sins and to have a personal Savior and a person Savior. The good news is two thousand years ago the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world and He was known as the Good Shepherd. That Good Shepherd came into the world and one day He went out to a cross. On that cross, He died for the sins of the world and the Bible declared, ''Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin.''

You are not an animal. You are a person. You need a Savior. The Creator God has provided for you that Savior.

AMEN