God of Creation: Birds and Their Creator

Welcome to the Preaching the Cross Radio Podcast, featuring the radio ministry of Pastor James W.

Knox of the Bible Baptist Church of Delance, Florida.

Our prayer is that these half-hour Bible study programs will bring the lost to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and enable the saved to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Savior.

Now here's your host, Pastor James W.

Knox.

Thank you for tuning in to the Preaching of the Cross Radio Broadcast.

I'm Brother James, and I greet you as always in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

I certainly am thankful to Christ Jesus, my Lord, who suffered and bled and died on Calvary's cross in my place, paying for my transgression, making possible the salvation of my soul, for a payment had to be made for sin, and I certainly could not pay for that sin.

The Bible says the redemption price is not corruptible things such as silver and gold, but the only way that our soul can be bought back from sin, from death, from hell, from Satan, is if something more precious than silver and gold should pay that price, and that which is more precious, the Bible says, is the blood of Jesus Christ, God's own Son, which cleanses us from all sin.

We certainly are thankful to God for sending his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to make a way that our souls might be saved.

I hope you know him.

I hope you've been born again through the grace of God and by putting your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

You know, the Bible not only reveals Jesus Christ as the Redeemer, but also as the Creator.

And we've been uh talking on this series of broadcasts uh uh entitled uh God the Creator or the God of Creation, and we've been talking about many different aspects of the uh natural world round about us.

And we started last time discussing the birds, and we're going to continue today uh talking about the bird life and the life of birds, if you will, and how they manifest an all-powerful, almighty creator.

Now, no phase of animal life is more interesting than that of the migration of birds, many of which travel enormous distances according to season.

Various mammals promptly hibernate when cold weather cuts off their natural supply of food, whereas birds simply visit another region in search of food.

In the northern hemisphere, a migration toward the north is always for the purpose of finding the most suitable temperature for breeding.

Movement southward is always prompted by the desire for food and warmth.

Uh l in just a little while we'll talk about uh individual birds in this uh particular head, but there are at least 10,000 species of birds, but ornithologists differ considerably regarding classification, and some authorities place the number at 13,000.

Now we can only deal with a few kinds of birds and in our study, but uh we want to think of a very familiar class of birds, the crows, if you will, belonging to the family Corvidae or Corvidae.

It is claimed for the birds of this family that they stand at the very head of the whole class of abyss.

It is generally agreed that the cleverest birds are rooks and parrots, the rooks having many close relatives, the common crow, the raven, magpie, jay, nutcracker, and the common cow.

In February, the story of the rook begins, for that is the time of courting.

The bird struts and bows before the hen, the cock does, and spreads out his wings and tail, attempting sometimes to sing in the gaiety of his heart, but with no great success.

This strutting and bowing and singing may occur at other seasons when they are well pleased with themselves, but it is most marked during the courtship.

An interesting little ceremony is sometimes seen.

The male bird brings his desired mate a little gift, some tidbit of food, which she accepts with thanks, if she likes him.

Humans haven't anything on the rooks when it comes to lovemaking, and in one marked respect they set us an example.

Two crows remain together for life, but every year there is a period of courting.

Among the crows we find the most perfect type of wing, and the foot also is very highly developed.

The raven, the largest of the crows, is twenty five inches in length with a wing spread of four feet.

Its plumage is black with purple reflections.

Early in March, while the weather is still cool, the rooks begin to prepare a nest.

Sometimes they use an old one over again after a thorough spring cleaning.

There's a good deal of disputing over the twigs, and up to a certain stage they steal from one another if they can, but one bird usually mounts guard while the other breaks the twigs from the leafless trees.

After a while, they exchange duties.

To these pliable twigs, they add some earth and clay, and the inside of the nest is made comfortable with grass and leaves, hair, and wool.

There are often a dozen nests on one tree, and as many as thirty have been counted.

If a branch breaks off, or even if there is a hint of such an accident, the crows leave the tree.

They go back at night during this nest building time to their roosting place, which is usually quite apart from the rookery.

When the egg laying begins, they cease traveling to and fro to remain in the one place.

There are usually three to five eggs in one nest, and the mother bird sits very close, the male taking a turn now and then.

The color of the eggs in one clutch is often different from the color in another, probably due to diet.

The nests are quite conspicuous but seem to be safe from most enemies, although the carrion crows are successful robbers of nests.

The common crows are not very good fighters, and it may be that this softness in their character accounts for their sociability.

After the eggs hatch, the parents are kept very busy, satisfying the large appetite of the youngsters.

They are fed on grubs and wireworms and other insects.

When the newly hatched birds are very young, father hands over his collection of food to the mother, who does the actual feeding, but later on father is permitted to feed also.

There is great excitement when the young rooks leave the nest and make their first aerial excursions.

They indulge in various kinds of play, gambles, sham fights, and wild chases.

In September, there is a flitting from the rookery to the roosting place, where they spend the winter, or sometimes there may be a partial migration to more congenial quarters.

Now, I'm speaking of rooks and crows as if they were identical.

Technically, this is not quite true.

There's a slight difference in the form of the beak.

In the rook, the base of the beak is destitute of feathers and covered with a white scurf.

And also the rooks are even more sociable than the crows, which usually live together in pairs, while rooks love a communal life near humans.

But for the purposes of this practical study, we we may consider them together.

This family of birds are great talkers, and seem to have quite a number of sounds, or words, if you will, to use that term in this connection, which they themselves understand.

It is quite an exciting experience to get into a large rookery where they all seem to be talking at once, almost as interesting as a lady's sewing circle.

Almost all members of the parrot family are very social birds and given to much conversation.

Most of them are tropical and have very clear-cut characters, so that everyone knows a parrot at first glance.

However, some lovebirds are hardly larger than sparrows, and the great macaws are three feet long.

The outstanding feature, of course, is the shape of the beak, which is short and strongly hooked, the upper hinged mandible hanging far over the lower one.

This hooked apparatus is used skillfully to assist in climbing.

The tongue is short, thick, and fleshy.

The wings and tail are generally long.

The first and fourth toes are turned backward, the second and third forward, thus giving them a good grip of branches.

Most of them have a brilliant plumage, and many of them are startling.

In some kinds, the males are green and the females red.

Most parrots have a harsh voice, but a remarkable imitative power which varies with the kind and the individual and bears some relation to cleverness.

What parrots say often suggests keener wits than they actually possess.

Trained to utter words and sentences that are partially to the point in certain situations, they often surprise us.

A gray parrot, belonging to an English lady living in Florida, showed a keen sense of humor.

There were three dogs on the place.

The parrot, quite on his own account, learned the various whistles which would call these dogs, and would utter each in turn as if they belonged to three different owners.

The dogs would come racing up to the veranda where the parrot's cage hung, causing the bird to fling up its head and utter shrieks of laughter, while the disappointed dogs slunk away.

Now the parrot was careful not to try the trick too often, not more than once or twice a day, and the dogs never caught on.

These birds lay two to three white eggs in the holes of trees.

Parakeets, which are much smaller than parrots, sometimes lay a dozen eggs.

Of the true parrots, there is no better example than the gray parrot, which ranges across Africa.

This short-tailed parrot is almost wholly ashen gray, except the tail, which is a dark deep scarlet.

It has an astonishing power of imitating all kinds of sounds.

One of these gray parrots repeated faithfully all the sounds emitted by a dog which was run over in the street.

First the sudden, half-frightened bark as danger threatened, then the loud shriek of pain as the wheel struck, followed by a series of howls as the dog limped away and turned the corner in the distance.

The bird's performance reveals a tenacious memory and keen powers of observation.

It can copy the human voice and carry in its memory quite a stock of words.

It is one of the hardiest of cage birds and not uncommonly lives to an age of seventy or more years.

In our somewhat random sampling of bird life, the cuckoo, ally of the woodpecker, deserves at least a brief mention.

This bird is a parasite, and the most remarkable circumstance connected with its life history is the habit of depositing its eggs in the nests of other birds, leaving to them the care of its offspring.

This seems to be an ingenious labor-saving device, which certainly should not be generally followed.

This feathered interloper has been known to select the nests of almost 150 species, imposing equally on small and larger birds.

In all probability, the nest selected resembles the one in which the cuckoo itself was reared.

During the season, this vagrant may lay from five to twenty eggs.

These vary in color, but are usually grayish-green or reddish-gray.

The young cuckoo is an ungrateful little tyrant.

With its shovel-shaped back, it pushes out eggs and nestlings and forthwith monopolizes the fullest attention of the devoted and very much cheated foster parents.

The cuckoo is a migratory bird and will travel between Africa and England.

The old birds start south in July and August, leaving their family behind, since they are not yet strong enough for the long journey.

Yet a little later, the young birds unerringly wing their way in the track of their vagrant parents.

Now, this is most remarkable.

It's a wonder that has never been explained, and we're going to occupy our attention with it in a little bit more detail in just a moment.

Inevitably, our minds are asking, how did the birds originate in their varied forms, with their different habits and capabilities and appearance, yet all of them having feathers as a covering, frequently of striking beauty and cleverness?

I read the considered judgment of eminent scientists.

One of them says, Birds sprang from reptilian ancestors, active, high strung, scaly creatures that ran swiftly along the ground and took running leaps onto the lower branches of trees.

I don't know about you, but to me it seems a far cry from scaly reptiles to feathered birds.

How did the scales change to feathers?

How did wings arise?

How did it happen that the wings are in exactly the right position for flying?

Did the reptiles call a convention and decide to lighten their body and take to the air?

How long did this operation take?

Did it last more than the lifetime of one generation of birds?

If so, how did succeeding generations find out what had been planned and carried out?

How could this possibly be?

Well, it couldn't.

It's just a pipe dream invented by men who reject the word of God.

Now, how much more simple and logical to accept the explanation of Genesis chapter 1, verses 20 to 20 and 21?

Genesis 1:20

And God said, Let the fowl fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven, and God created every winged fowl after its kind, and God saw that it was good.

Now, my friends, that satisfies me completely.

And I ask you not to be fooled by any glib assertations, wholly unsupported by evidence, that these lovely forms of animated life came by chance from a repulsive reptile.

Our God is a God of superlative artistry and infinite wisdom and power.

Can anyone deny the evidence of the facts and say there is no God?

Well, yes, as a matter of fact, some do.

But who are these?

The Bible says in Psalm 141, the fool hath said in his heart, there is no God.

But who wants to be a fool?

Not me, and I hope not you.

We just need to take God at his word and believe the Bible.

Now let's consider the nesting of birds, egg laying and hatching.

These features are obviously wrapped up with the question of instinct, which is seen in all these animals.

An instinct is some tendency, innate in character, prior to experience, and quite independent of instruction.

It is only by instinct the different sexes of animals seek each other, that animals cherish their offspring, that the young quadruped is directed to the test of teeth of its mother, that birds build their nests and brood with so much patience upon their eggs.

It is only by instinct that insects which do not sit upon their eggs deposit them in those particular situations in which the young, when hatched, find their appropriate food, that the salmon and some other fish travel out of the sea into rivers for the purpose of spawning in fresh water.

Out of all this catalog, none is more interesting than the incubation of eggs.

Two sparrows, for instance, hatched in an incubator and kept separated from the rest of their species, proceed as other sparrows do in everything related to the production and preservation of their brood.

The constant question how is ever on our lips, and the only answer is inborn created instinct.

What could induce the female bird to prepare a nest before she lays her eggs?

It is vain to suppose that she is possessed of the faculty of reasoning.

No reasoning will satisfy the case.

The fullness or distension which she may feel in a particular part of her body, because of the growth and solid character of the egg within, could not possibly inform her that she was about to produce something of great importance, something which, when produced, must be preserved with great care.

She has had no experience which could lead to this inference or to this suspicion.

In fact, everything is against it.

In every other instance, what issues from her body is cast out and rejected.

Now let us suppose the egg is laid.

How should birds know that the eggs contain their young?

There is nothing, either in the external appearance or internal composition of an egg, which can lead even the most daring imagination to conjecture that after a time from inside the shell will come a perfect bird.

The form of the egg bears not the slightest resemblance to that of a bird.

If we, knowing nothing about the wonder, examined the shell and its contents, how could we guess that they might be designed for the abode and nutrition of an animal?

We might conceivably look for some kind of a slimy tadpole to come forth, but never a dry, winged, feathered creature.

The contents of the egg, examined prior to hatching, bear no imaginable relation to that which comes out of it.

From the white of an egg, would anyone ever look for the feathers of a goldfinch?

Who would expect from this homogeneous substance to come the most complicated of all machines, a perfect body of skin, feathers, bones, tissues, and organs all working harmoniously, able to perform the most complex physiological operations easily and without cessation?

Nor would the process of incubation lead us to expect the event.

Who, seeing the faint streaks beginning to form in the yoke, would imagine that these were soon to become bones and limbs?

Who that spied the minute pulsating point which appears two days after incubation could anticipate that it would soon become the heart, the center of a complete circulatory mechanism?

For the sake of argument, let us suppose that the sparrow, manifesting exceeding intelligence, had discovered that within that egg was concealed the principle of a future bird.

Are we to suppose further that she had been taught by some famous bird professor who had assured her that warmth was necessary to bring the egg to maturity?

And did he inform her that the warmth of her body would supply the heat in just the right degree?

No, I don't think so.

This mother sparrow is not possessed of that kind of reason to enable her to arrive at such astonishing conclusions.

There are no premises to justify such an expectation.

If she had this knowledge, she must have penetrated into the order of nature further than any human faculties have yet gone.

But with all her apparent cleverness, she seems to combine great stupidity.

The hen will mistake a piece of chalk for an egg.

She never misses any eggs if removed, nor pays any attention if more are added.

She does not distinguish between her own and those of another species, as we saw with the cuckoo.

She is very frightened if having hatched out duck eggs, her breed of ducklings take to the water.

Young birds just hatched and taken out of their nests to a cage, thus removed from all associations with their kind, and deprived of all possible means of instruction, will yet build their nests in the same manner as in the wild, and sit on their eggs.

Now was must we believe that in the first few minutes after hatching, Mother Bird whispered a full account of everything to her very young child, and Babybird was able to understand and store away for future use all this valuable information?

I think that's asking too much.

The hen shows her dumbness in sitting faithfully upon nonfertile eggs, in the laying of which there has been no communication with the male bird.

Too bad that she was not let into this secret too.

If incubation had been the subject of instruction or tradition, this important item would never have been overlooked.

Important, that is, to domesticated fowls, non-fertile eggs are not found in wildlife.

To what conclusion, then, in regard to the origin of birds, are we driven by this remarkable fact of instinct?

There is but one explanation, and it is not gradual development through the ages, it is creation.

As I've pointed out to you so many times, these instincts are necessary for the life of the individual and for the propagation of the species.

To be of use, they must be perfect.

An imperfect instance would result in the death of the animal.

Consequently, it could not have been evolved or developed through thousands of years from a small imperfect beginning to its present perfect state.

The only possible analogical explanation is that the first birds that appeared on earth found themselves fully equipped to do certain things and to do them unconsciously and without any particular thought or plan.

Now let me ask you, from what source could this gift come?

I think you'd have to agree only from God.

Now I ask you, is there anything wrong with my argument?

If so, I want you to let me know where the logic is faulty.

No one has yet been able to offer any solution to these problems apart from creation.

Think of it another way.

Suppose we say that instinct has been gradually developed.

Then how long did the animals live without these instincts?

Everyone knows they are essential to their continued life now.

Imagine a bird, if you can, without any power to lay eggs, no knowledge of any of the intricacies of hatching and rearing young.

She feels lonely.

She would like some small children.

How shall she get them?

Can you, by any stretch of a credulous imagination, suppose that by thinking hard she was able to devise the plan of forming an egg inside her body?

This egg required to take all the other difficult steps necessary for its structure, growth, bird, and rearing?

Did she plan that the baby bird should have a tiny stiff cover for its beak with which to cut its way through the shell and then toss the beak cover away because not required any farther?

It's too much for me.

Any way I look at it, I have to believe in a creator.

Now, with God in the picture, everything becomes easy and understandable.

At least we have a sufficient cause, even though we cannot grasp the miraculous way the cells carry out their predestined work in order to complete the predetermined form.

Why a man should shy away from this truth is difficult to understand.

To me, it is a thrilling, exciting, and magnificent revelation that this entire universe comes from the omnipotent hand of an infinite creator.

Otherwise, everything is chaos, the blackness of darkness forever.

But God is light, and in him is no darkness at all, and his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, said, I am the light of the world.

You know, physical darkness is not only uncomfortable, but it's very dangerous and distressing.

We go to great expense and trouble to supply ourselves with lighting facilities, and that's good and reasonable.

But spiritual darkness is tremendously more dangerous.

We know that the evil one, Satan, prefers darkness rather than light because his deeds are evil.

None of our scientists can supply us with spiritual light.

It defies manufacture.

It cannot be purchased, but it can be secured as a free gift.

Any seeking person, man, woman, child, can have it, without money and without price just for the asking.

Now the asking, of course, must be from the only supplier of this precious commodity, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now what about it?

Those of you that listen to my voice, have you thought of yet another wonder of egg laying?

Do you know that moth and butterflies deposit their eggs on the precise substances, a cabbage leaf, for example, from which not the butterfly herself, but the caterpillar which is to issue from her eggs, draws its necessary food.

The butterfly cannot taste the cabbage.

Cabbage is no food for her, yet in the cabbage, and not by chance, but studiously and electively she lays her eggs.

There are also willow caterpillars, but we never find upon the willow a caterpillar which prefers cabbage, nor on the cabbage a caterpillar that prefers willow.

How does the butterfly know which leaf the caterpillar which hatches from her egg will prefer?

She was never taught, because she never knew her own caterpillar form, nor has she ever had any communication with her butterfly parent.

So it all breaks down into an absurdity.

As a matter of fact, the parent race is gone before the new brood is hatched.

Can the butterfly recall her caterpillar state, its taste and habits?

Does she know that the little round body which drops from her abdomen will produce a living creature not like herself at all, but like the worm she remembers herself once to have been?

Then having indulged in these wise reflections, does she make definite provision for an order of things which she concludes will sometime take place?

Well, maybe I've asked enough questions.

It's certain they cannot be answered.

And God asks many questions also.

He challenges us to find any cause apart from himself for the wonders of nature.

Listen to what the Bible says.

Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts, or who hath given understanding to the mind?

Who provideth for the raven his prey when his young ones cry unto God?

Is it by thy wisdom that the hawk soareth and stretcheth her wings toward the south?

Is it at thy command that the eagle mounteth up and maketh her nest on high?

On the cliff she dwelleth and maketh her home, she spieth out the prey, her eyes behold it afar off.

Now who did that?

God asks these questions Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?

Answer if thou canst tell.

I don't know about you, but the only thing I can answer is is to speak with the psalmist David.

O Lord, how manifold are thy works?

In wisdom hast thou made them all.

Let me ask you something.

Do you believe it?

Do you believe that Almighty God is the creator of all things, the heavens, the earth, and all that in them is?

You know the Bible declares that to be just absolutely the truth.

And you cannot receive eternal life from God until you believe that he is.

The Bible says we are saved by grace through faith, and that not of ourselves.

It is a gift of God.

But the Bible says without faith it is impossible to please God.

You cannot please God unless you believe that he is.

Matter of fact, the Bible goes on to say, He that cometh unto God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Now, as we've made our way through these broadcasts, twenty-one now in this series on God the Creator, it should be perfectly clear to you that there has to be a God.

These things you see round about you, they're not chance, they're not coincidence, they're not accident, they didn't evolve.

We've shown you over and over again conclusively that the heavens declare the glory of God, the firmament showeth his handiwork, and all the beings, the beasts of the field, the fowls of the air, the creeping things, they all testify to an intelligent, almighty creator.

Now, my friend, just as surely as he could make a cow, just as surely as God could make a bird, just as surely as God could make a tree, just as surely as God could make a man, God can make a new man or a new woman out of you.

He can born you again by his grace, give you joy, gladness, happiness, peace, satisfaction, and a sure certainty of eternal, everlasting life.

It's all yours.

If you humble yourself, repent of your sin, and receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior.

Thanks for tuning in today.

Join us every weekday for another episode of the Preaching of the Cross Radio Podcast.

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Knox Sermons, our sermon audio page, Bible Baptistoland, or our website, Bible Baptisttaland.com.

Until next time and throughout eternity, may Jesus Christ be praised.