6-6-21 Grace-Vail Sermon

Genesis 1:20-31 Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke

God’s Zoo Summer Worship Series Sunday, June 6, 2021 “Animals According to Their Kind”

If you go to the zoo, what do you want to see first? Do you head right to your favorite animal out of the gate, or do you plan out the best route to get through the zoo, seeing everything that interests you along the way? Do you stop and read every sign to learn more about the animals and what they eat and where they live? Or do you just want to keep moving so you get through it all and don’t miss an opportunity? There are lots of ways to approach a trip to the zoo.

Our summer worship series is something like that visit to the zoo. We are going to see a whole lot of animals, but we only have 14 stops that we get to make, that is 14 Sundays that we are calling summer. Of course, on some of those stopes we will see more animals than on others. Maybe you will see one of your favorites or at least some Bible animals that are familiar to you. Maybe you’ll meet an animal or two that you don’t recall meeting in Scripture before. And we will definitely stop to read some signs—that is, we will apply lessons from God’s Word to our lives, important and valuable lessons.

Today we start, I guess you could say, with a big overview of the zoo. It’s like getting out the map and seeing how the animals are divided into various areas and thinking about how long it would take to cover all of them.

This overview shows us animals of quite a variety. There are sea creatures and swarms of water animals. There are flying birds. There are livestock animals and wild animals and creeping land animals. And they all have a number of things in common: 1. They are created by God. 2. They are created according to their kind, and 3.

They are good.

We picked up our reading from Genesis today a little ways into the first chapter, but you may recall how that chapter starts: in the beginning. We’re still in the beginning. We are looking into the way that God’s zoo, if you will, the way that all the animals we find around us or in the fossil record got here in the first place. We skipped a few days of God making the world he created ready for the animals with day and night and dry ground and seas, with plants for food and everything else that they would need, and we jumped into day five of God’s creating work. On day five, God made the flying birds and other flying creatures that move through the sky, and he filled the waters with fish and other sea creatures. Then on day six, he turned his attention to the dry land and the animals and creatures that would inhabit that land.

And for all of them, this is how it went: “God said…and it was so.” God spoke that these things, these animals, these creatures should exist, and by his almighty power in that almighty word the animals and other creatures came into being. That’s what it means that God created. They weren’t there before, not in any form, and when he spoke they came to be. It’s how he made the entire universe, the sun, moon, stars, the earth itself, and everything we see—not to mention the things that we don’t see—all around us.

And he made, he created, all these animals and other creatures to reproduce and fill the world, to multiply. He did this according to their kinds. To an extent, that is no surprise. We know that animals mate and have offspring that are similar to the parents. Dogs have puppies, for example, and cats have kittens. And when the puppies and kittens grow up, they are cats and dogs like their parents. But what God describes here in his marvelous creation seems to say even more than that. It points to a large degree of variety and adaptability with which God blessed these animals. Scientists have attempted to explain the connections between different animals in a system of phyla and families and genuses and species, but none of those quite seem to capture what “according to their kind” means. Bible believing Christians who are also skilled scientists suggest that perhaps family gets the closest, but even that assumes the classifiers have gotten it all right.

Perhaps we can understand a bit about these kinds by looking at dogs. There are big dogs and little dogs, dogs of all sorts of shapes and colors, but they are all dogs. There are other dog “relatives” we can say, like wolves and jackals as well. And many of these species can interbreed with each other, but in every case, you will end up with something quite dog-like. According to their kinds may mean a whole lot of variation and adaptation, but

it all falls clearly within certain limits. It is not, as some would have us believe, that animals have all evolved from more primitive forms into more complex ones or that one sort of creature has come to change into a very different creature over time. No, as the Bible clearly teaches, God created them all and did so according to their kinds.

And when God created them, they were good. God made the world perfectly, just as he had planned. Creatures lived in harmony with one another and with their surroundings. Everything was not just good but very good.

We will address more directly how that all changed next week, but change it did. We have come to see the ever-so-clear evidence of sin in our world by how many, even many who claim to be Christians, don’t believe what God says in his Word about creation. They believe what people say, what scientists claim, about animals evolving into what we see today. And many of the proofs that the scientists claim are really looking at the same things that we have been talking about: how animals, according to their kids, are able to adapt and change in certain ways. But then they take those truths and assume that animals can change well beyond what we witness and beyond those kinds.

But sin is not just something out there in the world. It is not something that affects others and not us. It affects us very deeply. It causes us to question whether to listen to the clear words of Scripture or to listen to something else, whether our own feelings or the opinions of others or the popular positions of society around us. Do we listen to smooth-talking politicians or those who claim to be religious teachers? Or do we hold firmly to the true and faithful words of the almighty God who created everything that exists?

And then, do we honor him as the Creator? It is so easy to take for granted that the sun rises each day, that the world continues as we have known it. It is so easy to be amazed by the sunrise or sunset or so in love with pets or so appreciative of a cold drink of water, but how often do we do those things with barely a thought about the Creator of it all? Our overview of God’s Zoo would have us fall to our knees in thanksgiving for everything that God has done. It would have us honor, serve, and obey him as our Creator. It would have us bear witness to his greatness to the world around us.

And it would have us rely on Jesus Christ, who did perfectly honor God as Creator. Jesus always took God at his Word and made faithful use of that Word. He never wavered in his confidence in God’s goodness and his perfect love for his heavenly Father. And he lived and died for you and for me so that we have his perfection as our very own. And now we stand before the almighty God as his perfect children.

And we cannot leave our overview of God’s created world without noticing one more thing: that he made it all for us. On that same sixth day, God created mankind in his own image. He made men and women to live in and rule the created world, to fill the wonderful earth and have a dominion over it. He made us, not just some other animal with no more value than a pet or endangered species. He made people at the crown of his creation, endowed with a soul. And everything that he had made was for them—for us—to appreciate and to enjoy.

And so we ought to appreciate and enjoy it. We ought to be so thankful to our Creator for what he has given to us and for the sacrifice of his Son to redeem us and bring us back to him, and then we ought to honor him in the way we view his creation and in the way we view the crown of his creation, his people. We are more valuable than any pet or endangered species, from the tiniest baby still in his or her mother’s womb to the elderly and frail. Those are the souls for whom Jesus died and the souls who need to be connected to their Savior.

God’s Zoo has many, many animals. We will look at a number of them in the next several weeks. We will learn more lessons about God’s love for us and more about how we thank and praise him. We pray that you will join us throughout the summer as we consider these lessons, and that you will remember and appreciate how it all started, when God created animals according to their kinds and when he created people in his own image. Let us honor, worship, and praise him and hold firmly to his Word.

The Text: Genesis 1:20–31 (EHV) 20God

said, “Let the waters swarm with living creatures, and let birds and other winged creatures fly above the earth in the open expanse of the sky.” 21God created the large sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their own kind, and every winged bird according to its own kind. God saw that it was good. 22God blessed them when he said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the waters of the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23There was evening and there was morning—the fifth day.

24God

said, “Let the earth produce living creatures according to their own kind, livestock, creeping things, and wild animals according to their own kind,” and it was so. 25God made the wild animals according to their own kind, and the livestock according to their own kind, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its own kind. God saw that it was good.

26God

said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that crawls on the earth.”

27God

created the man in his own image.

In the image of God he created him.

Male and female he created them.

28God

blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

29God said, “Look, I have given you every plant that produces seed on the face of the whole earth, and every tree that bears fruit that produces seed. It will be your food. 30To every animal of the earth, and to every bird of the sky, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.

31God

saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. There was evening and there was morning—the sixth day.