(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Amen. All right. Well, last weekend, I wasn't here. I was up in Chicago, and I preached at a church there, 58th Avenue Baptist Church. I got invited to preach at an old IFB church for the first time in quite a while. But I preached at a sermon there called Honey Badger Baptist. I don't know. Who's got a chance to listen to that sermon? Anybody? Okay, so really only one person. Good. All right, because I'm gonna preach the 2.0 version of that, and I mean, I didn't hold back in that sermon, but like there are certain things that I just didn't really want to touch on that I would probably touch on in a new IFB-style church. You know, I'm a guest in someone else's pulpit. He's never met me before. There's a few things that I kind of held. I wasn't holding back. I still said everything I wanted to say, but maybe I just didn't say everything exactly how I wanted to say it. Let's just put it that way. But then there was other things, like I didn't really have a lot of time to prepare the sermon, and I was just going back and forth on what to preach. I just got done doing a soul-wanting marathon. I was pretty tired, and he asked me to preach at the end of the day, which is like, you know, a nightmare for anybody that's preached a sermon. You know, if you get asked to preach at the last minute, it's just like, ah! You know, so you're like, well pastor, you do it all the time, yeah? But it takes time to write a sermon, and I just had no juice left. So anyway, I just felt like I wanted to make up for, you know, what I— I mean, I'm not saying it was a bad sermon. I'm just saying that there were some other things that I thought about after I preached it that I kind of wanted to put in there, and I really wanted to build off of a text. So we're here in Matthew chapter 3, and so the title of my sermon is Honey Badger Baptist 2.0. So there might be 3.0, too. I mean, this is a pretty in-depth study here. But so I'm going to talk about honey badgers and how Baptists kind of compare. I preached a sermon about the tabernacle. Who remembers the sermon about the tabernacle where they use the badger skin? OK, so I'm kind of extrapolating off of some of the things that I preached in that sermon. So look at Matthew chapter 3, verse 1. The Bible says, In those days came John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his path straight. And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair and a leathering girdle about his loins, and his meat was locust and wild honey. Then went out to Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region round about Jordan and were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins. But when he saw that many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come, bring forth therefore fruits, meat for repentance, and think not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father. For I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. And now also the axes laid unto the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water and repentance. But he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire, whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor and gather his wheat. Into the garner, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. Now, this is our introduction to John the Baptist in Matthew Chapter three. Of course, the other gospels record things about John the Baptist. But it explains a lot of characteristics of John and, you know, the fact that he's in the wilderness. You know, honey badgers live in the wilderness. They live in areas that you wouldn't think that an animal could thrive. But they do thrive out there. Who knows what a honey badger is, by the way? Anybody? Who doesn't know what they are? OK, a honey badger, and I had one that I brought when I preached a sermon about the tabernacle. It's basically it's a badger that is probably about as long as this pulpit. Sometimes maybe even not even quite as long, but they're 11 to 30 pounds. So they're the size of a small dog, but they're ferocious and they're they don't back down from anything. And they actually hunt poisonous snakes like cobras, king cobras, big giant pythons. And they will not back down to lions or hyenas or packs of dogs. They're there for pound for pound. They're probably one of the most ferocious animals on the planet. But, you know, you're like, well, how does that jive with being Baptist? Well, there's a lot of things that kind of jive with being Baptist, like eating honey. They're called a honey badger. And the reason why they're called honey badgers, because they go after honey and don't get they don't care about getting stung by thousands of bees because their skin is so thick. It's as thick as a as like a water buffalo or a bison's skin. So their skin is thick as something that's 50 times the size of them. So they have really thick skin. So bee stings and snake bites and all that trying to kill them is like really difficult because their skin is so thick and so predators have a hard time killing them. So and so they are just really small badgers, but they're pound for pound pretty tough. So and they also let's see some of these factoids about the honey badger. They're mostly solitary. So like John the Baptist was solitary when he was out in the wilderness, but they have incited hunting in pairs during the breeding season in May. And it also uses burrows. And it made me think about like, you know, how some of the Baptists were persecuted or even Christians in time past, where they hid in the dens in the caves of the earth because of the persecution that they were going through. But it ranges in most of the sub-Saharan Africa, the western Cape of South Africa and southern Morocco, southwestern Algeria, outside of Africa through Arabia. Now, Mount Sinai was in Arabia. That's what the Bible says. So when I preach that sermon about them being the skin cover. And I said that there's badgers that are the same badgers that are in England are found down there. But honey badgers are also found down there. And that's what it says, you know, in this, you know, I think it's Wikipedia that I got this from. But the point is, is that there was badgers there. There are still badgers there. Now, the new modern versions will say that it's manatees, dolphin skin, corpus skin, anything but what the Bible actually says, as if the King James translators didn't know what badgers were or something. They didn't have friends that lived in the Middle East that could have told them or wrote them a letter of some sort that told them what it was or whatever. But there's badgers in England, so I'm pretty sure they know what badgers are. So anyway, the honey badger also, like I said, they have a lot of different characteristics. And I'll try to tie this together for you. But John the Baptist was a loner until he appeared in front of everybody and started preaching about Christ coming. And he lived in the wilderness. He ate wild honey and locusts, gross stuff, right? I mean, honey's not gross, but who wants to eat locusts? Anybody? Locusts are not just, they're not grasshoppers. You think locusts, you think grasshopper? Grasshoppers are about like this big, right? But locusts are, they're big and they're gnarly and they have, yeah. I mean, deep fried, maybe if I'm really hungry, if I was starving to death, I'd probably eat one with dip it in honey, like it's chicken nuggets or something. But it sounds pretty gross, doesn't it? But honey badgers eat a lot of gross stuff, too. Would you eat a cobra raw? I wouldn't. I mean, but they do. They, that's half their diet is poisonous venomous snakes. And it's pretty disgusting. Watching them eat them. Who's watched videos about them before? OK, lots of people. Good. All right. So, so let's look at Matthew chapter 11, Matthew chapter 11. Here's some more preaching by John. It says, and as they departed, Jesus began to say unto the multitudes concerning John, what went you out into the wilderness to see a reed shaken with the wind? But what went you out to see a man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they that wear soft clothing are in king's houses. So this is actually Jesus talking about John the Baptist. And I kind of made this illustration in the sermon. I kind of I like this illustration. You know, those those they're like advertisements, things that you can rent. And they're like, they're these things that shake in the wind. Like, you know what I'm talking about? Sky guys, though, they're actually called I like I like how Bill knows these things. So they're called sky guys, apparently. And the wind catches them and it kind of like it's supposed to grab your attention. Right. So whenever I think about a reed shaking in the wind, you know, I always think of the sky guys like, what did you think? John was some little sissy that was wearing soft clothing or something. And what Jesus saying? He's saying, hey, those that wear soft clothing are in king's houses. You know, John wasn't some Joel Osteen looking wearing tailored suits looking guy. He was just he was he was probably a hardened man. If he lived in the wilderness, he probably looked pretty rough, probably looked pretty hairy, pretty gruff. It says, but what went you out for to see a prophet? Yea, and I say unto you, and more than a prophet, for this is he of whom it is written, behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee, verily I say unto you, among them that are born of women, there is there is not risen a greater than John the Baptist, notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force. And another thing about the honey badgers, they live in really hard areas where things are always trying to kill each other. I mean, if you live in sub-Saharan Africa, there's something always trying to kill you. That's why every animal like you ever see, like watch those animal shows in sub-Saharan Africa. Everything's looking over its shoulder. Everything is freaked out because you just never know when some predators are going to just jump out and get you. And so that's kind of how the honey badger lives its life. But the difference between them is when they get startled, they don't just run away. They turn around and, you know, they just they go full freak out mode. And these big predators aren't expecting them to stand up for themselves. And so John also was a very hairy man. You know, his maybe it doesn't describe him as hairy necessarily personally, but his camel hair coat, I'm sure, had hair on it. And he come in the spirit of Elijah. He wasn't Elijah as in like some reincarnation of Elijah, like some weird people think. But he's Elijah that was to come in spirit if people will receive that. But he wasn't literally Elijah. But Elijah was a hairy man. Elijah preached some hairy sermons. And you know what? John the Baptist preached some hairy sermons, too. And as Baptist, we are known for preaching hellfire and damnation style preaching. And sometimes people will say, even at the door, well, what kind of preaching do you guys preach? Is it like that hellfire and damnation preaching? Yeah, it is. It's hellfire and damnation preaching. So I'll get more into that here as we go on here. But there's a there's like a fervent spirit in Baptist when they preach and go out. They have, you know, what I would say, a ferocious style spirit, a fearless preaching style is something that Baptists are known for. Maybe not nowadays, but that's what Baptists are known for is to have this hairy style preaching. It's abrasive to people, but it's effective because hard preaching works. You know, people might not like it after a while because it starts stepping on their toes. You know, people like to have other people's toes stepped on. But then when it comes the chickens come home to roost, then people don't like that style of preaching. But we should just accept the style of preaching that Baptists preach. So and then, you know, John wasn't afraid to take on the higher powers either. He took on Herod. He took on other people with his preaching style. And, you know, John was a righteous man and no man was born better than him, according to Christ. He was the greatest born of women ever to exist. Great man of God, obviously saved. So I do just want to kind of compare honey badgers to some principles in God's word, how we can how honey badgers kind of compare to Baptists. So number one, honey badgers are little in stature and few in number. So and then Christians are few in number and stature doesn't matter when measuring might. Isn't that true? We're you know, it doesn't matter how tall or how big you are because the battle is the Lord's and God can take the smallest person, the smallest man in the world and make him mighty. It doesn't matter what size you are. And he can take a small amount of people and do great things with that small amount of people. It's a principle that you see through the Bible. And honey badgers are little in stature and they're not a big, you know, because of what they have to eat and how they have to survive. There's just not a lot of them around. So turn to, well, go ahead and turn to Matthew chapter seven, verse 13. I'm just going to read again Matthew chapter three, verse one. It says, in those days came John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea. So what does that tell you? That John was alone. He was by himself. And so, like I said earlier, honey badgers are also kind of loners. So I'm not saying all Baptists are loners. We're supposed to be together, right? But in comparing John the Baptist to like a honey badger, he was kind of a lot like that. He was out in the wilderness. He's by himself. And honey badgers are small, weighing between 11 and 30 pounds, known to be loners, but do hunt in pairs occasionally, just like soul owners. We're supposed to hunt in pairs also, but we're not hunting as in going after things to try to kill them. But we're going out and trying to get people saved, right? In pairs. But let's see. Matthew Chapter seven, verse 13, the Bible says entry into the straight gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be which go in there at. So the Bible teaches and Jesus is teaching right here that most people are going to hell. Most people are going to die and go to hell. Many go that way. Many go the broad way. But it says because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life and few there be that find it. So it's true that Christians are few in number, isn't it? And Jesus says that right here. And then even in Luke, there's someone asked him, are there a few that be saved? And then Jesus in a roundabout way explains, yes, there are few that be saved. So there are few people that are Christians. There's a lot of people worldwide that say that they are Christians, but in reality they don't believe the truth. And so they are truly not born again. So if they're adding works to salvation or if their works salvation at all and they mix that with faith or they're just works alone, they're not saved. So that cuts out a giant percentage of people that say they're saved and they're actually not so. And if you take that word few, that means three, right? So say three out of 100 people are saved. And that's probably in a heavily Christianized country. Maybe it's more than that. Maybe the percentage is more than that. Maybe it balances out worldwide. I don't know. But in a place like communist China, we just don't know the numbers because it's so controlled. Everything's so controlled there. We just don't know really what the situation is there because they're not free to make their own choices. Think places like North Korea. I'm sure that there's probably people in North Korea that are saved. Somehow someone's gotten something in to get people saved. But my point is, is that there's few that are saved. Now, turn to First Samuel, Chapter 14, verse number six. And I'm going to read Micah five to Micah five to says, but thou Bethlehem Ephrathah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall come forth unto me. That is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from old, from ever lasting. So we know everybody knows what's the big deal about Bethlehem. Well, that's where Jesus was born. And in Bethlehem is a small town. It always has been. It still is today. It's actually not even controlled by the Jews right now. They don't want Bethlehem because it reminds them of who? Christ, because that's where Jesus was born. But the point is, is that Bethlehem is a little place and it has a little name. But now everybody knows the name of Bethlehem. Why? Because Jesus Christ was born there. And so little places can have great things done in them. God can take a little place and make something great come out of that. He made Christ, who is our Lord and savior, be born in a small town that was really insignificant, is kind of what this verse is saying. It's insignificant in the eyes of a lot of people. But Christ made this place significant. First, Samuel, chapter 14, verse six, the Bible says, And Jonathan said to the young man that bear his armor, Come and let us go over into the garrison of these uncircumcised. So, Jonathan, he wants to start a fight and he just got his armor bearer with him. Nobody else is with him. He's a garrison of troops that he's going to fight with. Now, look what it says. Let's see. I got to make sure I go. Yeah, he says, so let's go over to the uncircumcised. It says, It may be that the Lord will work for us, for there is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few. What great faith Jonathan had. It's just two guys. He's like, come on, let's go fight this garrison of uncircumcised Philistines. And he's like, he has so much faith. He's like, the Lord will work with us. It may be that God worked for us. And he says that God is there's no restraint from God to save by many or by few. So with a few people, with a couple people, we can do great things for God. And this church in particular has done a lot of great work with relatively little amount of people in comparison to some of these megachurches. And I'll tell you what, I'd rather take this group of people here and go soloing than 10,000 people at the megachurch down the road or whatever any day of the week, because number one, I know that most of the people here are saved. So who's going to get the most people saved? The 10,000 megachurch that has very little people saved. They've never been soloing or never done anything. You know, no, I'm going to take the people that are tried and true and that actually care about going soloing, actually care about the things of God instead of people that are just going to a fun center and are checking it out just because they want to know which church has the best youth department. What church has the most things going on? Well, I don't remember Jesus saying that's a prerequisite for what church you go to. Oh, what church is the most fun to go to? What is this, an entertainment center? No, this is a church. It should be, you know, separate from the world. No, I'm not saying don't have fun. Of course, we want to have fun. But that's not the prerequisite for what church you go to. Think about David. David saw the giant Goliath and he's like, let's do this. Everybody else is afraid of him. Goliath is nine feet nine or something. He's way taller than me. He's touching, he's probably, his head is way above the ceiling. He's tall. Saul is about my size. Saul is afraid to fight the giant. Saul's the king. He's the anointed one over the whole nation of Israel. He doesn't want none. He's got armor. He's got a sword. He's got a shield. He's got an armor bearer, just like Goliath does. But Goliath is way bigger. Goliath has been a warrior from his youth. Goliath's trained to destroy men and kill them. And he's been taunting the army of Israel for 40 days. And David's like, I'm going to kill this dude. I'm going to kill him. And so what's he do? Well, against all odds, he takes five smooth stones out of the brook. He swings and hits Goliath right between the eyes with one shot. The stone sinks into his forehead and he drops dead as a doornail. And then he takes his own sword and chops his head off. Game over. And he didn't want to fight with Saul's armor. He's like, no, I haven't proved that stuff. You know, and that stone represents what? The Lord Jesus Christ. That's what you need on your side. He had the side of the God of Israel on his on his side. And his aim was truer than a laser, a red dot laser. You know, a lot of the guys here, we like the red dot lasers on our guns or whatever. But David's aim was true. He didn't need a red dot. He's just like, God's red dot was like guiding his hand or whatever. Right here, right between the eyes, dead. One man, and he was probably way smaller. He was a stripling, the Bible says. A stripling is not quite a man, not quite a kid. He's right in the middle there, right before you get your man muscles or whatever, right? A stripling, that's what it is. And so, and then Saul's like, where'd the stripling come from? Find out who this guy is. It's like David then becomes what? A great man of God. But he was already a great man of God before that. But God used this man to take, you know, all he had is just faith and just said, you know what, I'm going to do it. And he did it. And God gave him the victory. Think about Gideon. How many men were there that Gideon had on his side to fight against the Midianites? There wasn't enough, but he had a lot. Didn't he have like 10,000 men? And then God like whittled that down. He's like all the ones that, you know, take a drink and laugh like a dog or whatever, those, you know, any of those guys you save. And then like he whittled it down to 300. And God, because God didn't want them to say, well, it's because we have these 10,000 guys. He's like, let's whittle it down to 300. And so God with 300 men and all they did is just smash some pottery and ran down yelling, and then God did the rest. And then they killed an innumerable host of Midianites with God on their side. See, that's the difference. See, we can do a lot with a few amount of people because God is on our side. And if God is on our side, we can still do great things no matter how small amount of people we have, no matter how small your stature is, that doesn't matter. I mean, people want to mock Pastor Jimenez's height, but who thinks that Pastor Jimenez is not a mighty man of God? He's got a powerful preaching style, doesn't he? He gets up and he preaches some of the greatest sermons I've ever heard. And he's a powerful preacher, but he's small stature. But what does that matter? It doesn't matter. So, now think about Paul. Paul is, his name is actually Saul. Nowhere in the Bible does it say to change your name to Paul. Now, God has told people to change their names. He told Abram to change his name. Now your name's Abraham. Sarai is now Sarah. And Jacob became Israel. But there's no verse in the New Testament that says, Saul, now you'll be called Paul. But people started calling him Paul because he, I think it's because he started calling himself that. And Paul literally means little. That's what it means, because Paul was probably a man of short stature. He talks about it in his epistles. He says, you know, that people would say that his, you know, that he's weak, that he looks weak. His speech is contemptible, you know, and they're saying, oh, Paul's weak. And, you know, he can't do this. And then, but what Paul was very, he wrote half the New Testament. God used him in a mighty way. And when Paul started out, his name, you know, his name was Saul. And he was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. He was tracking people down. He held the coats of the people that stoned Stephen. He became, he went on a witch hunt to go after Christians and was hailing them and bringing them to prisons, making them recant their faith and blaspheme God. He was like the first, you know, Catholic Church, you know, where they would, what's it called, the Inquisition, right? He was like the Grand Inquisitor or something, making people blaspheme God's name, Christians. And then he got saved. And he became little in his own sight. Instead of being the big bad Pharisee that's fighting and zealous for God, he was zealous for God for the wrong reasons. And he became Paul the Apostle. And he became little in his own sight. And humbled himself and became this great man of God. And, you know, he was hard to kill. People tried to kill him lots of times, but Paul was kind of like a honey badger in the way that he just did not die. You know, you could do all these things to Paul, but he just, you know, you stoned him outside the city and then everybody just thinks he's dead. He just kind of gets up and just like, let's go to the next city. It's like, I mean, he must have been pretty beat up to go through that. Like it says that of the Jews, five times received I forty stripes save one thrice was I beaten with rods. Once was I stoned thrice suffered shipwreck a night and a day. Have I been in the deep and journeys often in perils of waters and perils of robbers and perils of my known countrymen and perils by the heathen and perils in the city and perils in the wilderness and perils of the sea and perils among false brethren and weariness and painfulness and watchings often and hunger and thirst and fastings often and cold and nakedness. Beside those things that are without that which come upon me daily, the care of all the churches. So not only was Paul going through these physical persecutions, but he also was caring for all these churches that he started. But Paul means little. Now, Saul in the Old Testament was little in his own sight and then got proud. And Samuel, he says, when thou was little in thine own sight. So it's like Paul and Saul and Saul, Saul in the Old Testament, Saul in the New Testament had complete opposites like the Saul in the Old Testament was saved and went bad. Saul in the New Testament was unsaved and went good. One was actually tall, one was actually short, but one, you know, they just had the opposite effects of their spirituality. But the point is, is that, you know, little things can be done with small people. I mean, big things can be done with small people and great things can be done with a little amount of people. So, I mean, Jesus and his 12 disciples turned the world upside down. And then Paul, of course. So number two, they take on, honey badgers take on, kill and eat poisonous snakes. All right. The honey badger doesn't have a particularly specialized diet. It is an omnivore feeding on a wide range of foods, including raiding beehives for both bee larva and honey, as well as feeding on rodents, amphibians, birds, eggs, berries, roots and bulbs. It will even kill and eat black mambas, a highly venomous snake, king cobras and other snakes like pythons. The species will also steal fruit from other carnivores or scavenge from kills. So, and then I've seen these videos, who's seen the videos where they're just tracking cobras down and killing them before? Who's seen the video where the cobra bites the honey badger, the honey badger kind of incapacitates the snake, and then it takes a nap because it got bitten by the cobra. So it just lays down and takes a nap. Like this, on its back, right? And then like it wakes up and the cobra is kind of, you know, wounded or whatever, and then it just, you know, bites its head off or whatever, and then just continues to eat the snake like nothing happened. It's impervious to snake venom that would kill any man. Just one bite would probably kill a normal sized man. So Matthew chapter 3, verse 7 says, But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Now the first thing he says to the Pharisees is he calls them what? Vipers. What's a viper? A viper is a poisonous snake. So he's calling the leaders, the church leaders, if you will, poisonous snakes when they come. And so, you know, honey badgers are like Baptists in the way that Baptists will go after and you know, go after the snakes of our society. The false prophets of our society will go right for the throat and not care. And John wasn't mentioning any words. He just straight-up called them vipers. Calling them, saying, who's warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Who has, you know, and telling them they're going to hell and all these other things. Now Genesis chapter 3, go ahead and turn to Genesis chapter 3. I haven't had you turn anywhere in a while. Can someone grab my water? Brother Bill, will you grab my water bottle that's right there next to my seat there? Genesis chapter 3, verse number 14. Now this is, of course, after the fall, thank you, of Adam and Eve. And God is cursing their actions. He's cursing the serpent here. He's also making the prophecy of Christ coming. So, it says in verse 14, and the Lord God said unto the serpent, because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field. Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, thou shalt bruise his heel. So, this seed of the woman, who's the seed of the woman? It's the Lord Jesus Christ, right? Who's born of the Virgin Mary. He's the Son of God. He's going to crush the head of the serpent. Who's the serpent? It's Satan, right? He's the red dragon. He's the old serpent called the devil and Satan. That's talked about in the book of Revelation. When he died on the cross, that's when he crushed the serpent's head. Now, the final destruction of Satan has not happened yet, but our ultimate enemy is what? It's the serpent. It's the devil. He is the ultimate enemy of the Christian. And the ultimate enemy of a honey badger is the snake. And he goes right for the head to crush its head so he can eat it. So, it's kind of like, you know, obviously we shouldn't go after and try to just rebuke, you know, like Billy Sunday used to get up and go, come on devil. We're gonna have a boxing match or whatever. It's just like, that's, don't do that. Like, don't sit there and act like you have some kind of power. Satan is a very highly intelligent, very powerful being, and the last thing you should be doing is trying to get him angry at you. Okay? He's already gonna be angry enough that you're soul winning. He's gonna be angry enough that you're living the Christian life. Don't, don't just go pick in a fight with somebody that you're gonna lose to, okay? You're not gonna win. Only God can beat him. So, turn to, let's see, Mark chapter 16. Mark chapter 16. I'm gonna read Psalm chapter 74 in verse 12. So, Psalm chapter 74 verse 12 says, For God is my king of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth. Doubtest divide the sea by thy strength, thou breakest the heads of the dragons in the waters, thou breakest the heads of Leviathan in pieces, and gave us him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness. So, God is the one that's, you know, and this is like a picture of defeating the devil and his demons, right? So, the dragon is a representation, of course, of the devil. So, he's, you know, and he's gonna be the one that defeats him ultimately, and has essentially defeated him when you talk about spiritual terms. Mark 16, 15. This is, this is the section that James White says doesn't belong in the King James Bible, of course. This is where the modern translations will say, oh, this is the long reading of Mark or whatever, but this belongs in the Bible. It says in Mark 16, 15, it says, And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe. In my name shall they cast out devils, and they shall speak with new tongues. They shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. So, these are sign gifts that were given to the apostles in the first generation. Now, where does it, where do you see this actually come to pass in the Bible, where someone takes up a snake, and it bites them, and then nothing happens? Well, turn to Acts chapter 28, and we'll see the actual fulfillment of this. Now, of course, we know that Paul spake with tongues more than they all, and I'm just talking about that he spoke a lot of different languages, and there were sign gifts, of course, you know, in the first generation there, but these serpents, what this is talking about, I think, is fulfilled right here in Acts chapter 28 verse 3. It says, And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, now, if you go back to the Old English, that's a faggot, right? So, that's what a faggot is, right? A bundle of sticks. And laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat and fastened onto his hand. And so, you know, whenever you throw a faggot in the fire, you know, the devil always wants to come out and bite you, seems like. So, anyway, that's a little, it's kind of true, though, isn't it? You start attacking the fags, and then next thing you know, you know, you're being attacked for it. So, but this, of course, is a literal bundle of sticks. And a literal fire, and a literal viper. It comes out, fastens onto his hand, fangs first, right? And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, no doubt this man is a murderer whom, though he escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live. And he shook off the beast into the fire and felt no harm. Howbeit, they looked when he should have swollen or fallen down dead suddenly, but after they had looked a great while and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds and said that he was a god. So, here you have Paul the Apostle not being damaged by a snake biting him that should have killed him with one bite. Just like a honey badger that gets bitten, they don't get poisoned to death. They just get back up and eat the snake, right? So, number three, honey badgers are fearless. And you know what? The Bible teaches us to not fear also, and to not be afraid. Many times in the Bible, 62 times in fact, the Bible says this term, fear not. Multiple times from the beginning of the Bible all the way through the end, the Bible says these things. And also the term is be not afraid 26 times. Turn to Joshua chapter 1 verse 9. Joshua chapter 1 verse 9. You know, honey badgers are fearless, but we should be fearless as Baptists also. Fearless and bold to go preach the gospel. Fearless and bold when we get up and preach in the pulpit. Fearless and bold when we say what we believe at work and, you know, not be afraid of saying what we believe or saying that we're saved. Shouldn't be embarrassed at all. Fear not, the Bible says. And not fear to keep God's commandments, because it's not popular to keep God's commandments these days. Even just talking about the most minute things that we would say are minute in the Bible in comparison to things, people find that very offensive. Don't murder babies in the womb. It's like, they like to use thou shalt not kill over a lot of things that we believe, but then when it comes to murdering innocent babies, they're just like, oh, that's okay. I've had 50 abortions, and they do like little videos on TikTok about it and stuff. Disgusting, filthy tramps. Joshua chapter 1 verse 9, the Bible says, Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage? Be not afraid. Neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest. Hey, don't be afraid, God says. Don't be afraid to serve the Lord. And you know what? When you keep God's commandments, and you just stick to your guns, God's gonna protect you. And you know what? Even if He doesn't, say you're just martyred for your faith because of something you believe, which is highly unlikely right now in the country that we live in. Maybe in the future that's gonna be a thing. I'm sure in the future it's gonna be a thing. The Bible talks about it, but right now you're probably not in danger of somebody killing you because of something that you say you believe. But people are like, yeah, well when that time comes, I'll definitely say it, but they won't say it now. I don't believe you. But you know what? John the Baptist, he didn't fear the circumstances. Regardless of what everyone else thought, John just said and preached whatever he needed to say. And we need to be like John, and you know, not be afraid to call ourselves Christians, not be afraid to call ourselves Baptists, and to preach and teach what's in the Bible, preach the gospel, and who cares what people think about us? Look at what they believe. That everything came out of nothing, and you know all this weird stuff that people believe nowadays. They believe their horoscopes more than they believe the Word of God. Something that just gets printed in the newspaper every day. Well, you're gonna meet a tall, dark, handsome stranger today. Everybody's gonna meet one. Well, you just really guess it, and then people just live their lives according to stars and horoscopes and all this stuff. Look, that stuff can't predict your future. They just get lucky because they say something, and something happens in your day that happens to match that. Come on. It's ridiculous. Number four, honey badgers are fierce. Not only are they fearless, but they're fierce. And like I said, when they get startled or some kind of predator tries to attack them, they get their cackles up, and they just charge after their opponents. And one thing that's kind of gross, kids you'll like this part, their glands, their anal glands, their butt glands will come out and spray like a gross smell on their opponents. So not only are they like, but then they're like, it's like someone farted really bad or something. Pretty gross. I'm glad that we don't have that power. It might come in nice with the demonic apartment managers, though, sometimes. But anyway, I don't want to go too far with that. Number four, badgers. Okay, I already said badgers are fierce. All right, so let's go back to Matthew chapter 3 verse 7. And what I think that, you know, how this applies to us is the fierce kind of preaching that John the Baptist had. So, and people just, they get so upset about the way we preach. But how did John the Baptist preach? Well, let's just get a little sample of what he said. Verse 7. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come, bring forth therefore fruits, meat for repentance, and think not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father. Isn't that what Jews are saying today? The same thing that they said back then, we have Abraham to our father. Isn't that what dispensationalists are saying today? They have Abraham to their father. They're part of the chosen people. No, they're not. They're not the chosen people unless they have faith in Jesus Christ. Then they're the seed of Abraham. That's what the Bible says. Galatians chapter 3, look it up. For I say unto you, that God is able to make of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. So he's just kicking their crutch out from underneath them and says, and now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees, therefore every tree which bringeth forth not good fruit is hewn down and cast in the fire. What's he saying? If you're not bringing forth good fruit, you're a false prophet, and guess what's gonna happen to you? You're gonna get cast into the fire. You're going straight to hell. That's hellfire and damnation preaching right there, isn't it? I don't like the hellfire and damnation preaching. Well, then you don't like John. You don't like John the Baptist. And his name isn't John the Presbyterian. His name isn't John the Calvinist. His name isn't John the Methodist. His name is John the Baptist. Jesus didn't go to John the Catholic to get baptized. He didn't go to John the Pharisee to get baptized. Who'd he go to? He went to the Baptist. John the Baptist. Verse 11, I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost from a fire, whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor and gather his wheat into the garner. Who's the wheat? That's Christians. That's saved people. He's gonna gather the wheat into his garner. What's he saying? The picture is when he's gonna gather his children, the saved people, into heaven. But what's he gonna do with the other people? But he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. What's that talking about? It's talking about sending them to hell for all eternity. Well, the God that I believe in doesn't ... he would just annihilate you, and then that's it. Jehovah's Witnesses. He would never ... a loving God would never send anybody to hell. Well, he is a loving God, but he does send people to hell. So I don't care what you think. I don't care what you say. What the Bible says is what matters. It's not what your stupid opinion is, or what your faggoty church taught you last week in Sunday school. We've got to preach fierce sermons and teach hard truths. Fire and brimstone preaching is Baptist preaching. Look at Luke chapter 3 verse 10. Luke chapter 3 verse 10. Luke chapter 3 verse 10. The Bible says, And the people asked him, saying, What shall we do then? This is John responding to their questions. He answerth and saith unto them, He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none. And he that hath meat, let him do likewise. So that's nice, right? Then came also publicans to be baptized, and said unto him, Master, what shall we do? And he said unto them, Exact no more than that which has appointed you. And the soldiers likewise demanded of him, saying, And what shall we do? And he said unto them, Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely, and be content with your wages. And that is preaching that you don't really hear anymore, even though, and that's not super hard preaching, but skip down to verse 18. It says, And many other things in his exhortation preach he unto the people. But Herod the tetrarch, being reproved by him for Herodias his brother Philip's wife. So he reproved him for stealing his brother's wife and marrying her, which is a wicked thing in the eyes of God. It's the death penalty actually. For stealing his brother's wife and for committing adultery. And it says, And for all the evils which Herod had done. So it's not just that thing, it's all the evils. But the funny thing is that Herod liked his preaching. He really didn't want to kill John. He listened to me. He observed his preaching. He listened what he had to say. But it says, And yet and added yet this above all that he shut John up in prison. And then even worse than that, he killed John in prison. You know, John went and had his head cut off because he wasn't going to curtail his preaching for any reason. He wasn't going to just say, You know what? I'm not going to preach against what the king's doing right here. He preached to the highest person in his authority sphere at that point and preached a hard sermon. And you know what? He lost his life for it. And sometimes we just have to be fierce in our preaching and not worry about what other people say. Because you know what the alternative is? Is to be a sellout. The alternative is to just curve, you know, just curtail the message, just soften the blow to where you're like, Yeah, I'm not really going to preach that. And here's the thing. This is where hard preaching dies. Somewhere in some preacher's Bible study, some preacher's sermon, and he comes across a part in the Bible that's a hard part in the Bible like Romans chapter 1 or Leviticus chapter 20 verse 13, and they say, You know what? I'm not preaching that. I'm skipping over that. And so wherever that happens in some unnamed place in the whole in the country somewhere or in some other country, that's how compromise begins. That's how compromise preaching begins. And that's why when I can go visit another Baptist Church sometimes I'm just like, What is this? Is this what you call preaching? Because this is not how the Baptist preached. The Baptist preached hard sermons. And the Baptist preached things that were helpful to people like exact no more than is appointed to you. Don't whine and cry about your wages. Don't do violence to people. I mean, he's preaching practical things and exhortations, but he's also preaching against the evils of his nation, against the evils of his government. You're like, Pastor Johnson, I don't think he should be preaching against our president and against all this other stuff. It's just like, why? That's been done throughout the whole Bible. What are you talking about? Jeremiah was sent all over the world and ripped face right to the leader's faces without fear. That's what God expects. Preach against the whole country. I mean, like, he sends Jeremiah, it's like the preaching against this country, the preaching against that country. It's like all these, Isaiah, the same thing. You know, the burden of the Lord against this nation, the burden of the Lord against this one. It just eviscerates all these different nations. Jude chapter 1 verse 22 says, And if some have compassion, making a difference. So, our preaching just isn't preaching to people in like a church setting, but it's also preaching to people. And we gotta have compassion on people, make a difference, but I would say both of these types of preaching make a difference. The other one is others and others saved with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. People are like, you're using fear tactics to try to get people saved! Others saved with fear, pulling them from the fire, out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. Sometimes people need to get the hell scared into them. Not scare the hell out of them, get the hell scared into them. They need to be afraid. They need to be afraid of what the Lord's gonna do on judgment day to that person, or the day that they close their eyes for the last time, a lost person headed for a devil's hell, headed for the lake of fire for all eternity. And you know what? We're the ones that have to get out there and say the truth, because you know what? How many other people do you run into out there soul-waning? Do you run into other Baptist churches out there? Do you run into anybody out there that's preaching the right gospel? Hardly ever! Hardly ever. You know who you run into though? The Jehovah's false witnesses, the morons, I mean the Mormons, Latter-day Satans. That's who we run into. So someone's got to preach the truth. Someone's got to be fierce in their preaching. Number five, honey badgers are focused on getting honey. You know, that's why they're called the honey badger, right? So, turn to Psalm chapter 19. Honey badgers will go after honey no matter how many bees tried to sting them. If you've watched the videos, they're just like literally just getting swarmed by all these wasps or whatever they are, these, well, they're honey bees, I guess, and they're just like, just taking their time, just like, they got these big old claws, they're just like pulling the larva out, just, you know, does that sound good to you guys? How about the honey though? The honey sounds pretty good. So, now, Matthew chapter 3 verse 4, as you're turning to Psalm chapter 19, Matthew 3, 4 says, and the same John had his raiment of camel's hair and a leather and girdle about his loins and his meat was locust and wild honey. So the Baptist liked honey too, John the Baptist. And again, weird bugs. But that's on the list of kosher things that Jews were allowed to eat, the bugs, right? So, Psalm chapter 19 verse 7 says, The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true, righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yay, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is thy servant warned, and keeping them there is great reward. Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. Then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. It's a great psalm. But he's saying, David's saying, the words of God and the statutes of the Lord and the precepts that God puts forth, they're sweeter than honey and the honeycomb. It's more important, it's better for us to get the Word of God than anything else in the world. If you skip your daily Bible reading, you know, you've lost something that you can't get back. You've lost a part of your day that was intended for you to read and get the instruction of the Word of God that you can't get back. Now, you can get on the right track again, but once you've lost that day, you can't get it back. You can't go back in time. So, there's no time travel machine. So, it's important to get something, get the Word of God, and you get some instruction in your life. It's more important than anything else. Now, turn to Psalm 119 103. Psalm 119 103. And the Bible is compared, the Word of God is compared a lot to honey in the Bible. I'm just going to show you a couple more verses here, but this is a good one here, Psalm 119 103. It says, how sweet are thy words unto my taste, yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth. You know, do you have a, you know, a lot of people have what they call a sweet tooth. Maybe at night you're like, I've got to have some ice cream or I've got to have like some kind of, you know, some kind of fix of sweetness. And if you're on like a keto or low carb diet, then it's even worse, isn't it? And it's just like, you just, for some reason, you're just like, it's like a crack addict or something. You're like, I've got to have some kind of sugar. And there's not a lot of alternatives out there. I mean, if you're going to have some, you're going to have to have like a piece of fruit or something. But the Bible says that, you know, how sweet are thy words unto my taste. Yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth. And honey is pretty sweet, isn't it? So the Bible is comparing God's word to something that's so much more sweeter than honey. Psalm 81, chapter 15. And, you know, in the Bible, the manna was compared to the word of God, and that's what it represented is that daily that manna would come and they'd have to collect that manna and pick up that manna. And that's what God wants us to daily get something, get that manna. And if you don't have time on Sunday to read your Bible, do a double portion on Saturday. Just read a little bit more. Isn't that what they did on the Sabbath day? They gathered twice as much. And then you're going to get some Bible while you're here, especially in my sermons, you're going to get a lot of Bible, you're like, I can't do one more. But look at Psalm 81, verse 15 says, See, the haters of the Lord, you know, they should have submitted themselves and God would have fed them honey out of the rock. And what's this picture, the word of God coming out of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so these are things that we, you know, the honey badger goes after the honey. He doesn't care how many times he gets stung because it just doesn't affect him. But how hard do you fight every day to read your Bible in a country where you probably can have King James Bibles laying all over your house? And I'm sure that you probably do. And we don't even have to fight honeybees. We don't have to fight anything to get to our Bible. There's people that bled and died for you to have the Bible that you have in your hand right now. You're like, maybe not that particular copy. But somebody named William Tyndale died at the stake, burned at the stake, because he was just giving people the Bible in English. And a lot of people had to die for this book to be made possible. Martyrs. People that died horrific deaths. And then, you know, here we are, all these years later, King James Bibles galore. I mean, there's just a plethora of King James Bibles. There's so many King James Bibles, you can get them at the dollar store, or $1.25 now. But a $1.25 store, you can get them in, yeah, you have to have a magnifying glass to read the words if you're me, but... I mean, I'd be blind. It's like reading Chinese to me or something. I mean, but we still have so much access to it. But how hard do you fight to get to the honey? How hard do you fight to get to God's word every day? You know what? It's so important that we read God's word on a daily basis. I'm not telling you to read 10 chapters a day. I mean, if you can, do it, but if you don't have time, just read something. I'm not saying do the little, okay, I gotta read it. But even if you did do that, like, the Lord is our God made a covenant with us in Horeb, and you're like, okay, well, let me meditate upon that later on, or whatever. I mean, I don't know. I don't know how that's gonna help you in your daily life. But, you know, read the Bible. You can read the Bible. You can read a little bit of the Bible. We got so much extra time on our hands that we don't realize, and a lot of us probably just don't manage our time good enough. But one thing that you should just know this is that, your life is probably gonna go a lot better in that day if you read your Bible in the morning. Read your Bible in the morning. Read your Bible at night. Meditate therein day and night. And God's gonna prosper your way. He's gonna bless your life. And He's gonna help you and instruct you, and when you go after the word of God like a honey badger would, then your life is gonna be greatly improved for reading the Bible. So, I think that's all I got time for tonight, but let's go ahead and close in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you so much for these pictures that we can see just in one of the animals that you created. Lord, I pray that you'd just help us, Lord, to take some of these things to heart, and Lord, it's important to have that Baptist attitude, Lord, it's important to have, Lord, especially the honey that you provide for us that's just in our face every day, and sometimes we just neglect it. I pray, Lord, that you'd forgive us for those things. You'd help us to get our daily dose, help us to remember those things, and if we have to set an alarm, if we have to, whatever we have to do to try to remember to read your word, Lord, I pray that we would do those things, and Lord, that we remember that even though we're a small amount of people, and things seem like they're just going bad in this world, Lord, that we can still make a difference no matter how small a number we are, no matter how small our name is, no matter how bad our name looks to people in the outside world, Lord, that we're loved by you, and Lord, if we tap into your strength, that you'll do great things through us and continue to do great things through this church. Lord, we thank you for everything you've done this weekend for the person that got saved. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen.