Inspired P.S. #4: Salutation Commmanded

In this part of the sermon: He briefly reviews the three difficulties from the morning's message: identifying 'Babylon' as Rome, 'she' as the church in Rome, and 'Mark' as John Mark, Peter's spiritual son…

Ahab's reluctant and hateful recognition of Elijah is used to illustrate that 'greeting' in the biblical sense implies a climate of love and goodwill, not just mere recognition.

It is not to greet someone like Ahab greeted the prophet Elijah in 1 Peter, Kings chapter 18. Is it you, O troubler of Israel? He recognized him. He acknowledged that recognition, but it certainly was not an aspazomai recognition.

7:10 - 7:30 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not have a tit-for-tat retaliatory spirit; be prepared to take personal injury and not respond in kind to vicious words or slander.

Jesus' command to go two miles when compelled to go one is used to illustrate the distinction between the essence of a command (non-retaliation, willingness to suffer personal injury) and its specific cultural circumstance (being a courier for a Roman soldier).

Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, whoever shall compel you to go one mile, go with him two. Now let me ask you, how many of you sitting here tonight have ever been compelled to be someone's courier for one mile? Someone has met you in the street and said, here is my duffel bag full of my military gear, take it for the next mile in the name of Jesus. In the name of the Roman authority.

25:30 - 25:55 Read in full sermon

The point: Yield at all costs, except righteousness, and do not stand upon your rights when faced with a litigious spirit.

The analogy of being 'smitten on the cheek' with words or slanderous letters is used to apply the principle of non-retaliation to modern contexts, showing that the spirit of the command extends beyond the literal physical act.

But we have with words. And if we have the spirit of the command within us, we'll not retaliate with nasty letters to people's nasty letters about us. No eye for eye, tooth for tooth. He that would smite you on the cheek, he that would smite your ears with vicious words, smite your spirit with slanderous letters, don't you respond in kind.

27:19 - 27:50 Read in full sermon

The point: Get the principle of biblical commands and seek to express it in a hundred other appropriate ways, rather than waiting for a one-to-one parallel of the specific example.

Paul's teaching on male-female hierarchy and its expression in dress and hair in Corinth is used to illustrate how a divine principle (hierarchy) is applied concretely within a specific cultural situation, allowing for flexibility in the outward form.

We get the principle, and we seek to express it in a hundred other appropriate ways. You find the same thing in 1 Corinthians 11. Paul establishes that there is a divine hierarchy in the male-female relationship. Christ is the head of man.

29:08 - 29:31 Read in full sermon

The point: Get the principle of biblical commands and seek to express it in a hundred other appropriate ways, rather than waiting for a one-to-one parallel of the specific example.

Paul's instruction for men to pray 'lifting up holy hands' is used to illustrate that a specific action (lifting hands) was a cultural assumption of prayer, but the essence of the command is about the holiness of the hands/life, not the physical posture itself.

I will that the men pray in every place, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting. Are we ready to say unless men lift their hands when they pray, they are disobeying God? No. Paul assumes in that context when men prayed, they lifted their hands.

30:10 - 30:28 Read in full sermon

The point: Ensure that any expression of affection is never a hypocritical Judas kiss, but a holy kiss set apart unto God's purposes, signifying unruptured love.

Judas betraying Jesus with a kiss is used as a stark example of a hypocritical kiss, highlighting that a 'holy kiss' must be sincere and not a deceptive act.

one another and placed the kiss upon one cheek of both cheeks and the historians and the students of the culture of that time can't agree at least in my limited research as precisely how they did it, these Biblical writers expressed among the brethren would be a holy kiss. It would be a kiss of love. That is, it would not be a hypocritical Judas kiss. You remember what sign Judas gave to the chief priests and the military authorities?

32:08 - 32:42 Read in full sermon

The point: Ensure that any expression of affection is never a hypocritical Judas kiss, but a holy kiss set apart unto God's purposes, signifying unruptured love.

The story of the immoral married woman in Proverbs 7 who kisses a naive young man is used to illustrate an 'unholy kiss' that is erotic and driven by carnal passion, contrasting it with the 'holy kiss' of agape love.

And it should never be an erotic kiss. The kiss is an erotic thing. In Solomon's warning to his son with respect to the immoral woman, and it always bothers me when people say she's a harlot. She's not a harlot.

35:03 - 35:19 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He quotes John Brown and Professor Murray to support the view that while the specific mode of expression (the literal kiss) is culturally flexible, the command to cultivate and…

The practice of some Christian groups making foot-washing a 'third sacrament' is used to illustrate the danger of taking the circumstances of a command as its essence, leading to legalism.

Not because I would be unwilling to do it if I was persuaded it was right, but I don't believe that's what the word of God is demanding. The finest, beautiful summary statement of what is of the essence of the command, what is of the circumstances, to my judgment in all my reading, I found in my old friend John Brown, the Scottish commentator of another generation, who says that no one is ever going to prove from the Bible that the Holy Kiss is a kind of sub-sacrament along with baptism in the Lord's Supper. You know that there are groups of Christians that believe foot-washing is a sacrament ...

38:55 - 39:38 Read in full sermon

Driving home: But though the external mode of expressing Christian love be a matter of comparative unimportance, the importance of cherishing this affection and of expressing it too cannot be exaggerated.

An extended quotation from John Brown, a Scottish commentator, is used to articulate the distinction between the essential cultivation of mutual love and the non-essential mode of expressing it, arguing against making the Holy Kiss a 'sub-sacrament' or a term of communion.

Then he goes on to state that among the church fathers, and the church fathers are those generally referred to who were the successors of the apostles, not in terms of apostolic office, but they had some association with the apostles before they died and they are called the church fathers and he cites instances from Justin Martyr and from Tertullian and from Origen to show that the holy kiss had become in many of the churches of the east a very common practice. Some made it part of their liturgy that before or after the communion they would all in the congregation having come to the table woul...

40:04 - 40:48 Read in full sermon

The point: Express love and goodwill in culturally sensitive, verbal, and physical ways, understanding that inappropriate physical contact can destroy credibility.

The experience of Pastor Lamar in Pakistan, where physical contact between men and women is culturally inappropriate, illustrates the need for culturally sensitive expressions of love to maintain credibility and testimony.

that when we sort out the essence of the command from the circumstances, the circumstances of the command, we come up with something like this, that we are under solemn obligation to express in culturally sensitive, verbal and physical ways, the love and goodwill that is in our hearts one to another. When Pastor Lamar goes over to Pakistan and the relatives disuse me a short time, and there seeks to minister in the Pakistani culture, he says, if there were some sisters that he had come to know quite well, and he were to greet them with any physical contact, you know what he would do?

46:26 - 47:10 Read in full sermon

The point: Express love and goodwill in culturally sensitive, verbal, and physical ways, understanding that inappropriate physical contact can destroy credibility.

Martin's personal story of embracing and lifting Pakistani pastors at a conference illustrates his effort to adopt culturally appropriate physical expressions of love, overcoming Western reserve to communicate genuine affection.

So you've got to find ways to express the love that is in your heart to your sisters. For the brothers, you not only hug once, I think that's the best way to express the love that is in your heart to your sisters. For the brothers, you not only hug once, I think that's the best way to express the love that is in your heart to your sisters. For the brothers, you not only hug once, I think that's what caused me, it was a year after I got home from that last conference in Pakistan where 90 men at a pastor's conference, and most of the Pakistani men are smaller, and when they came for their embrac...

47:18 - 47:48 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin provides two reasons why God commands outward expressions of love: the deceitfulness of the remaining sin in the heart, which can lead to avoiding contact, and our…

The anecdote of a woman with diabetes sending Johnny Erickson Tata a prosthetic foot with a note ('since all of me can't be with you, I thought I'd send a part of me') is used to humorously illustrate the desire for tangible connection, even when physical presence is impossible.

That's the expression. No, can't do that. Now, Johnny Erickson told an incident that comes to mind. This wasn't in my notes, but I'll tell you.

48:58 - 49:05 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin provides two reasons why God commands outward expressions of love: the deceitfulness of the remaining sin in the heart, which can lead to avoiding contact, and our…

Martin shares his personal background of growing up in a home with little physical touching and his own journey to become comfortable hugging his parents and children, demonstrating that his emphasis on physical affection is a result of biblical conviction, not temperament.

No, my friends. I was reared in a home where after we ceased to be little kids, there was very little physical touching. I was well, well along. It's only been the last few years that I felt comfortable hugging my mother.

50:42 - 50:55 Read in full sermon

Driving home: It betrays an unnecessary reserve if not the loss of the ardor of the church's first love when the Holy Kiss is conspicuous by its absence in the western church.

An extended quotation from Professor Murray is used to reinforce the biblical mandate for the Holy Kiss, lamenting its absence in the Western church and emphasizing that the Bible's authority should transcend cultural norms.

And my grown children, saved or unsaved, would not think of greeting my wife and me without physical and verbal expressions of their love. Because they were determined that it was biblical that that should be so. And I believe with Professor Murray, and here I want to quote to you the handling of the Holy Kiss from Professor Murray, greatly esteemed as a man of God and a reformed theologian and commentator. Listen to what he says on the command in Romans 16, 16.

51:57 - 52:30 Read in full sermon

Driving home: It betrays an unnecessary reserve if not the loss of the ardor of the church's first love when the Holy Kiss is conspicuous by its absence in the western church.

Martin's story of his father becoming a 'passionate hugger' in his 80s illustrates that the Spirit of God can continue to conform believers to God's will throughout their lives, even in deeply ingrained personal habits.

And the Bible is bigger than his culture. And may God help us if our Bibles are not bigger than our culture and our upbringing and anything else that molds and shapes us into what we are and what we do. By the way in the last few years of his life my father became a passionate hugger of his own sons and his own daughters. He grew in grace even into his 80's.

53:35 - 54:11 Read in full sermon

The point: Husbands, do not try to 'con' your wives into thinking that verbal and physical expressions of love are unnecessary if you 'know' you love them.

Martin describes his ritual of holding his wife's hand during prayer, explaining that if there's any unresolved conflict, his hand feels 'dirty,' illustrating how physical touch can be a powerful, honest expression of the heart's state.

you before? Do you accept that? I hope you don't. And I hope you husbands don't try to con your wives into thinking they should. There's a little ritual my wife and I have

65:28 - 65:42 Read in full sermon