Holy Kisses

Q: What does the Bible say about kissing in relationships?

The Bible describes kisses as expressions of affection, reconciliation, and even treachery, illustrating the complexities of human relationships. The Scriptures contain various references to kisses, which range from expressions of deep love and affection, as seen in the embraces between family members, to kisses of betrayal like Judas' kiss. In Job 31, Job speaks of the kiss of admiration, which reflects a self-righteous attitude, indicating that even a seemingly innocent gesture can reveal the true condition of the heart. Through these examples, the Bible presents kissing as a multifaceted practice, one that can either reflect God's grace or human hypocrisy.

Q: Why is kissing the Son important in Christian faith?

Kissing the Son symbolizes allegiance, love, and the necessity of repentance for salvation. In Psalm 2:12, the command to 'kiss the Son' signifies a call to worship and submission to Christ as Lord and Savior. It represents a heartfelt response to God's grace, where believers express their love and adherence to His will. This act of kissing Him is not a mere physical gesture; rather, it encompasses the essence of faith, trust, and a longing for relationship. To kiss the Son is to acknowledge His authority and to embrace the salvation He offers, recognizing that apart from Him, there is no hope.

Q: How do we know the doctrine of grace is true?

The doctrine of grace is supported by God's revelation in Scripture, emphasizing salvation through faith alone. The truth of God's grace is manifest throughout the Bible, wherein it is clear that salvation is not earned through works, but is a gift from God. Key passages such as Ephesians 2:8-9 declare that we are saved by grace through faith, not of ourselves, lest anyone should boast. This doctrine is foundational, illustrating that human effort cannot attain righteousness. Understanding grace compels us to recognize our utter dependence on Christ's merit and the transformative power of His love, providing a clear basis for our faith.

Q: Why should Christians practice reconciliation?

Reconciliation reflects God's character and is essential for maintaining unity in the body of Christ. Reconciliation is a fundamental aspect of the Christian faith, as it is deeply rooted in the Gospel message. Through Christ, God has reconciled sinners to Himself, and He calls believers to extend that same grace to one another. In 2 Corinthians 5:18, we see that believers are entrusted with the ministry of reconciliation, emphasizing its importance in fostering community and unity within the church. Practicing reconciliation not only embodies the love of Christ but also serves as a powerful testimony to the world of His grace and transformative power in the lives of His people.

If you want to be turning there,
I'm going to begin tonight in Job chapter 31. The book of Job
chapter 31. Did you ever notice how often
in this book the scriptures speak of people being kissed or kissing
one another? Now, watching the news, it's
obvious that in our day, even in Eastern countries today, this
ancient custom of greeting is very common. People greet one
another with a kiss. And sadly, people tend to think
that this is what is implied in the scriptures when people
greet one another with a kiss. Many commentators will tell you
that the kiss was like shaking hands today. Well, that's true
with regard to the ancient custom that has come down to our age.
When you see an Arab and an Israeli whose sons are killing each other,
greet one another and kiss one another on the cheek, it doesn't
imply anything except There you are. That's all it means. It's
insignificant. It's just a formal courtesy and
formal greeting. Nothing else. But that is not
what is suggested by the kisses used in scripture and admonished
in scripture. In the scriptures we read of
kisses of adoration and affection. Kisses of peace and kisses of
well-wishing, kisses of deep love and devotion, kisses of
idolatry, kisses of faith, kisses of repentance, kisses of reconciliation. Now, as we look in the scriptures,
I'm going to pass over deliberately those kisses of common, ordinary
affection. Everybody understands what it
means when an old man like Isaac kisses his son Jacob as he's
about to leave this world. It's easy to understand how Jacob
and Esau, after being parted for such a long time, both harboring
ill thoughts of the other, when they finally meet after fourteen
or fifteen or sixteen years, falling on one another's necks
and kissing each other. Brothers now reconciled in the
flesh. It's easy to understand how that
Joseph who loved his brothers, who had betrayed him and loved
his father when they were brought together again by the hand of
God's providence, kissed one another. It's easier for us to
understand David and Jonathan, dear friends, who would never
see each other again, and they knew it, kissing one another
as they parted. When Elijah was about to leave
and follow God's servant Elijah, devoting himself to the cause
of the Redeemer, bidding farewell to his former life, he goes back
to kiss his mother and father and tell them, I'm headed away. This life is no longer mine. For folks who will tell you there's
no such thing as love at first sight, I beg to differ. I read
in the scriptures of a man by the name of Jacob, who just as
soon as he saw Rachel, kissed her. And they had a pretty good
marriage. They had a pretty good marriage.
It's easy enough to understand those. But other scriptures speak
of kisses in another way. And I want us to look at them.
over the past several weeks, carefully looked at all the passages
in this book where the word kiss or kissed is used. And I'll divide
them into five categories. We'll look at first, kisses of
treachery. Then a kiss of redemption. Kisses
of repentance. Kiss of faith. and a kiss of reconciliation. Now, first let's look in the
book of Job and let me show you some of these kisses of treachery. We overlook them frequently,
these kisses, but we do so at great loss. In Job 31, Job speaks
of a man kissing his own hand. Now, in ancient times, the kiss
of the hand demonstrated great admiration, great respect. I am told by those who should
know these things that often if a man who was somewhat beneath
another met someone of great nobility or great fame, He would
take that person's hand and kiss his hand, bowing his knee and
smiting himself on the thigh to indicate utter, utter honor
for this man. Well, here in Job 31, Job has
been the object of constant slander between four men, Elihu and Zophar,
Eliphaz and Bildad, These three men, Zophar and Eliphaz and Bildad,
had for days and days and days gone on and on, relentlessly
slandering God's servant Job. They saw this man who was once
so great, now stricken with boils, everything taken from him. He
who was so rich, now brought to abject poverty. And they said,
we always suspected you, bud. We understand now God's shown
you for what you are. You were so rich you trusted
in your riches and thought you were something because you were
so greatly blessed of God. You trusted in your righteousness
and thought you were righteous above others. And now God shows
you what you are. Now don't forget, Job was a righteous
man. You might say, well I don't believe
Job was saved. Read the first chapter. God Almighty
said he was perfect. Not by what he did, but by what
God had done for him. He was made righteous in the
righteousness of Christ. And when you read in the book
of Job as he speaks to his accusers and defends himself. He defends
himself because he's fed up to hear. And he's not going to sit
in silence any longer. And he starts to rake them over
the coals. I mean, he raked them over the coals. And he did so
as they had slandered him publicly, he did it publicly. And there's
no question, he spoke beyond what should have been spoken,
and God corrected him for it. But when Joe defends himself
as a righteous man with regard to their accusations, it's one
thing. It's one thing. Let me illustrate
it. If Larry Brown should accuse me of going down here and robbing
the bank. The bank's been robbed and Larry said, Don Fortner did
it. The money's over there in his house. You can go get him.
And I say, no, I didn't. I am righteous in this regard.
That's one thing. It's something else for me to
say. Before God Almighty, I had made
myself righteous. That's a different story. And
when Job's defending himself before these men, he's defending
his integrity and character as a man against the slanders they
had made. But now watch how he does so.
And he shows us something about self-righteousness. He says in
chapter 31, verse 24, If I have made gold my hope,
you say I trust in my riches. If I said to find gold, this
is my confidence. Thou art my confidence. I know
that I am a man blessed of God because I am rich. Look what
I have. Job says, if I did that, If I
rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because my hand had
gotten much, if I gloated in that which God in his providence
had put into my hands, if I beheld the sun when it shined, or the
moon walking in brightness, and my heart hath been secretly enticed,
if in all these things I have been putting on a show, or my
mouth hath kissed my hand." If I thought in my heart, I'm
somebody. If I thought in my heart, I am
righteous above others. If I thought in my heart, I have
made myself honorable before God, so that now this is my confidence,
this that I have done, this that I have performed, I kiss my hand. with great admiration. Oh, how men admire themselves. We all like to pretend we don't,
but all thought of goodness before God, and all thought of superiority
before one another. is but the display of utter self-admiration
and self-righteousness. He said, I kiss my hand. Look
at this. This also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge,
for I have denied the God that is above. Did he say that self-righteousness
is the denial of God? That's what he said. You see,
a man who imagines that he has no sin, does no sin, or in any
way keeps himself from sin. A man who imagines that he in
any way makes himself better than another. denies God, denies
everything written in this book revealed by God about Himself
and His depravity. Oh my soul, how we kiss our hands. I read this in my heart's written
within me. I can't tell you how many times
I have said And I've thought it 10,000 times I didn't say
it. See something reported on the
news, read something, some horrible thing somebody did, or observed
something someone did. And how could a man do that?
That's just kissing my hand. That's denying what God tells
me is in me, and what I really know is in me. To kiss my hand as one who is
right and good before God or one who is superior to another
in any way of goodness is to deny my need of a Redeemer, to
deny my need of grace, to deny my need of God's salvation. Job said this is to deny God
and God will punish it. The judge will punish this. Turn
over to the book of Proverbs, chapter 7. Here's another treacherous kiss. It is a kiss that self-righteous
men and women anxiously receive. It is a kiss that men who flatter
themselves that they are good are very susceptible to. Throughout
the Word of God, false religion is spoken of as a harlot. All false religion. It doesn't
matter whether you're talking about that silly old fool in
Rome who looks like he's dressed up in Masonic order costume,
or whether you're talking about the preacher down the road. All
religion that teaches salvation by works Salvation by your will,
your work, or your worth at any point to any degree is a false
religion and is called the great whore. Oh brother Don, that's
plain language. This book does get plain. It
does get plain. And here in Proverbs chapter
7 we have a picture of this harlot. The wise man Solomon warns us
to avoid her. He tells us in verse 6, For at
the window of my house I looked through my casement, and beheld
among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths a young man
void of understanding. A hand kisser. One who kisses
his own hand, void of understanding. He may be a nuclear physicist,
but he's still bored of understanding. Passing through the street near
her corner, flirting with her, he went the way to her house,
the broad way that leads to destruction. In the twilight, in the evening,
in the black and dark night, and behold there met him a woman
with the attire of a harlot and a subtle heart. She is loud and
stubborn. Her feet abide not in her house.
Now she is without, now in the streets, and lieth in wait. She's a good soul winner. She
lieth in wait at every corner, and she caught him and kissed
him. Kissed him with impudent face
and said unto him, I have peace offerings with me. I can tell
you how to be saved. This day have I paid my vows. Everything's all right. I've
made my peace with God, and I'll tell you how. Therefore came
I forth to meet thee diligently, to seek thy faiths, and I have
found thee. I have decked my bed with coverings
of tapestry, with card works, with fine men of Egypt. I've
got all the riches of the world, everything you could want right
here in me. Come join our church. Come be one of us. Come unite
with us. I've got everything you could
want. I've perfumed my bed with myrrh and aloes and simeon. We
will have a good time. Life will be a hoot. All your
sorrows will be taken care of. All your riches will be provided.
All you have to do is come and make your choice for Jesus. If
you don't, come. Let us take our field of love. Let us take our field of lust.
If you think that's not what it means, read the advertisements
in Friday's paper for local church activities today. Come, let us
take our feel of lust. You want a show? You want to
be entertained? You want good recreation? You want to be a part of a good
song group? You want to be, you want, you
want, you want, you want? Come! We'll provide it for you,
just tell us what you want. Let us take our feel of lust
until the morning. Let us solace ourselves with
our lust. We'll call it worshiping God
and serving Him. For the good man is not home.
He's gone on a long journey. He's taken a bag of money with
him and will come home at the appointed day. Don't have to
worry about God interfering. With her much fair speech, she
caused him to yield. And with her flattering of her
lips, she forced him. Let me give you a classic example.
When I was in Bible college, students were expected to do
what they called practical service, and they'd go out on soul winning
things. I have a friend, he's been here,
Brother Don Cruz, God saved him since then. He went out one night,
I happened to be preaching, and he was out getting folks to make
decisions for Jesus. He confided in me sometime later,
he said, I got in the car with a fellow that night, I couldn't
stand what she was preaching. I was preaching on the sidewalk,
preaching down at the shopping center in Worcester, Salem. I
couldn't stand what she was preaching. I got in the car with a fellow
that night, and he was a drunk. He couldn't tell me his name.
But I talked him into making a profession of faith and told
him everything was all right. With her word, she forced him. Forced him. Forced him. Forced him. into destruction. But he don't. He goeth after
her straightway, as an ox goes to the slaughter, as a fool goes
to the correction of stocks, till the dark strike through
his liver, as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not
he lost his life. These who are enticed to false
religion, these kissers of their own hands in self-righteousness,
and made to delight in their self-righteousness, all their
religion is but kissing idols. Hosea chapter 13. Hosea 13. Let
me show you. You remember God said, Ephraim
is joined to his idols. Leave him alone. Here in Hosea
13, he speaks of those who observed the vanities of false religion,
kissing the idols they made. Verse 2. Now they sin more and
more. That's what God calls the religion
and the practices of men in religion where Christ is not worshipped
in spirit and in truth. Now they sin more and more. and
have made themselves molten images of their silver. Now, people
say, oh, we wouldn't do that. We wouldn't think about bowing
down and worshiping an image. Let's see. And idols, according
to their own understanding. The Jesus that people talk about
worshipping, the God people talk about worshipping, the spirit
people talk about believing is nothing but gods made from the
dark forest of their depraved minds according to their understanding. That's all. They don't. All of
it, the work of the craftsman. They say of them, let the men
that sacrifice kiss their gods. Kiss the calves. And of course,
you're familiar with the Judas kiss. You don't need to turn
there. You can look at it in the gospel narratives. Judas displays hypocrisy. in its utmost display. He went to betray the Son of
God. Made a deal with the chief priest.
Thirty pieces of silver. Thirty pieces of silver. He said,
now fellas, I'm going to lead you to Him. And if you want to
know who He is, just watch me. The man that I kiss, that's the
one. And he walked up to the Lord
Jesus. And he said, Hail, Master! And kissed him. You know what
those words mean? He said, Oh, blessed Master,
joy and peace, happiness and blessedness to you, my Master. And he kissed him. You see, hypocrisy hardens the
heart of men and women. So much so, they will cling to
it to eternal damnation in obstinate rebellion. And when I speak of
hypocrisy, I'm talking about men and women pretending what
they know is not so before God. Put on the mask. Some put it
on Sunday morning, some Sunday night, some Tuesday night, some
Wednesday night, and some wear it all the time. But it's just
a mask, like you used to wear in theaters, just to cover up
their real identity. It's a mask behind which they
seek to keep anyone from knowing what they really are. Now, let's
get to some better kisses. The second group is just one.
It's a redemption kiss. Psalm 85, verse 10. The psalmist tells us that the
Lord God has forgiven our iniquities. That he has covered our sins. That he has turned away all his
wrath with a kiss. With a kiss. Mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. At the appointed time, the Lord
Jesus Christ, God, our incarnate Savior, set His face like a flint
and went up to Mount Calvary, and there He was made sin for
us. And when He was made sin for
us, the Lord God declared, Save my son. Mercy, save my people. Righteousness, punish the substitute. Peace, gather my banished ones. Look at this, verse 11. Mercy
and truth have met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. Truth shall spring out of the
earth. He rose again, took His seat
on high, and righteousness looks down from heaven. What a picture
of our Redeemer. He looks down from heaven on
you and deals with you in His mercy, in perfect justice, righteousness,
and truth. He don't. Righteousness shall
look down from heaven, yea, the Lord shall give that which is
good, because it is right for him to do so. And our land shall
yield her increase. Righteousness shall go before
him. Righteousness runs the path in
front of our great Savior. And that same righteousness shall
set us in the way of his death. When mercy and truth had purged
iniquity by the precious blood of Jesus Christ, the Lord God
says to mercy, truth, righteousness, and peace, deliver my chosen
from going down to the pit. I have found a ransom. Now, turn
if you will to Psalm chapter 2, the second Psalm. Here, let's look at several kisses
of repentance. At His own appointed time of
love, the Lord Jesus, in whom mercy and truth have met together,
in whose sacrifice righteousness and peace have kissed each other,
pours out His Holy Spirit upon ransomed souls, causing them
to come to Him with kisses of repentance. Here in Psalm 2,
verse 12. Kiss the Son. If you would have God's salvation,
you must kiss the Son. Kiss the Son. You remember when you were a
boy and your sister and you got to fighting? I had three of them. We did a lot of it. And then
after getting beat half to death, Because you weren't allowed in
those days to touch the sister. And if you got caught, bud, you
were in trouble. You know the most humiliating thing about
the whole ordeal? My mother would make me kiss
my sister. I would rather have taken another
beating, and often did. But she was determined! You're
going to kiss her! Gonna do it. Do you know that's
exactly the language that's used right here? This is an imperative. This is a command. God says,
kiss my son. You're going to kiss him. I don't
mean you're going to kiss him or else. I mean you're going
to kiss him. And if you don't kiss him willingly or else is
coming and you're still going to kiss him. Kiss Him. The word means adore Him. Choose Him. Bow to Him. Fasten yourself to my side. Pastor, how can I even imagine kissing
the Son of God? I'm not worthy? I can't come
kiss Him? Let me tell you something. If God commands you to kiss Him,
it'll be alright for you to kiss Him. And God commands you, kiss my
Son. Kiss Him with reverent adoration
and willing submission. Kiss Him with faith, confidence,
and love. Kiss His glorious crown. Kiss
His holy wounds. Kiss His righteous scepter. Kiss
the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish from the way when
His wrath is kindled but a litter. Now, how do you know this is
what this kiss is talking about? Blessed are all they that put
their trust in Him. But repentance is not something
we did a long time ago or did this morning. Repentance is a
continual way of life for believers. Let's start with Solomon chapter
1 verse 2. Christ's bride, His church, the
chosen redeemed sinner, the sinner who has kissed the Son in faith
and been kissed of Him in reconciliation, and she expresses an ardent desire,
let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth. Let Him come and embrace me. Let Him, whom my soul loves,
come to me. And let Him kiss me with the
kisses of His mouth, with grace and mercy, assured love and assured
forgiveness and assured reconciliation and assured peace. Now come,
for thy love, for His love. The love by which I have been
redeemed, the love by which I have been cared for, the love by which
I have been kept and protected all these days, the love that
has so often restored me when fallen, washed me when defiled,
the love by which I now stand whole before Him. Thy love is
better than wine. Wine will If you drink enough of it, only
add intoxication to thirst. But you can take all the draughts
of His love that you can take in. And the more you are intoxicated
in the experience of the love of God in Christ, the better
off you are, the more sober you think, the more rightly you see
things. Wine, men sometimes will drink
to drown their sorrows. You know how long it drowns them?
Till you wake up. Oh, but the love of Christ, His
everlasting love, drowns our sorrows forever. Forever. Let Him kiss me, the kisses of
His mouth, for thy love It's better than wine. I have a similar
expression in the song of Solomon, chapter 8. Chapter 8. Oh, that thou wert as my brother. He is, you know. And that suck the breast of my
mother. When I should find thee without,
I would kiss thee. Yea, I should not be despised. Here the bride sends to the bridegroom,
the church to Christ, the Shulamite to Solomon. If we're seen in public kissing
passionately ardently, folks will look at that as a shameful
thing. A shameful thing. But if people think you're my
brother, if they think we're from the
same womb, if they think we're really one family, then when
I meet you in the street, in any public place, anywhere, before
anybody, then I could pour out my devotion to you. as I want
to and not be despised for it. Oh, that's how I want to walk
with you. My brother, my beloved, my friend,
kiss me with the kisses of your mouth and let me walk in your
arms. Set me as a seal upon your heart
continually. You're familiar with the passage
in Luke chapter 7. There is a woman there who was
a sinner. Brother Mike Walker preached
to us in this passage last Sunday. And she comes into Simon the
leper's house. I'm inclined to think this is
the same event that took place in the little house of Simon
the Pharisee, and it's the same woman. And she stood behind the master,
who had already told his disciples. Nobody believed him except her.
Nobody understood him except her. Somewhere along the way,
she had backed the Lord Jesus, and he had forgiven her her sins.
called her by His grace, sent His Spirit in her, poured out
His grace in her, and she's standing at His feet. She's come there
for one reason, because her Master is about to go to suffer all
the wrath of God in her stead, that she might live in His perfect
righteousness forever. And she's brought with her her
life savings, an alabaster box, a box of sweet spite and hurt
worth a whole year's wages. And she kneels down before him
and wipes his feet with her hands, wets them with her tears, dries
them with her hands, Kissed his feet. Kissed his feet. Kissed his feet. He said she
hath not ceased to kiss my feet. She's not ceased. She takes her
place in utter humility and considers it her highest
honor to pour out everything she has just for him and kisses
his feet with reverence and love and gratitude. And our master
tells us the reason why. He said, she has been forgiven
much, therefore she loved. Now, turn to Luke chapter 15. Here's the prodigal son. Verse
20. He's come home now. Verse 20
begins with that little conjunction, and. Takes us all the way back
through the whole history of this man and his son. And. After this particle's haughty
rebellion, after he's gone and wasted his father's substance
with harlots and riotous sniffing, after he finds himself at least
at last in a hog trough of false religion, trying to work his
way back into his father's favor, eating the husk of hogs. And
finally he comes to himself and he said, I will arise and go
to my father. And my father's house is bread
enough and despair. There are hired servants in my
father's house who live better than this. And he arose and came
to his father. But when he was yet a great way
off. People talk about steps to God. First step is this, second step
is that. It don't matter how many steps you've made, you're
still a great way off. Just as far off as you were in
the beginning. When he was yet a great way off,
His father saw him. What words. He saw him. He saw who he was. He saw everything he had done. He saw everything about him.
He saw his filth. He saw his emptiness. He saw
him as his son. And he saw what he was about
to do for him. His father saw it and had compassion. You know what that word is? This is almost too much to get
hold of. Co-passion. That means Bobby,
his father, had the same passion for this boy. as this boy had
for himself and infinitely more. Father had compassion and ran. The only time in the entire Word
of God God Almighty is ever portrayed as getting in a hurry is running
to greet a sinner coming to him for mercy. He ran. and fell on
his neck. So good to see him! So good to see him! Welcome home,
sir! He fell on his neck. Fell on
his neck. Can you get the picture? He fell
on his neck and kissed him. And the word is very much like
that used in Luke 7. It's not, he fell on his neck,
gave him a kiss and said, welcome home. No, no, no, no. He fell
on his neck, took him under his arm and he kissed him, and he
kissed him, and he kissed him, and he kissed him, and he kissed him, and he kissed
him, and he kissed him, and he kissed him, and he kissed him, and he kissed him, and he
him, and he kissed him, and he kissed him, and he kissed him,
and he kissed him, and he kissed him, and he kissed him, and he
kissed him, and he kissed him, and he kissed him, and he kissed
him, and he kissed him, and he kissed him, and he kissed him,
and he kissed him, and he kissed him, and he kissed him, and he kissed him,
and he kissed him, and he kissed him, and he kissed him, and he
him, and he kissed him, and he kissed him, and he kissed now poured out. He kissed him and
said, everything's forgiven and forgotten. He kissed him and
he said, we won't discuss this anymore. And he kissed him. And his son started to say, and
the father said, we won't discuss this anymore. This is over. And
he kissed him. And he said, I'm not going to
let you go again. But what if, I told you we're
not going to discuss you anymore. He kissed him. And he said, I'm
not going to let you go again. And he kissed him. And said,
bring the family ring, put it on his finger. And bring the
family shoes and put them on his feet. Bring the family robe
and put it on his back. and bring the fairy cast and
let's have a feast. My son is home. And he kissed
him with joy unspeakable in the presence of the angels. He kissed
him. Now, let me show you one more
group very quickly. One more group. Turn over to
Romans chapter 16. Romans 16. six times in this book, in the
New Testament. The scripture speaks of family
kisses. Paul says in verse 16, Salute one another with an holy
kiss. The ancient writers, Justin Martyr,
Chrysostom, Tertullian, all of them speak of a custom in the
early churches. The churches would meet together
and each would kiss his brother and his sister as they met one
another. They'd start to part and each
would kiss the other. If they met one on the street,
kiss each other, not just a common greeting, not just the common
greeting we see on television today, not just a handshake,
but they would kiss one another. The Holy Spirit does not intend
that we should necessarily go about kissing one another physically,
though that is perfectly all right. The other night, Brother
Donny Bell met me right there, kissed me on the cheek. That's
all right. That's all right. But that's not what he's commanding
here. Rather, he is telling us to deal
with one another wherever we meet one another, brothers and
sisters in Christ. Under whatever circumstances,
in the house of God, when we leave the house of God, meet
on the street, meet in the grocery store, meet down the road, deal
with one another in everything that is symbolized in a holy
kiss. The kind of kiss that you give
to the Son of God in repentance, and the kind of kiss that God
gives you in reconciliation. So you greet your brother, brother
Bob, esteeming him highly, highly. He's Christ, you know. That's
how the Master put it, isn't it? Not considering for a moment
anything that might naturally separate us. Brother David Wright
was here the other night, a short black man, lives down in College
Grove, Tennessee. He's a black boy raised in New
York City, you're a white boy raised down south? Yeah. We are
two sinners saved by God's free grace, robed in Christ's perfect
righteousness. One in Him. forgetting all that might divide
you, all offenses, all separations, kiss one another, greet one another
with a holy kiss, the holy kiss of brethren who love one another
in sincerity and in truth, ardently Seeking one another's good for
the glory of God. Let me show you one more text
and I'll wrap it up. Acts chapter 20. Acts chapter 20. Verse 27. Paul was
leaving Ephesus. He had told them, said, I'm fixing
to leave you now. I've not shunned to declare to
you all the counsel of God. I've preached Christ crucified
to you, the whole message of this book. And you won't see my face anymore.
This is the last time I'll see you on this earth. And they all
went sore and fell on Paul's neck and kissed him. sorrowing most of all for the
words which he spake that they should see his face no more. John Fawcett expressed what I
want to say here better than I can, 250 years ago, blessed
be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love, the fellowship
of kindred minds is like to that above. Before our Father's throne,
we pour our ardent prayers, our fears, our hopes, our aims are
one, our comforts, and our cares. We share our joys and woes, our
mutual burdens bear, and often for each other flows a sympathizing
tear. When we asunder part, It gives
us inward pain, but we shall still be joined in heart and
hope to meet again. This verse is not in our hymn
book. This glorious hope, this glorious
hope revives our courage, by the way, while each in expectation
lives and longs to see the day from sorrow, toil, and pain. and sin we shall be free, and
perfect love and friendship reign through all eternity. Now, as we come together once
more to observe the Lord's Supper of the Wednesday, explained so
well this morning. Is not this the communion of
the body of Christ? and the communion of the blood
of Christ. Let us cry, O Lord, now kiss
me with the kisses of your mouth. Embrace me. Stay me with flagons
of wine. Your love is better than wine.
And let us Greet one another with a holy kiss of ardent love,
complete devotion, blessed fellowship in our Redeemer. Amen.

Holy Kisses

What does the Bible say about kissing in relationships?

Why is kissing the Son important in Christian faith?

How do we know the doctrine of grace is true?

Why should Christians practice reconciliation?

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Holy Kisses

What does the Bible say about kissing in relationships?

Why is kissing the Son important in Christian faith?

How do we know the doctrine of grace is true?

Why should Christians practice reconciliation?

Sermon Transcript

About Don Fortner

Comments

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