Romans 16:16-18 - Corps - June 18,1980
ROMANS 16:16-18 June 18, 1980 Tonight we go to Romans 16 for our second to last Corps teaching. Again, Corps, it’s just the greatness of the Word is simply amazing to me all the time. It turns me on and blesses my soul. Every time you work the Word, I stand in utter amazement of it, and I’ve worked it a few times in a few years. I cannot understand why people don’t just go to the Word, why the religious leaders, the church leaders, just don’t go to the Word, because it’s so simple, so accurate. And it would change an “h” of a lot of things in their lives as well as our country if we just got back to the Word. I’m not sure if I covered verse 16 of the sixteenth chapter of Romans in detail last week. Did I tell you that the sexes in the Bible, Old Testament, New Testament period, sexes did not intermingle like we do today? I don’t think I told you that according to the liturgical literature of that age, so-called Jewish point of view, there were only three types of kisses that were permitted. But they were only among men. Men didn’t kiss women in public. Men kissed men, and there were three types of kisses among men. The first type is called the kiss of reverence. That is still carried on today when people bow before the pope and they kiss his ring. That’s the kiss of reverence. When they bow at the feet of a bishop and they kiss the bishop’s ring. In the Far East, like in India, the people would fall down in front of a religious leader and they would reach out to touch his feet, but if they could get close enough, they would kiss his feet. That’s the kiss of reverence. The second one was the kiss of receiving someone. Today we say “hi.” When two men would meet, let’s say I was receiving you, then I would kiss you on the cheek. It was not a kissing on the lips. That’s the second category, the kiss of receiving. The third category is the kiss of dismissal. Today we say “good-bye.” Except among eastern people and same European people, here in the United States the kiss
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right to make their own decisions. That we need to learn again, because in so many places the unity of the body is lost because they do not allow the liberty in custom. Thank God we’ve come far enough in The Way Ministry to believe the Word and to let our people do their custom according to the best intents of their hearts and life, as long as it isn’t totally out of order or as long as it isn’t out of order with God’s Word. As long as it’s decent and in order, you know, I don’t care if you girls put your hair up or let it hang or whether the men wear suits and ties or have long hair or short hair. That’s where the liberty is. Then you also have to allow the liberty to the immature believer that I discussed in detail in previous weeks with the Corps. You’ve got a young baby in the ministry. You can’t expect that young baby to walk as beautifully as you walk. So you have to just have the