| An Introduction
To The Book of Romans
"Paul had many reasons for writing the Church
at Rome. We know Peter didn't start the Church at Rome, Paul
didn't start it. [In the book of Acts, chapter two, verses
1-11 it gives us a clue. It seems that devout Jewish worshippers
and proselytes from Rome were in Jerusalem on that fateful
day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit miraculously came on
the disciples of Jesus 50 days after his resurrection (Acts
2:1-11). These just converted Jewish Christians from Rome
probably went back to Rome and started the Church of God at
Rome.] Paul was writing the Romans from the city of Corinth.
Why did he send the letter? For one thing, Paul sent the letter
because he had a whole lot of friends in Rome, a whole lot
of Christian buddies that were there. He wanted to say "Hi!"
to all of them, and he really wanted to visit this Church.
He said so, many friends were there. If you go to Romans 16
and you look at about verse 3 and you read on to verse 16
Paul names nearly 30 people by name that he knows. Another
reason that he wrote was because there were problems that
the Church at Rome was encountering. They had people going
from door-to-door teaching different doctrines, different
gospels, some were saying that the only way God was going
to accept you is if you do this and you do that and you can't
eat this and you can't eat fat and you got to worship God
on this day. [This whole letter is addressed to two groups
of people in the Church of God at Rome. The Jewish Christians
had grown up in strict Orthodox Jewish homes. They were so
Orthodox that they thought it necessary to be in Jerusalem
for the Holy Day seasons, and thus were in Jerusalem that
fateful Passover/Pentecost season when Jesus Christ died,
was resurrected and then the Holy Spirit came on the disciples
50 days later on the Holy Day of Pentecost. The other group
was made up of Gentile Christians. The Jewish Christians,
as a result of their religious background and upbringing were
practicing what amounted to a form of old covenant Christianity.
It was a Christianity tied to the works of the law, the old
covenant law of Moses. But the counsel of Jerusalem that took
place in Acts 15 stated that the old covenant had passed away
and the new covenant was in full force for Christians--making
the old covenant obsolete--and at best optional as to whether
a Christian had to observe the 7th day Sabbath,
Holy Days, dietary laws, etc. Hebrews 8:8-15 states the intent
of the new covenant. The Gentiles knew this, but the old covenant
practicing Jewish Christians were confusing the poor Gentiles
in this matter of which covenant to fellow. These Jewish Christians
were a bit confused themselves.] They were confused, 'What
do we do?' They were asking, so he's writing to set them straight.
Also they were wondering about Israel, the nation of Israel,
is God finished with the Jews? Is it curtains for Israel?
What's going to happen, Lord?' They were wondering 'What was
the gospel?'. Paul wrote to them to declare the gospel that
he had preached throughout the world. Paul hadn't been able
to get there in person yet, and so, thank God he wrote this
letter.
The book of Romans is a masterpiece in that it is the most
complete explanation of what the gospel is that we have in
the whole Bible. Thank God that he wasn't able to go to Rome
yet and had to write this letter. It has been a blessing to
millions of people. The book of Romans is a revolutionary
book. Beware--you may become a part of the "Romans Revolution."
This book will change your life. You may have been a Christian
50 years, 5 years, 5 minutes--the book of Romans will change
your life. Quite possibly it is the most important document
that ever has been written. For almost the past 2,000 years
God has used this book to change the lives of millions and
millions of people.
Some of the brightest leaders of the Church [speaking of the
collective Church, the body of Christ] have traced their new
birth to this book--to the book of Romans message. The list
of those touched by Romans reads like sort of a spiritual
'Who's who.' Think of Augustine who lived about 383, 386 was
when he was saved. He was one of the greatest leaders and
theologians that the church has ever had. He traces his conversion
to a few verses right back in Romans 13. It was in September
of 386 that Augustine sank into a great dispare. His godly
mother, Monica, had been praying for him for decades--praying
that he would come to Christ. His Dad wasn't a Christian,
his Mom was. Augustine was going the way of the world, he
was running from God fast as his feet would take him. He got
into a real immoral lifestyle. Started living with a gal--Oops,
they had a baby. He got into all sorts of philosophies. He
got involved in some of the cults of his day. He drank himself
into oblivion at times. His life was a mess. And one day sitting
in his friend's garden, in September he sat there and just
began to cry and cry. He'd come to the end. He looked at his
life, he saw what he was, and thought 'How on earth could
anyone accept me?' But while he was sitting there in his friend's
garden crying, he heard a little child sing a song, a little
Latin song. He sang "Take up and read, take up and read, take
up and read." And he thought, 'Where's that coming from?'
And he looked around, and Augustine looked there right next
to him in the garden was an open scroll of Romans. In his
own words, he said, "I siezed it and opened it! And in silence
I read the first passage in which my eyes fell." And this
is what he read, "not in carousing and drunkenness, not in
sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealously.
But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for
the flesh in regards to its' lusts." He goes on to say, "I
had no wish to read on and no need to do so. For in an instant
I came to the end of the sentence and it was as if the light
of faith flooded into my heart, and all the darkness of doubt
was dispelled." The moment his eyes fell upon Romans 13, he
looked at those verses, and the Spirit caused him to be born
again, and Augustine was saved--just by reading a couple verses
in Romans.
And another person who was transformed by the book was Martin
Luther. Luther had struggled for years to have peace with
God, and he knew that God was Holy, and he was not. He tried
all sorts of religious practices, denying himself, hurting
himself--studying, praying. He went into the monastery to
try to find God, and he could not find God. He knew he wasn't
good enough and so he tried every form of good works possible.
As a last resort he decided he would go to the Holy City,
Rome! And there, there's so many hundreds of shrines. There
perhaps by visiting the shrines he could avoid many thousands
of years in Purgatory. And so he went, seeking indulgences.
And when he got to Rome, boy was he shocked! Rome was far
from being the Holy City. In fact the people said, 'If ever
there was a Hell Hole open to earth, Rome was built over it.'
Luther, though, was shocked by the way the priests and nuns
were living, practicing all sorts of perverted lifestyles.
He went ahead and visited all the shrines and tried to grab
all the indulgences he could. Finally, the last great pilgrimage
was when he came to the Lateran Church, which is famous for
its' sacred stairway. And in this great church, supposedly,
supernaturally, from Jerusalem, the very staircase that Jesus
stood on when Pilate condemned him to die, was transported
to Rome. So now all the pilgrims would come to Rome [and say]
"These were the very steps that Jesus stood upon when he was
condemned!" And so they would get on their knees, (they still
do it today) and they would climb those steps, one step at
a time on their knees. And so Luther got on his knees, and
he began at the bottom, there, and he would kiss the step
and then he would pray the rosary. Then he would move to the
nest step, he would kiss it, and then he would say his rosary,
going up the steps this way. He was interrupted as he was
praying. This is his own account. He said, "I heard a very
small voice, saying, 'Martin, Oh Martin, the just shall live
by faith.' 'Who said that?'" That was the verse he had read
in the book of Romans that had bugged him for years! He could
not understand, how to be right with God. He knew God was
Holy, and it said, 'The just shall live by faith.' But he
said, 'How do I get unholy me and a Holy God together?' He
didn't understand, and so he went to the next step, and he
began to pray the rosary. He was interrupted this time with
a louder voice, saying, 'Oh Martine, the just shall live by
faith.' He said, "This is very strange." He went to the next
step, the voice again this time louder said, 'The just shall
live by faith!' He said, well I'll try it one more time. He
went to the next step, he kissed it and as he did he thought
the whole world heard the words as they were shouted, "THE
JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH!!!" He said, "I stood
up. I felt like a man who had come to his senses. I thought,
'What am I doing this stupidity for? Trying to get right by
God?--'the just shall live by faith!'" It made sense to him.
He ran down those stairs, quickly went back to Germany, and
there he began to study the book of Romans. And the [Christian]
world has never been the same since. There he began to see
how the Church of Rome did not jibe with what the book of
Romans said to that Church. And he found himself coming at
odds with the doctrines and practices of the Roman Catholic
Church, so much so that he had to say, "I Protest! This false
doctrine has gone too far!" And the Protestant movement began.
It spread like wildfire throughout Europe. The cry of the
Reformation was "The just shall live by faith!" You may not
realize it, but the book of Romans is responsible for your
not being at Mass today. If it were not for the book of Romans
you'd all be at Mass today.
This history and the destiny of the world has been changed
by this book, and it will change your life too. Luther said,
"The Epistle of Romans is the chief part of the New Testament,
the purest gospel. It deserves not only to be known word for
word by every Christian, but to be the subject of his meditation
day by day--the daily bread of his soul." Luther said, "The
more time one spends in this book the more precious it becomes,
and the better it appears." He said, " It was a light and
a way into the whole of Scriptures." You understand the book
of Romans, you'll understand the whole Bible.
Then I think of Calvin--no not Calvin Klein--John Calvin,
another Protestant reformer whose life was profoundly changed,
and touched by the book of Romans. This is what Calvin said
about the book of Romans, "If a man understands the book of
Romans, he has a sure road open for him to the understanding
of the whole Scripture." That's because the book of Romans
is a little Bible in miniature. The book of Romans talks about
every doctrine that you ever can find in the Bible. Well you
say, "I'm not into doctrine." Oh baloney! "I don't like doctrine!"
I don't believe it, because, doctrine means teaching. What
are you doing here today [reading this] if you don't like
doctrine? "Well okay, teaching, but not theology." What do
you mean? Theology is knowing about God. Don't you want to
know about God? Sure you do. And whether or not you're a Christian
here this morning, you have a theology. You have some thoughts
about God, you have some ideas about God. Now they may or
may not jive with what the Word of God says is true about
God. But you all have a theology. And what you believe, what
your doctrine is, will always cause you to live a certain
way. You'll live like your doctrine. Whatever your doctrine
is will affect the way you live. Doctrine is very important.
Right doctrine will lead towards right living. Wrong doctrine
will lead towards wrong living.
Even the English Bible traces its' origin back to the book
of Romans. William Tyndale, the first publisher of the Bible
in English was profoundly affected by the book of Romans.
It gave him his love for the Word of God. Tyndale, when he
finally translated Romans into English, wrote this little
blurb in the front, in the preface to the book of Romans.
"For as much as this Epistle is the principle and most excellent
part of the New Testament, and most pure Evangelia, and that
is to say, glad tidings and that we call gospel. And also
it's a light and a way into the whole Scripture. I think it
meat that every Christian man not only know it by rote, and
without the book, but also exercise himself therein evermore
continually, as with the daily bread of the soul. No man verily
can read it too oft, or study it too well, for the more it
is studied the easier it is. The more it's chewed the pleasanter
it is. The more groundly it is searched the preciouser things
are found in it--so great a treasure of spiritual truth lieth
therein." It's amazing how all these great men of God said,
'You know, everybody should memorize the book of Romans.'
Think about John Wesley. He was a spiritually dead pastor
and missionary of the Church of England. He spent years desperately
trying to minister to people what he himself did not have,
--a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. He had ritual
and religion, but not a relationship with God. In his heart
he knew he wasn't saved. But he didn't know how to be saved
because he wasn't sure what the gospel was. But one strategic
evening on May 24th, 1738 he reluctantly went to
a little church gathering where his life was to be forever
changed. Later he wrote in his journal what happened that
night. Let me read you what he wrote. "I went very unwillingly
to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther's
Preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before
nine, while he was describing the change that God works in
the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely
warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ--Christ alone for my
salvation. And an assurance was given me that he had taken
away my sins and death." God did it again, didn't he! He used
the book of Romans to save a man, and this man now is to go
on and to touch the world. John Wesley, after he was saved,
he went on to be used by God to start a revival in the New
England colonies of America that began to be such an infernal
of revival--the blaze was so great that it's still known today
as the "Great Awakening." And hundreds of thousands of people
were saved. The awakening went over to Europe. It was a marvelous
move of God's Spirit. One of the most amazing things I've
seen as I've studied the history of the Church--the past 2,000
years of Church history--is that most if not all of the great
revivals and reformations and spiritual awakenings of the
Church of Jesus Christ can be traced back to the book of Romans.
That's significant. All through history when the Church has
fallen into spiritual error and deadness, the Lord Jesus has
brought the book of Romans to somebody's attention, and the
result is that the Church bursts into life. Great spiritual
awakenings have occurred whenever this book has been dusted
off, opened, read, and understood. Don't misunderstand me.
The power of the book of Romans is not just something that
worked 2,000 years ago. The power of the book of Romans is
something that can effect our lives today. If you're spiritually
dry or dead, this book of Romans can quicken you, can cause
you to come alive. If you're not a Christian, the book of
Romans--if you read it and listen to it--you can't stand not
being a Christian. You will become a Christian, if you listen
to the book of Romans, and you begin to understand it.
You can't sit on the book of Romans without the power of God
affecting your life and motivating you to move for God. My
experience was that God in his great grace, when I was dead
in my sins--I was far away from the Lord, I had no idea what
the gospel was--he used the book of Romans to cause me to
be born again. I read the book of Romans in the most simple,
easy to understand translation that you can find, the Living
Bible. And as I was reading through the Living Bible I came
to a verse that said, "For we maintain that a man is justified
by faith apart from the works of the law." I read that verse
and I couldn't understand it. That was even more simply stated
in the Living Bible. It says, "Hey! You're not saved by what
you do, you're saved by what Jesus has done for you." I could
not understand that. I went to my youth pastor and said, "Would
you explain this verse to me?" He said, "Well, you're saved
by what God does for you, and not for what you do." And I
said, "I don't understand that." And look , [he] looked at
me and said "Well he's got a mental problem, you know, the
kid is a slow learner." Really I didn't. I always got great
grades, and everything. But I could not understand this book!
It was driving me bananas. Finally, some precious friends
sat me down, and one day, one afternoon, they told me to shut
up and listen, and they took out the book of Romans, and they
began to go through it, chapter one, chapter two, chapter
three, chapter four, chapter five, and by the time I got to
chapter five I understood the gospel, and I was born-again.
Hallelujah for the book of Romans! I was [so] turned on that
everywhere I went I Romans! Romans! Romans! That's all I could
talk about, that's all I could teach anybody was the book
of Romans! Because it had changed my life. I went to the college
that I went to, I started an evening class that met once a
week. The classroom was a big classroom packed with people
as we were studying and teaching the gospel out of the book
of Romans. And they were just lapping it up, like water of
life for their thirsty souls. And then I met a sweet gal on
campus named Leslie. And I realized after a little bit that
she wasn't saved. Now she wasn't a bad person, she was a very
religious lost person. She was a very spiritual lost person.
There's a lot of them in the world. And I realized she didn't
know what I knew! And I said, "Look at this Leslie." And we
began to study the book of Romans, chapter by chapter and
verse by verse. And sure enough, K-bang! The Lord reached
down and he saved her! Don't misunderstand, the power of this
book to change lives is something that's working today. This
week, I'm amazed. It doesn't matter how dark the pit you're
in, the book of Romans can reach you. God will use the book
to reach you.
When I think of spiritual bondage, now don't get offended,
I often think of the Jehovah's Witnesses. Now I'm not trying
to offend you if you're a Jehovah's Witness today. (What are
you doing here if you're a Jehovah's Witness anyway!? Don't
tell anybody.) But anyway, I think of spiritual darkness and
I think, 'Man, there they go.' You know, Bless their hearts,
so sincere. I'm not putting them down, but what they believe
is not what the Bible teaches…anyway, when I think of
Jehovah's Witnesses I think, 'Wow--If God can save them he
can save anybody.' And then when I think about the leadership
of the Watchtower Society, I think 'If God could save one
of those guys, you know, part of the governing body of the
J.W.'s', I said, 'Man, that would really be something.' And
you know what God did? I found out about a year or so ago
one of the governing body of Jehovah's Witnesses, a guy by
the name of Raymond Franz, was saved. Tremendous--he left
the governing body of the J.W.'s, left Brooklyn. His life,
everything had been invested, his life, every penny he made
had been invested in the Watchtower Tract Society. He walked
away from it all. I think it's his brother, cousin, uncle
is actually the president of Jehovah's Witnesses right now.
He walked away from it all. That meant he walked away from
anyone, I mean any friends he had would never speak to him
again. They would treat him like he was dead. He walked away.
I read his book, called "Crisis of Conscience." He's got a
more recent book out now. And I thought, I want to talk to
this guy because I got a hunch that I know what book it was
that called him out of that darkness. I just wonder. So I
called him last week, got his number somehow, called him up
and said, "Hi, may I speak to Raymond Franz." He says, "This
is he." (Real nice guy.) I said, "Well Hi, I'm Mark." And
I told him a little about myself, and said, "It's the book
of Romans that touched my life and saved me and brought me
out of legalism, brought me out of the cult I was in." "Did
God by any chance use the book of Romans in your life?" And
then the phone lit up, he says, "Yes it was the book of Romans
that God used." He says, "He used it to really impress upon
me the reality and the essence of Christianity." He said,
"I, like Paul, was a Pharisee. I thought by what I was doing
I could be saved. I thought I was good because I was a good
guy!" He says, "But the book of Romans has shown me that I
need Christ and his sacrifice, which was enough for all time
to save us." He says, "It really struck home with me, and
it was the crucial point with me, coming to the decision to
leave the organization. It's message showed me the problems
of the governing body." And then I was so excited, when I
hung up I was running through the house, saying, "Praise God!
The book of Romans can reach a Jehovah's Witness!" It's great.
It can reach you. The book of Romans can touch you, and can
save you.
Well, enough talking about the book. Let's get into it. Let
me take you through a quick jet tour of the book of Romans.
This is going to be fast, just a jet tour.
A simple outline of the book. Some people look at the book
of Romans and they're going, "Oooh man, it's too much for
me. Hey, it's only sixteen chapters. And yes, it is the heaviest
book probably in the whole New Testament. But it's the greatest
book in the whole New Testament. Stick with us, you're going
to know this book inside and out. I mean, after five years
of being in Romans you'll know it, right? So here's a simple
outline of the book of Romans. First of all, chapters one,
two and three, look at them. Just flip through and look at
them. They talk about the problem--the
problem that we have and our need of the gospel. Chapters
one, two and three--the problem of the world, the problem
of the religious, the problem of the irreligious--we got a
need. Then chapters four and five talk about the provision
of the gospel. So we got the problem, one,
two and three, chapters four and five give us the provision
for our problem, the provision of the gospel. Oh wait till
we get to chapter six, look through chapter six, seven and
eight. I can hardly wait, because they talk about the power
of the gospel--the power of the gospel to change your life.
And then chapters nine, ten and eleven. Hmm, what about
Israel? Why are some people saved and some people aren't?
[And that's a good question that deserves a good answer.
One particular Christian fellowship has a pretty interesting
answer to that question, and it's a Biblical answer to that
perplexing question.] Is God finished with the Jews? Are Jews
saved just because they're Jews? Are they still God's people?
Where do they fit in? Is God forever done with them? Chapters
nine, ten and eleven talk about the perplexities of the gospel--some
perplexing questions that are answered. And then chapters
twelve and thirteen and fourteen and fifteen and a little
bit of sixteen talk about the practice of the gospel--how
to practice what you live. [i.e. How to practice what
you believe, making your spiritual belief part of your lifestyle.]
I mean, what you know--how to live it out.
So the problem, and our need--the provision of the gospel--the
power of the gospel--the perplexities of the gospel--and the
practice of the gospel, that's what we're going to get into.
We got a lot of good stuff ahead of us. This book shows
us how important right doctrine is, because right doctrine
will lead to right living.
So let's move right into the book. Romans 1, verse 1. Paul
begins it by introducing himself. He says 'Hello again, I'm
Paul, a bondservant. He uses three terms to describe himself.
He says, "I'm a bondservant of Christ Jesus, secondly, I've
been called as an apostle, thirdly, I've been set apart for
the gospel of God." Paul describes himself as a bondservant
of Jesus Christ--very interesting because in Paul's day and
age there were a lot of different kinds of servants. There
were servants who were captured in war. Your country lost,
they came in, they captured you, they sent you by boat to
another city, and sold you on an auction block to the highest
bidder and now for the rest of your life you had to serve
your master. It's like a prison term, a life sentence. Then
there were some slaves who sort of mortgaged themselves. They
needed "X" amount of money, and so they would sell themselves,
maybe for ten years for ten thousand dollars. For ten years
they would serve. And at the end of that period they could
go free. And legally they had to serve. If slaves ran away
from their masters they could be executed. It was up to the
master to decide what to do with them. But they could be executed.
And then there was the third kind of slavery, and this is
the term that Paul uses to describe his relationship with
Christ. If a servant had loved his master and served him and
now his time was up and he could go free, but at that time
he decided, as he looked out in that big world, and he looked
at his master, he thought, 'You know, I don't want to go out
there. I want to stay with my master. I love him, his family,
I love his household, I love everything about him. My heart
is changed, I don't want to go.' The slave who stayed a slave
out of love for his master was called a bond-slave or a bondservant.
Just seeing how Paul describes his relationship with Christ,
he says, 'I'm not serving because I have to. My serving Christ
is not some kind of a prison sentence that I'm serving. And
I'm not serving because I owe a debt to God, you know, and
I'm trying to pay it off. I'm serving God because I love him.
Yeah, I could leave. No way! You couldn't pull me away from
Jesus.' Do you serve the Lord because you have to? Do you
serve the Lord because you feel, well, you know, I was almost
in that car accident, you know, and he allowed me to live.
And I promised him then that I would always serve him. So
you're paying God back? Or are you serving God because you
love him? No other service really--no other service really
matters than the service of love. Somebody said about foreign
missions, they said, many people go because they love the
Chinese, and they're going to serve in China, because they
love the Chinese,' until things get really tough. What's going
to keep them in China is love for God, not love for the Chinese.
And you can serve God because you're such a loving person,
but pretty soon your love is going to wear out and the only
thing that's going to keep you serving is your real love for
God.
"Bondservant, Christ Jesus, called as an apostle…" He
describes himself as an apostle, the office he had in the
Church was the office of an apostle. In other words he's saying,
'Now listen, what I'm telling you is not off the top of my
head, this is an authoritative message from Jesus Christ.'
Because I was called, commissioned and given a message supernaturally
by the Lord Jesus Christ himself. I am his apostle.' And so
they say, 'What authority do you have to teach the gospel?'
He says, 'I'm an apostle of Jesus Christ, of this role and
function in the Church.'
And then he describes himself in verse three, thirdly as "Being
set apart for the gospel of God." The term "set apart" is
really sort of interesting, (just for those of you who like
that sort of stuff). The term "set apart", that word is the
same root word, has the same root as Pharisee has. A Pharisee
was somebody who was "set apart" for the law. Their whole
life was wrapped around the law, the law, the law. Do, do,
do, do. Do this, do that, the Pharisee was set apart for the
law. He says, 'I've been set apart--for what?--the gospel
of God.' How neat, what a transformation in this guy's life.
He went from being set apart for the law, a "have to" service,
to being set apart for love for the Lord, a "want to" service.
It's pretty neat. He said, "set apart for the gospel of God."
What does the word "gospel" mean, gang? "Good News" is what
the word means. It means "a really great message." Don't ever
be deceived, the gospel is always good news.
And if anybody ever comes to you with a gospel that isn't
good news, don't believe them. I mean, that's one way you
can discern, what is the gospel and what isn't. Is it Good
News? The little guys who come to your door, knock, knock,
knock, knock, they've got their white shirts on. Their black
ties on and their bicycles parked on your sidewalk, their
little badges--you look at them, they look younger than your
teenager, and it's 'Elder somebody,' you know. You think,
'Wow! Elders are getting younger and younger, aren't they?'
And they say, "We want to share with you the gospel of Jesus
Christ." And you get in and listen to the spiel and you realize,
'Wait a minute, this isn't good news.' This a big message
about "Doing." It's "Good Do's, what I've got to do. And Dues,
they also want your money, of course. The gospel is not "Good
Dues", doing or giving. The Gospel is Good News about what
Jesus Christ has done for you. And that alone and
nothing else can be the gospel. The world is looking today
for an answer. The world is looking for power, they're looking
for a message. [He says the following "tongue in cheek."]
While we were up in Sedona the other day, gang, Did you know
this? You can [go to] Bashes in Sedona, the new ninth Big
Bashes there, you can go in and you can buy candied peanuts
that have been energized at Bell Rock! You read
the bag, and it says, man, 'These peanuts have been taken
to Bell Rock and they've sat there for what, an hour, two,
three hours.' It must take three hours to get your batteries
charged at, you know, Bell Rock. And these little peanuts
have been charged there, you know, and now if you buy these
peanuts, I don't know what happens to you if you eat one of
these Bell Rock charged peanuts. Supposedly you go to Bell
Rock and underneath, the New Ager's tell you, underneath Bell
Rock is solid crystal. And they're climbing all over Bell
Rock, you know, thinking, "Oh the energy!" "I was driving
by Bell Rock, man, I just felt the energy!" I mean, what will
people believe!?! If you believe those peanuts are supercharged
at Bell Rock, I mean, they have no fingers to point at televangelists
because maybe they took one peanut out of a thousand and charged
it at Bell Rock, but I haven't seen any peanut trucks sitting
at Bell Rock. "Sure they were." I don't believe it. It's a
bunch of baloney. You know what people? You wear a little
rock around your neck! And I tell you, those people, they're
looking, and they are out of it. I mean, we were in the health-food
store and people bumping you, "Oh, excuse me, Oh." They're
just out of it. I'm glad they're in the healthfood store,
because they need something, you know. But they are so 'other
conscioused'. They're looking for the "Christ consciousness."
And they found some kind of consciousness. I couldn't believe
it! People, they were just--Bump--like they weren't even there,
looking, 'Where the mung beans?' I mean, these people. It's
like they're in the Ozone. Where are they? Just weird. Don't
be offended, it's just, they're looking for a Christ consciousness,
and they're getting something. I mean, it's not all
in [their mind], there is a spiritual force, but not [every]
spiritual power is God's power. There's a devil, and there's
a God, and there's good and evil, and some of these people,
they're getting charged with the wrong thing. They're all
looking for the Christ. [In] the world of Paul's day, the
Romans were looking for "something." The Christ-consicousness
today people talk about, but the Bible doesn't offer you a
"Christ-consciousness", the Bible offers you a real man, the
Lord Jesus Christ, the real person that you can know in a
personal way, and who will know you in a personal way.
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