merely listening to what this or that sect believes or teaches. We need a "Thus saith the

Lord" and then we have something eternally secure upon which to rest our faith.

The Bible is a book of a tremendous and most wonderful plan that God is working out.

It is not just a haphazard collection of books; it has something linking it all together,

making it one great continuous unfolding of a marvelous purpose. So, shall we go on,

shall we search together? May the Lord help us to be teachable; this is essential. We

also must be emptied of all preconceived opinions and just be willing to sit at His feet, as

it were, and learn of Him. May He help us with this in view.

In our previous study together we have seen that it is necessary for us all to come to a

saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ if we are ever going to get any understanding

of, or have any part in the great revealed plan in God's Word, the Word of Truth that we

can pin our faith to and rely on absolutely. God, in His love, has seen our need, and sent

His Beloved Son. Through Him, this Word tells us, "we have redemption through His

Blood", through the offering of Himself on Calvary's Cross, and His bearing our sins in

His own Body on the tree, so that we shall never have to bear them.  The word

`redemption' means that we have been `purchased', we have been bought by God; He

has paid the price, and we are His property.

This is the start of a new life, a spiritual life; we start it just like we do our natural

lives, as new-born lives, as new-born babes. Peter brings this forward in his first Epistle

where he says: "As new-born babes desire the sincere milk of the Word that ye may

grow thereby." Babies commence with milk, then as they grow, they can take something

more solid. The goal, of course, is that they shall grow up to adulthood and become

mature in body and mind; and that is the great goal now for every true believer in Christ,

spiritual maturity, to grow up and leave spiritual babyhood behind. Again, in our last

study, we saw that the only way we can grow spiritually is by feeding on the only food

that our new spiritual nature can receive, that is, God's precious Word.

What we want to point out to you before proceeding further is that salvation not only

touches the sin problem, and that of death that would separate us from God for ever, but

it also touches the mind. One of the most tragic things that happened when Adam fell

and passed on sin and death to the rest of mankind, was the effect that it had on his mind.

Man can be very clever and brainy in things within the human sphere, yet when he goes

outside this sphere into the things of God he is right out of his depth; he can know

nothing of God merely by cleverness or his human intellectual attainments. No wonder

the Apostle Paul wrote: "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God

for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because they are spiritually