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I. SINNERS ARE BY NATURE DEAD.

1. Legally under the sentence of death (Romans 5.). We are guilty and condemned. The curse of the law and the wrath of God are upon all viewed in their relation to Adam.

2. Really. The body is subject to death and to all the miseries which precede death. The soul is dead in trespasses and sins. Natural death makes the body lifeless; spiritual death makes the soul graceless, and both soul and body comfortless for ever.

(1) In natural death the body is without the soul; in spiritual the soul is without God.

(2) Natural death disfigures the body; spiritual the soul.

(3) Natural death makes the body cold; by spiritual the soul becomes cold toward God.

(4) In the one a man loses all right to property that once was his; by the other men lose all their right which they had in Adam to communion with God.

(5) As a dead body is without understanding, so the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.

(6) A dead body cannot raise itself, neither can a dead soul.

II. IN THE GOSPEL MEN ARE PROMISED LIFE.

1. This life is real.

2. It is suitable, removing condemnation, extracting the sting of death, imparting spiritual vitality to the condemned, guilty, and helpless.

3. Christ is this life, and the Holy Spirit applies it to the soul.

4. This life becomes part of a man's being.

5. This fife, although obstructed in its growth, is capable of endless development.

III. WHAT IT IS THAT QUICKENS THE SOUL OF THE DEAD. The voice of Christ is the Gospel, heard by the faith of the heart.

(J. W. Reeve, M. A.)

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KJV: Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.

WEB: Most certainly, I tell you, the hour comes, and now is, when the dead will hear the Son of God's voice; and those who hear will live.