Section 9
an hour is coming and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear shall live." This verse does not refer to those who are physically dead and buried; it re fers to the living dead, to those dead in spirit. If you read John 5, you will see that verse 28 refers to those who are physically dead and buried in the tomb. But in verse 25 the Lord is speaking of people who are spiritually dead, yet physically alive. All the unsaved people are dead. Because their body has been poisoned by the serpent, their body has been deadened. This deadened body has also deadened their soul and spirit. There fore, the unsaved people are dead in body, soul, and spirit. Every part of their being is dead.
As I was traveling through the interior of China in 1937, I stopped by a creek which was full of dried leaves that were carried along by the current. Among the leaves some little fish were swimming upward against the current. Unlike the dried leaves that were being carried aimlessly downstream, the fish, full of life, were swimming upstream with a definite purpose. When I saw that, I was so impressed that I even shouted, "Here is life and death." All the unsaved people are like the dried leaves: they are being carried aimlessly along by the current of the age. Like those leaves,