Subject One Hundred Eleven

PASSED OUT OF DEATH INTO LIFE

Scripture: John 5:24, 25

1. Men were born in sin
   1. Describe how men were born in sin.
   2. Use examples to illustrate the condition of men born in sin, such as telling lies, hating others, and so forth. There is no need to learn how to sin. Men were born in sin.
2. Men are living in death
   1. Sin brings in death. Wherever sin is, there is death. Because men are in sin, men are also in death.
   2. Use examples to show that although apparently men are living, actually they are dead. Prove the following three points:
      1. Men are incompetent to do good.
      2. Men commit sins without any feeling.
      3. Men are bound and have no freedom.
         How do you know that men are in death? Because men are incompetent in doing good and in pleasing God. In addition, men commit sins without feeling. The living have feeling, but the dead have no feeling. So they that are without feeling are dead. The dead are also under much bondage. Much bondage paralyzes them. Death is a tremendous bondage.
3. The Lord is life
   1. The Lord came to be the Savior, to give life to the dead. Because the salvation that the dead need is life, any kind of improvement is useless. Washing and beautifying the dead is the work of the mortuary. Confucianism, Buddhism, and moral practices are but the work of the mortuary. All the practices of self-denial are equivalent to the beautifying of the dead. The Lord Jesus did not come to improve men. He came to be life to men.
   2. The life that the Lord gives to men is God’s life. God’s life is powerful, unlimited, holy, merciful, bright, mighty, and righteous.
4. Passed out of death into life
   1. After men have heard the name of the Lord and the gospel, that is, the word of the Lord, and have believed in the Lord, they immediately receive the forgiveness of sins and obtain God’s life.
   2. Therefore the Scripture says that he who believes is not condemned and is passed out of death into life.
   3. Use examples to illustrate that as soon as men believe, they are made alive.
   4. Use verse 25, “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.” You should repeat these words again and again. If you can drive these words strongly and solidly into them, they will be saved.