Message Six
The Overcomer’s Living (1)—
Through the Imparting of the Indestructible Eternal Life,
We Overcome the Stupefying Effect of Man’s Living Today

Scripture Reading: Luke 15:11-12; 17:26-30; 19:1-20; Heb. 12:2; Luke 14:26-35, 21:34-36, 18:21-25

I. The Man-Savior presented the parable of the prodigal son, showing His shepherding, seeking, and saving spirit with the Father’s loving, forgiving, and compassionate heart—Luke 15:11-32; cf. 9:55-56:

II. “The younger son…went abroad to a distant country and there squandered his estate by living dissolutely”—15:13:

A. “And when he had spent all, a severe famine occurred throughout that country, and he began to be in want.”—v. 14.

B. “And he went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed hogs.”—v. 15.

C. “And he longed to be satisfied with the carob pods which the hogs were eating, and no one gave him anything.”—v. 16.

III. The Lord Jesus is God becoming a man to be our Savior, and He has accomplished full salvation for us, the sinners, through which He may save us from God’s condemnation and our fallen condition—John 1:1, 14; 4:42; Luke 19:1-10:

A. When the Man-Savior came to the house of Zaccheus (v. 5), He came with the Spirit of power and with the indestructible eternal life to impart into him at his believing in Him—4:18; Heb. 7:16; John 3:15:

1. Eternal life, the uncreated life of God, is not only for us to partake of and enjoy today but also for us to inherit in its full extent for eternity— Matt. 19:29, 16.

2. Today’s experience of eternal life qualifies us to inherit it in the future—John 4:14.

3. The enjoyment of eternal life today is a foretaste; the inheritance of eternal life in the coming age and in eternity will be the full taste; this inheritance is the hope of eternal life—Matt. 19:29.

B. The Spirit with the eternal life as the divine electricity was within the Lord’s humanity of the highest standard; when He looked at Zaccheus and talked to him, the Spirit with His eternal life entered into him, and Zaccheus responded—Luke 19:6-9:

1. What made Zaccheus respond as he did? It was the Spirit with the eternal life, as the divine electricity, that flowed into him from the Man-Savior—Eph.1:19-22;

2. His humanity in the highest standard of morality was the “wire” conveying the “electricity” of the Spirit with the eternal life. The Spirit with the eternal life as the divine electricity was within the Lord’s humanity of the highest standard—1 John 1:2-3; 2 Cor.13:14.

IV. We must overcome the stupefying effect of man’s living today—Luke 17:26-30, 21:34-36:

A. Preserving the soul-life is related to lingering in the earthly and material things—17:31, 33:

1. We linger in the earthly things because we care for our soul’s enjoyment in the present age—cf. 2 Tim. 4:10.

2. Lot’s wife became a pillar of salt because she took a lingering look backward at Sodom, indicating that she loved and treasured the evil world that God was going to judge and utterly destroy—Luke 17:32.

B. We must be absolute in following Him and hating everything, even our own soul-life, that distracts, hinders, and frustrates us from following Him faithfully—14:26-35.

C. We must take heed to our¬selves and to be watchful at every time, beseeching that we would “prevail to escape all these things which are about to happen and stand before the Son of Man”—Luke 21:34-36.