Will You Agree

I. The conflict between deception and truth.
A. It’s easy to be deceived when we examine ourselves without accounting for the blood of Jesus Christ.
I John 1:7 “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.”
B. The accuser of the brethren does everything he can to keep us from understanding the transformation that has taken place because of the blood of Jesus Christ.
C. The devil continually points out your faults and failures, both past and present. Don’t accept his lies.
Revelation 12:10-11 “And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.
11And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.”
D. The truth is that our sinful past no longer exists.
1. This is contradictory to what the devil continually speaks to our mind.
2. Sin’s power is destroyed by the power of forgiveness.
3. Lower authority is contradicted by higher authority.
E. Who will we come into agreement with?
1. Will we agree with what the destroyer says about us or:
2. Will we agree with what God has to say about us?

II. Agreement with God helps us to walk in freedom.
A. Agreement with God gives us freedom from the consciousness of sin.
B. Religion tries to keep us “humble” by constantly reminding us of our past.
C. We have received unearned forgiveness and have become “new creatures” in Christ Jesus.
II Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
D. This frees us from having to attempt personal holiness. Our holiness comes from within, not from outward activities.
Titus 3:4-7 “But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, 5not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, 6whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
E. Forgiveness starts us out on a brand new life.

III. Hebrews 11 is a book of remembrance.
A. It records the faith of His people, not their failures.
Hebrew 11:1-2 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 2For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.”
Hebrews 11:8 “By faith Abraham”
Hebrews 11:11 “By faith Sarah”
Hebrews 11:21 “By faith Jacob”
Hebrews 11:23 “By faith Moses”
Hebrews 11:32-34 “And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets: 33who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.”
B. Out of their weakness they gained a new testimony.
C. Through faith we move into a life of testimony concerning what we once despised.

IV. How we think.
A. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 2:5-11 “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,
6who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,
7but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
9Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
B. Our thought life must support our new life in Christ.
C. It’s time to acknowledge that we are dead to sin.
Romans 6:11 “Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
D. How do you think?
Proverbs 23:7 “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.”

V. How God thinks about us.
A. We’ve got to come in line with what He thinks.
Romans 3:3-4 “Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect?
4Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar. As it is written: “That you may be justified in your words, and may overcome when you are judged.”
Psalm 103:11-12 “For as the heavens are high above the earth, So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; 12As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.”
Jeremiah 31:34 “No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
Isaiah 44:3-4 “For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and floods on the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit on your descendants, and My blessing on your offspring; 4They will spring up among the grass like willows by the watercourses.’
Philippians 1:6 “being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;”
John 10:29 “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.”
B. Make your own list.

VI. God acknowledges that all have sinned, but Christ has restored us to the original intent of the Father.
John17:20-22 “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who £will believe in Me through their word; 21that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one:”
A. As believers, we live in God’s glory, not the bondages of the past.
B. God wants you to come into freedom to no longer be tormented by the past.
C. We’re being conformed into the image of the pattern son.
Romans 8:28-29 “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. 29For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.”