Good evening. Let's turn to 1
Corinthians chapter 13. 1 Corinthians 13. We're going to
look at one verse, verse 12. And really, this. Sermon outline
came from an article. I wrote several months back,
a small little article, and I'm not sure what you call it when
all four lines rhyme, but they all rhymed. And so the article
went, he knows my frame. He took my blame. He bore my
shame, then gave me his name. And I want to look at that tonight. And the title of the message
is he knows me. He knows me. And you'll see where
we get that from as we read this verse, chapter first Corinthians
13, verse 12. For now, we see through a glass
darkly. But then face to face. Now, I
know in part, but then shall I know, even as also I am known. Now, the word no is used three
times, three times in this verse, and each time it has a different
meaning. The first time now I know in
part. Talks about a present knowledge
now. And it's partial knowledge. It
starts small and maybe grows as you as God gives you grace
to grow in grace. The second time it's used is
then shall I know which is a future knowledge. And the last time
is as also I am known. Which speaks of a Past tense
have been known. As God has known all of his people
for eternity and it carries. It means to fully perceive to
be acquainted with intimately. Vines dictionary defined it like
this. A special recognition. Which
perfectly unites the subject or the elect. With the object. Union with Christ. And that's
what I want to speak about a little bit here tonight. And I want
to take on each one of those lines and show how union with
Christ fulfills them all with us and in us. He knows me. We know God is omniscient,
meaning he's all knowing. He knows everything that happens
because he purposed everything to happen. He's in control of
it and he makes it happen. But he knows his people in a
special way. And just as the intimate relationship
between Adam and Eve, Adam knew Eve. In a close, intimate relationship,
God knows his people. In a loving way and just Adam
and Eve two became one. Same with Christ and his people
to become one. You're perfectly united to Christ
through faith. And. That's good news to me,
but I want you to see that in the word, too, so we can. I don't
want to say verify. God says it's it's true. John
Chapter 17. John 17. And we're going to see here where
the believer is united. To Christ. Simply by believing. John 17, verse 20. Twenty one. Neither pray I for these alone. But for them also, which shall
believe on me through their word. That they all may be one. As
thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may
be one in us. Believing on Christ, you're made
one with him. You're united to him perfectly. And as he is, so are you. Right now in this world, as he
walked this earth, you walked in him. As he died on the cross,
you died in him. That's what perfect union means.
And so, let's look at the first point. He knows my frame. Let's turn to Psalm 103. Psalm 103. Verse 14. For he knoweth our frame. He remembereth that we are dust. Now, a frame, as most of you
know, is the undergirding or the structure that supports the
outside of a building, such as wood, concrete, steel, or whatever.
Well, our frame is dust. We have nothing to support us. Try to take some dust and build
a two-story house and using dust as your frame. You're not going
to get anywhere. And that's with us. We're nothing in and of ourselves. We're just dust. The Lord said that in Genesis
3 verse 19, For dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return.
That's it. So the frame of a man, the frame,
what is inside that supports the outside is the heart. The
affections, the understanding and the will. You can't see that
frame. But we know. That does. What's inside, what's
inside in your heart, in your frame comes through on the outside
in your words, Matthew 15 verse 18 says, but those things which
proceed out of the mouth. Come forth from the heart. And
they defile the man. So if the Lord knows our frame,
which he says he does, he knows our frame, he knows that it's
dust. How does he describe our frame? How does he describe our
heart? How does he describe us in his word? Well, there's too
many verses to turn to. I want to turn to just Jeremiah
and look at four verses in four separate chapters. Jeremiah chapter
four. This is talking about me, you,
every man on the face of this earth. Describing us, Jeremiah four,
verse 22. For my people is foolish. They've
not known me. They are sadist children and
they have none understanding. They are wise to do evil, but
to do good. They have no knowledge. Jeremiah
chapter 11. Verse 8. Yet they obeyed not nor inclined
their ear. But walked everyone in the imagination
of their evil heart. Jeremiah 13. Verse 23. Can the Ethiopian change his
skin or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good that
are accustomed to do evil. Can a leopard change his spots?
No. Can we do good that are accustomed to do evil? No. Not even of ourselves. Jeremiah 17. Last one of these
we'll look at. Jeremiah 17, verse 9. Remember, we're talking about
our frame, our heart, what's inside each one of us. The heart
is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can
know it? That's God's word describing
all of us. And that's just a few verses. They're all throughout here.
And there's a bunch more words. I looked up a lot of words. I got a list here. I'm not going
to read them all. There's probably about 60. But
I'm just going to mention a few of them. Just to let you know
what you're like inside, even though you might not see or feel
it. This is how God's word describes me and you. Ungodly. abominable, unclean, murderers,
wicked, proud, idolaters, God-haters, liars, disobedient, blind, deaf,
wretched, rotten, dead dog, worm, dead incense. That's all of us. He knows our frame. You may think
you're sliding it by some people, but you're not sliding it by
him. And that's not a very good frame to be walking around in. I know we put on a good show
on the outside, but that's a pretty pathetic frame or bad heart,
and there's no way something like that's going to enter heaven.
Well, the only way is that frame or that heart has to be put away. Someone had to take those words I just described,
the insides of each of us, take that sin with him, take it as
his own, and die in our place. Let's turn to Romans chapter
8. We know Christ did that. I just
want to see in His Word that Christ took on our flesh. He took on our frame. He became
flesh. And bore our sin, Romans eight,
verse three. For what the law could not do
and that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own
son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned
sin in the flesh. He became Christ, became flesh
and bones, just like me and you. He took on our frame and he became
sin. God made him to be sin. And on
that cross, he became the man I just described because all
of what we are was put in him and on him. And he hung there
guilty and was killed by God for the sin that was on him.
What we deserved, he took. And I'm so thankful for that. And he took our old frame. He took
our old heart. He put it away and he gave us a new frame. He
gives us a new heart. A brand new, perfect, pure and
holy, spotless and blameless heart. Ezekiel 36. Isaiah, Jeremiah. Then Ezekiel
Chapter 36. This new heart is given in the
new birth. When God gives life through the preaching of the
Gospel. But it's a new heart that God gives. Ezekiel 36 verse
26. A new heart. A new frame, a new heart also
will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will
take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give
you a heart of flesh. He takes away the old heart,
the old frame, the old sin that we carry around. He took that
old man with him to the cross and put it away forever and gives
us a new heart. of the heart that can love and
trust Christ. You can't see this new heart. It's a spiritual heart. It's
a spiritual frame. Right now, we still carry around
this old frame. We still have the old nature,
the old heart. And we still carry around the
outsides of it, this old flesh. But it's dust. And it's going
to go back to dust. And then that Spiritual frame
is going to carry a glorified body. On Judgment Day and will
rise in a glorified body. In a new frame and a new man
and just like Christ. Because he took on our frame,
he became flesh and bones and he put our sin away and he gives
us a new frame and a new heart and it's all by grace and I'm
so thankful that he did that. So he knows my frame. And he
took my blame. Blame is placed on a person that's
at fault. And we're at fault. Sin is our
fault. James chapter 1. Right after
Hebrews. James chapter 1. Starting at verse 13. Let no man say when he is tempted,
I'm tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with
evil, neither tempted he any man. But every man is tempted
when he is drawn away of his own lust. And enticed then when
lust have conceived it, bring it forth sin and sin, when it
is finished, bring it forth death. Do not err, my beloved brother.
Don't err in this belief or that a lot of people claim the devil
made me do it or this or that. They're trying to blame all these
other circumstances for a sin or this simple way of life that
they carry on. It's your own fault. You're the
sinner. You're born in sin. Sin is your
own fault. I like to blame circumstances
for things I do. I sleep like this because I blame
the Navy. I slept on a submarine on a cot
this wide for four years and I learned to sleep like this.
I get made fun of now because I look like I'm laying there
in a morgue, but I blame the Navy on it. And we all blame
parents and circumstances and this and that for all this stuff
that happens to us. And maybe some of it's true. I don't know. But I know this,
when you sin, it's your own fault. And you are going to pay for
it one of these days. Now, believers, theirs has been
paid for. Christ took the blame for you. But we always point our fingers.
Trying to blame somebody. That's the first thing Adam and
Eve did after they sinned. Came to Adam and asked him why
he sinned. And he said, Eve made me do it. Blamed her. Went to Eve. Serpent
made me do it. Blamed the serpent. I don't know what it is about
it. It just makes you feel a little better about yourself when you
can blame somebody else. I don't know. But we do that.
We blame other people, circumstances, or whatever. But Christ, when
he was hanging on that cross, was to blame for the sin on him. God looked down in judgment and
wanted to know who was to blame for the sin on his son. And Christ said, I am. I took
the sin of my people. It's mine. And God killed him
in my place. That's salvation, that's Christ
taking the blame. And this is all through the scriptures.
Isaiah 53. I'll just quote a few of them.
Everybody's familiar with it. Verse four, he bore our griefs. Verse five, he was wounded for
our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. Verse 6, our iniquity was laid
on Him. Verse 11, He shall bear their
iniquities. Verse 12, He bear the sin of
many. He took our sin. However it happened,
I don't know. We probably think wrong about
it a lot, but the Word of God says He was made to be sin. He took our sin. took the blame
and died on the cross in our place. Psalm 38. I want to look at two verses
here that deal with Christ taking
these sins and making them His very own. Remember, the Psalms
are Messianic Psalms. They're words of Christ. Psalm 38. These are words of
Christ. Psalm 38, verse 4. For mine iniquities are going
over mine head. As in heavy burden, they are
too heavy for me. Verse 18. For I will declare mine iniquity. I will be sorry for my sin. Christ calls them mine iniquity,
my sin. He took them. He took the sins
of his elect, made them his own, and God killed him in our place. And now we have nothing left
to be blamed for or to be judged for. And if he didn't fully take all of
our sin and put it away, we'd be held accountable on Judgment
Day for it. But he fully took it and put
it away. Who can lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's Christ that died. He actually
died in our place. He took the blame. And because
He took my blame, I'm now viewed blameless by God the Father. Ephesians 1 verse 4 says the
elect are without blame before God. 2 Peter. Let's turn there. 2 Peter chapter
3. Speaking of being blameless. As all elect are because Christ
took our blame. And we'll see here, it's all
because of union with Christ. Second, Peter three, verse 14. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that
you look for such things, be diligent that you may be found
of him in peace without spot. And blameless. Right there. Be found of God in peace. Whose is peace? Christ. Christ is our peace and united
to him by simple faith. I'm blameless and every believer
is blameless before God because he took our blame. I know that's a. Sometimes it's
hard to grasp that I'm blameless because we're all just sit around
all day morose, feeling and depressed because of the sin we can't stop.
And we really shouldn't do that that
often. I don't know. Faith isn't looking
and seeing how simple you are and feeling and looking at how
depressed you are about it. Faith is looking to Christ who
put away your sin. Faith is not sitting there. Feeling
all bad about how I have no righteousness. I can't keep the law. I have
nothing to bring to God. Faith's not trying to work up
these emotions. Faith is looking to Christ who
is my righteousness. Faith looks to Christ. Quit looking
in here for feelings and emotions and evidences and all this stuff
we want to have. I mean, Christ did it all. And the work's
finished. And He proclaims that and we
are to simply believe that and rest in Him because He's God. He can't fail. What he did was
successful. And everyone who simply trusts
him are successful in him, blameless, because he took our blame. So
he knows our frame. He took my blame and he bore
my shame. Shame is disgrace or dishonor
that you receive when you get caught in an act or you're exposed
by talking evil with someone or performing an evil act against
someone, you're caught and you're exposed. And you're ashamed,
or normally you're ashamed. You blush and you can't raise
your eyes really and make eye contact. Different things, different
people react different ways. We've already looked at that.
Those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart
and they defile the man. They expose the uncleanness of
our heart. Let's go back to Adam and Eve,
Genesis chapter two. They blamed each other when sin
was first found on them. Now, let's look at the shame
that came upon them once sin had conceded. Genesis two, verse
twenty five. Before the fall. Adam and Eve,
and they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not
ashamed. Walking around naked, not ashamed. Genesis 3 verse 7. And the eyes of them both were
opened after they had sinned, and they knew that they were
naked. And they sewed fig leaves together
and made themselves aprons, and they heard the voice of the Lord
God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam
and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God
amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called unto
Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard
thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked,
and I hid myself." First thing they do once sin
enters in, they're ashamed of their nakedness. Now God had told them back in
Genesis chapter 1 to be fruitful and multiply. They were going
to bring forth children. But they were going to bring
forth. Righteous children in similitude to God. Sin had not
entered in yet. Now that sin had entered in.
Instead of bringing forth. Another. Perfect child, another right
to see that same act. now is going to bring into the
world a God-hater. Shame had to be on them for what
they had done. And now, from then and on down,
all that's ever born into this world are sinners and God-haters. And that should bring great shame
to us, our sin. And if we're caught doing something,
it does. bring some kind of shame. But our inward sins don't bring
any shame or hardly any at all. We think we can keep all of our
sinful thoughts inside ourselves, hide them away from everybody.
And you should hide them away from everybody. But it doesn't
work like that. Those thoughts in your heart
are actually actions. Before God. Because he looks
on the heart. And. That lust. Of your heart is actually adultery
before God. That hatred you felt towards
somebody that said something is murder before God. That greed
or covetousness that you were wanting this or wanting that
is stealing and robbery. All these things inside Our great
evils. And we should be ashamed that
we're so desensitized. It really doesn't bother us much,
if at all. We dive right back into that
sin. We said we quit. And I just wish. His word says sin not. May he
give us grace to sin not, externally and internally, however you want
to look at it. But Christ, he took our blame
and he bore our shame. The shame that's due to us for
our sin that we should be ashamed of. Christ bore our shame. Psalm 69 speaks of the shame
that Christ felt. As he bore the sin of his people. Psalm 69. Verse 7. Because for thy sake I have borne
reproach. This is Christ speaking. Shame
hath covered my face. Let's go down to verse 19. Thou hast known my reproach,
and my shame, and my dishonor. Mine adversaries are all before
thee. Reproach hath broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness.
And I looked for some to take pity, but there was none. And for comforters, but I found
none. Christ bore our shame of our sin on
the cross. Verse 7, back there, shame hath
covered my face. He had blood, marks, spit, thorns,
all kinds of stuff on his face that we could see. But here it
says, shame hath covered my face. Because he hung on that cross
guilty before his father. And shame covered his face. My
shame. That's due me. That I should
feel. That I should. He took it and made it his own.
And when he looked for help, in verse 20, I looked for some
to take pity, but there was none. And for comforters, but I found
none. He was forsaken. His father left him alone. And I know loneliness is a bad
feeling. I'm sure we've all been through
it, and it leaves something in the pit of your stomach. It's
just a bad feeling. But here's Christ, who had, these words
don't work right, lived eternally. He's always existed with His
Father, and they've always had communion, and they've been with
each other. And now, all of a sudden, his
father is gone and he forsook him and left him there to die in my place. He called it his shame. And we should be ashamed of who we
are in and of ourselves. We're miserable, pathetic sinners. And even as miserable as we are
and pathetic and evil, Christ's love was so great for us that He took everything I am,
my whole life, from first breath to last breath, as one big evil
black glob of sin. He took it. I didn't give it
to him. I didn't walk down an aisle. I had nothing to do with
it. I sinned. He did everything else. That's salvation by grace. He
took my sin. He took the sin of every one
of his elect to that cross, bore it on his own soul, and died
for our sin. And that's good news. That means
I have nothing coming to me on Judgment Day, but welcome. Come
on in. And even in all his misery, Christ
counted it a joy, counted it a joy to suffer. Hebrews 12,
verse 2 says, who for the joy that was set before him, I'll
just quote it, for the joy that was set before him endured the
cross, despising the shame, And to sit down at the right hand
of God, he despised the shame. Despise here means to think against,
to disesteem, to regard as nothing. He counted it as nothing, the
shame that he bore just for the joy of saving the people that
he lost. I wish we could have that attitude.
And count it a joy to suffer whatever we have to suffer for
each other. for our love for each other. I know me, if it's nothing in
it to involve that benefits me, I have trouble doing it. And Christ gave His all for me
and for everyone of His elect. May He give us grace to give
our all for Him. by loving each other, not just
in words, but in actions. There's lots of times we think
of all these things I'd like to do and like to say and should
have done and want to do, and then something comes up, family,
work, job, TV show, internet, cell phone, iPod, big screen,
something gets in the way. We're all one in Christ, and
we're all lovely because of what Christ did. And we're beautiful
because of what he did. And we should be beautiful to
each other. Because Christ dwells in every one of us, every believer. And love turns thoughts of love
into actions of love. As we grow in grace, May we grow
in love and turn these thoughts into actions. But he took our
shame and bore it and took it away. So he knows my frame. He
took my blame. He bore my shame. And then to
top it all off, he gave me his name. Because salvation is twofold. You stand against the law, you
have to pay the penalty. Christ did that. He took my blame,
He took my sin, He put it away. You also have to keep the law
perfectly. Christ did that as He walked on this earth. He was
a righteous man. He did it all. And by faith in
Him, you're united to Him perfectly, just like we started off this
message with. And as He is, so are you. As
He walked this earth, so did you. When He died on the cross,
so did you. You're perfectly united to Him.
And He's loved by God. So are you. I know we don't feel
that way because I've sat in them pews many times and Todd
will be up here all smiling. And he's truly entering in and
worshiping and knowing what he's talking about is great news. And I'll be sitting there not
feeling it. And think, well, I'm not saved. I can't. How can
he be speaking of this and it not affect me or move me? That
just happens. That's flesh. But that's not
faith. You don't sit here and try to
judge other people how they're reacting, how it's affecting
them. I mean, I'm an emotional guy and some people aren't emotional
and faith doesn't sit here. and worry about how everybody
else is being affected by it and how it's affecting them or
everything else. Faith just simply rests in Christ,
knowing He's done all the work and there's nothing left for
me to do. Quit trying, trying, struggling, clawing, grasping,
climbing, Just rest. And the more you rest and look
to Him, I don't want to say the easier it gets, but He will reveal
Himself to you when you look to Him and pray and ask. Just
like Todd's been talking about here recently. Ask. If you haven't
received, you haven't asked. Ask God for grace to trust Him. But he gave me his name. What
is his name that he gave me? The Lord, our righteousness.
We're going to look through some of these verses, but I just want
to make sure that before we look at these verses, that every believer
knows. That these words, these verses
speaks of you. Don't sit there and think, well,
so-and-so is that much better and this better than that, and
I know these verses apply to him and whatever. They apply
to every believer. Everywhere in this Bible, the
righteousness of Christ is given freely to any who believe on
Him. Any who believe. It doesn't say
you have to feel righteous. It simply declares that you are
righteous. So as we read these, believer,
believe these words speak of you. Genesis 3. We'll start with Adam and Eve
again. First picture God gives us of
Christ's righteousness happens right after the fall. Verse 21,
Genesis 3, verse 21. I'm just going to read some of
these verses. I'm going through and we'll read all these verses
and everybody is a believer. Know it speaks of you. Everyone
is not a believer. Trust Christ. Look to Him. Rest in Him. 21 Genesis 3 unto Adam also and
to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothed
them. He killed an animal, the blood
was shed, the sacrifice was given, and he clothed them. His righteousness
was put on Ab and Eve, and they were clothed. Jeremiah 33. Verse 16. In those days shall Judah be
saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely. And this is the name
wherewith she shall be called the Lord our righteousness. This
she is you and me. Every believer, the Church of
God's elect, is called the Lord our righteousness by perfect
union with him. When he walked the earth, we
walked in him. We're perfectly righteous. That's
our name. Ezekiel 18, right after Jeremiah.
Ezekiel 18, verse 21. But if the wicked will turn from
all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and
do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall
not die. All his transgressions that he
hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him. In his
righteousness that he hath done, he shall live." A righteousness
that we have done in Christ. Every believer. Isaiah chapter
1. The other side of Jeremiah. Just
in front of Jeremiah. Isaiah chapter 1. Verse 26. We'll look at three verses here
in Isaiah. Isaiah 1, verse 26, and I will
restore thy judges is at the first and my counselors is at
the beginning. Afterward, thou shalt be called
the city of righteousness, the faithful city, Isaiah chapter
four. Verses one through three. And in that day, seven women
shall take hold of one man saying, We will eat our own bread and
wear our own apparel. Only let us be called by thy
name to take away our reproach. In that day shall the branch
of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the
earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped
of Israel, and it shall come to pass That he that is left
in Zion and he that remaineth in Jerusalem shall be called
holy. Even everyone that is written
among the living in Jerusalem. One last verse to look at concerning
how we're viewed in Christ. Jeremiah verse 15. Jeremiah chapter 15. Verse 16. Thy words were found and I did
eat them. And thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine
heart. For I am called by thy name,
O Lord God of hosts. In my margin it's thy name is
called upon me. That's similar to being in a
crowd And you hear a familiar voice, somebody yelling, Brian,
and you turn around and look. Well, every believer. When God calls out holy and righteous. He's talking to you, he's calling
your name. And. Through union with Christ. by
simple faith in Him. I'm united to Him. What He is,
I am. I'm sinless because He put away
my sin. I'm holy and righteous because He fulfilled the law
and gives it to me freely as a gift of grace. So to conclude, this is simply
the gospel of free grace. That's all this is. Given to
any sinner, who simply looks to Christ and looks to Him alone
and rests and believes and simply just trusts Him. It's true we
sinned and it's true our frame is nothing but dust, nothing
but sin. The blame of the sin is all on us. We're to blame.
The shame of the sin is all on us. We should be shamed. And
our name is worm and rotten and dead to all that stuff I talked
about. But Christ came. He took my frame. He bore my
blame. He took my blame. He bore my
shame. And then He gave me His name. What a wonderful Savior. Amen.