Shadow to Substance Conference (Day 1 Greg Moering Jr) THE DAY OF ATONEMENT

So I just hit the red button, right? Crack it myself, maybe. All right. Well, I thank you, Jeff, again, for allowing me this opportunity to be here. I count it a great blessing. But before I do get started, and I will, of course, include this in my time here, that I want to have a friend of mine in ministry by the name of Josh Miranda.

His last name is M-E-R-I-A-N-D-A. He's a pastor of Open Door Church in Columbia, Missouri. He's a young gentleman, probably Braden's age or so, definitely younger than I am. Around Christmas time, he was actually, he went into the, he had a really high fever and had to be taken to the emergency room.

And they thought, okay, just the flu, come to find out that he actually was diagnosed with a pretty, like a pretty, with leukemia of some sort. So over the last few months, he has been battling leukemia.

He has a wife and two young boys and a church that he pastors. And so, you know, as we know, God in his providence and in his care and love has brought these days to him. So if you would, please remember Josh Miranda and Open Door Church and his wife Julie and their boys in your prayers.

I told him I would do that for him. He had no idea other than me saying that. So just please be in prayer for him. So it is with great pleasure this morning that I have the privilege of opening the preaching portion of this conference.

I know originally I was supposed to do the introduction to the book of Ephesians, and then it became, we're doing from shadows to substance. Okay, so I get to throw the grenade and get it started. So either I'm either going to really stink it up and be forgotten because I'm the first one or hopefully I preach so well that I'm still forgotten and we're just basking in the glory of Jesus Christ.

So I come to everyone here with the greetings from not only my wife and children, and my son Greg III is up here with me, but I also come with greetings from First Baptist Church of Coleman where my wife and I have the great honor of being members and that is where we get to take our beloved five children with us to church to sit under the faithful preaching of the word and where they get to learn to love the Lord and his church.

And I count it a great blessing to, after having left Valley Baptist Church where Brayden is currently pastor, to be able to now be at First Baptist Church of Coleman at a church that just, I love them.

I absolutely love them. So I come with their greetings to you. I count it also a great honor to be here amongst you with this holy responsibility of opening God's word to you and declaring his truth. But if I am to speak honestly, I believe myself to be the least of all the preachers here and I wonder how by God's grace I am here.

But the point of all this isn't about the preachers. It isn't about that at all. But it's about what is being preached these next two and a half days. This isn't a time to somehow try to show off our intellectual prowess or anything of that nature.

Rather, the whole point of this, and it has been my prayer leading up to this day, is that it would be known that here in Tullahoma, Tennessee, from February 16th to February 18th, that Christ and him crucified will have been preached.

That is my hope and that is my prayer. That has been my prayer for each and every one of the men that is going to be standing behind this holy desk for the last several weeks in our family worship time.

That has been my prayer. Not for myself alone, but for every man that has been gifted this holy task. So again, it has been my prayer for this in that this very task that the apostles handed down to us, this is what we are stepping into an apostolic tradition in looking back to the Old Testament and seeing where Jesus Christ can be found.

That we are standing up and faithfully opening the Old Testament scriptures and declaring the Lord Jesus Christ from the very shadows that lead to his feet. And so it is my prayer that even at this very moment, the Lord Jesus Christ will be glorified.

Christ the Better Atoner and the Better Atonement

So this all said, as you are aware, as it has been published online, I will be preaching on Christ in the Day of Atonement. I have titled today, Christ the Better Atoner and the Better Atonement. So I want to say preemptively, and I think I could say this preemptively for every preacher up here, is I am not going to be able to fully and finally handle everything that is in these.

Texts.

Okay?

So don't come up to me and go, well you missed this point. I know I did. You know, that everything, every point that points to the Lord Jesus Christ, if you are friends with me on Facebook, you saw that I printed off two copies of this sermon because otherwise I would be making Elmer Fudd a noob when it comes to rabbit chasing.

Because there is so much in this text. So again, I am not going to be able to fully and finally handle all this, but it is my prayer that while it may not be full and final, I pray that it is faithful.

Okay?

Quite frankly, the depths and the beauty of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ absolutely radiate from this morning's text. I have found myself, through my preparation, I have found myself praising, I have found myself crying, I have found myself giving thanks, all the while, during, just preparation.

The further up and further in, we go into a text like Leviticus 16, because that is where we will be, the further up and further in we go, that we cannot help but behold the magnanimous magnificence of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

He is the better atoner. He is the better atonement. The shadows and types found in Leviticus 16 and in the day of atonement scream at us to behold the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, may it be this morning that even as we read, that you would behold the beauty of your Lord Jesus.

If you haven't already, I've seen some already flipping that way, if you haven't already, please turn with me to Leviticus 16 and stand with me in the honor of the reading of the.

Word of God.

So, Leviticus 16, reading from the Legacy Standard Bible, because we're bougie like.

That.

So, Leviticus 16, now Yahweh spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron when they came near the presence of Yahweh and died. And Yahweh said to Moses, Tell your brother Aaron that he shall not enter at any time into the holy place inside the veil before the mercy seat which is on the ark, so that he will not die.

For I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat. Aaron shall enter the holy place with this, with a bull from the herd for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. He shall put on the holy linen tunic and the linen undergarments that shall be next to his body.

And he shall be girded with the linen sash and attired with the linen turban. These are holy garments. Then he shall bathe himself or bathe his body in water and put them on. And he shall take from the congregation of the sons of Israel two male goats for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering.

Then Aaron shall bring near the bull for the sin offering which is for himself, that he may make atonement for himself and for his household. He shall take the two goats and present them before Yahweh at the doorway of the tent of.

Meeting.

And Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats, one lot for Yahweh and the other lot for the scapegoat. Then Aaron shall bring near the goat on which the lot for Yahweh fell, and he shall offer it as a sin offering.

But the goat on which the lot for the scapegoat fell shall be presented alive before Yahweh to make atonement upon it, to send it out into the wilderness as the scapegoat. Then Aaron shall bring near the bull of the sin offering which is for himself and make atonement for himself and for his household.

And he shall slaughter the bull of the sin offering which is for himself. And he shall take a firepan full of coals of fire from upon the altar before Yahweh and two handfuls of finely ground fragrant incense and bring it inside the veil.

And he shall put the incense on the fire before Yahweh, that the cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat that is on the ark of the testimony, so that he will not die. Moreover, he shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger and on the mercy seat on the east side.

Also in front of the mercy seat he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times. Then he shall slaughter the goat out of the sin offering which is for the people and bring its blood inside the veil and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull.

And he shall sprinkle it on the mercy seat and in front of the mercy seat. So he shall make atonement for the holy place because of the uncleanness of the sons of Israel and because of their transgressions in regard to all their sins.

Thus he shall do for the tent of meeting which abides with them in the midst of their uncleanness. Now when he goes in to make atonement in the holy place, no one shall be in the tent of meeting until he comes out, that he may make atonement for himself and for his household and for all the assembly of Israel.

Then he shall go out to the altar that is before Yahweh and make atonement for it. And he shall take some of the blood of the bull and of the blood of the goat and put it on the horns of the altar on all sides.

With his finger he shall sprinkle some of the blood seven times and cleanse it and set it apart as holy from the uncleanness of the sons of Israel. And when he finishes making atonement for the holy place and the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall bring near the live goat.

Then Aaron shall lay both of his hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities of the sons of Israel and all their transgressions in regard to all their sins. And he shall lay them on the head of the goat and send it out into the wilderness by the hand of a man ready to do this.

And the goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to an isolated land. And he shall send out the goat in the wilderness. Then Aaron shall come into the tent of meeting and take off the linen garments which he put on when he went into the holy place and he shall leave them there.

And he shall bathe his body in water in a holy place and put on his clothes and come forth and offer his burnt offering and the burnt offering of the people and make atonement for himself and for the people.

Then he shall offer up in smoke the fat of the sin offering on the altar. And the one who sent the goat out as a scapegoat shall wash his clothes and bathe his body.

With water.

Then afterward he shall come into the camp. But the bull of the sin offering and the goat of the sin offering whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the holy place shall be taken outside the camp.

And they shall burn their hides, their flesh, and their refuse in the fire. Then the one who burns them shall wash his clothes and bathe his body with water. And afterward he shall come into the camp.

And this shall be a perpetual statute for you in the seventh month on the tenth day of the month. You shall humble your souls and do not do any work, whether the native or the sojourner who sojourns among you.

For it is on this day that atonement shall be made for you to cleanse you. You will be clean from all your sins before Israel. It is to be a Sabbath of solemn rest for you that you may humble your souls.

It is a perpetual statute. So the priest who is anointed and ordained to minister as a priest in his father's place shall make atonement. He shall thus put on the linen garments, the holy garments, and make atonement for the holy sanctuary.

And he shall make atonement for the tent of meeting and for the altar. He shall also make atonement for the priests and for all the people of the assembly. Now you shall have this as a perpetual statute to make atonement for the sons of Israel for all their sins once every year.

And just as Yahweh had commanded Moses, so he did. Beloved, if you have desired to hear from your God this morning, you have, for you have heard his word read to you.

Please be seated.

And let's pray. Our Father and our God, we thank you once again for your holy word. We thank you for the opportunity that we have to come before it. And I would ask that you would give us eyes that we would see and ears that we would hear, hands and feet to obey your word, that we would come with great joy and rejoicing in our Lord Jesus Christ.

And Lord, I would be remiss if I do not as well pray for Josh Miranda and his wife and his church, his boys, or be with them. May this time of great trouble that has come forth from your hand, may it be a time in which holiness will abound, that they will look to you and rejoice in the great God of.

Their salvation.

And we pray in Jesus' name, amen. So, due to the nature of the size of this text, I will not be purely going verse by.

Verse.

I don't have enough time for that. Though certainly our eyes will be upon the text. Rather, let us look at this instruction given to the high priest by the Lord through the hand of his servant Moses by its types and shadows.

The Danger of Approaching God on Our Own Terms

We're going to look at this through the types and shadows that are there. But before we get into how these things point us to our Lord Jesus, we need to have a working grasp of what these things are. For us, this side of the cross, a passage such as this can seem wildly foreign.

We're not used to this. It would be disgusting in here if we did what this thing says, because there'd be too much blood everywhere. So nonetheless, when we look at these things in their context, we then begin to see how they direct our eyes and our hearts past themselves to the reality to which they point.

In verses 1 and 2, we begin with a warning. Again, we read in verses 1 and 2,. Now Yahweh spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they came near the presence of Yahweh and died. And Yahweh said to Moses, Tell your brother Aaron that he shall not enter at any time into the holy place inside the veil, before the mercy seat which is on the ark, so that he will not die.

For I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat. What we read here in verses 1 and 2 sets the stage for our understanding not only of the day of atonement, but also the atonement that our Lord Jesus accomplished for his people.

Before the Lord gives Moses the instruction that he is to pass on to Aaron and all subsequent high priests, we are told this happens after the death of Nadab in Abihu. Just a few chapters earlier, we read this in Leviticus 10, 1 and 2,.

That then Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective firepans and put fire in them. They placed incense on it and offered strange fire before Yahweh, which he had not commanded.

Them.

And fire came out from the presence of Yahweh and consumed them, and they died before Yahweh. Now, we are not told if there is anything different about this fire that they presented before the Lord. Was it green instead of orange?

Was it huge? Or was it, you know, because it was too big for their firepans? We're not told any of that. None of that stuff is told to us, and quite frankly, none of that information even matters. But why is this?

Well, it's because what is meant by strange fire is clearly defined for us in the text when it is written that it was something that the Lord had not commanded them. So before we begin to try and figure out how many angels can dance on the head of a needle, let us pay attention to what God has expressly stated in His word and learn from that.

And what is it that we are to learn? When we compare Leviticus 10, 1 and 2 and Leviticus 16, 2, we find that the only way by which any sinner can enter into the presence of God is by the way in which God Himself commands.

Aaron the high priest was told, he shall not enter at any time so that he will not die. God was kind to him in this. And now, why did Nadab and Abihu die? Because they offered strange fire before Yahweh, which He had not commanded them.

So beloved, to approach God, to come into His presence without facing death, requires that you come before Him in the way and only in the way that He commands. As one commentator notes, we are not to approach God in a haphazard way or in the way that suits us at the moment.

We submit to what God says in His word about how to approach Him. You don't get to blithely waltz into the presence of God as if you own the place, or that you are owed a visit with the King and not expect His fury against your petulance.

Now, while what we are considering here has its ultimate implications relating to matters of eternal salvation, I want to stop for a second and ask, how often do we treat the worship of our Lord in the manner that Nadab and Abihu did?

How often do our churches do things as we see fit, rather than asking, are we doing that what we are doing, did God command this? It is quite obvious along the American church's landscape that we too often don't give two hoots about what God expects.

Instead, we care about what we want or what is tantalizing to our flesh or what will get people in the doors or meet people's felt needs. Beloved, don't let this be said of you. Care more about what God says and what He has commanded when it comes to worship than what makes you feel right.

Again, passionate about this because I read Nadab and Abihu and I don't want to be Nadab and Abihu. This all said, what we find in the instructions regarding how the Day of Atonement was to be observed is the expectation that all that has been commanded will be obeyed as it has been commanded to be observed.

He doesn't get to move one way to the left or one way to the right. He has to do exactly what God says. Otherwise, he's dead. So, what then has been commanded? Well, there are commands that are given here concerning the priest.

There are commands given concerning the sacrifices. And there are commands actually even given concerning the people as a whole. Now as a side note, I'm going to chase a rabbit for one second, I promise.

Notice that Aaron only offers sacrifices for the people of God. That the atonement is only made for the people of God. Not those outside of God's people. So even in Leviticus 16, there is particular redemption.

Just saying that. Now first, the first thing that the high priest had to do was, it was not only, did he have to, let me read this again. So first, the high priest had to not only enter with a bull from the herd for a sin offering and a ram for a burn offering, but he also, so he's not just going in with sacrifices and blood, but he also has to set aside his normal, ornate, glorious vestment.

Go to C. Exodus 28. There is something special about the high priest and his clothing. So he has to take off his normal clothing, put on this humble linen garments, and then take a bath and put on himself, you know, again, this holy garments.

Then he was to take the two goats that were the centerpiece in this festival from among the congregation of Israel and was supposed to cast lots so that the Lord would make it clear what goat was his and what goat was the scapegoat.

But before he could make the atonement, the high priest would have to sacrifice the bull for himself and his household because though he was the high priest, he was still himself a sinner. He was defiled by a heart that drinks iniquity like water.

He was then to take his firepan, fill it with incense and take that smoking incense into the veil of the Holy of Holies in order that the smoke would fill the Holy of Holies, that the cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat that is on the Ark of the Testimony so that he will not die.

Then he was to bring the blood of the bull into the Holy of Holies and sprinkle it all about him. It's just a blood bath. It's going everywhere. And once this was done, his sins recovered in order that he could slaughter the goat of the sin offering for the people.

The blood of this goat was then taken into the Holy of Holies and sprinkled all about. And lest we forget, while the high priest was making atonement for himself and the people, he was doing all of this by himself.

I read one thing where you even talk about that he may have even been offering the normal daily sacrifices that had to be offered every single day that he was doing everything, all the worship that was taking place, all the sacrifices that were supposed to be taking place daily.

He was doing all that himself too. So, this one day a year, he's doing everything. The full weight of the atonement of the sacrifice for God's people is on his shoulders. Again, because he alone was appointed to make atonement for the people of God.

He was also to take the blood of the bull and the blood of the goat and sprinkle it all about the Ten of Meeting and later the temple and the altar to make atonement for the defilement that God's dwelling place experienced because it was dwelling among God's people who were sinners.

So he's not just atoning for the people. He's not just atoning for himself. He's atoning for the very dwelling place of God on earth. Because sin was so rampant that atonement has to be made. And once this was done, he was to take the scapegoat and confess all the sins of God's people upon the head of the goat and then have it sent out, as the old King James says, by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness.

I like that language a little better than the one who was appointed for it. Fit man. It just sounds better. So, this fit man was to take this goat that bore God's people's sins away, take it out way out yonder to a place where it would never, ever come back.

Because he had become, you know, that it would ever come back. And when this fit man returned, he was supposed to bathe himself before he came back in to the camp. Because him just taking that out made him ceremonially unclean.

That this thing has got all the sins of all of God's people upon it. And him just touching it and taking it out yonder made him defiled. And so he had to take a bath before he came back. And so while the fit man was out, the high priest was then to take off the clothes of his humility and set them aside, bathe, and then re-clothe himself with his glorious robes, and then offer up his and the people's burnt offerings on the altar, and then take the carcasses of the bull and the goat of the sin offering outside the camp and burn.

Them up.

This was all to be done once a year on an appointed date in an appointed manner. It was to be observed with humility, contrition over sin, and as a Sabbath. This was a big deal. And it was even said that the weeks leading up to this, that the high priest was supposed to even, like he was supposed to be in this and know exactly what he was supposed to do.

Because he's alone in this. Now beloved, as arduous as this instruction is to consider, the reason for such specificity is that each one of these points is intended to direct our eyes to something, no, someone much, much greater.

In Hebrews 10 .14 it is written,. For the law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near.

Otherwise would they not have ceased to be offered? Because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year.

For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Beloved, did you catch the argument here? Are you picking up what he's putting down? The fact that these offerings happened year in and year out, and specifically that the Day of Atonement was observed at the same time every year, these continual observations pointed to the reality that they in and of themselves couldn't actually do anything.

Yes, these were things that God by His grace gave to His people to observe. And yes, there was some efficaciousness in it if it was received by faith, didn't actually. That wasn't what was taking away sins.

They were there as a constant reminder of the sinner's sin and the sinner's need of someone who could once and for all truly atone for the sinner. And like every good shadow that is cast by a greater object, the Day of Atonement in all its prescriptive behavior was a long shadow that was being cast from the cross.

On Golgotha's hill.

From the very outset of Leviticus 16, we have before us a bloody and brutal object lesson that is teaching us of the wickedness of our sin and our need of forgiveness and cleansing and how it is that in and through the Lord Jesus Christ that our God would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Now when we are told of how Aaron could not go into the presence of God without following strict orders, this reminds us how we are not permitted to go into the presence of the High King of Heaven without following His commanded prescription for such entry.

No man can see Him and live. This God, He dwells in unapproachable light and we are fools to think that we who were cast east of Eden would be able to bring ourselves back westward into His holy place.

And if you actually notice, if you pay attention to your Old Testament and you see how the temple was constructed, the priest would come from the east into the west. Every time that he's making atonement, he's going from the east to the west, which is pointing back to how, again, we were kicked to the east from the garden.

So every bit of this is pointing to how the high priest, God's appointed high priest, would bring God's people back into His very presence. No, see, beloved, we need the high priest who will go ahead of us, as Deuteronomy 31 .8 will point out, and that this high priest will enter through the greater and more perfect tabernacle and lead us out of the wilderness of the east and bring us into the fruitful promised land of the west.

That's again, when you see, look at Joshua bringing God's people out, you know, it wasn't Moses who could bring God's people into the promised land. It was Yeshua. It was Joshua who could do it, which again, Jesus, only Jesus can bring God's people into the promised land.

And again, Moses couldn't do that, and Moses knew it. And again, how they came in, from the east to the west. It's like there's a single author running throughout all 66 books of the Bible. So again, we must have this high priest who will bring us from the wilderness that is in the east to bring us into that promised land of the west, to the very presence of.

God.

And just as the hopes of the entire nation were upon Aaron and his descendants to properly execute this picture, because it's always, he's had, he has to execute a picture. The hopes of God's people are entirely upon the Lord Jesus Christ to execute the reality of restoring us into God's presence.

Just as there was only one way and one man to enter into the Holy of Holies. There is only one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus, for there is salvation in no one else. Therefore there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.

Beloved, any attempt to enter into the presence of God on your own merit or by your own way will do nothing for you, but spell your eternal doom. For the Lord Jesus Christ alone is the way and the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father, but through him.

The Humble Garments of the High Priest and Christ’s Incarnation

Now, one of the orders that Aaron and all the subsequent high priests were to follow was another one, was the changing of his clothes. Now you may sit there and go, what? We're talking a wardrobe change?

Yes, a wardrobe change. Remember Exodus 28. Okay, I'm not going to, I'm not going to take us to Exodus 28 because I don't have time.

For that.

But remember Exodus 28 and look and see the description given about the high priest and what he was supposed to wear. Look at the description of the colors. These are, these are royal colors given to a priest.

So there's a kingly priest.

Hmm.

There's a shadow there. I'm smelling something. It's pointing me to something greater than this. So Exodus 28 clearly details the beauty and the glory by which the high priest was to be robed. But here in Leviticus 16, he was to humble himself by taking on a different vestment to make atonement before he could return to the glorious robes.

Hmm.

This seems strangely familiar. And quite frankly, if he had failed to do this, not only would he jeopardize and nullify the atonement he was making and lose his own life. Again, if he doesn't change his clothes, he's dead.

Because he didn't do what God said and learn from Nadab and Abihu. So that's, that's a big point. But I would say that the reason why he dies isn't just merely because he forgot to obey God. It's because that if not, if he doesn't do it, that he's actually blaspheming the very one he was typifying by his wardrobe change.

In John 17 5, Jesus speaks of a glory which he had with the father before the world was. And then if we look to Philippians 2, this is what Paul writes, writes of how Christ Jesus who, although existing in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a slave by being made in the likeness, in the likeness of men being found in appearance as a man.