Shadows of The Coming Christ In The Law Of Moses

Shadows of The Coming Christ In The Law Of Moses  
Hebrews 10:1

INTRO:
Good morning. I want to encourage you to take out your Bibles and look at the scriptures I mention. If you have any questions about anything I say, I’ll be glad to talk to you about it. Our text for this morning is very short, Hebrews 10:1 which says; “For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect.”

Today I want to step back from our look at the Psalms and look back at the Law of Moses. I plan to continue in the Psalms next week but for today let’s look at some things in Genesis, Exodus and Leviticus.

It says in our text that within the law there was a shadow of good things to come.
We know what a shadow is. If I look at my shadow on the ground, I know that's not the real me. You can only tell a few things about me from the shadow. Not a lot, but you can tell a little bit about me.

What we are going to do this morning is look at the Law of Moses in Genesis, Exodus and Leviticus and see contained within the Law of Moses there were shadows of the coming of the Christ.

They were exactly what the Christ was going to do in His relationship with us and His sacrifice for our salvation. Some of the things we will be looking at are in line of what we would call a prophecy, where it is foretelling future events. Some of the things we will look at are just dealing with what happened in history. While looking at these historic events we are going to examine how they were foreshadowing the death of the Christ. Because we are looking at the foreshadowing, we will not only be looking at the Old Testament, but we will be coming back to the New Testament frequently.

The first scripture we will look at is Genesis 3:15 and it is actually a prophecy. “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” Here is the prophecy that God is pronouncing upon Satan. He is telling him there will come a point in time when the seed of the offspring of the woman is going to bruise your head.

In Romans 16:20 – “And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.” In this text when it refers to Satan being defeated it refers to him being crushed under foot. When sin came into the world God prophesies right away how sin is going to be dealt with. Sin will be dealt with through the offspring of a woman.

I. Now let’s get into the shadows in Genesis. Beginning at chapter 12 in verses two through three, we see where God makes a covenant with Abraham. Genesis 12:2-3 “2. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. 3. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.''” Contained within this covenant are the promises that God makes Abraham.
He says I will make you a great nation.
I will bless you and make your name great.
You shall be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you and I will curse them who curse you.
At the close of verse three it says in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
A. Another part of this is Genesis 12:7 – “Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, "To your descendants I will give this land.'' And there he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.”
1. Here are the three promises God makes Abraham.
2. There is the land promise in verse seven, and in verse two God promises He will make a great nation of Abram’s descendants.
3. Then there is the key promise for you and me that through his seed all the families of the Earth are going to be blessed.
B. I’m sure you recall that in Genesis 22 there is a very major event in the life of Abraham where he is being tested by God. Genesis 22:2 “And He said, "Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” This is not a prophecy; it is a historical event that happened. But this event that happened is a foreshadowing of what God is going to do with His son, His only son, whom He loves, on the mountains of Moriah when He gives His only son as a sacrifice.
1. We read in verses 7 and 8 when Abraham and Isaac are going up the mountains of Moriah that Isaac is questioning his father. He said; here's the wood here's the fire where's the sacrifice?[para]. Abraham replies; “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.'' And the two of them went together.”
2. Here we see one of the primary messages in the entire word of God - and that is that God will provide. In verse 14 Abraham ventured to give this location the name – “The-Lord-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, "In the Mount of The Lord it shall be provided.''”
3. This is a foreshadowing of how God is the one to provide the lamb to be sacrificed for us. In chapter 22 after Abraham shows he is willing to obey God, notice what God reiterates in verses 16-18. Genesis 22:16-18 – “By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17. "in blessing I will bless you, and in multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. 18. "In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.''”
4. I notice that when Abraham was faithful and obeyed the command of God, to offer Isaac as a sacrifice, God does not repeat the land promise. Nor does He repeat the great nation promise. He repeats the third promise that “through your seed, because you have done this, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed”.
C. This is a true event that happened in history. What is it the foreshadowing of? We need to look at another place in scripture for some more information to help us understand. Second Chronicles 3:1 “Now Solomon began to build the house of the Lord at Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.” This is the only other verse in the Old Testament that refers to the mountains of Moriah. The threshing floor of Orman (also rendered as Araunah) is purchased by David as recorded in Second Samuel 24:16-25, and there David built an altar to God. The reason David built the altar and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings there was because of his sin.
1. Then in John Chapter 3:16 we're getting down to the reality of the shadow. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. The Shadow was take your son, your only son. The reality is God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son.
2. The reality in John 1:29 “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Do you remember what Abraham said to Isaac? God will provide for Himself the lamb. God provided the lamb, who is Jesus.
3. Second Corinthians 5:18 puts it this way; “Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation,”.
4. The event that happened there on Mount Moriah with Abraham and Isaac, the very core of the whole message is, the Lord will provide. The Lord is the one who has provided the lamb that was without blemish. The Lord is the one who provided the sacrifice on Mount Moriah that was made for our redemption from sin.
D. Galatians 3:8 referring back to Genesis; “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the nations by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, "In you all the nations shall be blessed.''” That is the promise God reiterated to Abraham over in Genesis 22 after Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son.
1. Then in verse 26 the Galatians letter continues; “26. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
2. All families of the Earth are going to be blessed. It does not matter if you are a physical descendant of Abraham or not. It does not matter if you are a Jew or Gentile; that does not matter anymore. You're all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Anyone who has faith in Christ and is baptized into Christ will be a Christian, be saved and a child of God. The writer continues and he says; if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to (what?) the promise. The blessing he's talking about is now all of us have the opportunity to become children of God and be saved.
II. The next shadow we're going to look at in the Law of Moses is from the book Exodus. In the text we’re dealing with the time period when the children of Israel have been in Egypt for over 400 years and have been enslaved by the Egyptians.
A. In Exodus 6:6 the Lord is telling Moses what to do and He tells him; “Therefore say to the children of Israel: 'I am the Lord; I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will rescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments.” What God is going to do for Israel, physical Israel, and this is physical history, He is going to rescue them from bondage. God is going to pull them out of Egyptian bondage and slavery and redeem them.
B. We read of the plagues God sent upon the Egyptians. The next to the last plague was three days of darkness followed by the last plague, the death of the first born. To prevent this last plague from coming upon the children of Israel, God commanded the children of Israel to do something didn’t He? He told them take the blood of the lamb and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel.
1. In Exodus 12:5-7 He says; “5. 'Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 6. 'Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. 7. 'And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it.” God told them the exact time of the day and the exact time of the year do this. This is where you have the beginning of what we call the Feast of the Passover.
2. It says in verse 13 “Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.” As I said this is where we get the word Passover. When God saw the blood He would pass over them. If you were going to pick the main times of the year the children of Israel should celebrate, I would say Passover was the big one.
3. There were three times in the year when the children of Israel were supposed to come to Jerusalem, the Feast of the Passover, the feast of Pentecost, and the feast of the tabernacles but I would say the really big one, the really important one was the Passover. What is significant in the Passover is a lamb without blemish is being sacrificed. This is a shadow—a shadow of what God was going to do.
C. In First Peter 1:18-19 it says; “18. knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, 19. but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” The reason they had to have a lamb that was without blemish because it was a shadow of the perfect sinless Christ who was going to be giving Himself as the sacrifice for our sins to redeem us.
1. The children of Israel were safe from Egyptian bondage and redeemed from Egyptian slavery. We are redeemed from Satan, sin, and death and saved from bondage to that sin and death by the sacrifice of the lamb without blemish, Jesus the Christ.
2. Jesus tells His disciples in Matthew 26:2 – “You know that after two days is the Passover, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified” Back in Genesis we learned that God told Abram to go to Mount Moriah. That was going to be the location, the place where the Christ was going to be crucified. The Passover was to happen at a time designated by God and now we know this was the time when the Christ will be crucified. One is the location of the crucifixion the other is the time of the crucifixion.
3. That's why you find in First Corinthians 5:7 it says; “Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.” You remember what God said of the Passover when I see the blood I will pass over you. They avoided the plague of death, physical death, with the blood of a lamb. We avoid the wrath of God and spiritual death, being forever separated from God, by the blood of the lamb, Jesus Christ. He is our Passover who was sacrificed for us.
D. The Hebrew writer puts it this way in Hebrews 2:14-15 – “14. Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, 15. and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” The event that happened in history was a shadow of what was going to happen in the future with the Christ. The event was when the children of Israel were taken out of Egyptian bondage and slavery. What that event was foreshadowing is when you and I were going to be freed from slavery and bondage. We were enslaved to Satan, sin and death.
E. The reason the Christ came, the reason the Christ died, and was buried, and arose from the dead, was so He could conquer the one who had the power over death, the one to which we were in bondage, and then free us from bondage to Satan, sin, and death. We are going to conquer death. We are going to rise from the dead ourselves. We will be with God forever in heaven. This is the very heart, the very core of Christianity.
III. Then you have Leviticus. Leviticus is not one of those books that people really read just for fun. It's kind of difficult reading and I suspect part of that is because we're not Levitical priests. If you were a Levitical priest who was doing the job of a priest, this is an extremely important book to you. The first 16 chapters of the book of Leviticus are dealing with approaching God through sacrifice. The last part of Leviticus deals with maintaining your relationship with God through sanctification.
A. In the 16th chapter we read about the Day of Atonement, the most important day in the entire year for the children of Israel. This was when the high priest would first offer sacrifice for his sins, and then he would go into the holy of holies. The chief priest was to go by himself no one else could go in there. Only the chief priest could go into the holy of holies the most holy place and there he offered the sacrifice for the sins of the people. He did this once a year, every year.
1. We find in Leviticus 16:15 “Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering, which is for the people, bring its blood inside the veil, do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and before the mercy seat.” This is not a prophecy. It is an event. These are things that happened in history but what is taking place here is a foreshadowing of what Christ was going to do for us when He took His blood into heaven.
2. The Hebrew writer in Hebrews 9:12 wrote; “Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.” The writer stresses two points here about the superiority of the high priesthood of Christ. First, the sacrifice was by a more perfect medium; His own blood.
3. Jesus did not take the blood of bulls and goats because it's not possible that the blood of bulls and goats can actually take away sin. What He took was His own blood and He entered the true holy place in the presence of God. The Hebrew author elaborates in the next two verses. “13. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, 14. how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”
4. Second, that in a more exalted place of offering, that is heaven, Christ offered His own blood, not repeatedly, but once for all. In Hebrews 9:23-25 – “23. Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24. For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; 25. not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another”
B. The High Priest going into the holy of holies, once a year, on the Day of Atonement, with the blood of the goat and the blood of the bull, to offer the sacrifice for the sins of the people was a shadow; a shadow of the true event. The true event was not going to take place in the temple in Jerusalem or in the holy of holies in the temple in Jerusalem or with the blood of bulls and goats. The true event of which this in Leviticus is a shadow, was when the Christ went into the holy place, heaven itself, in the presence of God, with His blood. There He offered it as a sacrifice for our sins.
C. Again in Hebrews let’s look at Hebrews 8:1-2 – “1. Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, 2. a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man.” The true Tabernacle the true temple is not in Jerusalem it is in heaven and that is where our High Priest is seated and serving at this very moment.

CONCLUSION:
What we’ve done in the sermon this morning is we have looked at shadows. There are a lot more shadows that are in the Old Testament that we have not looked at.

For instance, I very briefly mentioned how there were three days of darkness before the plague of the death of the first born. In the crucifixion of the Christ there are three hours of darkness before the death of the first born.

In Exodus we find that in the third month after the Passover Israel became a nation at Mt. Sinai, the fulfillment of the promise of them becoming a nation. We find that this is also when the kingdom of the Christ began. The third month after Passover is when the covenant was given in Jerusalem, and the kingdom of our Lord began on Earth.

There are multitudes of shadows. Shadows not prophecies. Prophecies are foretelling of future events. Specifically telling what is going to happen. A shadow is when an event happens in history and that event is a foreshadowing of the mystery of God that is ultimately going to be revealed in Christ crucified.
On Mount Moriah, where God provides the lamb to Abram—to when He gave His son, His only son as a living sacrifice for the sins of mankind.
In Exodus and the Passover lamb—to the time of the sacrifice of the Christ when the Lamb who is without blemish was going to give His blood so the wrath of God will pass over us and we would be free from the bondage of sin.
As the high priest in Leviticus went into the holy of holies each year, our High Priest went into heaven itself. He took His blood into the presence of God, a sacrifice by which our sins can be forgiven.

We have an advantage over the Jews of Biblical times because we have the complete Bible. Yet they had an advantage over us in knowing the scriptures of the Old Testament. Paul tells Timothy in Second Timothy 3:16-17 – “16. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17. that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” We learn from the New Testament how we are to be saved, what we learn from the Old Testament strengthens our faith.

Next week we will go back to the Psalms and study about Christ in the Psalms. At some future time, Lord willing, we will also take a look at Christ crucified in the Book of Isaiah. When we look at the birth, ministry, death, burial and the resurrection of Jesus we come to realize He is the Christ and this is what it's all about. Our understanding and our faith are strengthened because of what we learn from scripture.

One more thing, in verse 14 of Hebrews 9 it says “how much more shall the blood of Christ... purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”
The utility of the human conscience is similar to that of a watch. The utility of a watch is determined by its synchronization with the correct time, not determined by the watch, but by the moment of the sun's passing over a certain meridian; and like the watch, a man's conscience can have many things wrong with it. The conscience can be evil
(Hebrews 10:22), seared (1 Timothy 4:2), defiled (Titus 1:15), ignorant (1 Timothy
1:13), and choked with dead works (Hebrews 9:14). Despite the things that may go wrong with it, there is a moral authority in the conscience. "If our heart condemn us, God is greater than our hearts and knoweth all things" (1 John 3:20). It is in the superiority of the new covenant that God has provided a way by which man's conscience can be truly cleansed, and the basis of that cleansing is shown in this verse. It is by means of the blood of Christ.

How does the spirit of man come in contact with the blood of Christ? It is not a literal contact. So, there must be some accommodation in scripture that enables the sinful soul to know that they have in fact touched the blood of Christ. Let us remember that the only means of obtaining a clean conscience is found in the blood of Christ and that there can be no cleansing apart from that blood.

The metaphorical nature of the spiritual truth would lead us to expect some metaphorical explanation of it, and we are not disappointed. Note the
following two views: Take the view that Christ's blood is in his body. To find contact with the blood, one would have to enter the body of Christ; and how can this be done? Three times scriptures declare that people are baptized into Christ, that is, into His body (Romans 6:3; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Galatians 3:27). Or take the view that Christ's blood was in His death when it was shed. How does one enter the death of Christ? The scriptural answer is, "All we who were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death" (Romans 6:3). In view of these things, who can doubt that Christian baptism is in some wondrous way related to the believer's contact with the blood of Christ and with its consequent cleansing of the conscience? If such is not the case, how could the apostle Peter have related baptism to the cleansing of the conscience in the manner of these words referring to the saving of eight souls from the flood, " There is also an antitype which now saves us, namely baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, " (1 Peter 3:21)?

It should be a matter of the greatest concern to all people to know the manner in which a person’s conscience may be cleansed from dead works. A good conscience becomes reality upon one's obeying the gospel of Christ through faith, repentance and baptism, and rising to walk in newness of life. Without a doubt, this fact underlies the reason that baptism was solemnly enjoined by the Savior upon the occasions of His giving the great commission as related by Mark and Matthew.

If there's anybody here this morning who is not yet a child of God and you have come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, consider as we read in Galatians the third chapter – “24. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. 26. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”
If you would openly confess your faith, we would be glad to assist you and baptize you into Christ for the remission of your sins.

If you’re a child of God already and your faith has been weak to where you have gone astray, if there is sin between you and God, I would like to encourage you to deal with it.
God is gracious; God is willing to forgive you.
We as your brothers and sisters in Christ will pray for you, pray with you and do the very best we can to encourage you.

If you are subject to the Gospel call in any way, you are invited to come forward and make your need known while we stand and sing the song of invitation.

Invitation song: # ???
Reference Sermon by: Wayne Fancher