John Hooper was an English bishop who was martyred in 1555 by order of Queen Mary, the daughter of King Henry VIII, the one who is also known as Bloody Mary. Bishop Hooper was burned at the stake, and his death was slow and painful. The wood used was green, and the fire had to be rekindled twice before it finished its fatal work. He suffered intensely in the fire for forty-five minutes or longer. You can read about his ordeal in Fox's Book of Martyrs.
When Bishop Hooper, the blessed martyr, took his stand at the stake upon which he was to be burned to death and the officers came to fasten him to it, he cried out,
"Let me alone. God that hath called me hither will keep me from stirring; and yet, because I am but flesh and blood, I am willing. Bind me fast, lest I stir."Just as Bishop Hooper stood by that stake, we take our stand by the cross of our blessed Lord when we come to faith in Christ. Is that not enough? Why do we also need the sacraments? Why do we need baptism and the Lord's Supper? The answer is the same which Bishop Hooper, the blessed martyr, gave for submitting to being bound to the stake: "We are but flesh and blood. Therefore, bind us lest we stir." By faith, we stand by the cross. Then we submit to the sacraments as the bonds which bind us to it. When we are baptized, the message is that we now belong to the Lord. And whenever we partake of the Lord's Supper, we are actively confirming that message and renewing the covenant commitment. We are rededicating ourselves to Christ, binding ourselves anew to the cross of Christ.We are going to look today at how the sacraments as signs and seals strengthen our faith and thus bind us more firmly to the cross of our Savior, Jesus Christ. We are looking at Genesis 15 because I believe this chapter contains a vivid illustration of what is meant by the concepts of sign and seal. Let's begin by looking at Abraham's fears and doubts at the time.
To understand Abraham's fears and doubts, we have to go back to chapter 14. There Abraham had experienced a mighty military victory with his small personal army of 318 servants trained for war. With God's help, Abraham had defeated a powerful coalition of four mighty kings. He had defeated them, but he had not decimated them. Abraham had made some enemies, and they still had the power to one day seek revenge against him. In that day of barbaric cruelty and oriental vengeance, Abraham, the nomadic pilgrim in a strange land, had reason to be anxious.
In chapter 15, verse 1, God gives Abraham this assurance: "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceeding great reward." And here Abraham expresses his doubts. He makes no mention of his new military enemies. Instead he mentions God's promise about his descendants. If Abraham had doubts about any of God's promises, this would affect his confidence in all of God's promises, because his trust was in the Person behind the promise. God here promises to be Abraham's shield against his enemies. But God had also promised to give Abraham many descendants. And now Abraham is 75 years old, and Sarah is over 65, and they are childless. Can Abraham trust God's promises? He needs to know.
Abraham expresses his doubts, and he asks for clarification. He needed to know with certainty what God meant by His promise. Clarification is for the mind because our understanding is weak. Language can be ambiguous. Words can have different meanings. There can be equivocation. So Abraham says,
"Lord, You said I would have descendants. But I am childless. And according to custom, Eliezer of Damascus, my servant born in my house, is my heir. Is this what You meant by a seed?"God answers with clarification. He responds in plain spoken words where there can be no ambiguity, no equivocation. God says in effect, "Abram, you will have a biological son." And then God gives Abraham a sign. He tells Abraham to look at the stars, the stars in the night sky which are beyond numbering. And God says,"This is what I meant when I said you will have many descendants. The stars are beyond counting, and so will your descendants be."Then Abraham understands, and we read that Abraham believed, and God accounted it to him for righteousness. The sign had spoken to Abraham's mind, aided his understanding and clarified God's promise. And Abraham responded with faith.Baptism is a sign which clarifies. It tells the Christian that Jesus washes away sin just as water washes away dirt. It declares that the Holy Spirit descends upon the soul to give life just as the spring rains fall down upon the soil to give life.
And the Lord's Supper is a sign which clarifies. It tells the Christian that just as bread is broken and the grape is bled that the body might be nourished and sustained, so the Lord has bled and His body has been broken so that the Christian might be given spiritual life and nourishment and growth.
But the sacraments are more than signs; they are also seals. A sign clarifies, a seal assures. A sign says, This is what I mean. A seal says, And I really do mean it. A sign is for the mind because our understanding is weak. A seal is for the heart because our faith is weak.
In Genesis 15, God gave Abraham not only a sign but also a seal. God had Abraham cut various animals in two, and then God, revealing Himself as a smoking oven, passed between the cut pieces. This was a symbolic malediction associated with the blood covenant. Normally both parties to the covenant passed between the bloody cloven carcasses, proclaiming by their action, "May this happen to me if I do not keep covenant." Here only God passed between the pieces, symbolizing the ultimately unconditional character of the covenant of grace which God has made with His elect people. He has accepted all the responsibility for the salvation of His people. We will be saved not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to His mercy.
Like a vow added to a promise, this symbolic action was God's guarantee to Abraham that His promise was sincere and genuine. This action spoke to Abraham's heart. Its purpose was to strengthen that faith which we read about in verse 6: "And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness."
As we know from the New Testament, God did have to experience the malediction, the bloody curse, implicit in His symbolic action in Genesis 15. He had to do so in order to keep the covenant of grace with Abraham and his spiritual descendants. In the New Testament, we read:
"Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.') that the blessing of Abraham might come upon [us]" (Galatians 3:13).When Jesus went to the cross and suffered the punishment for the sins of His people, He was experiencing the bloody curse that was necessary for Him to keep the covenant of grace. Only through such an atonement could He administer the mercy of the covenant without compromising His holiness and justice.The grace of the atonement is guaranteed to us in the sacraments as covenant seals. Baptism is God's visual vow that His promise to give cleansing and life to all who believe in Jesus is true. The Lord's Supper is God's visual vow that Jesus' body was broken and His blood was shed that all who believe in Him might have spiritual life and nourishment and growth. The sacraments are a sign to give clarity to the mind and a seal to give assurance to the heart.
Beloved, to use the language of John Bunyan, the ear gate is not enough. The gospel should also enter into our consciousness through the eye gate. The verbal sermon needs a visual amen. The sermon that is proclaimed needs also to be sacramentally portrayed. The sacrament is a sign and a seal. As a sign, the sacrament enables you to visualize what the preacher has verbalized. As a seal, the sacrament confirms the gospel message to your heart the way a vow confirms a promise. As a sign, the sacrament is God saying, "This is what I mean by what I say." As a seal, the sacrament is God saying, "And I really do mean what I say."
By faith, we take our stand by the cross. The sacraments then bind us to that cross with the bonds of better understanding and greater assurance, with the bonds of a public dedication once made and frequently renewed. We are but flesh and blood; therefore, bind us, Lord, lest we stir.
The Bishop Hooper illustration came from the book Flowers from a Puritan's Garden by C.H. Spurgeon, page 34:
THE MARTYR AND THE CHAIN
When Hooper, the blessed martyr, was at the stake, and the officers came to fasten him to it, he cried, "Let me alone; God that hath called me hither will keep me from stirring; and yet," said he, upon second thought, "because I am but flesh and blood, I am willing. Bind me fast, lest I stir."Some plead that they have no need for the holdfasts of an outward profession, and the solemn pledges of the two great ordinances, for the Holy Spirit will keep them faithful; yet surely, like this man of God, they may well accept those cords of love wherewith heavenly wisdom would bind us to the horns of the altar. Our infirmities need all the helps which divine love has devised, and we may not be so self-sufficient as to refuse them.Pledges, covenants, and vows of human devising should be used with great caution; but where the Lord ordains we may proceed without question, our only fear being lest by neglecting them we should despise the command of the Lord, or by relying upon them we should wrest the precept from its proper intent. Whatever will prove a check to us when tempted, or an incentive when commanded, must be of use to us, however strong we may conceive ourselves to be.
Fox's Book of Marytrs, Chapter 16
The History, Imprisonment, and Examination of Mr. John Hooper,
Bishop of Worcester and GloucesterCommand was now given that the fire should be kindled. But because there were not more green fagots than two horses could carry, it kindled not speedily, and was a pretty while also before it took the reeds upon the fagots. At length it burned about him, but the wind having full strength at that place, and being a lowering cold morning, it blew the flame from him, so that he was in a manner little more than touched by the fire.
Within a space after, a few dry fagots were brought, and a new fire kindled with fagots, (for there were no more reeds) and those burned at the nether parts, but had small power above, because of the wind, saving that it burnt his hair and scorched his skin a little. In the time of which fire, even as at the first flame, he prayed, saying mildly, and not very loud, but as one without pain, "O Jesus, Son of David, have mercy upon me, and receive my soul!" After the second fire was spent, he wiped both his eyes with his hands, and beholding the people, he said with an indifferent, loud voice, "For God's love, good people, let me have more fire!" and all this while his nether parts did burn; but the fagots were so few that the flame only singed his upper parts.
The third fire was kindled within a while after, which was more extreme than the other two. In this fire he prayed with a loud voice, "Lord Jesus, have mercy upon me! Lord Jesus receive my spirit!" And these were the last words he was heard to utter. But when he was black in the mouth, and his tongue so swollen that he could not speak, yet his lips went until they were shrunk to the gums: and he knocked his breast with his hands until one of his arms fell off, and then knocked still with the other, while the fat, water, and blood dropped out at his fingers' ends, until by renewing the fire, his strength was gone, and his hand clave fast in knocking to the iron upon his breast. Then immediately bowing forwards, he yielded up his spirit.
Thus was he three quarters of an hour or more in the fire.
Even as a lamb, patiently he abode the extremity thereof, neither moving forwards, backwards, nor to any side; but he died as quietly as a child in his bed. And he now reigneth, I doubt not, as a blessed martyr in the joys of heaven, prepared for the faithful in Christ before the foundations of the world; for whose constancy all Christians are bound to praise God.