We're going to read from Romans chapter 4 again. And in fact, we're going to be looking particularly at verse 11 again. Because last week's topic and this, as we deal with the sacraments, both are touched upon by chapter 4 of Romans, verse 11. And again, to get a bit of context here, we'll begin our reading with verse 1 of Romans chapter 4 and go to the end. Let's hear God's word at this time. What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace, but as debt. But to him who does not work, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness. Just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin. Does this blessedness then come upon the circumcised only or upon the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness. How then was it accounted? While he was circumcised or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised. And he received the sign of circumcision a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also, and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of the faith which our father Abraham had while still uncircumcised. For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham, or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if those who are of the law are heirs, Faith is made void, and the promise made of no effect, because the law brings about wrath. For where there is no law, there is no transgression. Therefore, it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, as it is written, I have made you a father of many nations in the presence of him whom he believed. God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did, who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, so shall your descendants be. And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body already dead, since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what he had promised, he was also able to perform, and therefore It was accounted to him for righteousness. Now, it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses and was raised because of our justification. May God add his blessing to his word today. A few weeks ago when we just started out this little series, it's going to go a week or two more, we talked about sacraments being signs and seals of the covenant of grace. Tangible, that is, you can feel them and hold them and all. Signs and seals of the covenant of grace. And we looked at some further parts of definition, but we went on to talk about last week how the sacraments are signs. Now we're going to look at seals. Now children, once again, I don't mean that animal that eats fish and when you go to the zoo performs tricks. Maybe you've seen some of those seals. They can balance some of them, a beach ball on their noses, and some of them can play tunes on an array of bulb horns. Maybe you've seen that sort of thing. And you know they like to eat fish, so if you go to a zoo, some zoos anyway, now I don't know if this is the case anymore, but it used to be when I was a kid, back in the olden days, why you could buy these fish, these little herrings, and you could flip them to the seal, and they would gulp them right on down, and then go ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, begging for more. Now what we're talking about is something different. The kind of seal that we're talking about is a mark. It's a kind of a mark. A marking. Showing that something really is exactly what it says it is. It's showing that officially it is so. Now I think I did this before when we were talking about it, but I don't have a dollar bill here, but if you have a dollar bill or your parents do, you can look on the back of the dollar bill and see the two sides of the great seal of the United States. And that shows that this dollar bill isn't something fake. It's really, really real. Right? That's kind of a little sentence from the department of ontology, but there we are. Now, another example of a seal, you can find these on documents. I don't know if you children have ever seen your parents' title to their car. But when your parents bought the latest car that you have, it had a title to it, and it still does. And it is marked as being official by a government official called a notary. And the notary puts his or her seal upon it to certify, to make it official, that this really is, as far as the state of Ohio is concerned, your dad's or your mom's, or maybe they share ownership of it, so then it's your parents' car. And you who are old enough to be owning cars, you know how that works. It's sealed right there. Usually the notary is right there at the deputy registrar's. And some of you who are 18 or older have a high school diploma. And what's on there to mark it as being official? Well, probably there's the signature of the school board president, and there may be from your principal, but there is usually the seal of that local school district placed upon it. Or you have a college or university diploma, and it's got the seal of that school there. All this marks it as official. Or, to change the image only slightly, we don't do this much nowadays, but it used to be that people didn't have this licky glue, the gum, on envelopes when they were sending a letter. So how would they seal it up? How would they get it closed up? They would seal it with a blob of wax that looked kind of like a candle, and they had a special stamp And it was that stamping that was the seal. Now we often think of, in that sense, sealing as closing something and making it secure. But that's only kind of a derivative meaning. The actual meaning of the seal there is this would be some special little mark that this was officially from you. And that way, you know, if someone was looking at the letter and they broke the seal, what they could do is maybe drip some more wax on there, but they didn't have your seal on it. And it could be shown that it was tampered with because it wasn't officially from you anymore. So that's what we're talking about when we speak of a seal. Seals declare a matter to be official. There's something else as well. When we have something sealed and we give it to them, who keeps possession of it? Why, the person to whom it was given. They keep this thing that has the seal upon it. They keep it. And these seals, whether it be on the back of an envelope, or whether it be on a diploma, or a car title, or whatever, You have it there and you can look at it anytime. Maybe you keep it like your car title in the safe deposit box. Or maybe you keep it up on the wall, like your high school diploma. Or maybe you keep it with your other love letters from your sweetheart, there in a drawer someplace. But anytime you want, you can go out and look at it, and it is still there. And it still has all the meaning, all the reality, all the, we might say, preciousness, that it ever did. These things, you can take hold of them, you know? Do you ever grab hold or take hold of your car title, let's say, folks, and you rub your fingers over it. You can feel where it was embossed in there. You can feel the raised letters. You can feel the raised places where the seal of the state of Ohio is, right? You can actually feel it there. And so the seals are a tangible witness, we might say, of an agreement, a treaty, a statute, or a covenant. They confirm an agreement or an engagement entered into. You know, once that title is made secure for your car, and it is signed over and sealed, it is official that it does not belong to the former owner anymore. It does not belong to somebody else. It belongs to you. And it is yours to do with as you wish. It is yours and you have secure and official ownership. And no one can take that away from you. That's how seals are. Now, we have seals in the scripture. Why, right here in our verse. He, that is Abraham, received the sign, that's what we looked at last week, of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised. Before he was circumcised, what did he have? He had faith in God. It was because of that faith, looking forward to the working of Jesus Christ, faith in the promise of God, that he was given the seal. He was marked in his own body with circumcision. And there it was, a constant reminder, God has promised, and it's really, really true. God will save me because I have put my trust in this promised one who is to come, whose body should be broken, whose blood should be shed, even as the sacrifices I offer. But he will be specially sent by God in an even more vivid way than the ram that was caught in the thicket when my son Isaac was taken to Mount Moriah. That ram which was provided is only a picture of a greater one who will be provided who shall take away my sin and the sin of Isaac and oh that it could be for Ishmael too that was the reasoning eventually of Abraham but there are other seals within the scripture if we go back before Abraham's time many generations beforehand In Genesis chapter 9, does anyone recognize what's going on there? Genesis 9 is where we have the tail end of the history of Noah. And I read in verses 16 and 17, the rainbow shall be in the cloud and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth. That is by definition a seal right there. And God said to Noah, this is the sign of the covenant which I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth. So the rainbow in Noah's version of the covenant of grace was the sacrament. For it was both a seal, as we see there in verse 16, and a sign as God declared in verse 17. As we have here in Romans 4.11, but you go back to the original story in Genesis 17 verses 9 through 11, circumcision to the people of God in old covenant times, all that time leading up to the actual coming of Jesus Christ, it too was a seal of the covenant of grace to Abraham and his seed. Not so much his physical seed as Peter, as Paul is talking about here in Romans, but to his spiritual seed. The Lord's Supper is declared this. If we go to Luke's Gospel, near the back, chapter 22, verse 20. Likewise, Jesus also took the cup after supper. saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood which is shed for you. Alright, here is something tangible that is given to them for them to retain, to hold on to. It is, as we've already seen, by definition then, or it is by its attributes, a seal, just as it is for us today. And then, baptism as well is a seal, and Paul was talking about in Colossians chapter 2, the fact that it replaces circumcision, we can see this in chapter 2 verses 11 and 12, in him, that is in Jesus Christ. You were also circumcised, what? These are Gentiles, what's he mean here? With the circumcision made without hands. Oh, we're talking about circumcision of heart now, aren't we? We're talking about spiritual circumcision, which old covenant believers were to have. It was that which saved them. It was that that physical circumcision was a sign and seal of. Let me start over again. In him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, bared with him in baptism, in which you also were raised with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead. You see, both circumcision and baptism are pointing to the same thing and are signs and seals of the same thing. They have exactly the same sort of meaning. And we talked about how baptism, for example, was a sign of remission of sin, the gift of the Holy Spirit. We saw that just last week. Circumcision was that, baptism is that. And as Paul says here, both are looking to the circumcision of heart, as the Old Covenant put it, or as Jesus put it in more what we would consider New Testament terms in John chapter 3, the need to be born again. Now, we need seals. We need them. in our regular daily life. They're very useful. How about if someone went to your car or came to your door and demanded the keys to your car? And you say, well, wait a minute, it's my car. Nope, it's my car. Here's my title. Now, they maybe have this very convincing thing printed up or maybe it's written in crayon, who knows? But I can tell you it won't have the seal of the state of Ohio upon it. And you can say it's not a real one. It's not signed and sealed and delivered. It's not the real thing. And if they would try to take it to court, they'd be laughed out. Because you have the one with the official seal of the state of Ohio. You have the sun setting behind Edina, the sun setting behind Mt. Logan there in Ross County. You have the sheaves of wheat. You have the Ohio River there and all the stuff that's on our state seal. And they've got orange crayon or whatever they used or maybe a nice word processor or desktop publisher but it doesn't have the seal and you can prove in court that it is your car because you have it by official transaction and you have the seal in hand. Seals are very useful for us in our everyday life and they are useful for us in Jesus Christ. Now let's make sure we don't misunderstand something. Because again, in our use of the word, there's another meaning of the word seal, and I don't mean that animal that likes fish. I mean when we talk about sealing an envelope. And I said that it was a derivative meaning. That is, it's not the original meaning. It's kind of come out from it later on. We're not using it that way, nor does the Bible. The Bible does not teach that things like circumcision, or baptism, or the Lord's Supper, or the Passover, that they seal us into Christ, that somehow they are the things that stick us to Jesus Christ. That is not what the Scriptures teach, and that is not what the seal means there. That's not what the word seal means. I want us to look, for example, at Acts chapter 8 when John and Peter were working in Damascus. Let me back up here. They're working in Samaria, sorry. They're working in Samaria, and here is Simon the magician. And he is baptized, but it later turns out that he has no circumcision of heart. It is an outward thing only, and so it is invalid. because it would be like trying to produce a title that you had made out of crayon and somehow you had stolen a notary seal and you'd say, I have the sealed document right here, but the document itself is invalid. That's all that Simon the Magician had. The seal, the outward seal, had no use for him. It didn't do anything for him spiritually. We see that again in chapter 8 verse 13, Simon himself also believed. There was an outward belief of some sort and when he was baptized he continued with Philip and was amazed seeing the miracles and signs which were done. But later on when he asks for the ability to give the Spirit of God to other people, Peter, by the spirit of discernment, said in verse 20, your money perish with you. You see, may your money go to hell with you. How could he say this to a believer? He was not a believer. He had only appeared to be on the outside, and he only had an outward seal, but not the inner truth. You have no part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God, Peter says there in verse 21. That's just one example of the fact that it is not the seals that stick us, so to speak, into salvation. They are only the official mark that the salvation and the promise upon which we trust is real and true. And if we've truly believed, then it's in our possession. To think that the seals themselves stick us, so to speak, into salvation is the error of Romanus, of Eastern so-called orthodoxy, of other false teachings as well, but it is not the teaching of Scripture. It is not the teaching of Scripture. Rather, what we have today in baptism in the Lord's Supper are seals of the covenant of grace seals of what is already in the word, further testifying the truth that is preached, and the truth by God's grace is received in the heart, is real, is true, and is acknowledged by God. What's already in the word is, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved, and you're out. What is already in the scripture, and I trust by you is believed in the heart, is that you have repented, and you have been, well, when you have repented, what you have is remission of sin and the gift of the Holy Spirit, which is why you were baptized, of course, just as Abraham was as he underwent circumcision because of what he had already believed. And just as his little 8 day old son was given the same sign and seal of faith, so it is that we do it for our children as well. Let's make it clear friends, we tend because of our infrequent communion to think that there is something extra special that we get out of the Lord's Supper. And sometimes when sessions want to have communion more frequently, one of the objections is, well it will make the Lord's Supper less special. It should be less special in a way. There is nothing special about it. It is not that you are getting something extra. You're not getting anything more by them than you are week by week in the Word. What you do get is a stronger grip on what you're already receiving in the Word. It's as if you are a climber and to get your slimy sweaty hands, a little bit better grip, you have a chalk bag along and you put some chalk on your hands to dry them so you can grip to the rocks and to the handholds, not the toeholds unless you put chalk on your feet too, but you have a better grip on the handholds. But the handholds are already there and they're no better than they ever were. It's just that you have a better grip. A little more security, a little more strength in holding on to the grips that are out there when you're climbing. So it is with the sacraments. So it is with these seals that God has given. But they're no good, no good without the word being preached and believed upon. To use the analogy of the climber, if you've got this face before you that is glass smooth, it won't do you any good to have the nicest, driest, and tackiest, as opposed to slippery, hands in all the world. If you can't grip onto anything, it won't do you any good. And what use is it when you're sitting here sedately in a church pew to chop your hands? It's useless. Now it's only useful if you have something to hold onto, to grab hold of. when you're climbing, that the chalk is there. So it is with the seals that God has given. They have no usefulness, no meaning without the preaching of the word of God, and they have no benefit to you unless you have come to them in faith. It is only then, friends, and what is it that links you to? What is it that unites you to Jesus Christ? What is it that sticks you to Him? Again, not the seals, but that which they have sealed. It is Jesus and promise of life in Him. It is that which sticks you to Him. It is that faith in Him and in Him alone, in His mediatorial person, and in His finished and atoning work that is what sticks you to Jesus Christ. Does this mean then that the seals are useless? By no means. Again, they make our grip on Jesus Christ to be stronger. God knows and sees our need for assurance. Or we might say reassurance. And in His kindliness, and we read about this and sing about it sometimes in Psalm 103, He knoweth our frame, He knoweth we are but dust. Just as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them who fear Him. And so in His kindliness, In His fatherly love for us, He has provided these seals. He has done so in a way, verbally, by an oath that we read about in Hebrews chapter 6, verses 17 through 18, swearing by Himself, because there is no one higher to whom He should swear. But He does this in a way that we can see and feel. and hear, and taste. What am I forgetting? Smell. He does this in this way to strengthen us by these two particular seals of the covenant of grace, baptism and the Lord's Supper. Now lastly, what's the I started to say significance, but that has to do with signs. What's the meaning of these seals? What is the meaning of these sacraments? As He has given us baptism in the Lord's Supper, as seals of the covenant, God, Jehovah God in Jesus Christ has bound Himself. It's a contract. It's a covenant. He has bound himself over to us. We read in the Song of Solomon, I am my beloved's and he is mine. We have a possession in him. We have an inheritance in him. We have, in a covenantal sense, an ownership in God. not that somehow we are lords over him by no means, but he has graciously, kindly, condescendingly stooped to us, and not only, not only friends, has he taken us to himself, precious as that is, unspeakably precious as that is, but he has given himself to us. He is pledged by His own everlasting existence. He is pledged by His unchanging person. He is pledged, friends, by His untarnishable holiness. And He does not, He cannot go back on His word. nor does he ever have a second thought. You who are in Jesus Christ, to him, amazing as this might sound, you are far more precious than you can ever imagine. He is pledged and does not go back. He is yours. as well as you being His. He is yours, and in Him all things are as well. So, as we participate in the sacraments, these seals of the covenant of grace, taking them is a deed of solemn covenanting. Getting back to our previous sermon series, It is a making ourselves completely over to Jesus Christ. And even if I think I can say this properly, even more wonderfully, it is God and Jesus Christ, the triune Jehovah, once again demonstrating that he has given himself over completely to us. This is what we mean when we talk about the sacraments and seals. I think if you spend some time meditating on this, as I have been, it will become not some sort of dry academic thing. It won't be some little heading in a systematic theology book. This is something that should become, in fact if you're a believer, the more you think about this and meditate prayerfully upon it, it is something that will become incredibly, wonderfully comforting and precious to you. Let us give thanks then, friends, for the sacraments and may I say, let us have them more often. Let us rejoice not only in these signs and seals of course, but the realities that they point to and attest to. Let us ultimately give glory to the one who has chosen us and who has made us his and who has made himself ours. Amen. Let's sing again now from Psalm 25 again, using portion C. What about B, someone might say? Well, it takes the same verses that we have in A, it's just a change in tune. So, in A we sang from Psalm 25, 1-7. In C here, we will sing from verses 8-15. And in this section here, we are looking at the covenant relationship that we have if we're in Jesus Christ, that which is sealed to us by the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper. Psalm 25, portion C.