Compartment 9

Saturday, August 12th, Day One: Russia's Northern Fleet Command loses contact with the Kursk nuclear submarine in the Barents Sea.

Sunday, Day Two: The BBC reports that the Kursk has been located by sonar on the seabed, 108 meters from the surface.

Monday, Day Three: Claims are made that knocking is heard on the hull of the Kursk.

Wednesday, Day 5: Russia's president Putin says that his country has all it needs to conduct the rescue mission. Later that day, he asks Norway and the United Kingdom for help.

On Monday, Day 10: Norwegian divers open the airlock's inner hatch. They find the cabin inside to be flooded. The rescuers conclude that the 118-member crew is dead.

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On Saturday, Day One, an explosion tears through the Kursk shortly before 1300. Eighty-five crewmembers die instantly. Twenty-three sailors find themselves still alive and in the dark. They are all located in Compartments 6, 7, and 8.

They have prepared for just such a moment. The drills, the manuals, the officers have made them ready. They begin to move in the dark to Compartment 9, the place their training has told is the place of safety, of rescue, of life.

In the dark, an officer finds pen and paper. He writes a note, the first part of which is illegible. He then tells the story of the twenty-three, how they survived the blast, how they moved to Compartment 9. He folds the note and puts it in his pocket. Those are the last words he ever wrote.

Twenty-three men now wait for help. Mother Russia is on the way, as is Norway and the UK. Soon, forty-six lungs begin to grab for air. Finally, forty-six lungs find themselves in a situation they've never been in until now: they can't seem to fill themselves just one more time. Then, one by one, the lungs stop struggling; they're finding no atmosphere to inhale. Finally, one by one, twenty-three people realize that Compartment 9 has failed them, their government has failed them, and in a reality they can't possibly know, two other governments have failed them. Alone and in the dark, what began ten days ago is now all over.

Most of the human race is on the move into its own Compartment 9. It's there in Compartment 9 that they think there will be rescue, life, and even heaven just beyond its hatch. All their training, all their common sense tells them that Compartment 9, the compartment of good works, is the compartment whose hatch opens into heaven.

On the walls of Compartment 9 they see the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule and under each they read a bronze plaque that says, "Do." Yet the Bible warns the human race about Compartment 9: It's not the place of rescue and life; its hatch doesn't lead to heaven. "Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. However, to the man who does not work, but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is counted to him as righteousness," (Romans 4:4-5). "He saved us, not because of things we have done, but because of his mercy, He saved us…through Jesus Christ our Savior," (Titus 3:5).

All of their training failed the Russian sailors, as did the combined efforts of three countries. In the final analysis, it was Compartment 9 that failed them. Human good, the Compartment 9 of the human race is, in reality, the garbage dump of the ship, for "All our righteousness is as filthy rags" says the blunt Old Testament. "All my good was garbage," says Paul looking back at Saul.

What a picture of the human race: moving toward and living in Compartment 9, thinking it to be the place of rescue and life, when it's the place of trash. It's air is thinning; it's time, running out.

God invites one and all to move out of Compartment 9 and move to a new one, the Compartment called "Faith." Put your faith in Christ's finished work; believe in His resurrection.

For all who remain in Compartment 9, the day will come when both the air and time have run out. Beyond the hatch of Compartment 9 is hell.

For those in Compartment Faith, time runs on into forever; its hatch opens to heaven.

Dr. Mike Halsey, Pastor

County Line Church

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