LOCKED IN!

Pastor T. Michael Eccleston

The Biblical account of the flood tells us that there were only eight human beings in a world that probably was filled with millions of people that made it into the ark that took 100+ years to build. Those eight people were Noah, his wife, three sons, and their wives. The rest of the population of the world perished. Follow with me closely in the book of Genesis 7:7, 16, 23:

"And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood."

"And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in. "

"And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark."

Your imagination doesn't have to be taxed very hard to realize that there were many who wailed and cried and begged to be allowed entrance after the waters began to rise. The sounds would be grievous and nauseating, but they would not stop until the final breath was taken. There were many who attempted to find a hold onto the sides of the ark in order to ride out the storm outside of the ark. They too were eventually silenced as their grips gave way into the darkness of the rising waters. None made it outside of the ark - NONE!

We do not read anywhere in the Word of God that those who were in the ark got out during the flood, or that they wanted to get out. The reason? The LORD had shut them in. He controlled the door of exit. There was no other door to leave but through Him. And He kept the door shut all the way through the rising waters of the flood, as well as the receding waters, until man could once again walk and inhabit the earth. He kept them by His power all the way to safety.

The ark has been used (and correctly, I feel) as a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. The primary interpretation is Jewish in scope, and would refer to the time on the earth called the Tribulation, where the LORD will have a remnant of Jewish believers that He will keep by His power from the antichrist. The application of this verse is where I would like to take us, however.

Our salvation in Christ is by His grace through our faith in Him and His finished work in our behalf (make it personal: use yourself as the example- 'in my behalf'). It was only as we saw ourselves as God saw us, as unworthy sinners, with the very real sentence of eternal death hanging over our lives. We were doomed forever because of sin, with no way to redeem, justify, or reconcile ourselves back to God. "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." The Lord Jesus Christ came to earth in a miraculous fashion, lived a miraculous life, and went to the cross for what we have done, and there upon that cross did another miraculous thing: paid in full my and your sin debt through His precious shed blood. Three days and nights later, He miraculously rose from the dead. When you believe on Him by faith as your personal Savior from sin, the new birth too, is miraculous. We are said to be, "in Christ," once we are saved. We have at the moment of salvation, "everlasting life," the indwelling Holy Spirit, Who baptized us into the Body of Christ, and seals us, "unto the day of redemption." We are, as was Noah, his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives, ".kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time." We have, ".an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you." (Rom.5:8; John 3:16; Eph.1:4,13-14;4:30; I Pet.1:5,4)

here are plenty of passages that speak of Christian responsibility and changes that occur within us once we are born again. All are important. None is to be thought of as insignificant. We have no desire to leave Christ, nor could we, and to be destroyed with the world. Whatever the complexities of the systems of beliefs that are out there, one thing remains the same: we who are born from above through faith alone in Jesus Christ - are locked in, until the day of redemption, where we will keep the reservation in heaven, set aside for us upon the moment of salvation. Like Noah and his family, once in the ark of safety, the Lord Jesus Christ, He shuts the door and takes us through the floods and fires, testings and tribulations, until we reach our heavenly home where He earnestly awaits our arrival. How blessed it is to be locked in - locked in Christ Jesus our Lord, that is. How about you, are you locked in?