Ten Keys to Your Salvation - Part 1 - Put God First

The most dramatic event imaginable has happened. Let's stop and consider what that is. The most dramatic event imaginable has taken place. Two God beings decided to sacrifice themselves to have children. Sacrifice their time, sacrifice their energy, sacrifice all their plans and what they were doing, and one to even sacrifice his body for you and me so that they could make children from nothing, from absolutely nothing. And here we are. Typically, we humans are unaware of that event. Oftentimes, we as humans are uninterested in that great dramatic unimaginable event. Oftentimes, we are distracted in a constant sort of state. And yet, this event is so incredible. It's worth thinking about. It's worth appreciating. It's worth trying to put ourselves in their shoes and seeing what we as a human race have given back to them, including the angels, a third of them, who God created as servants. In Isaiah 55 and verse 6, we are told, Seek the Lord while he may be found. When God gives someone a calling, an opportunity now to step in to the role of having a covenant, a one-time opportunity for salvation, he says, Seek the Lord while he may be found. There's a short opportunity here, a brief opportunity. Call upon him while he is near. In this incredible deed that God has done, this amazing opportunity that you and I who are nothing and will be nothing, can be everything with God, we have certain parameters to that opportunity. Today, while we have this opportunity, I'd like to begin a series here of delving into 10 keys to making our salvation possible. 10 keys to making your salvation possible. The title of the sermon is 10 Keys to Your Salvation. This is part one. Part one. Put God first. The first key that God gives us in what we call the Ten Commandments is to put Him first. It's a core element of God's plan of salvation. Let's go to Luke chapter 8 beginning in verse 12. Jesus says here in the parable of the sower in the soil, Those by the wayside are the ones who hear. We've all heard. We're all here. Then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. Faith without works is dead. The Bible tells us, so this is a belief with works, with obedience, faith without works is dead. The Bible tells us, so this is a belief with works, with obedience, listening to God, obeying God. Verse 13. But the ones on the rock are those when they hear, receive the word with joy, and these have no root, who believe for a while, and in the time of temptation fall away. So we have this God, and we have His laws, and we're called to obey and follow Him, but we find that there is sin and there is righteousness, and we must continually choose.

In verse 14, the ones that fell among the thorns are those when they have heard. They also have heard. They go out and are choked with cares. When we look at our lives, we see the distraction, we see the cares, we see the events, the things that consume our minds, and with riches. In other words, pursuing the things that we want, and pleasures of life, the things that entertain us, the hours on devices, or in television, or in books, that entertain us. And what happens? And they bring no fruit to maturity. The fruits of God's character that we are to develop in order to be in His kingdom do not mature. But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it. So they keep the word of God, and they bear fruit with patient endurance, is what that word, patience, means in the Greek. So you and I have a life with opportunity that's all about light and darkness. It's what your life is about, light and darkness, about right and wrong, about sin and righteousness. It's about good and evil. And that really is what your life and my life here in the physical realm is about. And as Jesus just said, there are those who will miss out because they're not focused on the right thing. This altercation between pursuing good and doing evil is something that has existed for all humans in all times, including Jesus Christ. If we look, for instance, at Genesis chapter 4 and verse 7, the last half of Genesis chapter 4 and verse 7, we see a foundational element about human life. It's encapsulated in a half a verse, and we probably just read over it very quickly. Genesis chapter 4 and verse 7 in the second half of this verse, and its desire for you. If you do not do well, sin lies at the door and its desire is for you, but you should rule over it. Now we think, oh yeah, he was saying that to Cain. But let's stop and think about this. This is the thing that affects all humans, including Jesus Christ. Let's read it very carefully. It says here, sin lies at the door. When you look at that through, say, the modern King James Version, a little bit more accurate there with the Hebrew, sin crouches at the door like a lion. We all need to understand here what this is about. Sin is of Satan. Satan is an evil lion. Sin is crouching at the door like a lion, and its desire, the Hebrew word there, it's craving is for you. So you've got this lion. It's crouched. It's ready to spring, and it craves you. It wants to kill you. It wants to devour you. And you shall rule over it. You see how that just comes alive and lays out what the Bible is about? Your calling and my calling is to recognize what sin is, what Satan is, to realize its desire, its craving for you, and then with the help of God to rule over it. In other words, to overcome. That's what the word overcome means, to win that altercation. Jesus Christ won it. He is offering us the armament of God to stand before that lion and to, having done all, to stand and to persevere.

All human atoms and eaves, if we can use that term. You're either an atom or an eve, all right? If we just throw all of humanity into that, we all are human. We've all sort of met God in that sense. We've been introduced to God, and now we have this seductive serpent that has this desire and craving to get rid of us, and we are told to follow God. Let's go over to 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 45. 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 45. And so it is written, the first man Adam became a living being. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. So the first fleshly human Adam is our forefather, and the second last giving Adam is our brother, our Lord and Master, our soon-coming King, our High Priest in heaven. He is a life-giving spirit. God is offering us life, and Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. So we are set up here with this covenant, called the New Covenant, for success in the kingdom. But it's very, very vital that we understand how that process works. So we go on, as it says here, verse 46, however the spiritual is not first, but the natural and afterward the spiritual. The first man was of the earth, made of dust. You and I fall into that category. The second man is the Lord from heaven, and as was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust. So we're like Adam and Eve in this current state. And as is the heavenly man, made of spirit, so also are those who are heavenly. Verse 49, as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly man. So that is what God has done in this dramatic event. He's paved the way for you and I to step up, to bear the image of the heavenly man, to be part of that Elohim God family. The question, of course, is will we do that?

If we go up to verse 21, since by man came death, by man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as an Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each in his own order Christ the firstfruits, and afterward those who were Christ at his coming. That is what you and I are to be busy about right now. Being firstfruits with him, resurrected at his return to be the bride of Christ and a helper to him. But remember, don't ever forget the lion is crouching at the door and wants to devour you and me. He is always pushing, always trying. But you shall rule over it. That's what God said. Let's go to 1 Peter 5 and verse 8. 1 Peter 5 and verse 8.

Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. That is ever-present in every thought, every day. You're not insulated by that. In fact, you're more exposed, more vulnerable in the sense of being a target by having a relationship with God than you are if you're not. Because Satan, as we see in Revelation, goes after the church. He's persecuted the church from the beginning through Jesus Christ, all down through the New Testament period. All the way to the end, he really puts his focus on eradicating members of the church. So let's not deceive ourselves to think, oh, well, I'm somehow in a magic bubble here because I love God. No, no, no. As he goes on, he warns us in verse 8 to be aware, to be sober, to be vigilant, because your adversary walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Verse 9, resist him. See, that's the same thing we learned back in Genesis. He wants you, but resist him. You're to rule over him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.

Are you and I achieving the salvation that God rolled out for us? This plan, this opportunity? That's a good question. Are we interested in it? Are we focused on it? Do we give it a primary focus, like Jesus said in Matthew 6, 33? Seek with primary focus the rulership of God in your life.

Sometimes we humans are a little more physically based, and we cast about for our own physical salvation. We're more about the things that we can see, and we're more interested in protecting ourselves, protecting our food, protecting our homes, protecting our family, protecting our way of life. And we can get caught up in this earthly physical realm, which has no future whatsoever in it. And we know it doesn't. But it's so here and now that we can let this precious opportunity for salvation get, as Jesus said, get sort of put aside by the cares of this world, the pursuit of living and prosperity, and the desires of life.

Humanity is very focused on physical salvation. You know, in our recent history, humanity was flailing about in the dark ages and not doing well and succumbing to various diseases, and it made a push, and it saved itself through the industrial revolution. And through industry, based on fossil fuels, it cold and fueled and powered its way to create engines and transportation and infrastructure, and the world of plastics that came out of that. And now we have buried ourselves. And once again, now our current society is trying to save itself from the industrial revolution and the effects. And so now we have a new casting about for salvation. It's called electricity. And we're going to save ourselves from all that we've done to ourselves by some other means. And yet, humanity eventually, in the near future, will cast about again to try to save itself economically, militarily, and religiously through propping up a beast power, a ten nation beast power, an antichrist, false prophet that's very alluring, and it will have some success with that until it fails. In other words, the lion's craving for humanity has not ebbed, and humanity is being devoured by sinfulness. The light in the darkness has trended toward darkness. Sin and righteousness has trended toward sin and is going that way very quickly in lawlessness. Right and wrong is tipping towards wrong as the means by which you gain things.

So we see this Satan, this devourer, this lion who tempts carnal human nature with sins. None of us, including Jesus Christ, are exempt from temptation. Bible says he was tempted in all ways, but he didn't succumb to those tempts. These things that Satan puts in our mind, plasters around, they're alluring to humans, to our eyesight, to our thoughts, to our preservation, to our desires. They're often enticing. They certainly have a lot of appeal. Humans have come to expect lust of the eyes, for things that, in other words, are not theirs and not within their realm, but with certain situations and circumstances and enough loans, the lust of the eyes can be fulfilled short-term. In 1 John 2, in verse 16, for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, it's not of the Father. That's not putting God first, but it's of the cosmos, the society.

Satan is the God of this world, 2 Corinthians 4, verse 4 says, and the world is passing away, and the lust of it, but he who does the will of God abides forever. Now, all of us have succumbed at times. None of us can say, oh, I'm real righteous, and I just have this wonderful clean life, and no, no, no, that's not the way it works. All of us have succumbed. All of us have done what Cain has done. All of us have sinned, and all of us still are in that wrestling match with it. But what we have to come to understand is there's no future in that. We have to control it. As the Bible says, we have to master it. We have to overcome it. We have to win that. We have to restrict it. We have to dominate over it. As it says in Genesis, we have to rule over it. We have to be the one in charge of it. And with God's help, we can do that, and we make progress towards that. Some of you young people maybe step into things, and you make mistakes. You think, oh, no, I'm, you know, just a mess, and nobody would appreciate me. Oh, no, no, someone once said old age is spent regretting what one did in his or her youth. You know, that's typically what lives are about. We get into things when we're young before we even know it. We step into things, and things happen, and we don't realize it, and we're ashamed of it. And then hopefully we learn from that. Then we begin to, like the Apostle Paul, we begin to say, wow, there's nothing I can do about the past, but there's a lot I can do about the present. So I'm going to focus on that.

All of us have succumbed except for one Adam, and that's the second Adam, Jesus Christ. And he showed us the path. He showed us the way, and we need to treat each other like Jesus Christ did. Let's go to Luke 7, verse 34. Here's how Jesus Christ treats those who slip up, those who make mistakes, those who are enticed by the devil and get into a routine that is not good. Luke 7, verse 34. They said of him, and he quotes them, the son of man, they say, has come eating and drinking. And you say, look, a glutton and a wine-bibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. Jesus responded. He recounted their words and said, I'm a friend of tax collectors, people who have fallen into be cheating and sinners. He hung out with some people who were people of irrepute.

Why did he do that? He did that because everybody sins. Nobody could step back and say, oh, look, that person is a sinner, but I'm not. Jesus challenged a few people on that. Let the first one who hasn't sinned throw the first stone here.

No. We have to enter this relationship and treat each other like Jesus Christ did, encouraging one another. You are called to have a life with God and receive the blessings of that relationship of being a child of God. Whether you're a baby right now, whether you're a little child, whether you're a teenager, whether you're a young adult, whether you're married, not married, whether you're elderly, you and I are called to defeat the wiles of this devil. You and I are to inherit the kingdom of God as Christ's bride. You and I are children of God if we are led by his spirit. Notice the next verse here in Luke chapter 7. He talks about being a friend of tax collectors and sinners. The next verse, but wisdom is justified by all her children. That doesn't come across very clearly, but wisdom is of God. Once we receive that wisdom when we are tax collectors, sinners, drunkards, or whatever it is, once we receive that, we are justified when we repent and when we grow into the children of God. That's what God wants from us. Forward progress, and that forward progress has been underway ever since God began to interact with man. We are all human, and we have been selfish, sinful by nature, but God's children switched to his wisdom. We've looked then at God and said, you know what? I'm going to put God first. I'm going to put his way first. I'm going to put his mind first. I'm going to stop doing what I was doing. I'm going to be like those in Acts 2. Verse 38 says, men and brethren, what shall we do? Repent, be baptized for the forgiveness of sin, take on the Holy Spirit of God, and then grow.

Romans 6, we're to be slaves of righteousness and stop being slaves of sin. So putting God's way requires action on our part, a desire to repent, to change, change course, to acknowledge that the wisdom is actually right here. And it begins with putting God first and saying, okay, nuts to anything else, nuts to me. I'm going to now be meek. Meek means totally, I don't know. That's what meek means. I know nothing. I know nothing. Therefore, God, you know everything. Let's do it your way.

Now, what guiding principles do we base our actions on? What guiding principles do we determine will be right? Are we going to be led by our carnal nature continually to choose what is right and wrong? A tree of knowledge of good and evil? Or are we going to say, God, I don't know. You direct my steps. I'm just going to let you direct my steps.

That's what David said in the 23rd Psalm. I'm just a sheep. I don't know. Sheep just don't know much of anything, honestly. I'm a sheep. But you know. And therefore, I want you to be my shepherd. I want you to lead. Let's look at the 10 commandments that God gave in Exodus 20 in Deuteronomy chapter 5 through the lens of 10 keys to obtaining salvation. Because this is what God has given us. 10 keys to obtaining salvation. Key number one is found in Exodus chapter 20 in verse 3. It's a simple statement. We call it the first commandment. But it's the key to your salvation in mind. You shall have no other gods before me.

That's where we get the title of the sermon. Put God first. Nothing before Him. Nothing ahead of God. Put nothing before God. In other words, put God first. Seek you first the rulership of God. These other things will be added to you, the Bible says. Now, if we say, okay, I'm going to put God first, or I'll have no other gods before Him, I'll have no other important individual. And the word gods comes from the word Elohim, and it can be translated a lot of different things. Generally, a person in a position. Don't have anybody, don't put up a human, don't put up some person in a human office or person of responsibility, whether it's in your own family or local government or wherever. Don't put anybody before God. God first.

God in Scripture, as we know it, in the formal sense, can be a reference to the Father. Let's go to Galatians 4 and verse 6. Galatians 4 and verse 6.

And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, Abba, Father. Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. So we can see this term God here refers to God the Father in this particular passage. It also refers to Jesus Christ in Scripture. Let's go to Isaiah chapter 9 and verse 6. Isaiah chapter 9 and verse 6. God the Father and Jesus Christ are very close. They have some responsibilities that are unique to each other. They have titles and names and other responsibilities that they do both of them, and those names refer to both of them. So when we talk about God, we're talking about the Godhead. We're talking about the divine, powerful Godhead, the two individuals that created us from nothing. In Romans chapter 8 and verse 7, we see both of these individuals in the Godhead as the God that we are to put first. Romans chapter 8 and let's look at verse 7. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, it's hostile against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So whose law is this? This is God's law. It's the law of the Godhead, of the God family. So then those who are of the flesh cannot please God, but you are not of the flesh, but of the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. So we have the Spirit of God. Who's this God? Now, if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his. So whose Spirit is it? Is the Spirit of God the Father or the Spirit of Jesus Christ? It's the Spirit of the Godhead. And I think we understand that. God has oneness of mind, oneness of thought, oneness of ideals, philosophy, and mindset. Eventually, this name God will apply to you. You ever think about that? The name God will apply to you. Before you get wiggy about that, let's let Jesus Christ tell us that. Let's go to John 10 and verse 34. John 10 and verse 34.

Jesus said, Is it not written in the law? I said, You are God's.

That word, written in the law, comes from Psalm 82 and verse 6, and it's the word Elohim. We all know what Elohim is. In the beginning, God created heavens and the earth, Elohim. And God said, Let us make man in our image. So we see a Godhead using the word Elohim, and Jesus here uses this word. Is it not written in the law? You are God's. And if He called them Elohim, God's, to whom the word of God came, so the word of God came to them, and He called them Elohim, and the word of God cannot be broken.

Do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world? You are blaspheming. It's an interesting statement there. Now, before you and I think, oh, someday we're going to be gods, like God the Father and Jesus Christ, have that formal being of God, we have to realize what Elohim means. It's a plural form. It's referring to family.

We are going to be in the family of God. You right now are called a son or daughter of God. You right now are, as Jesus is referring, gods, or Elohim, or part of the God family. So we can't elevate ourselves and say, oh, I'm God, can we? Not at all. But we can elevate ourselves to Elohim and say, yes, God calls us sons and daughters at this time. Those who are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. We are in the family of God, but not in the ultimate sense. Rather, we are in a developmental process. And after this life, at the resurrection of Christ, at Christ's return, the faithful will be elevated to that spiritual realm.

Let's go to 1 John, chapter 3, and verse 1. 1 John, chapter 3, and verse 1. We will never be elevated to God, but we are Elohim now, in part, and we will be fully Elohim of the God family at Christ's return, at the resurrection. How do we know this? 1 John, chapter 3, and verse 1. 1. Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us. We should stop and pause and think about this great plan of salvation that God the Father and Jesus Christ have sacrificed themselves to create out of nothing.

Here we are. And He has bestowed upon us that we should be called children of God. 2. Beloved, now we are children of God, right now. And it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him. We're going to be like Jesus Christ. And Jesus said those who are the righteous will shine like the Son in the kingdom of their Father.

We're going to take on the attributes of real God family members. Going on. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself just as He is pure. We come back to the altercation now. You want to be in the kingdom?

You want to be in the family of God? You want to be one of God's children, divinely? Here's your altercation. Purify yourself. Whoever commits sin, verse 4, also commits lawlessness. And sin is lawlessness. It's breaking God's law. And you know that He was manifest to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin.

Whoever dwells in Him does not sin as a way of life. Whoever sins as a way of life has neither seen Him or known Him. Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, in God's eyes. Righteousness just means doing right according to the Word of God. He who does right is right in the eyes of God.

And, going on, just as He who sins is of the devil. Ah, we're back to that lion again. We're back to that altercation again. We're back to good and evil, right and wrong, light and dark, sin and righteousness. So you and I have, as it says in verse 8, second part, for this purpose the Son of God was manifestly, who was brought to earth, this great gift that He might destroy the works of the devil. We're to be all about that in our process, and it only begins with putting God first.

Everything about God. God first, nothing else first. There is nothing that comes up that should take precedent, no excuses, no tests, no trials. Always put God first. As it says there in Matthew 6, 33, the rest of our knees will work out. God will work out those things. So a spirit-begotten saint is now a child of God and an actual member of Elohim, the family of God. Let's go to Mark 12 and verse 29. Here we're going to see that those who enter the kingdom of God will have put God first.

Let me just say that again. Those who enter the kingdom of God will have put God first. Mark 12, 29. Jesus answered to them. He says, the first of all the commandments is... What is the first of all the commandments? Can you think of it? Here, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. That's the first of all the commandments. The word one has some different meanings. It can mean first, primary. Here it means the Lord our God, the Lord is, from the Hebrew, ichad, united. When we think of God, the Godhead, it is united.

It is one, Jesus said. God the Father is one. He and His Son are one. Here, O Israel, God is united. It's not just God that's united. Elohim isn't just united in heaven. Who is Elohim? Remember it includes you. If you're led by God's Spirit, if you're a child of God, Jesus has already said, you are also Elohim. We are to be united with God.

Here, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is united. Verse 30, and you shall love the Lord with God, the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might, with all your strength. This is the first commandment.

So, you see, it's not just sort of love God. It is actually love the family of God. Love all that God is about. Love God. Love His laws. Love His ways. Love His family. Love His kingdom. Love His rulership. To be in the kingdom of God, the first key, then, is this. Put God first in everything, especially with your mind. The second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself. But the first, the primary, is God is one. Love Him. You know, the love of God is the keeping of His commandments. Knowing God is the keeping of His commandments. We have to be putting God before anything else. The first commandment is really, put nothing before me.

All that we are, everything that we have, it all comes from one source, God. Otherwise, it's coming from a different source, isn't it? And it's very temporary. It's really carnal. It's useless. It's vain. It is self-seeking. It's, in a way, stolen.

In James 1 and verse 25, we find what we are to be. James 1 and verse 25, we're to be all about God and live it.

James 1 and verse 25, he who looks into the perfect law of liberty. Here's the law. We're freed here from the devil. We're free here from slavery to sin. And this gives us liberty from that.

And continues in it. If we look into it and continues in it, he is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work. He and I have been called to this work of resisting, of defeating, of overcoming Satan and that other mindset. This one will be blessed in what he does.

So, if you want God's blessings now in your life, you young people, if you want your life to be a good one, put God first. Adults, if you want your life now to be a good one, put God first. Don't be a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work and this one will be blessed in what he does. How long will that blessing go on? Well, the whole world is blessed by Abraham's seed, capital S, Jesus Christ, and that blessing goes forever for those who are safe, for those who are in the kingdom of God. So, if we are a doer of the work, this one will be blessed for all eternity. And you and I cannot begin to imagine. It's never entered the heart of man. Begin to imagine what being resurrected as a God-family being will be like. No concept. To inherit everything that exists in the spirit realm, which we don't even know. Everything. Co-inherit with Jesus Christ. To reign with Christ. To be the bride of Christ. To be at the headquarters city of New Jerusalem, where the kings of the new earth will come and bring their glory, but in that capital city will be our residence. And his servants will serve them. God the Father and Jesus Christ, who light it all for eternity. You know, we're given little glimpses, but we just can't even imagine what the opportunity is here that we're neglecting. That we're overlooking. That at times we are distracted away from, or at times even uninterested in. The only assurance that our future lies in a united relationship with God in the Godhead we find over in Romans 8 and verse 14. Let's look at this. Romans 8 and 14. We can't assure ourself from any other source. We can't make up a future. Romans 8 and 14 says, For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the Spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship, the word should say, sonship by whom we cry out, Abba Father. And the Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children then heirs, heirs of God, join heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him. That we may be glorified together. That altercation will have negative feelings in persecutions, in things that Satan will direct against you to test, to try you. But at the same time, if we suffer with Him, we will be glorified together with Him. That is God-family glory. That is an incredible opportunity.

Now, the first commandment also is a warning. The first commandment is also a warning. If we read what it says in Genesis, we find out we are not to have other gods before Him. It's stated as a direct command, you shall have no other gods before Me. It's also a warning. If we were to dabble around, let's say, in another philosophy, another religion, as it were, then there's a warning there. You and I need to understand, there is no other God. You ever stop and think about that? I think about this all the time. There actually is no other God. There's only one God. The other one is a fake God, small g, who's going to be erased after the millennium. He will be no more.

You know, when we think about other philosophies, and sometimes you can read, or somebody will start to entice you with other ideas. Let's fast forward to Revelation 21 and verse 1, and just notice where that is all going. Revelation chapter 21 and verse 1.

Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no more sea. This is going. The heavens, the planets, the stars, the earth, are going. It says in 2 Peter chapter 3 verses 9 through about 20, they're going to be burnt up, dissolved. Away they go. Now, continuing chapter 22 and verse 1, here's what's left. And He showed me a pure river of water of life. So here's what's left. God's Spirit, a water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb, a symbolic of the life that comes from God the Father and Jesus Christ. And in the middle of its street and on either side of the river was the tree of life which bore twelve fruits. Verse 3, and there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and the Lamb shall be in it. Say why we're not God as God and Christ are. They have a throne. The throne of God and Christ the Lamb shall be in it and His servants shall serve Him. That's what's in the future. And they shall see His face and notice His name shall be on their foreheads. His name shall be on their foreheads. What name shouldn't be ever on our foreheads? It's the altercating name. It's the name of Satan. It's the name of a different family, a different way of life. Let's go to chapter 14 in verse 9 of Revelation. Revelation 14 verse 9. And another angel followed, verse 8, Babylon has fallen. Verse 9, then a third angel followed, saying with a loud voice, If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on his forehead or in his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength in the cup of his indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and the presence of the Lamb. Lake of Fire. It's going to burn up. So this first commandment also has this warning. Don't put any other God before me. And there's a warning. If you do, there is no other God, and that's just going to end up in death. There is also no other source of salvation except for the Godhead. They are the ones that have sacrificed themselves, their life, their time, their energies, and have put up with all that we have given them and continue to, and it will only get worse. There is no other plan of salvation. There's no little secret spaceship that's going to take people and have a happy life on Mars that has, you know, no air. This is it. This is it. Let's go to Acts 3 and verse 26. Acts 3 and verse 26 are right after the day of Pentecost.

To you, first, God, having raised up his servant Jesus, sent him to bless you in turning away every one of you from your iniquities. That's what this life is about.

That is the essence of your life and mine. God raised up Jesus, sent him to bless all peoples in time in turning away every one of you from your iniquities. We were to put God first. We were to put right in place of wrong, light in place of darkness. In chapter 4 and verse 12, nor is there salvation in any other.

No such thing. Satan never offers salvation. It doesn't matter what his religions are and philosophies that the world accepts. They all believe that there's an afterlife. There's no afterlife. Jesus said, no one's ever ascended to heaven. All of those things are fake. Nor is there salvation in any other. For there is no name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. We must be saved if we're going to be saved through the name of Jesus Christ.

There is no other power that rules heaven and earth. In Deuteronomy chapter 10 and verse 14, it states, Indeed, heaven and the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God, also the earth with it, and all that's in it. That all belongs to God. Satan has been a usurper of it, but he's temporary. He and society and everything else will go away soon. So the first commandment has a powerful message. Put God first. Worship your God. Worship your Creator. Credit him with your abilities. Credit him with all good. Credit God with your existence, let alone your talents. Worship God alone. Obey God alone. Let's go to Psalm 107 as we wrap this up. Listen to David put this into perspective. Psalm 107 in verse 15 and 16. Psalm 107 beginning in verse 15. O that men would give thanks to the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men. But they don't. And that's what David is lamenting. O that they would, he said. They would just do that. If they would put God first, we see nothing in our society anywhere around the world giving thanks to God for his goodness and for his works. For he has broken the gates of bronze, verse 16, and cut the bars of iron into two. You and I were slaves, and humanity right now is just slaves to this lion. And yet those bars that kept us in slavery, iron and bronze, which you can't break out of that, those have just been sliced and diced for you and me. Now we need to appreciate this opportunity and use this first key in putting God first in our life. The ability to even understand God's astonishing plan of salvation relies on the Godhead, revealing it to us. I'd like to go back to 1 John 5 and verse 20. This will be our last biblical reference. 1 John 5, verses 20 and 21.

And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding. So as Jesus talked about the seed, we have the knowledge, we have the faith, we have the belief, that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true, in his Son, Jesus Christ. That's how we know. That's how we even understand. We cannot look at anybody else and criticize them or put ourselves up higher because God has given us the understanding. You and I now have the responsibility. In conclusion, God's second key that is vital to your salvation is introduced in the next verse.

Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Brother, next time in part two, we're going to examine who and what the Godhead is.