Man stands condemned before a holy God if he rejects the sonship offered by God the Father and citizenship in the kingdom of God. Spiritually speaking, all men are born as citizens of this evil, depraved and sin-filled world. Spiritually speaking, all men are born as sons of the devil because Satan is the god of this world. Sons of Satan are by definition citizens of the world and they are lost, guilty before God and unsaved. Satan blinds the mind of his children and dulls their spiritual perceptions so they cannot see the truth of God.
1 Peter 5:8 – Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
James 4:7 – Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
1 John 5:19 – We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.
The unsaved love the world and sinning and they hate anyone who isn’t a part of their world. They worship and obey Satan and they’ll blindly follow him down to the pit. Those who are condemned love Satan and hate God. They don’t know any better nor do they want to. Believers witnessing for Christ is the only hope these lost souls have of finding salvation. Witnessing for Christ is the thing dearest to God’s heart and should be our top priority. It’s why God leaves us on this earth. Emulate Jesus in order to bring honor and glory to God the Father.
Ephesians 6:12 – For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places.
1 John 3:10 – In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.
John 15:19 – (Jesus speaking) – If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet, because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
John 12:30-32 – (Jesus speaking) – This voice did not come because of Me, but for your sake. Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.
Jesus came down from heaven and is not part of this world. When we accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior he reaches down and removes us from the world by grace and makes us sons of God and citizens of his world, citizens of heaven. When man becomes a son of God he can no longer be a son of Satan. When the believer becomes a citizen of heaven he loses his world citizenship. Man can’t have dual citizenship. A man only has two choices for citizenship, the world or heaven. We’re all born into world citizenship but we choose to have citizenship in heaven.
Philippians 3:20 – For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 11:13 – These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
Romans 8:14,16 – For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
Colossians 1:13 – He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.
Once a believer receives his new spiritual passport into the kingdom of God it’s final and can never be revoked or changed. This sinful world and the sin free kingdom of heaven are like oil and water, they don’t mix. They are polar opposites and unalterably opposed to each other in a heaven-earth conflict. A friend of the world is naturally the enemy of God and vice versa. Man cannot serve both God and Satan. God placed man on this earth to make the free will choice between God and Satan and choose we must. As long as a person remains an unsaved world citizen and slave of Satan he is lost.
Ephesians 2:1-2 – And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sin, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience.
2 Corinthians 4:3-4 – But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.
John 17:6 – (Jesus speaking) – I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.
John 18:36 – (Jesus speaking) – My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.
Believers need to wake up and realize what has happened to them. It’s not business as usual. Their new citizenship in heaven isn’t a secret. Satan and his demons know it immediately when someone is saved and their spiritual attacks increase a a result of it. Satan hates all men but he especially hates Christians because we’re children of God and Satan hates God and seeks to grieve him through our destruction. The citizens of the world also know we’re citizens of the kingdom of God by our actions and our testimony for God and Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 12:1 – Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is et before us.
1 Corinthians 9:24 – Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.
The battle lines are drawn. World citizens will ostracize the Christian and oppose him at every turn. The lost have a satanic nature and we’re a threat to them so the believer will be hated, persecuted, attacked and even killed in some cases. The world persecuted and hated Jesus because he was not a citizen of the world and we can expect the same treatment. In the Bible God has warned us this was coming and how we should respond. Besides our brothers and sisters in Christ for support we also have God at our back, guardian angels to either side of us and the Word of God held up before us as the sword of the Spirit. As soldiers for Christ we are to gird ourselves so that we can face a hostile world with determination, pressing ever forward with our witness for Christ until the battle is won or God brings us home. We fight for God! You know what you have to do to prepare so do it!