God has true sons and false sons in His house, just like there are wheat and tares in the field.
Let me use Israel as a starting point, and then draw some pointers concerning the false sons in the house of God today.
Romans 9:6-8
But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; nor are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants, but: “THROUGH ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS WILL BE NAMED.” That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants.
Besides Abraham’s descendants who are not of the lineage of Isaac, Apostle Paul said that not all who are descended from Israel are Israel; that is, not all natural descendants of Israel, who was Jacob by his new name (Genesis 32:28), are Israel. This means that there is a true house of Israel (or true Israel) and a false house of Israel (or false Israel). False Israel may also be called non-Israel, or not of the house of true Israel, if you prefer.
The true house of Israel is not defined by the children of the flesh, but by the children of the promise in Jesus the Messiah. As such, all natural descendants of Abraham (through the lineage of Jacob) who reject Jesus as the consummating Promised One to Abraham are of the false house of Israel; that is, they are of the “old man” Jacob by the flesh, not of the “new man” Israel by the promise. Only descendants of Jacob who follow Jesus as their Messiah – Messianic Jews – are of the true “new man” Israel, for it is those who are of faith in Jesus Christ who are true sons of Abraham (Galatians 3:7).
Does this look as though the word of God has failed Abraham or his descendants? May it never be, as God did not and will not fail the true house of Israel, the beloved for the sake of the fathers, and whose gifts and calling are irrevocable (Romans 11:28-29), according to the promise through the gospel of “all nations” preached to Abraham, a Mesopotamian in the land of the Chaldeans (Acts 7:2-4).
Galatians 3:6-9
Even so Abraham BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS. Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “ALL THE NATIONS WILL BE BLESSED IN YOU.” So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer.
By virtue that it comprises only the sons of the promise, who are of faith in Jesus Christ, this true “new man” Israel is the body of Jesus Christ, the house of God (Hebrews 10:19-21) and household of the faith (Galatians 6:10). This body of Jesus Christ is the one new man (Ephesians 2:15) in whom both Jewish and Gentile believers are reconciled as one new creation (or one new created race) unto God through the Cross; in whom both have access through one body in one Spirit to one Father; and in whom all sons of the faith are joined as descendants of the promise to Abraham. This one new man is “the household of God, which is the ekklesia of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15).
However, is believing in Jesus as the Christ the only criteria that makes us true sons in the house? No, because entering through the door of the house does not make a true son; rather, the way he thinks and lives in the house does.
Isaiah 30:9-11
For this is a rebellious people, false sons, sons who refuse to listen to the instruction of the LORD; who say to the seers, “You must not see visions”; and to the prophets, “You must not prophesy to us what is right, speak to us pleasant words, prophesy illusions. Get out of the way, turn aside from the path, let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”
Ephesians 2:1-3
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
Children who think or live by the flesh are false sons in the house, even if they are in the true house of God.
Being a true son is about how he thinks or what he does in the Father’s house. In other words, a true son is defined by what marks his forehead (how he thinks) or what marks his right hand (what he does). If how he thinks or what he does is born of the Spirit of truth, then he is a true son in the house. However, if how he thinks or what he does is of the flesh, then he is a false son in the house.
So, who are the false sons in the house? They are rebellious sons in the house who persistently trespass against the Father’s nature and character. They are disobedient sons who refuse to listen to the instructions of Yehovah and the leading of His Spirit of truth. They live like the perverse generations according to the cultures of this world rather than being set apart as holy under the shelter of the Most High. They identify and mark their foreheads and hands by the ideologies and practices of the course of this world rather than by the thoughts and ways of God. They pursue what is right in their own vision rather than what God has shown by His Word and Spirit. They listen to the deceptions of the prince of the power of the air rather than the testimony of Jesus by the spirit of prophecy. They want to hear pleasant words that tickle their ears rather than words of truth that pierce their hearts. They want to walk in the broadways of self-interests rather than in the narrow paths of God’s purpose through His ekklesia on earth.
In short, if we look at the characteristics above, false sons are sons of another father, the devil, and they want to do the will of their father in enmity against the true Father of the house (John 8:39-47). These will be those to whom Jesus will say, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness,” for they are of the false house within the true house of God. To these false sons, the covenant promise of God did not fail them; rather, they failed the covenant promise of God.
Are we true sons or false sons in the house?
To learn more about the house of Jacob and the house of Israel, please read “The House of Jacob and the House of Israel in the Last Days“.
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