Sugar Land Bible Church

Dr. Andy Woods: Father, we’re grateful for this day. Grateful for all of your provisions for us. Family, all the things that you’ve done for us. I’m grateful for the ultimate provision that we have, which is Jesus, and our ability to learn about him through your word. So we thank you for all of these things. We do pray that this will be a special day for people, particularly mothers.

We pray that you’ll be with us as we study. We are in desperate need of your illuminating ministry. In preparation for that ministry, we’re going to just take a couple of moments to do personal confession before you if need be, not to restore our position, but to restore broken fellowship if necessary.

We’re thankful, Lord, for all of your promises to us, including 1 John 1:9. I pray that you’ll be with us now as we study. We ask these things in Jesus' name, and God’s people said, amen.

All right, well happy Mother’s Day to everybody. In fact, if you’ve ever had a mother in your life, could you raise your hand? Motherhood’s pretty important. If you could take your Bible and open it to Hebrews 1:3.

We were not able to catch the video from last week, so I actually went home and redid it. That’s why the study from last week on the book of Hebrews looks a little different. I’m more relaxed. You can even see at the one minute and seven second point, you can see my cat jumping on my chair. A lot of people will watch it just for that, I guess. And then it’s a little longer because I wasn’t under limitation, so it went an hour and 37 minutes. It was kind of nice, actually.

You guys probably got the memo that I’m going to be doing a sabbatical this summer with my family. So we’re not going to be here the months of June, July, and August. People think oh my gosh, there must be some kind of scandal. No scandal, unless being tired is a scandal. I’ve been here for 16 years. Our elders, with really no prompting at all from the pastoral staff, said here’s what we’re going to do: we’re going to develop a sabbatical policy. They worked on it for about two years.

You should have gotten something in your email inbox this week. If you didn’t, there’s some handouts at the name tag table where you can see our sabbatical policy and then that letter we sent out to our congregation. So I appreciate you guys allowing us to do that. There’s been a lot of research into these kinds of things. It actually elongates pastoral longevity. So we thought it’d be wise at this time to do that, and it shouldn’t disrupt things too much because it’s during summer when we don’t have regular Wednesday night.

Then the associate pastors and youth pastor are going to take theirs the subsequent summers. So you might be wondering, well if you’re gone for three months, what’s going to happen here? Well, I think you’re going to like this answer. We put out the APB of potential speakers that might want to come and fill the pulpit in my absence, and we were just overwhelmed in the number of people that wanted to help out.

Here’s the names of the speakers. We’ll put up a sheet of this calendar so you know who’s coming what day. But you guys ready for this? It reads like the who’s who of Christianity. You guys may not even want me back after this. Let’s see, here we go: Wayne House, Dennis Rockser, Jim Myers, Don Perkins. Do you guys remember Don Perkins? David Reagan. We got the Reagan Revolution coming back. Jeff Kinley, Shahram Hadian—one of our more mild-mannered guest speakers—Tom Stegall, Olivier Melnick, and look at this: Bill Frederer is going to come. And someone that you may not know who’s a pastor in Washington who’s on our faculty at Chafer, Dane Rogers.

So anyway, you’ve got a lot to look forward to. I appreciate you guys giving me the chance to kind of catch my breath. So it’s not a goodbye, it’s just like a halftime speech. So anyway, do you guys want to study Hebrews today?

Here’s what we’ve covered so far: the introductory matters. Who wrote it? I have no idea. Audience: the main thing to understand is it’s a saved audience. They’re Jewish. Date: second generation after the apostles, about AD 62 to 64. The temple had not yet been destroyed by Titus of Rome.

The occasion was these folks were second-generation Christians and they just got tired of being persecuted. Because in Jewish life, when you got baptized, you were making a public stand for Jesus and you were basically saying that the Jewish nation was wrong in their rejection of Jesus and the church was right in their acceptance of Jesus. You do that in Judaism and you’re kicked out of everything. You’re kicked out of temple, synagogue, which is where a lot of your business contacts were.

So you’re dealing with people that are just tired of being persecuted. So they’re thinking to themselves, I’m just going to slip back into temple life, go to a few feast days, and just get these unbelieving Jews off my back. So the purpose of the book is don’t do that. That’s why he wrote: don’t do that. Why? The message of the book is because everything that you possess in Christ is higher than anything Old Testament Judaism has to offer.

So you have a doctrinal section of the book where Jesus is higher than angels, Moses, and Aaron. And then you have a therefore, chapter 10, verse 19, which is a collection of pastoral reminders: the hall of faith and an exhortation.

So we started off with that first part there, Christ’s attributes in the doctrinal section. And we saw Hebrews 1:1 through the beginning of verse 2. Just reading that again, it says, "God, after he spoke long ago in the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days he has spoken to us," the Greek literally reads, "in son."

So Old Testament revelation was indirect, incomplete, and temporary. That’s the revelation they’re being tempted to go back to. Not that it was bad; it was good because God gave it, but you now have something better in Christ Jesus. The word "better" is used 13 times in the book. So in contrast to Old Testament revelation, what you have in Jesus is not indirect but direct. It’s not incomplete but complete. It’s not temporary but permanent. And so that’s how the author starts the book.

And then from there, beginning second part of verse 2 all the way through verse 3, he gives seven attributes of Jesus showing that Jesus is the final act. And if Jesus is the final act, then there’s no point in retreating from Jesus and going back to something that merely pointed towards Jesus. And he communicates this point by showing who Jesus is. He’s the heir of all things, the maker of all things, the brightness of the Father’s glory. He is the express image of the Father. He upholds all things. He made complete purification for sins.

And then the last time I was with you, I think we barely got into this last one here: he sat down at the Father’s right hand. So let me kind of pick up there and this will retrace a little bit of stuff that I covered on my home video, but I didn’t have a chance to talk about it here in this building. So notice Hebrews 1:3. Notice the last part of it. It says, "When he made purification for sins, he sat down at the Majesty on high." Now your Jewish mind—this is written to Jewish people—would look at that and it would just blow them away.

Because they were well familiar with the Tabernacle layout, the Tabernacle paving way to the temple ultimately under Solomon. But when you study the book of Exodus, and we’re studying it and we’re going to get to this at some point, what you have in the Tabernacle is the furniture laid out in meticulous detail. It’s almost exhausting reading about all the furniture. Outer wall, inner wall, brazen laver, brazen altar, table of showbread, candlestick, Ark of the Covenant, golden altar of incense. The dimensions of the Ark are given. And you look at that and you say there’s something missing here: there’s no chair.

Well, why didn’t God put a chair in the Tabernacle? For the simple reason that the priests that functioned, the Levitical priests that functioned in this Tabernacle, their job was never finished. So there was no point in sitting down. And the reason their job was never finished is this system was never designed to completely get rid of the sin problem. Every next year you had to go through the whole system again on Yom Kippur. So that’s why by divine design there’s no chair in the Tabernacle, because the priests on the job were never finished. They never sat down.

And you can imagine the gasp of a Jewish mind that understands this background reading in verse 3 that Christ sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. In other words, unlike this Tabernacle system that never completely got rid of the sin problem, Jesus did. And that’s why his first order of business upon ascending back to the Father’s right hand was to sit down. So you can see what the author’s doing. He’s saying, why would you leave that system and go back to a system that was never complete?

Now, here’s something that I was trying to get to last time, kind of ran out of time, but the recording I did at home contains this information. But just by way of review, this is really significant because one of the things where there’s mass confusion on today is the three offices of Christ. There’s almost like a mental block on this where people really are confused on this and they merge the offices together constantly. Christ has three offices. He functioned and functions as Prophet, Priest, and King.

Prophet: first coming, because he functioned like a prophet. He was calling the nation of Israel to repentance. King: regal authority, second coming. That’s when he actually takes his seat on David’s throne on planet Earth in Jerusalem during the millennial Kingdom and governs this world with a rod of iron. Perfect justice, Satan bound during that time period.

Most people are aware of Prophet and they’re aware of King, but they know almost nothing—and it’s been this way for decades—they know almost nothing about his present session where he is functioning as High Priest. That’s where the book of Hebrews is. That’s what the book of Hebrews is trying to develop.

I mean, if you want to read about Christ as Prophet, you could read the gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. If you want to read about him as King, you can read the Old Testament prophets, the book of Revelation. But the author of the book of Hebrews is not focusing on office one and office three; he’s focusing on that middle office where Jesus, seated at the right hand of the Father, doesn’t mean he’s not doing anything.

He’s not reigning as King yet. He’s destined to reign as King much like David. David in 1 Samuel 16 was anointed as King long before he took the office of King. David didn’t take the office of King until 2 Samuel chapter 2 and 5, after Saul was slain. So David is anointed as King in 1 Samuel 16, but he doesn’t reign as King until the death of the illegitimate usurper Saul. Saul came from the wrong tribe, the tribe of Benjamin. He was an illegitimate ruler. And so David waited on the Lord to install him as King, and David had two opportunities in 1 Samuel 24 and 1 Samuel 26 to kill Saul, and he turned them down.

Because he was waiting on the Lord to eventually bring down Saul on God the Father’s terms and install David as King. So if you want to understand where Jesus is now, it’s in between 1 Samuel 16 and 2 Samuel chapters 2 through 5. That section of scripture is given as a type to describe Christ’s present session. He’s anointed as King, but he’s not yet ruling as King because there’s an illegitimate usurper on the throne right now of planet Earth called Satan.

And so Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father, waiting for the time in history to come when Satan is dethroned, and then Jesus in his second advent will return and take his seat on David’s throne and the millennial Kingdom will start. That’s why Psalm 110 verse 1 is such a big deal. "Sit at my right hand until"—you should circle "until" every time you see the word "until" in the Bible. You should do that in Psalm 110 verse 1. "Sit at my right hand until your enemies are made your footstool." See that? So Jesus, after his ascension, is at the Father’s right hand functioning as High Priest until Satan is dethroned. And after Satan is dethroned, he’ll take his seat on the earthly Davidic throne and function as King.

So that’s what he will do as King and that’s what he did as Prophet. But the book of Hebrews is developing what he’s doing now as Priest, not in his Davidic reign but in his present session. And it’s a wonderful priesthood that he is orchestrating presently. It’s not like the prior priesthood under Aaron and the Levitical system. It’s a priesthood that functions after the order of someone named Melchizedek. So it’s a totally different priesthood.

In fact, Jesus couldn’t even be part of that old priesthood because he was from the tribe of Judah and the priests had to come from which tribe? Levi. So obviously what Jesus is doing now is a priesthood that’s higher than Aaron’s. So the author is bringing this point up over and over again in the book of Hebrews saying, since you have a High Priest and a superior priesthood, why would you go back to that old priesthood?

And in the process, the author of the book of Hebrews develops more than any other biblical writer I can think of this priestly present session of Jesus after the order of Melchizedek. And because it’s an active session—not his Kingdom yet and not what he did at his first coming—but because it’s an active session, he’s doing stuff. That’s who you go to for help when you’re under persecution and you’re being tempted to lapse backward. You take advantage of the priesthood that’s available to you.

So you have all of these people today that go to different churches, some of them Roman Catholic, some of them offshoots of Roman Catholicism, some of them even Protestant, and they’re all going to their priest as if the priest is some kind of intermediary between God and them. And you ask yourself, why do these people do this? Why do they keep going to some human priest? And the reason is they don’t understand, no one’s ever taught them, what’s at their fingertips. What you have in Christ is so much higher and better than Old Testament revelation because you have an active, functioning High Priest after the order of Melchizedek who wants to help you when you hit a tough spot in your life.

And if you understand that, that defeats the need to keep going to a human intermediate over and over again. And I’m not against counseling and people wanting to talk to their pastor. That’s fine. But we don’t teach some kind of priesthood here. That’s why you don’t see me in robes. I mean, this is about as dressed up as you’ll see me. And you look at these priests today, they’re all in these robes and colors, and you look at the colors and it sure looks a lot like Aaron’s colors in the book of Leviticus. Have you noticed that? I’ll give you a picture later on in the series of the priests that Aaron had on. And so it’s almost like they’re trying to be some kind of priest that has been superseded by a higher priesthood after the order of Melchizedek that Christ is now pursuing in his present session seated at the Father’s right hand on the Father’s throne.

So just to give you an example of the confusion on this and how the Bible clarifies it, this is what Jesus—now this is six decades after the ascension—this is what Jesus said to the church at Laodicea. It’s in Revelation 3 verse 21. And as I read this, you tell me how many thrones you see here. "He who overcomes, I will," future tense of the verb "didomai," "He who overcomes, I will grant," future tense, "to him to sit down with me on my throne." So that’s a future throne. That’s the throne in Jerusalem when the millennial Kingdom starts. That’s when Jesus functions in his regal authority.

But the sentence goes on: "as I also overcame and sat down," aorist tense meaning it already happened, "with my Father on his throne." So how many thrones do you see here? There’s two, right? I mean, people read this over and over again and they see one throne, but there’s two. There’s "my throne," future, millennial Kingdom, and then there’s the Father’s throne. When Jesus sits on his throne, that’s when his function as King starts. As he is now seated—why is he seated? Because the work is done in terms of dealing with the sin problem—when he is seated now on his Father’s throne, that’s not an earthly throne, that’s a heavenly throne. So this one here is earthly, hasn’t happened yet. This one here is heavenly, and it’s happening right now. And the author of Hebrews is all about this one. If you want to read about his throne yet future, read about it in the book of Revelation, but the author of Hebrews is not focused on that throne. He’s focused on the throne Jesus is on now, his Father’s throne, where he functions as High Priest.

Prophet, Priest, and King. Revelation chapter 12 and verse 5 describes where Jesus went after his ascension. It says she gave birth to a son, a male child who is to rule all of the nations with a rod of iron. I mean, that’s going to happen one day. It’s not happening right now though, but it will happen one day. He will rule all of the nations with a rod of iron. And one of the things he’ll control, hopefully, is how pens and electronics work during that time period.

So that’s going to happen one day. But currently that’s not happening. He’s not on that earthly throne yet. He’s caught up to the Father on his throne and he sat down, meaning the sin problem has been dealt with, but it’s still an active session where he’s functioning as High Priest. Don’t worry, he’s going to take his seat on his throne one day. That’s going to require a repentant Israel first, Matthew 23 verses 37 through 39. He will return in regal authority, he will rule the world with a rod of iron, he will fulfill everything that the Abrahamic covenant, which is earthly, promises. But that’s not now. This time period is not now. This is a regal time period which is not taking place right now. We are not in the regal time period of Jesus Christ. We are in the priestly time period of Jesus Christ. The regal authority of the future in the Kingdom will happen during the millennial Kingdom. That’s not today, that’s not what the book of Hebrews is focused on, but it’s coming.

So just like David who was waiting on the Lord to dethrone Saul before David would start the Davidic reign, Jesus is in the exact same position as David was. He is seated on the Father’s throne in heaven, waiting on the Father to depose Saul, who is a type of Satan who is illegitimately running planet Earth because this world was given to Adam. Adam turned everything over to the devil, gave him the keys to this world. In fact, in one of the temptations, Satan came to Jesus and said, you know, the kingdoms of the world have been given to me and I can give them to whoever I want. And Jesus never questioned that point because Satan has the illegitimate keys to this planet. He’s running the world system. Just like Saul, coming from the tribe of Benjamin, not Judah, was totally illegitimate. But he was running the Kingdom. So David had to wait on the Lord to depose Saul and then David took his rightful place on David’s throne. See that? That’s where Jesus is. He’s waiting on the Lord to dethrone the devil and then he will one day take his seat on David’s throne and function as King. Prophet, Priest, King. So critical to understand, and so much confusion about this.

Now, when you understand this, these three offices of Christ, you’ll understand what makes the theology of Sugar Land Bible Church different and distinct from almost every church out there. Almost every church out there is arguing that we’re in the Kingdom now. Jesus, yeah, he may be in heaven somewhere, but he’s reigning on David’s throne now. And once you start talking that way and saying things like that, you’re co-mingling the three offices of Christ. You’re confusing High Priestly ministry after the order of Melchizedek with his regal Kingly ministry.

So this becomes one of the great controversies at my alma mater, Dallas Seminary, in this movement called Progressive Dispensationalism where they’re trying to say—and not all the faculty there believes this, but I was there for a long time. I was there from 1999 through 2009. So I’m real familiar with the discussion. I wrote a book on it called *The Coming Kingdom*, which is—I had to just disgorge it and get it out of my system, so that’s the product of that book. But I was just wrapped up in this whole thing for around ten years. So it’s not like I’m a novice with this stuff. I mean, I’ve been around all these guys, I’ve heard all the arguments, I’ve heard the counterarguments.

And basically what they’re trying to say is Jesus is reigning on David’s throne now. They call that the already stage. But they call today a sneak peek of the Kingdom. They call today a colony of the Kingdom. And they say, oh don’t worry, we’re still going to have a Kingdom one day that’s going to last a thousand years, but that’s the not yet stage. So what’s happening now is phase one of the Davidic Kingdom. What’s going to happen later is the not yet phase of the Davidic Kingdom: already, not yet.

And we at Sugar Land Bible Church say no, no, no. Because when you start to play these kinds of games, you’re co-mingling the three offices of Jesus, you’re confusing—and you have to twist the scripture to get this to work. And they have a twisting device that they use. It’s called complimentary hermeneutics, which is no longer your literal, grammatical, historical, consistent method of interpretation. It’s this idea that the New Testament somehow adds meaning that the Old Testament writers never saw.

And so Jesus, when he was here 2,000 years ago, started this invisible Kingdom. So that’s the already phase of it. And I’ve talked to a lot of the progenitors of this. I mean, they really worked on me to try to get me to believe what they were teaching. I mean, one of them would just hold me for literally hours after class. I think he saw me as kind of like a long-term project or something. "If we can convince Andy, boy we can convince the most stubborn person."

And finally I said, can I believe what you’re teaching just through the literal, grammatical, historical, contextual, consistent method of interpretation? Meaning when the New Testament quotes the Old, it’s not changing the meaning. I mean, can I believe that Jesus is reigning on David’s throne just with the ordinary method of interpretation? And he said no. You have to buy into this complimentary methodology.

So you have all of these churches all over the place that think now, that have been exposed to this kind of doctrine, they think we’re in the Davidic Kingdom now, part one. I mean, big names of people. I mean, people that you would know. Should I name a name or two? How about Ed Young Sr.? This is not me overhearing something in a conversation; he’s preached whole sermons about this, that we are in phase one of the Davidic Kingdom. I could direct you to the exact sermon or sermons where he says this.

And once you move in that direction, that’s a game-changer. Because it starts to confuse the mission of the church. Now the mission of the church is let’s take over the world. A lot of these guys teach what we call the Seven Mountains Mandate, which is the idea that the church is going to take over the seven major institutions of society. It kind of bleeds a little bit into postmillennialism where the church is going to take over this and take over that, and Jesus is going to come back and kind of find everything in apple pie order.

Folks, that’s not our assignment. What Jesus said is, I will make you fishers of men. He didn’t say go out there and clean up the fishbowl. And don’t get me wrong, I’m in favor of Christians voting and I wrote a whole book on it, being salt and light while we’re here. But if you’re doing that thinking you’re functioning in some kind of regal authority under his kingship, then you’re very confused as to what the Bible actually teaches.

When Jesus gave the great commission, he said go and make disciples of all nations. He didn’t say, all right guys, grab those seven spheres of influence out there and take over. But if you think that we’re in the Davidic Kingdom now, suddenly the purpose of the church is not to reach and teach, evangelize and disciple. Suddenly you start hearing all of these sermons about politics, social justice. If the person is a lefty, they’ll talk about the environment and universal healthcare and climate change or whatever. People on the right do it as well. Lance Wallnau, I don’t know if you’ve ever seen him, he’s quite an actor. I mean, that guy should be a Shakespearean actor.

You can watch his live feeds where he’s always talking about we gotta—he’s a very big Trump guy, which I am too, but not for the same reasons. We gotta take over this and we gotta take over that, and we gotta bring in the Seven Mountains Mandate. My wife was in YWAM. She’s an ex-YWAMer, which stands for Young Women After Men. No, it doesn’t stand for that. She told me that joke, so.

But the founder of that, a guy named I think his name is Loren Cunningham, was just knee-deep into this Seven Mountains Mandate. And then I was involved with Campus Crusade for Christ coming of age as a Christian. The founder of that was Bill Bright. Bill Bright started hanging around with Loren Cunningham, Lance Wallnau somehow gets thrown into the mix, and it’s all this takeover language. We gotta take over the culture, take over society. And it comes from a confusion that we’re in the Kingdom now.

So this is why they’re real down on our kind of way of understanding the Bible, because we’re saying we’re not in the Kingdom now. We don’t disagree that the Kingdom is coming, but Jesus told us to pray, thy kingdom come. I mean, that’s a really strange prayer request, isn’t it, if we’re in it now? So we don’t believe Jesus is reigning on David’s throne now.

And one of these days I’m not going to be here any longer—I’m not planning on going anywhere—but you’re going to have to get a new pastor from somewhere. And how do you pick a pastor? By the way, when you send out missionaries and you’re trying to figure out if missionaries are doctrinally aligned with our church or not, how do you figure that out? Well, the first thing you ask them is where is Jesus right now? And if they say David’s throne, that’s the end of the interview. Because they’re bringing in a different understanding that goes against our positions of faith, but more importantly it goes against the Bible and it goes against what you think the church should be doing in the present age.

So one of the ways these people argue is they say, well if you believe your theology, that Jesus is not reigning as King right now, then you believe he’s doing nothing. So here’s Dave Anderson, he’s a Houstonian. I’ve met him a time or two. I like him individually. But he wrote a doctoral dissertation on this whole subject related to Psalm 110. Psalm 110 in Hebrew, which we’re going to cover today—well, at the pace I’m going maybe not today, but it’s there in chapter 1. And he’s trying to argue "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool." He’s saying that’s not present session, that’s not High Priest, that’s Jesus functioning as phase one in the Davidic Kingdom, the already phase of the Davidic Kingdom. And then he says in this dissertation, if you don’t believe that, then you believe Jesus is doing nothing. Which, as I’ll show you in a minute, is a straw man argument. Jesus is doing a ton of stuff. Thank God he is. He can help me in the midst of persecution and give me rest, as the book of Hebrews tells me. But don’t confuse it with the Davidic Kingdom.

Because folks, if we’re living right now in this world in the Davidic Kingdom, I’m sorry I signed up for this deal. Because I just see insanity in this world. And the insurance companies with hurricanes call them acts of God. They’re not acts of God, they’re acts of Satan. Satan is running this world. God is still sovereign, obviously. But if you don’t get your thinking right on this and confuse this world with part one of the Davidic Kingdom, whether you want to call it a first colony—sounds like First Colony Mall—a colony of the Kingdom or a sneak peek of the Kingdom, it’s just very disappointing because it’s not what the Bible promises about the Davidic Kingdom where Jesus will rule with a rod of iron and war will be a thing of the past.

So Dave Anderson, trying to convince everybody of this new way of thinking, says, but clearly Jesus did not set up a natural theocratic Kingdom with himself as King ruling from Jerusalem on Earth before his resurrection. Amen. So what happened to the Kingdom he promised? It was postponed, many interpreters suggest. So he gives the right answer, it was postponed, and now he’s going to try to sell you on why he thinks that’s wrong. He says, if the premillennial view, which is what we believe, premillennialism—he’ll come back first then the Kingdom will start—if the premillennial view just espoused is true, that leaves the question concerning the ministry of Christ. What is he doing right now? And what he’s going to try to say is unless you believe this already-not yet theology, you believe that Jesus is doing nothing right now at the Father’s right hand. Which is a straw man argument.

A straw man is a man filled with straw that topples over very easily because it’s not—you’re misrepresenting what your opponent is saying. If you don’t believe like we do and you’re still stuck in classical dispensationalism or revised dispensationalism, then you believe Christ is doing nothing. And that is not what we’re saying. Yes, we’re not in the Davidic Kingdom. Literal hermeneutics won’t allow me to believe that. Yes, Jesus is functioning as High Priest after the order of Melchizedek. Absolutely. Yes, he’s seated. But to say he’s doing nothing? We don’t believe that. It is a very active session, not to be confused with the Davidic reign, which is the session that helps us today.

Now, Lewis Sperry Chafer, all the way back in—this was what, 1947—said of this present session, Christians know almost nothing about it. I mean, how many sermons have you heard in your life covering the present session of Christ? I would venture to say people have never even heard of this. They know a ton of stuff about what he did 2,000 years ago. They know a ton of stuff about what he will do in the future, but they almost know nothing about what he’s doing today. And he’s doing a ton of stuff today: not as Prophet, not as King, but as Priest. And that’s the area in which it’s sad we don’t know much about it, because that’s the area that helps us today stand up against persecution and trials of life.

So here’s Lewis Sperry Chafer back in 1947 talking about this. He says, "The present ministry of Christ in heaven, known as his session," see folks, I’m not making stuff up, "is far-reaching both in consequence and import. It too has not been treated even with passing consideration by covenant theologians, replacement theologians. Doubtless due to their inability, because of being confronted with their one covenant theory, to introduce features and ministries which indicate a new divine purpose in the church, and by so much tend to disrupt the unity of the supposed immutable purpose and covenant of God’s."

I love these guys, how they wrote. They would hate Twitter. They would hate these little abbreviations that we communicate with today. I mean, beautiful sentences that you actually have to read them to understand them. And what basically he’s saying here is there’s all these people running around and they think we’re in the Kingdom now. So why would they emphasize some kind of ministry of Jesus in between Prophet and King? Why would you emphasize that? We’re in the Kingdom now. So that crowd has taken the present session of Christ and just thrown it out the window.

Chafer goes on and he says, "Since as will be seen certain vital ministries of Christ in heaven provide completely for the believer’s security," did you know one of the things Jesus is doing right now in his present session is keeping you? "What about the group of people that think that you can lose your salvation?" Oh, they don’t want to talk about the present session of Christ because they think you can lose your salvation. So that crowd takes the present session of Christ, throws it out the window. Doesn’t fit their theology.

"Since as will be seen certain vital ministries of Christ in heaven provide completely for the believer’s security, the present session of Christ has been eschewed," I love it, "by Arminians," people that think you can lose your salvation, "in an equally unpardonable manner. This neglect counts very well," these two groups, loss of salvation, replacement theology, "this neglect counts very well for the emphasis of their pulpit ministrations." What he’s saying is this is why in their pulpits they won’t ever deal with the present session of Christ. 1947, people are not talking about the present session of Christ, and here we are in—what is it, 2026—we got the same problem.

How many emails do I get weekly where people say, gosh, the things that you guys talk about in Sugar Land Bible Church I’ve never even heard before. I mean, they’re in the Bible, but no one talks about them. I’m giving you the reasons why. "The Christian public," Chafer says, "because deprived of the knowledge of Christ’s present session, are unaware of its vast realities." They have no idea what Jesus can do for them now. "Though they are able from childhood itself to relate the mere historical facts and activities of Christ during his three and a half years of service on the earth." From childhood, any church-goer learns a ton about what Jesus did 2,000 years ago. They can give you names, dates, places. They usually know something about what’s going to happen in the second coming.

But then you ask them this question: what’s Jesus doing now? They don’t know. Yet the Bible has a lot to say about what he’s doing now. The book of Hebrews has a lot to say about what he’s doing now. In fact, when you’re vetting missionaries and you’re vetting potential pastoral candidates, here’s a great question to ask them: what’s Jesus doing right now? "Well, he’s reigning on David’s throne." Sorry, thanks for playing, end of interview.

"That Christ is doing anything now is not recognized by Christians generally, and for this part kind of preaching is wholly responsible." Who’s to blame? The pulpit is to blame. Why won’t the pulpit talk about this? The pulpit won’t talk about it because it’s occupied by people that have theological systems that they’re trying to protect. That’s what he’s saying. So you get from the pulpit part truth, not the whole truth. Part truth. "It yet remains true whether neglected by one or the other kind of theologian that Christ is now engaged in ministry which determines the service and the destiny of those who put their trust in him." You better get this present session figured out, is what he’s saying, because that determines your service now, it determines your strength now, it determines your endurance now, and it will give you ironclad confidence that you can’t lose your salvation.

But if the Christian public never learns about the present ministry of Christ, how could they ever know these things? So it’s almost like this whole middle tier of Christ’s ministry, his present session, which the author of Hebrews is all about developing, people don’t know anything about it. And it’s been—this has been going on since he made the statement in 1947. Things have not improved; in fact, they’ve gotten worse.

So is Dave Anderson right that Jesus is doing nothing right now? I mean, that’s what he said. He has a PhD, must be true, right? He wrote a doctoral dissertation. Jesus isn’t doing anything right now if you believe the old way. Is that true? Folks, just because someone that’s eloquent—this guy’s very eloquent, by the way, very intelligent—just because someone like this says it’s true, doesn’t make it true. Jesus is doing a ton of stuff right now that’s not related to the Davidic Kingdom.

Here’s a short list. What is Jesus doing right now? He’s sustaining creation. I mean, he’s the one that allowed you to wake up this morning. He kept your heartbeat and your respiratory system working throughout the night. Is that nothing? To me it’s a big deal. He’s head over the church. That happened following the ascension, Ephesians 1:22 through 23. He is the groom over the church, Ephesians 5:22 through 33. He is the one building the church. Isn’t that what we’re seeing in the book of Acts? We keep seeing the church grow. Day of Pentecost, about 3,000 were saved. You get into Acts 4, now it’s up to 5,000. Now this thing is going global. And people say, well, Jesus is bringing in the Kingdom. No, no, no. That’s not the Kingdom; that’s a function of Christ as High Priest after the order of Melchizedek at the Father’s right hand, although seated, an active session.

By the way, this list is short. You can take this list and add to it. I hope you will. He is the one right after his ascension, Ephesians 4:7 through 12, bestowed upon his bride spiritual gifts: spirit-empowered abilities to serve. And unless you have a knowledge of spiritual gifts, you really never fully understand where you fit in the body. You have been gifted with something, and that’s where you fit in the body: you use your gift and/or gifts. I mean, the greatest discovery you could ever make in your life is how God gifted you. "Well, I’m not gifted, I’m not good at anything." Well, that’s not what the Bible says. The Bible, when it describes spiritual gifts, says each. Everyone has at least one spiritual gift. Most have more, in my opinion.

He’s functioning as High Priest, but not just High Priest; what kind of High Priest? Melchizedekian. Not Levitical. What else is he doing in his present session? This is why the loss of salvation people don’t like the present session of Christ: he keeps the saints. Right now, 1 Peter 1:5, we’re being kept by the power of God. Is that a Davidic reign issue? No, the Old Testament doesn’t talk about that, but that’s a priestly function.

By the way, did you know that right now in his present session, he’s praying for you? Did you know he prays for you non-stop? I look at that and I say, well, praise God, I need all the help I can get. I mean, doesn’t it feel good, like you go into the hospital to get something done and someone gives you a text and says, you know, I’m thinking about you, I’m praying for you? I mean, that’s so heartening when that happens. Well, you’ve got Jesus doing that around the clock.

So when Dave Anderson says he’s doing nothing, I mean, that’s ridiculous. He is your advocate. What is an advocate? An attorney. He stands up to the prosecutor. Who would the prosecutor be? The devil, who fires accusation after accusation against you. There’s all kinds of conversations going on about you right now in heaven. Did you know that? Satan is accusing, accusing, accusing. Jesus is saying, not so fast. They’re one of mine. They’re clothed with my righteousness. That’s a present session activity.

We prayed earlier that broken fellowship could be restored. 1 John 1:9, he’s doing that as well. Whom the Lord loves, the Lord chastens. That’s a present session activity. I don’t know if we always enjoy that one, but it happens. It’s not a Davidic Kingdom thing; that’s a present session thing. Right now, he’s inside of you via the Holy Spirit, John 14:23. That’s a present session function.

So this idea that he’s doing nothing is crazy. So the author of Hebrews develops these seven points and says, why would you leave all of this and go back to that? is what he’s saying. So don’t do it. And the next time I’m with you—we have a congregational meeting next week—but the next time I’m with you, we’ll start his argument about how Jesus is higher than the angels.

So let’s pray. Father, we’re grateful for your present session. Help us to have clarity on this in these last days. We’ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory. We ask these things in Jesus' name. God’s people said, amen. Happy intermission.