It's time now for the Chapel Hour, coming to you from the campus of Bob Jones University. Our speaker is the University President, Dr. Stephen Jones. The title of his message is, What Does the Bible Say About Homosexuality? The text is from Genesis 1, verses 27 and 28. Alright, good morning, good to see you all. You had a good weekend. Hope you've enjoyed having some rain to clear out the air a little bit and hope it will help those of you who are suffering with allergies. Do see a number of visitors here today. Welcome to the university. If you see a lot of open spaces, that is because I asked the junior high and academy to have separate chapels today, tomorrow and Wednesday this week, because we need to discuss something in here that is coming up this week to the university. We're having a visit from an uninvited group called Soulforce, which is a group of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered activists. who are here to oppose the policies that Bob Jones University is a religious institution has against the practice of homosexuality among the student body, faculty and staff, etc. And to take this as an opportunity to address the larger issue, we're going to be especially today and tomorrow, discussing what does the scripture have to say about homosexuality. So if any of you who are visitors today are uncomfortable with that, feel free. I will be discreet and everything, but I just thought it'd be better to have something aimed at junior high level, something aimed at high school level, and then this aimed primarily at university students and graduate students. Now, somewhat to transition, let me read this letter to the editor of the Greenville News from yesterday. It says, Soulforce has made the news lately, and as with most everything gay in this area of the country, with a negative bias. Now that is not to say that the LGBT, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender community here doesn't deserve some of the negative publicity for failing to come out of the closet and stand up for equality. But it is the very mindset of Bob Jones University and the lack of legal protections that perpetuate the cycle of silence and oppression. Greenville citizens could learn a great deal from what Soulforce is doing to improve a community where the majority remains silent about issues of discrimination. Now that I'm read to you because that is representative. That's representative of what is currently the thinking certainly of those who are promoting the LGBT lifestyle as a viable option. It is also going to increasingly be the agenda of our society that they view the Christian message as discriminatory. What is it? Is he right about that? Is it a message of discrimination? And that's what we desire a desire to cover today and tomorrow. Now, the neat thing in all of this, though it's not a visit that we asked for, is that God is sovereign, that none of this took God by surprise. So we can all take great encouragement and comfort from that fact. God is sovereign. He knows this is coming. He allowed this to come. And what people are intending for evil, as happened in the life of Joseph, it is happening for us. God is intending it for good. And so the burden that we have as an administration is to redeem this visit as an opportunity for a furtherance of the gospel and the glory of God. And I have some specific burdens for you. My burdens for you as a student body shared this with the administrators this morning in our conference. First of all, for all, because this is going to be the raging issue for the next 20 to 30 years. It already has been for the last 10 to 12 years, because this is going to be the issue of the hour and your generation, your adult life. All of you, my burden for all of us is that we have a biblical understanding and framework of what God says about this, that it not be our opinion, but that we live and speak God's opinion. My second burden for you as students is that those who are in the student body who may be dismissive of this group of people, those who are trapped in the sin of homosexuality, those of you who may make a mockery of them, who may speak in demeaning terms of them, that through this opportunity, the Lord has given us to take a head on addressing of the issue that the Lord would convict you of the arrogance behind that. And I want to remind you from Ezekiel 16 that pride and haughtiness was one of the sins for which Sodom was destroyed, not just homosexuality. So while some of you may be arrogant that you're not trapped in the other sins of Sodom, you are trapped in some for which God destroyed the city. And that arrogance has no place in the life of a Christian with a burden for souls. And then my third burden for you as a student body is that any who are struggling with homosexual desires because of your background, because of something in your life, that those of you who are struggling would be encouraged. The burden today and tomorrow is not to beat you down, but to take a biblical approach. What does scripture say? And then tomorrow to come back and say, When you look at things scripturally, that gives hope. And there is hope for those who are struggling. God is powerful, salvation is available, forgiveness and victory are possible. And so the opportunity this gives us to address the student body and any who are struggling, the goal for you is that God would give you hope and that God would give you victory. Burden for the community at large is that we would, as a university, take a response to this to show them both the clarity and consistency of Scripture, because it's not up for grabs what Scripture says. The clarity and consistency with which Scripture speaks to the issue, but also the love of God who is shown throughout Scripture, Old Testament and New Testament. And then obviously the burden for soul forces for their souls. For their lives, the Lord would convict and change because he can save Any of us, as Paul said, even the chief of sinners, and he himself claimed to be that one. It struck me over the weekend that with prayer groups praying with faculty and staff praying, it may very well be that some of these soul force writers have more people praying for their souls than they have ever had in their life. Is that exciting to you? The God has potential to use this to do things in their life that are completely unexpected to them because God is on the throne. And the Holy Spirit is still at work in our age. And God does hear the prayers of his children. So keep praying and let's see what the Lord will do. Now, the issue the issue is not how nice a homosexual may be. Because the homosexuals I know are extremely nice. And many of you may have families touched by a homosexual sibling. Or parent or aunt or uncle. And so I know that, and I'm trying to approach this sensitively. I have friends who are struggling with homosexuality. I have friends who are not struggling, have given themselves over to this lifestyle. I have a burden for them as well. So the issue is not how nice these people are, and they are. The issue is not how wrong Christians may have been at times in the past and how we have spoken about this, and we have been wrong in the past. That's not the issue. The issue is not that God loves homosexuals, because he does. The issue is, what does the Bible say? And that's what we want to look at today. What really decides or matters? Does the Bible say anything about homosexuality? If so, what? If so, how clearly? And if so, am I going to submit to it, to believe and practice what Scripture says? Now, first, The Bible is very clear in its presentation, first of all, of God's ideal for human sexual expression. The Bible is clear on that. Going back to the very first book of the Old Testament, the Bible makes no qualms, says here's what God's ideal is. Here is the pattern that God established. This is what he desires, and it represents his relationship with the church. You would write down, turn to Genesis 2, Genesis 2 verse 18 says the Lord God said it is not good that man should be alone. I will make him and help meet for him or fit for him appropriate for him. God knew the needs of the man and he created a partner who was appropriate. And that a partner obviously was Eve. And God's pattern is made clear in Genesis 2 24. Therefore, shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh. The one flesh relationship is reserved only for husband and wife. For life. The one flesh relationship, that pattern. Is only for husband and wife. God's pattern is clear in Genesis 2 in Genesis 1 verses 27 and 28. God created man in his own image in the image of God created he him male and female created he them. And God bless them and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. The Bible is clear in this presentation. What does God desire? What did he establish? What is his pattern and ideal? One man for one woman for life. The husband wife relationship is the only place that he intends that one flesh relationship to be exercised. That's what the Old Testament says. What do pro homosexual theologians say? Well, that was primarily because of verse 27, 28, where he said, go forth and multiply that it was mainly because the earth didn't have the population it was supposed to. So that relationship was primarily in order for procreation, for population increase. But then now that population is not the problem and maybe too much on our earth now, that's not God's concern anymore. Is that a valid argument? No. Because not just the Old Testament makes it clear what God's ideal is, it's the New Testament as well, and very interestingly, it's Christ himself that brings this into the New Testament. Turn over, please, to Mark chapter 10. Mark chapter 10. The Lord Lord Jesus Christ is the one who quotes from Genesis Mark chapter 10 verses six through eight. But from the beginning of the creation, God made the male and female. For this cause, shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife and they twain shall be one flesh. So then they are no more twain, but one flesh. Now. Jesus is the one who says this is God's pattern was in the Old Testament from the creation, and it still is. So if Christ is any authority, if he was a good teacher, as even pro homosexual theologians will say, Christ is the one who endorsed it and said, this is, I affirm, this is what God intends. This is the ideal that God has set forth, and in fact, Christ only offers two options. Listen, please write down Mark or Matthew 19. Matthew 19, 9 through 12, and listen, please, as I read Matthew 19. Actually, I'll start in verse ten. His disciples say unto him, Well, I have to start in verse nine. Sorry. Verse nine. I say unto you, whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery. And whoso marrieth her which is put away, doth commit adultery. Now, what the disciple, what Christ is addressing here is that the Jewish authorities have made it fairly easy for a man to get a divorce from a wife. And Christ is saying, No, I raise the bar. The only, if there is an exception clause, the only exception for getting out of a marriage is because of fornication, because of unfaithfulness. And the disciples react to that because they have become conditioned to the ease with which divorce was available. And their response is, in verse 10, his disciples saying to him, if the case of man be so with his wife, it's not good to marry. Do you get that? They're saying if it's that hard to get a divorce, whoa, better to stay single. That's what the disciples are saying. And Christ says, OK, well, your options are either marriage or and he says in verse 11, he said unto them, all men cannot receive this saying, save them to whom it is given. For there are some eunuchs which were so born from their mother's womb, and there are some eunuchs which were made eunuchs of men, and there be eunuchs which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it. A eunuch is one who physically is unable to have that one flesh relationship. And Christ is saying there are only two options. Marriage. Or abstinence. Those are the only two options. There is not a three homosexuality. There is not a four lesbianism. There is not another option. So crisis endorsed here is the model, but then he is taking it a step further and said and to that model, there's either you stick to the model or you stick to abstinence. That's the only option that Jesus Christ. has given, and if you name him Lord. That's the only option you can give to others as well, because that's what Christ said. To say more or less than Christ said this would be ashamed of him. And to be unfaithful to him. And in fact, Jesus intensifies the moral law. You know, probably from Matthew 517 and then 28 through 19. Where he said, you know that the law has said thou shalt not commit adultery, but I say to you, Not only the one who commits the sin, but the one who desires the sin or who looks at it with the intent to sin. The man who even looks on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery already in his heart. Christ raises the level. He doesn't dismiss the law, the moral law of the Old Testament. He actually takes it a step further than Moses did. So in all three points, the scripture is consistent. God's ideal is marriage. And Christ. underlines that fact, and Christ says there is no other option. Christ even intensifies that to say to lust with intent after anything else other than God's established order for sexual expression is. To commit the sin already in one's heart. So the Bible is clear in its presentation of God's ideal. It's also clear in its prohibition of homosexuality. Again, the Old Testament is clear. Genesis nineteen verses four through eight, particularly where the men of Sodom approach the house of Lot, who's entertaining the angels who've come to warn him to flee the city. And the men of Sodom approached the house and they bang on the doors and they say, we want to know these men we want in now, obviously. the pro-homosexual argument is one of the most common ones and I will mention it because it's probably when you've heard is that the lot was the sin of Sodom was that of inhospitality either that the people of Sodom were making. These men feel unwelcome in their city, and that's what God was judging them for, or that Lot had somehow violated the city's code of hospitality and not introducing them to the city. And they're all just saying, introduce these men to us. We want to know them. Now, clearly, and from Genesis on, the word that's translated no here is the physical relationship. And if not, it makes absolutely no sense of the fact that why then in the next verse, in verse eight, does Lot turn around and say, men, do not so wickedly. But instead, I have two virgin daughters that I'll give you to know. Who had lived in the city, so it clearly wasn't an issue of hospitality. It was clearly something else that they had on their mind, but at the same time, I will be true to the biblical evidence that was homosexuality, the only sin for which Sodom was destroyed. No, Ezekiel 16, which I've already referenced in verse 49, says this. Behold, this was the iniquity of my sister Sodom pride. fullness of bread, abundance of idleness was in her and her daughters. Neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and the needy. So she overlooked the needs of the poor. She was proud she had an abundance of idleness. And also in Jude seven, even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, so fornication Heterosexual promiscuity was also a problem in Sodom, for which it was destroyed. Fornication and going after strange flesh are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Christ says that's what they are. Jude says that's what they were destroyed for. So all of those sins. Are sins for which Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, not just homosexuality, but obviously you can't say homosexuality wasn't a part of it. Because that clearly was what was at stake when the angels visited Sodom. Let me end there today. There's more to say from the Old Testament and the New Testament about the Bible being clear about the prohibitions against homosexuality. I will start with that point tomorrow. But again, my goal with the end of tomorrow is to show that the Scripture also, not just Stephen, not just do-gooders or anybody else, but the Scripture gives hope to those who are trapped in sin. And it's your sin. It's my sin. Scripture gives hope to sinners of whom we are chief. Father, we ask that you would get our attention. We pray that you would get the world's attention. We pray that you would somehow use the response of Bob Jones University and the thought that this has put all of us into to glorify yourself. Lord, we have a world that is turned upside down or what is wrong is called right and what is right is called wrong. And to a certain degree, we know that that will not change in these end times. But Lord, we ask that in the midst of that, you would allow your word to be a beacon of light and life transformation. Accomplish your work in the hearts of the student body and the faculty and staff, wherever they find themselves today, either struggling with homosexuality within or an arrogant dismissiveness about those who are father that you would bring both into conviction and turning to you for your answers. For our testimony before the public, we pray that we would not misrepresent you. But Lord, that we would accurately show you to a lost and dying world. And then again, for the members of Soulforce, we ask that you would be stirring within them a conviction that will only grow in the days to come, that some of them might come to your son, Jesus Christ. And in that, Lord, we would have had a part through our prayers and in that we would rejoice. You've been listening to The Chapel Hour, coming to you from the campus of Bob Jones University. Our speaker was the university president, Dr. Stephen Jones. Today he brought the first part of a message titled, What Does the Bible Say About Homosexuality? For a cassette or compact disc copy of today's message, send a check for $6 to Campus Store, Bob Jones University, Greenville, South Carolina 29614. Be sure to mention the name of the speaker and today's date. The Chapel Hour has been sponsored by Bob Jones University.