2nd Timothy 3, and I am going to read this chapter, beginning in verse 1. 2 Timothy 3:1-17:
This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was. But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; and that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
And I will stop reading there.
Today, we are going to take a look at a very familiar verse, and we just read it, verse 16:
All scripture is given by inspiration of God…
This is one of the more well-known verses of the Bible. I think many of us are familiar with it. The children are probably familiar with it. And, you know, God’s Word is the most wonderful thing there is in this world. And here, God is giving us a very insightful look at the Bible when He tells us:
All scripture is given by inspiration of God…
The word “scripture” is primarily a New Testament word. It is found once in the Old Testament. Well, once where it is translated as “scripture.” And that is in Daniel 10:21.
In Daniel 10:21, it says there:
But I will show thee that which is noted in the scripture of truth…
And that is the only place you will find it in the Old Testament, that particular Hebrew word translated as “scripture.” It is translated in other places as “writing,” like in 1st Chronicles 28, that same Hebrew word, in 1 Chronicles 28:19, where it says:
All this, said David, the LORD made me understand in writing by his hand upon me…
And that is the same word for “scripture” that we just read in the book of Daniel.
It is also translated as “register” a few times, like in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, when they sought their genealogies, some of the priests. After coming out of Babylon, they went to the register to find their names written and recorded, and they could not find them. And that is this word “scripture.” It has to do with that which is written down. It is the Scripture of Truth, the writing of Truth.
Now, in the New Testament, it is used several times, like in Luke 24:27, and this gives us more information about exactly what the Scriptures are. It says in Luke 24:27:
And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
And that is referring to the Lord Jesus. On the road to Emmaus, He was discussing the Bible, the Scriptures, with these two disciples. He began at Moses, and Moses was used of God to write the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. And “all the prophets,” which would be the books of Isaiah and Jeremiah and Hosea and Daniel and all the prophets. “He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures,” the Psalms, the Proverbs, the book of Job. “He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.”
So Jesus was able to go to all the Old Testament Scripture, all the writings that the Jews had, which are the same writings that we have today, and He was able to go through the books of the Bible and show these two disciples the things that concerned Himself. And we have talked about this before, how God wrote the Bible. He wrote it so that we would seek out the Gospel meaning or the spiritual meaning. And Jesus found that for the disciples and explained that to the disciples, as He expounded it to them.
Also, in Luke 24, a little further along, it says in Luke 24:44-45:
And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,
And there we have the Psalms added. So we know “the Psalms” are the Scriptures and “the prophets” are the Scriptures and the “law of Moses” is the Scriptures.
This just goes to tell us that we have the Scriptures, and God is letting us know that “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God.” God has given us the Scriptures.
Luke 24:45:
Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,
You see, many people have the Scriptures, many people have Bibles, but they do not understand what is written therein. And that is because it takes God, the Lord Jesus Himself, to give us understanding, to give us insight, to give us learning of what the Bible is teaching. If we know any spiritual truth, in other words, if we know anything that is true—that is, it comes right from the Bible—it is only because God has given us that understanding. If we understand that God saves by the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ and not our own faith, God has given us that understanding. If we understand that we are to spend Sunday as God’s Holy Day, that Sunday is the Sabbath, God has given us that understanding.
And, really, it just obliterates pride. It drives out any pride, that anybody could ever come to the Bible, using their intellect and using their mind and their ability and even their diligent study habits, where they could come and they could learn things. Yet that is how the world operates on just about every other level. You go to college and it is the most diligent, it is the smartest who learn the trades, who become the doctors and the lawyers and all the professional people. They excel. They are lifted up in society.
Well, that is the exact opposite of how God wants people to come to the Bible. He is not going to just give understanding to the intelligent, to the wise of the world, to the smart of the world. He gives understanding even to children. He gives it to babes in Christ. He gives it to those who are the weak and the lowly and the poor of the world. God must give us understanding. It cannot come any other way, as far as true understanding of the Bible.
Well, let us also go to Galatians 3, and we are just going to look at a lot of verses today that are going to, I think, help us understand 2 Timothy 3:16. And in Galatians 3:8, it says:
And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.
So who preached the Gospel? Who does it say preached the Gospel there? The Scripture preached the Gospel. The Scripture preached it unto Abraham. It was God’s Word. Through the Word of God, these things were declared to Abraham, and it is the Scripture that preached.
And that helps us understand a verse like we find in Peter. Remember that verse in 1st Peter 3, regarding Jesus preaching unto the “spirits in prison”? In 1st Peter 3, beginning in verse 18, 1 Peter 3:18-20 says:
For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; which sometime were disobedient…
And that word “sometime” is better translated as “aforetime.”
…when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing…
So Jesus preached to the “spirits in prison,” and how did He do that? Through the Scripture, through the Word of God. Through Noah, who was a preacher of righteousness, these things were declared to the people of the world of that day, that God would destroy the world with a flood and time was running short. So Jesus preached or the Scripture preached; it is all one and the same: He is the Word of God.
Now, while we are in Peter, let us go to 2nd Peter 1, and I will begin reading in verse 19. It says in 2 Peter 1:19-21:
We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
And that fits in very perfectly with “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God.”
“Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” God’s Spirit, the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit, moved within Jeremiah and moved within Isaiah and moved within Hosea to write and record the Scriptures. And the Scriptures are never of private interpretation. They are never of private interpretation.
I did not look at that word “private,” but I have before, and I think that it is a Greek word that is close to idios, which we get our word “idiom” from, meaning “one’s own.” That is what an idiom is. It is pertaining to a particular language. In America, we have particular idioms that people from other countries, when they come here, cannot understand.
So God is saying, “The Scripture is never subject to one’s own interpretation.” We cannot come to the Bible—we are not permitted—God does not allow us to interpret the Bible based on what I think or you think or a theologian thinks or a denomination thinks or what any man thinks. It is based on what God says and what He declares in His Word, and we will take a look at that a little later (actually, just in a few minutes).
But first, let us go to 2nd Peter 3. In continuing to look at this word “scripture,” it says in 2 Peter 3:15-16:
And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
Now, number one, this tells us that the writings of the Apostle Paul are Scripture, because Peter is writing this, one of the twelve apostles, and he says that some people come to Paul’s writings and they do not understand them. They are “hard to be understood.”
And, you know, we could find many examples of that. The “faith of Christ,” in Galatians 2:16, was not properly understood by generations, until relatively recently. And yet, some people wrest the Scriptures. They are twisting them and they are making them fit their own philosophy and their own gospel, and they do so to their own destruction.
And he is saying here:
…as they do also the other scriptures…
So he is putting the writings of the Apostle Paul along the same lines as the writings of Moses or the writings of the prophets or the writings of the Psalms. They are all Scripture, and therefore, “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God.” And this is a very clear proof that what Paul has written in the Epistles, through God moving in him, is inspired by God—that God, the Holy Spirit, moved in him to record these things.
Of course, we know that. We know that. But after having a few discussions with the Muslim community, they do not know it. They do not know it and they would argue tooth and nail that the Apostle Paul had another kind of a gospel and that he had nothing to do with God, that he was promoting his own gospel.
Well, you see, when they do that—when people from another religion come to the Bible with their own mindset—they are taking the writings of Paul and they are trying to wrest them from the rest of the Bible and say that they are not a part of the Bible, and they are really doing so to their own destruction. They are doing so unto their own damnation, and they are going to end up being destroyed [note: the speaker originally said “end up in hell” here, before the nature of eternal destruction was understood].
You cannot take any part of the Bible away from the rest of the Bible. Isn’t that what Revelation 22:18-19 tells us? We are not to add unto the Word of God nor subtract from the Word of God, lest we be subject to the plagues written therein.
So God is warning here that there are those who come to Paul’s writings—He is focusing on the Apostle Paul in this verse—but really, they come to many parts of the Bible and they are coming with a mindset that they are above the Scriptures, that they can interpret the Bible through their own minds, and it is leading them right down to hell.
You know, the Bible is a very dangerous Book. It is an extremely dangerous Book, because this Book has the power and authority of God. On one hand, it can be a great blessing and it brings the Words of eternal life, where someone can receive the gift of grace and experience salvation. But on the other hand, when people come to the Bible in a way where they are not being really used by God—God is not working in them at all and they are coming to the Bible with preconceived ideas and notions—this Book is going to lead to their destruction and it will be their ruin as they come to the Word of God.
Well, let us continue to look. Let us go to 1st Corinthians 2. We saw in 1st Peter how no Scripture is of private interpretation. And in 1st Corinthians 2, God tells us why that is. I will begin reading in verse 9, where it says in 1 Corinthians 2:9-11:
But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
Now, if I were to ask you who knows you best—of course, God knows us perfectly—but amongst men, as others look at you, it could even be your wife, who knows you better? You? Do you know yourself better than your wife knows you? Do you know yourself better than your mother or your father knows you? Of course you do.
Each one of us knows our self, to a certain degree, better than anyone else, because we know what we are thinking. We know what we think and never have said. We know things that have happened to us that no one else knows have happened to us.
And so, God is using that picture. He is saying, “Who knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of a man that is within him?” You can search yourself to a certain degree and you can know yourself fairly well, except for the deep-down things where many men are deceived. But, basically, on surface things, men know themselves better than any other men, or even those who are closest to them.
…even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
Because God gave us the Bible.
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God,” and so it is God’s Word. It comes forth from the Mind of God. It is what God has declared to the world, and so He knows it better than anybody else. He knows it tremendously better than any of us, as His thoughts are supremely higher than our thoughts and His ways than our ways.
God knows the Bible; therefore, He can be the only interpreter of the Bible. He can be the only One who can explain the Bible. That is why Jesus, on the road to Emmaus with the two disciples, opened their understanding. “He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself,” and that is how it is always to be.
If we are to gain any insight or understanding, God must open up our minds and allow us to understand. And here is how He does it. In 1 Corinthians 2:12-13, it says:
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
And that is the methodology that is God’s program for bringing truth to the world, for unveiling the Scriptures, for revealing Himself through His Word. Compare spiritual things with spiritual, and the Holy Ghost, who is God, teacheth, just as Jesus taught the disciples.
The Holy Ghost teacheth; man is excluded. Man is an instrument. Man is used to accomplish and to perform that function, as God moves in His people. And He even guides individuals, in studying the Bible and coming to truth, so that they can say, “Now, let us turn here and let us turn there.”
Really, it is much like an instrument, where you are just going from this verse to that verse. And yet, if everything is in harmony and Scripture jibes with Scripture, here a little/there a little, then the Holy Ghost is teaching. God, the Holy Spirit, is instructing us. And that is very necessary, because no man knows the things of God. Only the Spirit of God understands the things of God.
It is interesting, this word “spiritual.” You know, we always, at least I do, I always substitute “compare Scripture with Scripture.” I say that a lot; but, actually, the verse says, “compare spiritual with spiritual.” That is how God wrote it. But, you know, when we say, “Scripture with Scripture,” we are saying the exact same thing.
It is really a synonym, because the word “spiritual”—and I wrote this down so I would get it right—is the Greek word #4152 in the Strong’s, and we would pronounce it, or at least I would, pnyoo-mat-ik-os’ (pneumatikos). It is a word that is related to spirit and also to the breath or blowing.
And the word “inspiration” found in 2 Timothy 3:16, [note: the speaker inadvertently said “2 Peter 3:16” here when he intended to say “2 Timothy 3:16”] “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God,” you have heard, maybe, that this means “God-breathed” or “God blew upon the Word.” Well, that word is theh-op’-nyoo-stos (theopneustos), and it comes from the same root word as “spiritual.” If you go back and you look at the Greek, you will see it right away. If you take off the theo, which means “God,” then you will see how that word is related to the word “spiritual.” They are very closely related. They come from the same root word.
So spiritual things, or God-breathed things, are inspired things with inspired things, with spiritual things, with that which God has breathed-out things, Scripture with Scripture, because “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God.” All Scripture is spiritual, therefore, and all Scripture, we saw, is the Epistles, the Psalms, the Law of Moses, the prophets, and, of course, though not mentioned, the Gospels. Every word that we have in the Bible is Scripture, so when we go to any part of the Bible, we are comparing spiritual with spiritual.
In Romans 7, it says, “the Law is spiritual,” and the Bible is a Law Book. The whole Law of God is every Word of God, and it is all spiritual and it is all inspired by God. He has given us this Word, and what a blessing. What a blessed thing it is that God has given His Word to us. He has not left us in our terrible condition of being a sinner under His wrath, but He has given us His Word. And by this Word, there can come forth life.
Well let us go back to 2 Timothy 3:16, and it says:
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine…
Doctrine. Now, some people think doctrine is boring. Doctrine reminds them of the Catechism, maybe, when they were younger. You have to learn by rote these certain teachings of a church doctrine.
Well, doctrine is that which is derived from the Word of God, like we have the Scripture. We have the Scripture; this is the whole Bible; it is the Word of God. But when we say, “This is what the Bible says; this is what God is teaching,” that is doctrine; immediately, that is doctrine.
So you can see that doctrine is necessary. You have to have doctrine, because we have to share the Bible. Even on a tract, you have doctrine. Or when you are talking to someone and, for example, you are trying to explain what God means in Isaiah 53, where it speaks of the suffering Servant, you have doctrine. You have a teaching that is coming forth from the Bible. So all Scripture is profitable for this use, for doctrine, for that which we discover from the Bible.
It says over in Titus 1:9:
Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.
You see, sound doctrine is faithful to the Word. True doctrine is that which God has definitely said. It is what His Word is declaring. And by sound doctrine, a gainsayer is exhorted and can be convinced.
You know, what makes the “Open Forum” on Family Radio, what makes that program so effective? Is it the exciting, dramatic teaching? Or is it just plainly and soundly and consistently hitting what the Bible says? “This is what the Bible says. We are not to add unto the Bible; therefore, tongues and the charismatic movement is not of today. And women are not to teach. This is what the Bible says.” Whatever point comes up, whatever question arises, “This is what the Bible says.”
There are many people who have been convinced and they have been convinced by sound doctrine. They started out gainsayers. They started out in total opposition, and they just kept hearing it. They just kept hearing it. Maybe they could not turn it off. Maybe their husband or wife would not let them, or whatever. They just kept hearing it, until God worked through His Word and also the faithful Word that is declaring what the Scriptures say, and someone is convinced and someone becomes saved.
That is why sound doctrine is so important. That is why we want to be true and faithful in everything we do, in everything. Whenever we are bringing the Gospel message, we want it to be in accord, perfectly, as much as possible, with the Bible, with the Word of God, because our hope is that it will convince the gainsayer, that it will convince someone. Not that we can convince someone, because we cannot convince anyone, but that God will use it to convince.
So if there is a wife at home and God gives instructions for the wife, sound doctrine in the home would be for her to follow God’s directives and to have a meek and quiet spirit and to take care of the home and to try to be the best wife that she can be, and so forth, and God could work through the soundness of that doctrine, as she is living it out in her life. There are a thousand examples, but that is just one.
Let us also go to the Epistle of John, the 2nd Epistle. God speaks of doctrine there. It says in 2 John 1:9-10:
Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed:
Now, if a Jehovah’s Witness comes to your door, does he have this doctrine? Does he have the doctrine of the Bible that says that the Lord Jesus is Eternal God, that He is the Everlasting Father, that God reveals Himself as three Persons, yet One God? Does the Jehovah’s Witness come with that doctrine?
The answer is, no. So we do not bid him Godspeed and we do not let him into our house. We give him no greeting, and we do not spend any time discussing things. We say, “I am sorry, but you are not bringing what the Bible says is true doctrine or a true Gospel,” and then we just politely close the door. Now, we do not slam the door on them. We do not, you know, slam it shut. We gently and politely close the door.
That is what God is saying here, that there must be an abiding, there must be a staying put or a residing in the doctrine of what the Bible says, and so we want to be very careful in what we are believing, in what we are understanding of the Bible. We want to make sure that it fits and checks out with everything the Bible says. We have to compare the spirits and “try the spirits,” as 1st John instructs us. Check it out in the Bible. Is it true to what the Bible is saying?
Okay. Let us go back to 2nd Timothy. I am not really going on that long. It just seems long because (earlier) I spent a long time reading those comments from people with the Bibles. I probably should not have done that. I should have done it after, and then you would not be as tired as you look right now. But what is done is done, so we are going to go on. It really has not been that long since I started.
2 Timothy 3:16:
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof…
For reproof. Now, that is a very common, Biblical word, especially in the Proverbs.
Let us go back to Proverbs 15. We are going to look at a few Proverbs. In Proverbs 15:10, it says:
Correction is grievous unto him that forsaketh the way: and he that hateth reproof shall die.
Why if you hate reproof will you die? Because all Scripture is given for reproof. If you do not like the admonishments that God gives in the Bible, if you hate being reproved by the Word of God, being shown your sins—and that is what the Bible does; it shows us our sins—if you do not like that, well, “he that hateth reproof shall die.”
There is no other remedy. There is nowhere else to flee. There is nowhere else to go. If we are disturbed to the point where we want to just get away from what the Bible tells us, then we are sealing our eternal fate and we will end up being destroyed [note: the speaker originally said “end up in hell” here, before the nature of eternal destruction was understood].
Now, also in Proverbs 15, in Proverbs 15:31-32, it says:
The ear that heareth the reproof of life abideth among the wise. He that refuseth instruction despiseth his own soul: but he that heareth reproof getteth understanding.
We see that all Scripture is given for reproof. When we see that word “reproof,” we can think that this is the reproof that is coming from the Scripture. Then all of those verses begin to make sense. It is the Word of God, the Scripture that giveth understanding and giveth wisdom and giveth life.
Also, in Proverbs 29:15, it says:
The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.
It is true that the rod of correction and reproof can give wisdom.
Now, does that mean that you sit your son down and you spank him for what he has done and then you just tell him, “That was a very wrong thing, and I never want to see you do it again”?
Well, I have disciplined at times like that in the past, and that is in error. That is no discipline at all. That is not the discipline of the Bible (and we will look at another verse a little later on).
But, you see, “The rod and reproof give wisdom,” and no spanking or words of chastening can give wisdom. It is only when we bring what the Bible says. It is only when we bring the Scripture that wisdom can be imparted and the child can receive wisdom. So we really have to be careful how we correct our children.
Or, also, in Proverbs 29:1, it says:
He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.
That is, being warned by God, by the Word of God, repeatedly, again and again, over the course of your life, over the course of your being under the hearing of the Gospel, yet you continue on in your sin and you continue on in your ways. Well, suddenly, you can be destroyed. God can take your spirit in a moment, and that person will die and then there will be no remedy; there will be no possible salvation.
And so God is giving us a severe warning here that when we hear the Gospel reproofs, when the Word of God is shining its light on us and we are seeing our sinfulness, do not just ignore it, do not just continue on in your sin, but cry out to God that He would strengthen you to turn from the sin, that you might be reproved by His Word.
Well, let me just look at one last thing, as we go back to 2nd Timothy. Let us turn back there, and we will look at one last word in 2 Timothy 3:16.
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction…
For correction. And, again, we are going to go to the Proverbs. Let us go to Proverbs 22 to see how this word “correction” is used.
It says in Proverbs 22:15:
Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.
Now, that is an interesting verse, “Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child.”
How are we all born into the world? Are we born wise? We are born spiritual fools, because we are unsaved. And so, we have deceitful hearts. We have hearts of stone. We have foolish hearts of unbelief, and it is bound in the heart of every child who enters into the world.
Well, God is pointing this out and He is telling us the cure: the rod of correction shall drive it far from him. And that “rod” has to do, yes, with a spanking. That is a part of it. You do not get away on the earthly level, on the physical level, with what you did. There has to be correction there, so it could be a spanking or it could be staying in for a week or longer, or whatever the discipline is. But if we do only that and we do not bring the correction from the Word of God, then the foolishness will never leave the heart of the child.
I have done this, and I am sure that others have, too. The boy—and everybody knows why I picked a boy—the boy has done something wrong, so, immediately, you take him and you point out, “Look! This is what you did. This is what you did wrong, and I am going to spank you for it.” You think that you are being very Biblical because you are not angry and you are sitting him down, “I am going to spank you for it.” So you spank him and then you say, “Do not do that again! That was really disrespectful” or whatever it was, and then they go on and they go their way.
Well, there was no correction. There was no correction at all. There was a spanking. There were words of reproof from your own thoughts and from your own mind, but there was nothing where the child was brought to the Scripture and told, “This is what the Bible says about what you just did.”
For instance, let us look at Proverbs 23:12-13 says:
Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge. Withhold not correction from the child…
That is very important.
…for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.
Now, can you take a rod or a belt or your hand and spank your son to the point where he is not going to die, and we know that God is concerned with the “second death”? Can you make his bottom so red that he is not going to die?
No. Spanking is not going to save anybody. It is not going to save a child. But God is looking at what goes along with the spanking, which is the rod of His correction. “Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.” It is the Rod, which is the Word of God, that protrudes or comes forth from the Lord Jesus Christ.
So when we have a child who is being unruly, we have to sit him down and we have to go to the Scripture and we have to show him a verse and we have to try to correct him from the Scripture. And a good way of correcting children from the Scripture is to make them memorize Scripture, dealing in the area that they just had a problem with, and then the Word of God can work. But, also, do not forget to apply the spanking, the physical spanking. That is a part of correction, but we cannot forget the spiritual counterpart that must be brought side-by-side.
And then it says in Proverbs 23:14:
Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.
Now, that can only be one rod. There is only one rod that can deliver from hell, and that is the Book of the Bible, it is the Word of God. It is the Scripture that is able to deliver a sinner from hell and to correct the child from the wayward path that he is going. As he is on the road to destruction and he is on his way to the grave [note: the speaker originally said “on his way to hell” here, before the nature of eternal destruction was understood], it is the rod of God that can bring that correction.
So it takes more time, and, really, we have to think about it; we maybe have to find a verse. We cannot just grab the child and take him upstairs and spank him and say, “Don’t do that again,” and send him on his way. We have to talk to them and we have to go to the Scripture that pertains and we have to point it out. That is correction.
If we only spank, we can modify their behavior. Unsaved people spank…some…in other countries. So we can modify their behavior and we can make sure that they conduct themselves in a way that society will be pleased with—that is, they are going to be polite perhaps to their elders—but we did nothing to the heart. We did not drive foolishness out of the heart at all.
And so, for true Biblical correction, it must be both, side-by-side. There must be the physical rod as well as the spiritual Rod, and this is able to deliver a sinner’s soul from hell.
Now, in closing, let us go back to 2 Timothy 3 and read verse 15. 2 Timothy 3:15 says:
And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
You see, it is the Scriptures. It is the Scriptures that are going to be used of God to discipline, to correct, to chasten, to bring reproof, and doctrine and everything else, in the life of a child, or in the life of anyone, in order to bring them unto salvation and to make them wise, to get rid of that foolishness that has been in their heart. And the Scripture has this power, because “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God.”
Okay. We will stop here and close.