I PROPOSE to call the evidence of an _unwilling_ witness, and to ask the
scoffer himself to bear his “testimony to the truth” against which he
scoffs. There is no better evidence than that which is given
unwillingly—than that of a man who is put into the witness-box in order
to prove one thing, and when closely examined is compelled by the force
of truth to prove the opposite. Now as a general rule the scoffers
desire to dishonour the Scriptures; they ridicule its statements, and
deny its inspiration. But I am not sure that, if carefully examined,
they will not be found to confirm the Word. Let us then carefully study
their evidence, and may God the Holy Ghost bring it home to their hearts
and our own!
But before we examine the modern scoffers, we must turn to what the Word
of God has said respecting them. Rather more than eighteen hundred years
ago the apostle Peter wrote two letters, the first addressed to scattered
strangers, and the second to those who had “obtained like precious faith
with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.”
In this second Epistle he gave a divine prophecy to all such persons, and
told them from God what they were to expect in the latter days. He
taught them quite clearly that when they were approaching the end they
were not to expect to be like some beautiful ship (with its sails set and
its flags flying) sailing gallantly into the harbour, with a bright
sunshine, a flowing tide, and a prosperous breeze; but rather like some
weather-beaten craft, battered by the storm, beating up against the gale,
and almost overwhelmed by the breakers on the bar. And it teaches also
that one of the trials of those last days will arise from scoffers. As
in navigation the chart may teach that there are dangerous rocks near the
harbour mouth, so the prophecy says that when we draw near to the coming
of the Lord, there will arise certain persons who will not be afraid even
to scoff at the revelation of God. Let us first examine the prophecy,
and then we shall be prepared to compare it with the fact. It assures us
then of the fact that there will be scoffers, and it gives us a fourfold
description of their character.
We shall find it in 2 Peter iii. 3–5: “Knowing this first, that there
shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and
saying, Where is the promise of His coming? for since the fathers fell
asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the
creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of
God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and
in the water.”
(1.) _They will scoff_.
Now, as a general rule, a scoffer is not a reasoner. It requires some
knowledge and logical power to argue, but any fool can scoff. In fact,
it seems the peculiar attribute of folly; for we are distinctly told that
“fools make a mock of sin.” Now in this passage it is clearly foretold
that in the last days men will scoff. But when St. Peter wrote the words
he must have thought it almost impossible. For let any man look around
at the visible effects of sin—the ruin, the misery, the wretched homes,
the miserable wives, the pitiable children, the sickness, poverty, crime,
violence, and every species of abomination resulting from sin—and can any
wise man scoff at sin?
Or look at the majesty of God, at His omnipotence, His omnipresence, His
omniscience, His infinitude, His holiness, His sin-abhorring character,
and it seems impossible that there should be anyone bold enough to
presume to scoff at the Most High God.
Or look at His love in Christ Jesus; in the provision of such a salvation
for sinners such as we are; in providing such a Lamb for the
burnt-offering; in making to the guilty such an offer of such a salvation
on such terms of magnificent generosity, and can it be possible that any
man should scoff at that? Will they scoff at the love that prompted it,
at the sacrifice made for it, or at the pardon and life presented through
it? We might as well expect to see the condemned criminal scoffing at a
free pardon from the Queen.
But notwithstanding all that, the prophecy says plainly that in the last
days there shall be scoffers.
(2.) The next clause throws further light on their character; for it
teaches that _they will walk after their own lusts_. Now “lust” does not
mean merely the low, vicious, depraved passion of the profligate; but the
word in old English expresses exactly the meaning of the Greek—the
appetite or will of the natural man. A person, therefore, may be what
“the world” calls a moral man, and still be walking after his own lust.
Such characters are described by the prophet Isaiah in the words, “We
have turned every one to his own way.” (Chap. liii. 6.) And again, chap.
lxvi. 3, “Yea, they have chosen their own ways.” They make of themselves
their own god. They set up their own understanding as their teacher, and
their own will as their law. Their religion consists in one letter of
the alphabet, that one most absorbing letter, “I.” “I know,” “I think”
“I choose,” “I will,” “I am,” and “I act as I think proper;” and thus it
is that their own will becomes their only god. Oh what a miserable god!
Oh, what a contrast to the life of him who knows his Saviour! to the
blessedness of the man whose life is hid with Christ in God, and whose
daily prayer is, “Thy will be done!” But though it seem almost
impossible, the words of the prophecy are perfectly clear that the rise
of such characters will be amongst the anxious trials of the latter days.
(3.) But this is not all; for the next clause shows _they will scoff at
the hope of the Advent_, and they will say, “Where is the promise of His
coming? for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they
were from the beginning of the creation.” This does not mean, “Where
shall we find the promise in the Scriptures?” but rather, “What has
become of it? Everything is going on just as it always has done, and He
is not come yet. The winter comes and goes, the sun rises and sets, the
business of life goes on as in former days, and the Lord has not yet
appeared; so what are we to think of the promise?” St. Peter points out
the true answer to all this; viz., that God’s time must not be measured
by man’s scale; for that “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years,
and a thousand years as one day,” and he might have added that prophecy
of our Lord Himself, in which he taught us that everything will go on
exactly the same right up to His return; viz., “For as in the days that
were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving
in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not
until the flood came and took them all away; so shall also the coming of
the Son of man be.” (Matt. xxiv. 38, 39.) It is most important that we
bear this well in mind; for there is an undoubted tendency in us all to
settle down into an undefined feeling that things that have gone on
without a change will go on still without a change, and so to allow our
hope of the Advent to grow weary, or to burn itself out through delay.
There is this tendency in even the Christian mind, and in all probability
there are few amongst us who have not felt the need of watching against
the temptation. So in this prophecy the scoffer is predicted as availing
himself of this natural tendency in our hearts, and turning it against
the promises of God; as attacking the Christian in His blessed hope; as
striving to shake the faith of believers; and as endeavouring to pull
down those who are looking for the Lord to the dreary level of utter
hopelessness on which he finds that he himself is standing. It seems a
very cruel thing, and I often think that if I were an infidel I could not
endeavour to shake the faith of other men. It seems a horrible thing,
that because a man is without hope himself, he should endeavour to take
away hope from others; and a most especially horrible thing that he
should endeavour to poison the minds of children, and so harden their
young hearts against the reception of the truth of God. But though it
seem so cruel, so unnatural, and so contrary to any principle of ordinary
benevolence, the prophecy teaches quite plainly that so it will be in the
“latter days.”
(4.) But there is one more feature in the description; viz., this, that
_these scoffers are_ “_willingly ignorant_.” The ignorance here
predicted has special reference to the creation and the flood; but the
point to which I would draw your most especial attention is the
_willingness_ of its character. Ignorance in many cases is the result of
circumstances, and in some of grave misfortune. There are some who long
for knowledge, but have no opportunity of obtaining it; and there are
many others who, though they show no such thirst, cannot be blamed; for
they have never known enough even to excite an appetite. But the
prophecy describes men who are determinately and wilfully ignorant; who
are ignorant, not because they _cannot_ know, but because they _will_
not. They are like those persons described in Romans i. 28: “Even as
they did not like to retain God in their knowledge.” Such are the people
described in this prophecy—persons who are profoundly ignorant of the
whole purpose of God in Christ Jesus; who know absolutely nothing of that
knowledge of the true God and of “Jesus Christ, whom He has sent,” which
the Lord Himself declared to be “life eternal;” and who do not wish to
know it, but had rather remain without the knowledge. The result is,
that they will read no Christian evidence, will care for no books but
those of infidels, and will never search their Bible, unless it be to
find out something which they may make the subject of their mockery.
Such is the willing ignorance most clearly predicted in this prophecy.
There are, therefore, four points clearly predicted in the character of
those persons who, according to prophecy, must be expected in the “latter
days.” They will scoff; they will walk after their own will; they will
call in question the Lord’s coming; and they will be willingly ignorant
of His inspired truth. What then should be the effect on our own minds
when we see the fulfilment of this prophecy? Should it shake our faith,
or strengthen it? Should it lead us to doubt our Bibles, or to rest in
them as the truth of God? When we found that Noah’s great prophecy
respecting Shem, Ham, and Japheth was fulfilled, what was the effect? It
assured us that the Pentateuch was true, and the Bible inspired. When we
found a whole series of prophecies respecting the Jews and Palestine were
literally fulfilled, what again was the effect? It assured us that the
Bible was true, and those prophets inspired. So now, if we see with our
own eyes the clear fulfilment of St. Peter’s prophecy, what again must be
our conclusion? What but that the Bible is true, and that the apostle
Peter was inspired? Thus it is that the scoffer against the truth
becomes a witness for the truth, and the man who would insult our God by
what he calls “profane jokes” is unconsciously and unintentionally
bearing testimony to the God whom he insults. If there were no such
scoffers in these latter days, then indeed we might begin to doubt the
inspiration of the prophetic Word. If the Jews had remained settled in
their own country, and had never been dispersed among the nations, then
we might have doubted the inspiration of the prophets respecting them;
and so, if there were no infidels and no scoffers, then we might call in
question the inspiration of the Scriptures that predicted them. But now,
as the Jews are witnesses to one class of prophecy, so are the scoffers
to another; and while we grieve for the poor men, and most heartily
desire to see them saved with the great salvation, we may be at the same
time thankful for their evidence, and may accept their scoffing is an
unanswerable testimony to the prophetic truth of the inspired Scripture.
But that is not all. For when we have such a prophecy, so full in its
prediction, and so clearly proved by its fulfilment to have been inspired
by God, we are bound by every principle of allegiance to Him to listen to
His counsel and act on His warning. If we believe His Word, the least we
can do is to be on our guard; and if God has predicted scoffers, we ought
to be prepared to meet them. This is the application which the apostle
Peter makes of his own prophecy, and the passage is a remarkable instance
of the application of a prophecy by the prophet who was employed to give
it. Turn, then, to verse 17 of the chapter, and there you find him
saying, “Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before”
(_i.e._, that you are fully warned beforehand), “beware lest ye also,
being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own
stedfastness.” He points to a danger against which we should watch, and
a standard at which we are to aim. The danger is that, “being led away
with the error of the wicked,” we should “fall from our own
stedfastness.” The standard is, that we “grow in grace and in the
knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” But if we are to act on
this advice, it is clear that we must be armed in _the understanding_.
It is not enough that we feel emotion; but we want to be able to give a
reason for the hope that is in us—to know what that hope is, and to know
also the strong foundation on which it rests. Most especially would I
urge this on our young men. As you go through life you are almost
certain to meet with scoffers, and when you do you do not want to be like
them, willingly ignorant. Our position is perfectly impregnable! We
have a rock under our feet which nothing can shake. We have facts which
cannot be disproved, and an accumulation of evidence which is not to be
found respecting any other book in the world. But we must not let our
weapons remain locked up like old armour in some baronial hall, but we
must have them out, and use them with vigour. They are made of the best
of steel; but we must take care that there is no rust on the blade, and
so be able to meet the scoffer; not by scoffing, but by the sword of the
Spirit, remembering well the assurance of Scripture, that “the weapons of
our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of
strongholds.”
But it is not in the understanding only that we require to be armed, for
I believe there is no armour like _the heart’s experience of the love of
God in Christ Jesus_. The happy, consistent, thankful believer, he is
not afraid of the scoffer. He knows whom he has believed, and he is
persuaded that he is able to keep that which he has committed to Him
against that day. He pities the scoffer, therefore; but he is not afraid
of him except for the harm that he may do to others. He has felt the
strength of the rock under his feet, and he is not going to be driven
from it on to the shifting sands of unsettled infidelity. Oh, may God
grant to every one of us strong assurance in the grace wherein we stand!
May He keep us in the hearty enjoyment of an abiding union with Christ
Jesus our Lord! that so, strong in the Lord, and in the power of His
might, we may stand fast in Him; redeemed by His blood; born again by His
Spirit; called by the Holy Ghost; justified in His righteousness;
forgiven through His atonement; and made heirs according to the hope of
eternal life! If that be granted, we can afford to be scoffed at; and if
that be ours, we should be stirred in the very depths of our soul to
fresh energy as the witnesses for Christ. The scoffer himself is a
witness to Him, inasmuch as he is a living, speaking, visible proof of
the fulfilment of the prophetic Word. But it is not so that we must bear
our testimony. He is a witness to truth by his denial, we by our
confession; he by his insult, we by our reverend faith; he by denying the
coming of our Lord, we by expecting it; he by the assertion of his own
will, we by the surrender of ourselves to the will of the Lord. So it is
that we may realize the full meaning of the words of our Lord, “Ye shall
receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be
witnesses unto me.”