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.”