I have often thought, that among all the unpromising appearances of things around, when men sin with a high hand, in slighting and despising both God's judgments and God's mercies; the most unpromising are among those that mock at God's rich plan of redemption by Christ. There is somewhat so truly awful in this, as should seem to carry with it features of peculiar danger. Blessed be God, there are instances of the sovereignty of grace in the recovery of all characters in the vast catalogue of sin, so as that none should despair, while none presume. Nevertheless there is somewhat in the malignity of the mocker, which, like the sort of the bond-woman, peculiarly marks the hatred of the mind, and makes one very apprehensive of such being given up to a reprobate mind. How solemn is this last verse: Be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong!
Isaiah 28:17-22
17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.
20 For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it: and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it.
21 For the LORD shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act.
22 Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth.