Holiness: For the Will of God Is Your Sanctification – 1 Thessalonians 4:3 [Annotated, Updated]

by J.C. Ryle

The third thing I want to say about this is that the true reason why so many people are worldly and ungodly is that they have no faith. We must be aware that multitudes of professing Christians would never think for a moment of doing what Moses did. It is useless to speak soft words and close your eyes to the truth. The person must be blind who does not see thousands around him who are daily preferring the world to God – placing the things of time before the things of eternity and the things of the body before the things of the soul. We might not like to admit this, and we try hard to pretend it is not this way, but it is so. Why do they do so? No doubt they will all give us reasons and excuses. Some will talk of the snares of the world, some of the lack of time, some of the unique difficulties of their position, some of the cares and concerns of life, some of the strength of temptation, some of the power of passions, and some of the effects of bad companions. But what do all these excuses amount to? There is a far simpler way to account for the state of their souls: they do not believe. One simple sentence, like Aaron’s rod, will swallow up all their excuses: they have no faith. They do not really think that what God says is true. They secretly flatter themselves, thinking, “It will surely not be fulfilled; there must certainly be some other way to heaven beside that which the Bible speaks of. There certainly cannot be so much danger of being lost.” Basically, they do not...