are worldly and ungodly persons is, that they have no faith.
their eyes. All these acted as they did because they believed. Well may the Apostle Peter speak of faith as "precious faith" (2 Peter i. 1).
8. The third thing I shall say is this, the true reason why so many are worldly and ungodly persons is, that they have no faith.
Reader, you must be aware that multitudes of professing Christians would never think for a moment of doing as Moses did. It is useless to speak smooth things, and shut our eyes to the fact. That man 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-the things of the body before the things of the soul. You may not like to hear it, but so it is.
And 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 want of time, some of the peculiar difficulties of their position, some of the cares and anxieties of life, some of the strength of temptation, some of the power of passions, some of the effects of bad companions. But what does it come to after all? There is a far shorter 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 what God says is true. They secretly flatter themselves with the notion, "It will surely not be fulfilled, all of it; there must surely be some other way to heaven besides that which ministers speak of; there cannot surely be so much danger of being lost." In short they do not put implicit confidence in the words that God has written and spoken, and so do not act upon them. They do not thoroughly believe in hell, and so do not flee from it; nor heaven, and so do not seek it; nor the guilt of sin, and so do not turn from it; nor the holiness of God, and so do not fear Him; nor their need of Christ, and so do not trust in Him, nor love Him. They do not feel confidence in God, and so venture nothing for Him. Like the boy Passion, in Pilgrim's Progress, they must have their good things now. They do not trust God, and so they cannot wait.