John R. Rice Quotes of the Week

I warn you now, moral men, that your morals will end as did those of Judas. Your character without Christ will gradually break down, and one day you will appear outwardly to be what you are inwardly, a wicked-hearted, Christ-rejecting, Hell-deserving sinner!
Today I beg you, confess your sin and seek Christ's mercy and forgiveness. If Judas had done that he would not have become a thief and then the betrayer of Jesus, a suicide and then an inmate of Hell. - John R. Rice

How well Judas learned that "the way of the transgressor is hard." Sin promises much but it gives little. The cup of pleasure seems sweet until you come to the bitter, gagging dregs that you must drink. - John R. Rice 

There is a divine law of sowing and reaping. God blesses those who try to do right; God punishes those who willfully go on in sin. God notices "them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality" and they are to get eternal life. Not by their seeking to do good but because if they are seeking to do good and want to do good, God will make a way for them to come in touch with the Gospel.
On the other hand, those who "do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness," for them God has "indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish." - John R. Rice

No one can honestly say that in the Bible there is a wall set up against sinners who are penitent, who long for mercy and forgiveness, who want to know the true God and to serve Him! No, the way is open for sinners who want forgiveness and salvation. If they do not have the light, it will be given as they follow on. - John R. Rice

I am glad that God's Spirit eagerly makes a way for people to find the way and be saved if they seek that Truth with all their hearts. But there is no shortcut in it. No one bypasses the Gospel. All the good intentions of Cornelius would do no good if he did not hear the Gospel. An angel from Heaven could not tell him. Some other Christian must bring him the word. So an angel from Heaven told Cornelius to send to Joppa to the house of Simon the tanner to inquire for Simon Peter, "who shall tell thee words, whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved." Ah, God will not save Cornelius without the Gospel. - John R. Rice

It may be one in a million read the Bible and get saved. I think perhaps one is never saved unless some way the Gospel has been brought to his attention or there was some other impact besides the Bible. But if in some rare case one were reading the Bible and found the plan of salvation and got saved, remember it still had to be the Gospel. Remember still that somebody translated the Bible, somebody printed it, somebody bought it! God never saves anybody without the Gospel. And God never saves anybody without some Christian's helping. - John R. Rice

Our Christianity ought to show. If one is a Christian he ought to be different from others. A Christian ought to smell like a Christian instead of like a tobacco barn. A Christian ought to talk like a Christian instead of a dirty, foul tongue. And a Christian certainly ought to dress like a Christian if there is a difference between the Devil's crowd and the Lord's crowd. - John R. Rice