John R. Rice Quotes of the Week

Of course I understand that there are multitudes of people who do not want a child whipped to make him obey, do not want to put a criminal in jail, do not want a murderer executed, though the Bible has plain commands about such matters. They do not like it that God has clearly warned that Christ-rejecting, impenitent sinners will go to Hell. If you have that kind of bias against righteousness and against God, then of course you will not like a God who punishes sin. But in that case you do not need a new God: you simply need a new heart. - John R. Rice

Do not depend upon your own strength. You need not feel that God cannot now trust you. He never could trust you and it is wise for you to know ahead of time that you cannot trust yourself. When you confess your sin you must believe that God forgives you as He promised to do, but do not make promises about how good you will be. Simply cast yourself on the mercy and help of the Lord and depend upon Him for daily strength and help. If you confess your weakness and rely on God, you have a right to call for all His help day by day. It is wrong to go around disconsolate over a matter that is already confessed and forgiven. If you were honest in heart in turning from sin, then when you confessed it, it was forgiven and cleansed, and God wants you to be happy in Him. - John R. Rice


God knew man would sin. It seems that if man were to be created with freedom of the will, freedom of choice, and that if he were tempted, he would sin. At least it was certain that some men would sin when tempted. God could not make man automatically good without taking away man's right of choice and independence of will. But if man were made like a machine, with no personal choice of his own, he could not will to know God and love God. No good man wants a girl to be compelled to love him and to marry him by law or force. He wants the girl of his choice to love him willingly and marry him by choice. And God wants that kind of love from us. So God had to make us with a free will and so with the ability to choose to do right or wrong. - John R. Rice

God created Satan, but created him, or course, with a power of choice as a personality. Satan chose to do wrong and so to sin. No one has a right to blame God because someone chooses to do wrong. If God is to make a person who can love Him and trust Him and choose Him, then the person must have the right to choose and the freedom to choose. There would be no credit in loving God if one could not help himself, and so, God wants people to be free to choose. They ought to choose to do right, but no one cam blame God when they choose to do wrong. - John R. Rice 

If preaching is worth doing, it is worth preparation for it. No one would set out to be a lawyer or a doctor with expecting to do a lot of study and work. Well, preaching is more important, and it deserves the best that any man has. There is no way to be greatly used of God without spending the time and the study and the prayer and doing whatever is necessary to learn to do it right. - John R. Rice

Again you say, "When the Spirit comes into the believer, in fullness, he speaks in a known (Spanish, etc.) language (known to the world but not the believer) and an unknown language, known only to God." Again you are speaking of the theory of man, without any basis of Scripture. And you ought to know enough about me to know that I would never take poor human opinion as contrasted with the Word of God. - John R. Rice

In the first place, one who trusts in Christ has ALL his sins paid for and forgiven. Being a Christian is not a matter of getting saved again every day. And while for fellowship we ought to confess any known sin and thus not let it come between us and our fellowship with God, the salvation question is settled once and for all on the basis that Jesus Christ is righteous and He had paid the whole debt. It is not charged against us any more. - John R. Rice