John R. Rice Quotes of the Week

If someone today faces the crucified Saviour, realizing you have wounded Him, have grieved Him, perhaps have denied Him; if you have disgraced your profession of faith in Christ, have lost the joy of salvation, have even lost the assurance that your sins are forgiven, oh, poor backslider, come on back to Jesus! He loves you still. You belong to Him still! He will never let you go. You are bought with too great a price for God ever to lose you. - John R. Rice

One statement of faith says, "We believe in the perseverance of the saints." I do not! I am not trusting in my perseverance. Rather I believe in the preservation of the saints. Psalm 37:28 says, "For the Lord loveth judgment, and forsaketh not his saints; they are preserved forever." Peter did not persevere very well, but he was preserved. - John R. Rice

Thank God, I have proven for myself, as millions of other sinning saints have, that "if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." If you have drifted and lost your joy and your testimony, confess your sin and start over today, and He will give you joy and blessing again. - John R. Rice

I say, to go to Hell under any circumstances surely must be a horrible awakening. But, oh, what will it be when those who have sung in the choir, those who have passed the collection plates, those who have been members of the official board, or those who have preached in the pulpit or taught Sunday School classes - what will it mean when active church members wake up in Hell and find out that, though they were religious, they were lost; that they had never been born again. What grief, what embarrassment, what disappointment, what utter and eternal ruin, what dashing of all the hopes, when church members slide into Hell because they are not born again. - John R. Rice

A man came into the Elgin Bible Church as I held meetings there. As I met him at the door, I smelled beer on his breath. He told me he had come to hear me because he understood I was from Texas and he had just returned from taking a trainload of beer to Texas. I told him that I was sorry he was in such a business and offered him a little gospel booklet. He refused to take it and said, "No! What would my friends think of me, knowing I am in the beer business, if I had such things in my pockets?" He said that he had a good job, was making plenty of money; that if he ever decided to give up that job he would turn to the Bible and seek to be saved, but not now. He chose his job, but rejected the Gospel and rejected Christ. - John R. Rice

I beg you, dear friend, I wouldn't go to Hell for anybody in the world! Leave every friend you have if need be, but oh, make sure of salvation. - John R. Rice

Well, for my part I will take my stand by this same dying thief. You may claim the righteousness of the Pharisees, or the position and honor of Pilate, or the austere abstraction of the centurion, or make whatever claim you will for Heaven, but I will claim the same mercy the dying thief claimed. I too was a sinner, ruined and undone by sin until Jesus found me. - John R. Rice