JOHN R. RICE QUOTES OF THE WEEK

Mary was "highly favoured. . .blessed. . .among women." Here we understand that Mary was a devout, converted child of God. The angel sail, "The Lord is with thee." She had found "favour with God." So we feel sure that she had sought the favor of God and so gained it. It is apparent that she immediately accepted the will of God, that she believed what the angel told her, that she gladly faced whatever reproach and trouble should come to her as the mother of the coming Saviour. - John R. Rice

His name is to be called JESUS. That name had been given for Him to Joseph also by the angel who said, "...for he shall save his people from their sins" (Matt. 1:21). The word JESUS means Saviour. So the angel will tell the shepherds in Luke 2:11, "For unto you is born this day in the city of David A SAVIOUR...." So Mary is to say, "My spirit hath rejoiced in God my SAVIOUR" (Luke 1:47). And Spirit-filled Zacharias will praise the Lord that "he hath visited and redeemed his people, And hath raised up an HORN OF SALVATION for us" (vss. 68,69). So when the holy Baby is born, He is given this blessed human name, JESUS, (Luke 2:21). And old Simeon will rejoice, "For mine eyes have seen they SALVATION" (Luke 2:30). And Spirit-filled Anna, the prophetess gave thanks and "spake of him to all them that looked for REDEMPTION in Jerusalem" (Luke 2:38). - John R. Rice

Make no mistake, the reason Jesus Christ came to this world was to save sinners. So the Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 1:15. So Jesus said, "I come not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance" (Luke 5:32; Matt. 9:13; Mark 2:17). - John R. Rice

"He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest" [Luke 1:32]. Do not separate the two phrases. They surely refer to the actual deity of Jesus Christ. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). "Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men" (Phil. 2:6,7). He is not called here "a" Son of God but THE Son of the Highest. The greatness of Jesus is not simply human greatness, with its limitations and frailties, relative greatness. No, He has all the power and righteousness and wisdom of God, this baby to be born! Jesus is "Son of man," but that is taken for granted here: what is clearly stated is that He is the Son of God. He is the promised "Son" of Psalm 2:7 and 12. - John R. Rice

I am glad the time is near for Christmas. I will talk to you today about the virgin birth of Christ, one of the great doctrines of the Bible. It is essential to the deity of Christ. And one who does not believe in the virgin birth is really doubting the actual deity of Christ and the inspiration of the Bible and is not a good Christian. - John R. Rice

I still, from my armchair, preach in great revival campaigns. I still vision hundreds walking the aisles to accept Christ. I still feel hot tears for the lost. I still see God working miracles. Oh, how I long to see great revivals, to hear about revival crowds once again!…I want no Christmas without a burden for lost souls, a message for sinners, a heart to bring in the lost sheep so dear to the Shepherd, the sinning souls for whom Christ died. May food be tasteless, and music a discord, and Christmas a farce if I forget the dying millions to whom I am debtor; if this fire in my bones does not still flame! Not till I die or not till Jesus comes, will I ever be eased of this burden, these tears, this toil to save souls. - excerpt from Dr. John R. Rice’s final Christmas letter, dictated just days before his death in 1980

This is the story [Luke 1:26-36] of how the angel came to the virgin Mary. She was a young woman. How old? Perhaps sixteen, eighteen, maybe twenty. Now it is announced to her she is going to have a Son. And what kind of a Son? The Spirit of the Lord God will come upon her and she will conceive and the child will be the Son of God.
You see, the deity of Christ is connected with the virgin birth. And so we are plainly told that Christ would be born without a human father.
Oh, wonderful truth that God is coming to earth and will become man and pay for man's sin, purchase back the ruined race, giving people a chance to be saved. And so Christ came, born of a virgin mother. - John R. Rice