JOHN R. RICE QUOTES OF THE WEEK

1 Peter 3:18-20 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.

I think the correct meaning of I Peter 3:18, 19 is that Christ, by the Spirit, went and preached to those spirits who are now in prison, but did it then when God's Holy Spirit was striving with the men in Noah's day and Christ preached to them through the Spirit, by the mouth of Noah, before they died. Christ was preaching to them when Noah preached. - John R. Rice [Revival Appeals, pg. 11]

I was preaching in revival services in the open air in East Dallas some years ago. One night we closed services after a number of people had been saved. As a few of the workers sat about and planned, and rejoiced over God's blessings, a man came running down the sidewalk, turned into the lot where the meetings were held under the stars. Panting, deeply agitated, he said to me, "Oh, Brother Rice, I'm so glad you're still here! I was afraid you'd be gone!" Then he told me how he had heard the sermon that evening, had been deeply moved, but resisted God's invitation. When the service dismissed he went homeward, but every step of the way the Spirit of God struggled with him and warned him. He said something like this, "As I walked those six blocks something told me that tonight was my chance to be saved, that I would run an awful risk if I went home without Christ. But I went on. When I turned into my own front yard, the Holy Spirit told me, 'This is your last call. If you do not get saved tonight you will never be saved. It is now or never.' When I stepped on the porch the Holy Spirit seemed to say to me, 'If you go in that house unsaved I will never speak to you about this matter again. I will never convict you, I will never warn you again.' But when I had a hand on the door knob God seemed to cry out to me, 'This is your last warning! It is now or never!' Then I turned and ran the six blocks back to this place of meeting to see you. Oh, I must be saved tonight." That night he gave himself to Christ and went home with peace and forgiveness. I do not doubt that God really spoke to him, as he said, for God "will not always strive with man"! - John R. Rice [Revival Appeals, pg. 15-16]

In a blessed revival campaign in Binghamton Theatre, Binghamton, New York, in 1936, I saw one night in the audience a man deeply concerned as friends talked to him about his soul. The sweat broke out on his forehead. He forcibly grasped the seat before him. I pleaded from the platform. The congregation sang so earnestly! The Spirit of God struggled with him. Suddenly he fell over in a faint. Friends carried him outside into the zero weather and there he was revived. One worker said to him, "You stay here with your friend and I will get my car and take you home." But the young man who had fainted said, "No! I must go back into the theater. I must get this matter settled tonight." When they remonstrated with him that he was sick, he replied, "But this is my last chance, I know it. God has told me that if I don not settle this tonight I will never be saved." He came inside. The services had already been dismissed, but he came to the wings on the stage and called for me and there told me he knew he must be saved that night. Thank God he was! - John R. Rice [Revival Appeals, pg. 16]

Are you burdened about your soul? The you have not committed the unpardonable sin. Revelation 22:17 proves that WHOSOEVER WILL may take of the water of life. If you had committed the unpardonable sin, your heart would be like ice. You would not be concerned about your soul. - John R. Rice [Revival Appeals, pg. 16]

I have had conferences with many and letters from many who feared they had committed the unpardonable sin, but none of them had. In the first place a Christian never commits and unpardonable sin, since his sins, past and future, are already all pardoned. In the second place, if a lost sinner is burdened about his soul and is convicted, then the Spirit of God has not departed from him. God's Holy Spirit is still striving with him. That is what makes him want to be saved, what makes him concerned. That is the reason he is convicted concerning his sins. Oh, dear friend, if the Spirit of God speaks to your heart today, I beg you to be saved! God's Spirit will not always strive with men! - John R. Rice [Revival Appeals, pg. 16]

The word "church" in the Bible, ecclesia, never means a denomination; it means a called out assembly. ...
It is used about ninety times about a local congregation of Christians, like "the church of God at Corinth," "the churches of Galatia," "the seven churches of Asia." Remember that more than one congregation is always spoken of as plural "churches," not a church. The term "church" is never used in the Bible about a denomination. That is a false, man-made use based on a false doctrine and tradition. - John R. Rice

Do not think that Hell is simply a place where a hard-hearted God confines people arbitrarily and heaps upon them suffering while He gloats over their pain. No, no! Hell is simply the mad-house of retribution which every sinner prepares for himself. The Scripture says, "The wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23). The sinner who goes to Hell reaps exactly what he sowed. Hell is simply the wages of sin. Those who go to Heaven ride on a pass and enter into blessings that they never earned, for "the gift of God is eternal life." But all who go to Hell pay their own way. Hell is absolute justice. Men go to Hell because they are sinners, aliens, rebels, unreconciled and condemned sinners. Poor sinner, if you reject Christ and land in Hell, then and not until then will you really understand how terrible sin is! Sin will come home to the sinner in the fires of Hell! - John R. Rice [Revival Appeals, pg. 31]