John R. Rice Quotes of the Week

 Matthew 22:6 And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them.

Verse 6 refers to the way the Jews mistreated God's prophets; they "entreated them spitefully, and slew them." It also shows us the heart of a Christ-rejector. Those who turn down Christ are murderers at heart and guilty of the death of Christ. A sinner who will not receive Christ as Saviour, if Jesus were with him in person and persistently pressed the matter, would hate Him and crucify Him just as did these Jewish leaders who were outwardly moral. We think of rejecting Christ as a very respectable sin, but it is worse than murder and is the very sin that led to the crucifixion of Christ. - John R. Rice [Matthew, pg. 336]

Hell is so terrible that there are many phases of its torments, "Many are called," that is, everybody is invited to the wedding supper. "Few are chosen"; no one can attend the wedding supper but those who are willing to take by faith the wedding garment ahead of time. - John R. Rice [Matthew, pg. 339]

Notice the flattery in [Mt. 22] verse 16. They meant to please Jesus and to cause Him to talk freely so they could trap Him and get Him killed. Beware of flatterers! They usually mean evil and the Scripture warns often against them (Prov. 20:19; 26:28; 28:23; 29:5). - John R. Rice [Matthew, pg. 340]

Long prayers in public are often insincere. The more eloquent they are with high-sounding language, the less likely they are to be sincere and pleasing to God. Preachers often sin in this matter, laymen just as often, and we have known women called "able in prayer" who offended. Preachers should teach their people to beware of this sin of hypocrisy in prayer and should insist on short, simple, sincere public prayers, prayers intended for God and not for men. - John R. Rice [Matthew, pg. 354]

Christians in this church age are taught to look forward to the time when Christ will come, at any moment, to catch us up in the air with Him for the wedding supper in Heaven with all the saved of all ages, which must come before He returns with us to reign on the earth. Christ must come FOR His saints before He returns WITH His saints. - John R. Rice [Matthew, pg. 373]

But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. [Mt. 24:36]

Jesus perfectly knew the Old Testament and so, we suppose, do the angels. Therefore there is nothing in the Old Testament Scriptures from which anyone can find any signs that will indicate when Jesus will return. It is folly, then, to count dates in Daniel, or to make a day mean a year, as many heretics have done. What angels do not know and what Christ Himself did not know when in the flesh, surely we are not intended to know. - John R. Rice [Matthew, pg. 392]

In Acts 1:6 and 7 we learn that, after the resurrection of Christ, the apostles asked Him, "Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" He answered, "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power." Here we are clearly told that it is plainly not intended for Christians to know the future, particularly about Christ's return and the setting up of His kingdom. Those things are secret. God has planned it that way. Christians are not to know them. There are no Scriptures, no signs, no methods of computation by which a Christian can know when Christ will return. - John R. Rice [Matthew, pg. 392]