John R. Rice Quotes of the Week

 All who understand the simplest, plainest doctrines in the Bible will understand why the Saviour must be born of a virgin. Men are tainted with sin. The whole race is fallen since Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden. Every child ever born comes into this world with the curse of sin upon him. Every child is born but to die. And if Jesus were to be without the taint of sin, He needed to be conceived and born in a way different from the usual course of mankind. He was conceived and born of a virgin. Jesus had no human father! - John R. Rice [Immanuel--God With Us, pg. 34]

The Christmastime is the best time you will ever have to receive Christ into your heart, to let Immanuel be your own Saviour, God with you! Why not today repent of your sins? Why not today turn to the Christ, the Saviour, and ask Him to come into your heart and forgive your sins and save your poor soul! -Why not trust Him this moment, right now, to be your own Saviour now and forever! And the very moment that you turn your case over to Him, depend upon Him, risk Him, believe in Him, that moment He will be your own Immanuel, God with you, your Saviour, your constant companion, your eternal refuge from sin, your High Priest before God, your salvation! - John R. Rice [Immanuel--God With Us, pg. 50]

It is part of the penalty and guilt of sin that the sinner does not realize the enormity of his wickedness. Part of the harm of liquor is that the man who is intoxicated thinks himself wise and brave and strong and capable. He thinks himself warm while he is freezing. He thinks himself safe as he drives a car careening down the highways to kill or be killed. How many drunkards, deceived by intoxication, boldly begin a fight, without realizing their incapability and are shot down or murdered by others, perhaps equally intoxicated. So it is with sin. It deceives, enslaves and blinds while it leads men on to destruction. - John R. Rice [Immanuel--God With Us, pg. 63]

The miraculous prophecies of the Old Testament now wonderfully fulfilled in the New Testament prove that the Bible is what it claims to be - the very Word of God. They prove, also, that Jesus is what He claims to be, God in human form, the virgin-born, bodily-resurrected Saviour, the God-man. - John R. Rice [The Birth of the Saviour, pg. 117-118]

Dear reader, God is not concerned about your pious platitudes as you commend the teachings of Jesus in the sermon on the mount. He turns His face with disdain when you speak of the crucifixion as "the martyrdom" of "a good man" who "died for his ideals." There is no way under Heaven that any man can approach God in peace except he come with prayer and praise to Jesus Christ as one who is very God, Creator, Saviour, one to be loved and worshipped, one who answers prayer, one who is worthy of all praises that can fall from human lips! - John R. Rice [The Birth of the Saviour, pg. 54]

"I am as good as most church members," someone tells me. Perhaps you are. . . . But then, on the other hand, I doubt whether you are as good as church members. You critics, you Christ-rejecters, you who stand outside and point the finger of scorn at church people, let me tell you of a difference between you and them. Church people at least are for Christ, or claim to be, and you are against Him. Most of these in the church want Christ, and you do not want Him. They love Him, and you despise Him. They accepted Him while you rejected Him. They have confessed Him openly while you have denied Him. And every church member who is honest and has really come to Jesus Christ is a thousand times better off than the man on the outside who points the finger of scorn and either derides or imitates the church member. - John R. Rice [Immanuel--God With Us, page 151]

Daniel "purposed in his heart" that he would not defile himself. I was just thinking about this tonight - I don't know whether it is original with me; I don't know whether anybody else ever thought of it or not - but my resolutions are the only real, true John Rice there is. You may look at me. You look at the way I live and the way I act and the failures I make, but you don't know my heart at all. Only in my resolutions am I what I long to be. "Blessed are they which hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled." Not until I see the Saviour, not until I am all that I want to be, all that I am hungry to be, all that I resolve to be, will I be what I ought to be, when my resolutions catch up with me, or when I catch up with my resolutions. So resolutions are the only true John Rice there is, or the only true anybody else. So make your resolutions. That is the right thing to do. - John R. Rice [Sweet Family Ties in Heaven and Hell, pg. 154]