All of the things that are wrong with us are wrong in the heart. Our sins, our prayerlessness, our worldliness, our absorption in trivial things, our carelessness about souls, our spiritual blindness, these all proceed from our hearts, stubborn, carnal, sin-cursed, unbroken hearts! Our lack of revival does not proceed from circumstances. Our fruitlessness, our barrenness is not a fault of the head; it is a black sin of the heart! It is not so much that our minds need to be taught, but rather that our hearts need to be broken up. May God give us grace to set about to seek the broken and contrite heart that God will not despise. - John R. Rice [The Ruin of a Christian, pg. 134]
Criticism causes suicides, broken health and ruined nerves. Gossip has broken countless homes, has estranged brothers, has divided churches. Evil speaking of other Christians is a heartless, cruel and terrible sin which often ruins lives. - John R. Rice [The Ruin of a Christian, pg. 170]
A Christian then may judge doctrine, comparing it with the Bible. He may judge sin, prayerfully, without judging the sinner. But no Christian ever has the right to pass judgment as to whether someone else is saved or lost. And no Christian has a right to presume that he knows the motives and intentions of any heart. - John R. Rice [The Ruin of a Christian, pg. 183]
If one declares that he has trusted in Christ as His Saviour and has assurance that his sins are forgiven by faith in the shed blood of Christ, then I ought charitably to take his testimony the best I can. If he does not live as a Christian ought, then I must consider my own frail attempts, my own failures, my own sins, not so well known to the public, perhaps, but intimately known to God. - John R. Rice [The Ruin of a Christian, pg. 183]
If one does not claim to have trusted in Christ and to have accepted Him as Saviour, then we do right to take his testimony that he is unsaved. We know that if one claims to be saved by his own goodness, or saved by church membership, he is mistaken because we have the plain statements of the Word of God that only those who trust in Christ are saved. We have the right to suppose that one who does not claim to have trusted Christ for salvation is lost. And charitably, we can only hope that one who professes to know and love the Saviour and to have trusted Him wholly for salvation is really a child of God. - John R. Rice [The Ruin of a Christian, pg. 183]
Some are saved who cannot give any clear testimony as to when and how it happened. Something very definite happens in the heart of one who is saved; but often not much happens in the head, not much of assurance, nor of clear testimony, until the Word of God brings light to the mind. Babies are born a good while before they know much. And babies would never know who their fathers or mothers were or anything about their birth unless they were taught by others. So some are saved who have no clear testimony, and some are saved who do not act like they are saved. But a percentage of others, we are taught in the word, are not saved, though they claim to be. And many are unrighteous sinners who appear very moral and religious. We can only trust that those have trusted Christ and have been born again who say they have. - John R. Rice [The Ruin of a Christian, pg. 183-184]
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