You say, "Wickedness is so great. There is so much sin." Yes, but wherever there is sin there is heartbreak. And heartbroken people are easier to win than the self-satisfied. The old Devil is always overstepping himself. God makes the wrath of men to praise Him. God sometimes lets the Devil do some of his work in order to get sinners ready to be saved. "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound" (Rom. 5:20). I say, the fact is, sin never satisfies anybody. - John R. Rice [Ten Messages That Changed Ten Thousand Lives, pg. 260]
Do you want to know why I am bold in my preaching? I will tell you why. People may look very mad and talk very sharp, but I know one thing about them: there is something inside that says, "You fool! That preacher is right. You are getting nowhere. You are going to cause your home to break up if you don't watch out. You will lose your job. Then you will wake up in Hell if you don't watch out. That preacher is right!" When I preach sharp, plain and hard messages some people don't like it. But there is something down inside that says, "You had better listen, old boy, to God's man. That fellow is right!" Conscience is a friend of the Gospel. - John R. Rice [Ten Messages That Changed Ten Thousand Lives, pg. 261]
Many long for revival and pray for revival. As solemnly as I know how I urge that there cannot possible be any great revival except by a mighty moving of the Holy Spirit as God's people seek his power and wait upon Him for enduement from on high. And I believe that revival is the only hope of survival for Bible Christianity in the churches. O God, send upon us the power of Pentecost that we may see the revival for which we have so longed prayed and for which we now devoutly yearn! - John R. Rice {The Power of Pentecost, pg. 10]
Satan has no happy old people. - John R. Rice
It is startling to realize the work that the Holy Spirit does for a human being. It is the Holy Spirit who convicts a sinner, the Holy Spirit who regenerates one who trusts in Christ, the Holy Spirit who makes him a new creature. It is the Holy Spirit who comforts a Christian, who brings the witness and assurance of salvation into his heart. It is the Holy Spirit who helps a Christian to understand the Bible, helps a Christian to pray, brings to his memory the commands of Christ. It is the Holy Spirit who works out and develops and produces the fruit of the Spirit, the Christian graces, in the Christian's life: "love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance" (Gal. 5:22, 23). - John R. Rice [The Power of Pentecost, pg. 37]
Many people thoughtlessly speak of the Holy Spirit as "it." Perhaps when the matter is called to their attention they say, "Oh, I know better." Well, in one's head one may know better, but actually one has not come to realize that the Holy Spirit is a blessed and real and familiar person, if he speaks of the Holy Spirit as an impersonal, neuter "it." No woman who loves her husband ever speaks of him as "it" because she does not feel that way about him. She knows him as a living, loving person and so calls him by the masculine pronoun. And Christians everywhere who learn to know the Holy Spirit intimately speak about Him and speak to Him with the greatest reverence and with the masculine pronoun, just as we refer to God the Father and just as we refer to our Saviour Jesus Christ, God's Son. The Holy Spirit is a blessed and wonderful person with whom the Christian should become very intimately acquainted. - John R. Rice [The Power of Pentecost, pg. 38]
The Holy Spirit is the one person of the Godhead with whom the Christian has the most intimate and daily contact. For Christ, with a glorified, resurrected body, is in Heaven, sitting at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us. But God the Holy Spirit literally lives within the body of the Christian, is with him all the time and represents the Father and represents Jesus Christ. - John R. Rice [The Power of Pentecost, pg. 39]
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