If Matthew copied anything, he did it only under the clear instruction of the Holy Spirit, and we have not a hint in the Scriptures themselves that Matthew copied. The Holy Spirit gave the matter; the Holy Spirit gave the words, so Matthew did not need to rely upon his own judgment, his memory, the testimony of eyewitnesses, upon manuscripts before him, or any other human source. If he used any human source, he did it by divine inspiration which would correct all the mistakes and make a perfect, infallibly accurate part of the divine revelation, the Word of God. - John R. Rice [Matthew, pg. 17-18]
You demand to be free from the letter of the Scriptures, but actually what you think is freedom is bondage. How could there be any freedom when you are enslaved to your own will, enslaved to the opinions of men--poor, human, fallible creatures like yourself? No, the Lord Jesus taught that the only true freedom is under divine authority, the authority of God in Christ and in the divinely inspired Bible. - John R. Rice [Great Controversial Subjects Settled from the Bible, pg. 347]
Christ ate with publicans and sinners, but He never played with them. He never went into business with them. The only time that Jesus ever had fellowship with poor lost, wicked men was when He was earnestly trying to win and to bless them. Yes, we ought to love sinners, we ought to weep over them, pray for them, visit them, teach them, plead with them! But we ought not to call them our brethren, we ought not to bind ourselves with them in business or pleasure or marriage. - John R. Rice [Lot, pg. 15-16]
It is a sad thing, but here is a church. They say, "Here is a professor in a college nearby. (Oh, he has a Ph.D. degree. I can almost see that little crown of glory on his head, that halo.) Let him teach the Bible to us." He is an infidel if he hasn't been converted, if he doesn't believe the Bible, if he doesn't have Christ in his heart as his own Saviour. But you say, "He has been to college, then to the seminary, and has written books." Then all the more he is a wolf in sheep's clothing. And the fact he is in sheep's clothing ought to make you even more scared of him. You ought not to have him in your church, you are not to hear him speak, you are not to have him teach your class and God knows, you are not to have him in your pulpit. The Bible plainly says, "He that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds." - John R. Rice
When we come to read or study the Bible then, we should be conscious of the Spirit's presence. We should always ask Him to teach us the Word of God. Many times when I write an article or preach a sermon, I earnestly pray for the Spirit to bring to my remembrance the Scriptures on the subject and to help me understand them. And strangely, often when I am in the pulpit, in the midst of a sermon, Scriptures come to mind that I did not think about when I prepared the sermon. And oftentimes after I have read the Scriptures in the pulpit, there comes to me such light on the Word of God as I did not have in the study and preparation. But that only happens, of course, as I am led by the Spirit of God and when I am surrendered to Him and have an open receptive heart. He is the Comforter, the Guide, and the Teacher of the Christian. - John R. Rice [Twelve Tremendous Themes, pg. 117]
Can you be a secret disciple? Yes, but it is a sorry business, a cowardly way. Joseph of Arimathea was a disciple of Jesus but secretly for fear of the Jews. What a sorry kind of Christian, a very unhappy kind of Christian. - John R. Rice [Great Controversial Subjects Settled from the Bible, pg. 72]
False teachers have written that they would hate a God who would send a sinner to Hell to be tormented forever. And others have said that God is too good to send a sinner to Hell. Well, we know nothing about how good God is except by the Bible. I had rather one line from Jesus Christ about what kind of Hell sinners go to than to have all the theories in the world formulated by men as to what they think God would do or would not do. - John R. Rice [Twelve Tremendous Themes, pg. 193]
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