the thirteenth chapter of the book of Zechariah, verse six. And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hand? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends, wounded in the hearts of my friends. You say to me, that's absurd. Your friends don't inflict wounds upon you. It's the enemy that inflicts the wounds The garden of the friend blooms with flowers. It's the plot of the enemy that brings forth the thorns. Friendship speaks of harmony. Enmity speaks of discord. Surely, preacher, there's something wrong with the message. Wounded in the house of my friend. I have discovered this, that the Bible is never wrong. I have come to this assurance with great confidence that the Bible says what it means, and it means what it says. And when the Bible makes a statement When you get below the surface of human reasoning, you find that the Bible is speaking eternal and immutable and unchanging and unchangeable truth. It's not your enemies that wound you at all. The enemy can batter your body. The enemy can take your name in vain, but the enemy never afflicted yet a wound in your heart. Someone came to Mr. Spurgeon, the Prince of Preachers, and he was having a great battle in his hands. And they brought him the newspapers, and they said, Look what they're saying about you. The great preacher said, Let them say. Let them say, the enemy, friend, never inflicted a wound in a man's spirit or a wound in a man's soul or a wound in a man's heart. We battle in the enemy against the enemy. We enjoy the thrust of the swordplay when we're fighting the enemies of the gospel. What they say about us will never wound us or never hurt us. But my friends, soul wounds, heart wounds, deep wounds that never heal but leave an ugly scar, they're inflicted by the hand of a friend. Inflicted by the hand of a friend. Do you remember the great playwright Shakespeare describing so graphically and tremendously the death of Julius Caesar? And there was Caesar standing erect, and those that he knew were enemies thrust their daggers into his body. But he stood there in silence with great courage until his friend Brutus came. And when Brutus put in his sword, the last words of the noble Caesar was this, Thou too, Brutus, the sword of the friend, it made the deepest wound, for it entered and penetrated the spirit of the imperial Caesar. The wounds of a friend. I sat in a home one day. with two troubled parents, father and mother. The teardrops started in the father and mother's eyes. And as I sat there, the atmosphere became tense. And I don't know whether you have ever discovered it, but when there's deep sorrow, it leaves you speechless. For great sorrow is never good at talking. And I said, what's wrong? And the father and mother said, what's wrong? Everything's wrong. The son of the home that we loved, the son of the home that we brought up and we looked for great things for us. And today he told us that he was sick of home. sick of the restraints of the home life. He was sick of his father's faith and his mother's simple beliefs. They said to both of them, you're only back numbers. You're living in the past. And as far as I'm concerned, I'm leaving home. I'm going to see the world for myself. And if that son had sharpened a knife and thrust it into the mother's breast or the father's heart, he couldn't have made a deeper wound in those parents for which they were wounded in the house of their friends. One evening in my ministry, I went into a stricken home. And a dear widow was there, her husband had passed away very suddenly. And she was in great sorrow, and I wondered why the sorrow was so deep. And I said, there must be something in this dear woman's mind. And she said, Mr. Paisley, I'm in deep sorrow. And as I probed the sorrow, I discovered that that morning Her husband and her had angry words. She never saw him again to take back the words that she had spoken, for he passed suddenly away. And that woman, you know, was wounded in her own heart by the very words that she spoke. I would say to every young person in this meeting, some of us are older now and we have learned But would you learn by my experience and by the experience of the saints of God, and remember this, there's only one letter that makes the difference between word and sword. And they're both alike, friend. And a word can be a sword that pierces and cuts and lacerates the spirit of a man. and leaves them with a scar and a wound that no hand of earth can heal, and no solace of time can bring relief to. I read the story of a dear mother, and she had a little boy, and he was taken with fever, and Mother nursed that little boy as only a mother can. And the little boy, in his fever, used to kick the clothes from off him, and Mother patiently and lovingly and tenderly put them back over and over and over again. But after six or seven weeks of careful nursing, the mother's patience was worn away with anxiety and grief. And the little boy kicked off the clothes from off the cot, and the mother put them back, but she put them back with a rough hand. And she put in the little boy's legs and she said to him, put your legs under the clothes and keep them there. The little boy never attempted to bring them out. For in a few short minutes the little life was gone. How did mother feel then when she would never have to put the clothes over him again? I wouldn't have liked to have been that mother when she laid him in the coffin and bid them farewell, would you? Be careful, friend, with your speech, because the Bible tells me the tongue is a little member, but it's set on fire of hell. What's the use of all the regrets? What's the use of all the tears? They'll never withdraw the hasty word, or they will never solace the wound that that word meant. in the house of our friends. But that's not my message this evening. But that's just a little practical application that I felt that I should have made to each one in this service. But let me tell you that my Savior, my wonderful Lord, was wounded in the house of His friend. It wasn't the scornful, upturned lip of that old Pharisee that wounded Jesus? No, sir. He faced the Pharisees. He said, Woe unto you, scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites! Do you think the scorn of the Pharisees ever meted? I've done it. And the ardor of the Lord Jesus never won. Wasn't that old blaspheming scribe who said he's possessed? with the devil that wounded the gentle, tender, loving, patient spirit of Jesus. No, sir. Jesus was wounded in the house of his friend. Even his own mother, the mother of his flesh, she came between him and his Jimmy one day, as if she would hurry him up to do the task that lay before him. And he turned upon her and he said, Woman, thy hour is not yet come. And as I listened to his answer, I realized that the gentle spirit of Christ was wounded by the interference of his mother in his earthly ministry. And then I read that sad and awful story. Even his own brethren did not believe in him. The Lord Jesus for thirty years had lived in the home at Nazareth. Never once did those brethren hear an angry word from his lips. Never once did they mark anything that would be called or could be called sin or sinning, but he was a holy, harmless, spotless, crimeless, sinless Son of God. And yet they would not believe on him. James, the brother of our Lord, never believed till after the resurrection. Do you think our Lord was wounded? I can see him as a boy taking his foster brothers in his hands and taking them out over the fields and the hillsides of Galilee. And they recognized that in him was something different from them. And yet when he commenced his ministry and he raised the dead and he cleansed the lepers and he gave sight to the blind, they said, he is beside himself. He was wounded in the house. of his friend. And I want to tell you something. One day he stood before old Caiaphas, the high priest. And as he stood before Caiaphas, there was a fire burning in the outer courtyard, and Peter standing on fire. Peter, the man that said, we'll die with you, Lord. We'll never deny you. And Jesus is on trial, and he's challenged, Peter is challenged about his relationship to Christ. And through the night air I hear the cock crowing, and I hear the blasphemies of And I read these words. I've often marked them in my Bible and I've stopped and pondered. And it says, the Lord turned and looked upon Peter. And if ever the Lord Jesus Christ was wounded, if ever his tender heart was broken, If ever my Lord felt the piercings of the dagger in his soul, he felt it that day, Peter, that he had called to be an apostle. Peter, that he had taught the holy things of God to. Peter, that he had said to Blessed Art Thou, Simon the son of Bar-Jonah. Peter, he was to become the great Pentecostal preacher. Peter, the bold, strong, courageous servant. And he curses his Lord and denies his allegiance to the King of kings and Lord of lords. And the Lord turned and looked upon Peter. You know what I read about Peter? He went out and he wept bitterly. He wept bitterly. Did you ever ask yourself the question, was Peter at the cross? Did you? I often wondered, did Peter ever go to Calvary? I often wondered, did Peter ever have the courage to walk out after Jesus and hear the sound of the hammers from the wall as they nailed Jesus to the cross? And then one day, I was referred by a preacher to a great statement in Peter. And you know what Peter says? Peter says he was an eyewitness of the sufferings of Christ. Peter did go to Calvary. Peter did stand at the cross. How did he feel then when he realized he had wounded Christ in the house of his friend? Poor old Peter. You know it says in the 22nd Psalm, the devils of hell compassed the Lord, teasing. What did those devils in hell say to Jesus as he hung on the cross? I know what they said. Those devils said, Lord Jesus, Where are all the blind people that you gave sight to? They didn't stand up for you when you were rejected, when you were spit upon, when you were scorned and betrayed. Where are they? And the blind that Jesus gave sight to, they wounded him. He was wounded in the house of his friend. And the devil said, where are all the deaf people, the people that couldn't hear? And you touched their ears and their hearing came. Where are they now? Christ was wounded in the house of his friends. Where is Lazarus? A few days ago you raised him from the dead. Where is he now? There's no record that Lazarus was at the cross. There's no record that Mary and Martha Bethany stood under the tree, wounded in the house of his ranch. Where's the young man of Nain? He was being carried out to his burial, and you stopped the funeral procession, and you took him by the hand, and you raised him from the dead. Where is Jorius and his wife? His little daughter, Uriah, is from the dead! Where are they now? The Lord Jesus Christ is suffering, and He's dying, and He's bleeding alone! Why, He was wounded in the house of His friends. And I want to tell every Christian in the meeting we have been guilty of wounding Jesus, haven't we? when we should have stood for Him? Dying yonder, man, at your work, when the workmen started to take His blessed Name and being, you should have stood up, shouldn't you? But you kept your mouth closed, and you didn't rebuke the blasphemer. No, he was wounded in the house of his friends. How many times has God's people wounded? the blessed Christ of God. But let me talk to the sinners in the meeting. There's not a man or woman hardly in the meeting that wouldn't pretend to be a friend of Jesus. There's hardly one here who would dare to say, I'm outrightly and forthrightly the enemy of Jesus. No, you pay some sort of allegiance to him. You number yourself somewhere or other among the people who worship and respect the Christ of God, but let me tell you, you wounded Him in the house of His friends. As I turn the pages of the Hebrew epistle, I read this tremendous statement, crucifying to ourselves afresh the Lord of glory. Crucifying Jesus of Christ! And tonight in the Ulster Hall, young man, young woman, as you refuse Jesus Christ, you're crucifying to yourself of Christ, the Lord of glory. Wounded in the house of his friend. There's a little word over in John's Gospel. It says that he came unto his own. And the word in the Greek is his own things. He came unto his own things, and his own things received him not. He came to the trees of the field. He caused this seed to be in the earth. He created all things by the word of his power. And the timbers of the forest made a cross on which he hung and died. He came to the metals that he had created and laid in the bowels of the earth from the foundations of the world, and they prepared the neos to kneel them to the tree. He came to those bushes that grew and those thorns that grew so wonderfully on the hills of Palestine, over thirty different varieties of thorns, and they prepared for him a chaplet of cruel thorns, to beat into his brow and cause his temple to run with red crimson blood. He came unto his own things, and his own things did not receive him. He came to his own people, to the Jewish nation. He was bone of their bone and flesh of their flesh. He took upon him the seed of Abraham, and the Jewish people turned their back upon him. The saddest blood be of us! and on our children. And he has come to the Ulster Hall this evening, the man of sorrows, the one acquainted with grief, the one who was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. And he comes down the aisles of this hall, and he comes among you people as you sit in these seats. And are you going to wound him afresh? What are you going to do with my master, my Lord? My Savior, my head, my King and my God. What are you going to do with them tonight? Are you going to wound them? Are you going to turn your back upon them? Father, let me talk to you. You're the head of the home. Are you going to turn your back again upon my blessed Savior? It's a long time, Father, since you first heard the gospel message. Some of your offspring has been praying for you for many years. They're unconverted fathers in this meeting, and their offspring have long since been saved, and they're praying, Father, for you. Father, you ought to come to Jesus Christ tonight. Are you going to wound my Savior again? Mother, what about you? It's a very long time since you first felt the movement of the Spirit of God upon your heart. And you too have a family, and some of your family are even serving the Lord! And some of your family are members of this church, and they're ardent in the Sunday school, and they've knelt at that bed in their home night after night, and they've said, Oh God, save my mother! Are you going to wound Jesus? in the house of his friends this evening, are you? Going to crucify afresh the Lord of glory. Do you remember the young man that came to Jesus and when the Lord looked on him he had compassion upon him and he loved him? How did Jesus feel when that young man turned his back because he had great possessions? How does Jesus feel that a man sells his soul for booze, for liquor, for sin, for pleasure, and for lust? How does Jesus feel that? The Christ who died and hung upon the cross for man, how does he feel that? You young people, oh, get right with God tonight. Don't crucify afresh the Lord of glory. I tremble for the youth of our land. We're living in an evil day. What temptations our families have, we never had them. We lived a guarded life compared to the sins of this age, didn't we? Young people are torn with lust and passions and temptations that we have never even dreamed about. Don't condemn the young people. Get on your knees and pray for them. If you had been brought up in the environment of this day, you might have been ten times worse. We need to pray for the youth of this country. We need to pray that God will send us an old-fashioned revival and save our families from going down to the pit and save them from the scourge and curse of this immoral and adulterous generation. Young people, I plead with you tonight. Jesus Christ is standing here. Don't wind them tonight. He went a long way for you, all the way from the glory to the shame, all the way from the throne to the tomb, all the way from the crown to the cross, all the way to Calvary. He went for me. He died. to set me free. Don't win them tonight. Oh, may the Lord Jesus get joy in the house of us friends. May souls come home to Christ. I had a very encouraging letter this week. Let me tell you about it and then I'll finish. Young woman, no thought of God, no thought about eternity. filled with a spirit of loyalty that's so common and ulster among Protestant people, and yet the grace of God had never subdued her heart. She went to hear me speak at Tennant Street at our welcome home meeting, and she said, as you were all singing that great hymn, Just As I Am, without one plea, she said, something happened to me. The fear of God came upon me. She said, I went away. She said, I could have run from that place. I fled away. I didn't want to hear something grip me. But last Sunday night, she came to this house and the grace of God, I believe triumphed in her life. And she wrote me this week to tell me that God had dealt with her in mercy and in grace. I've never met her. She may be in the service, she may not be in the service, but I know this, that when a preacher gets a letter like that, it encourages him to preach the gospel. And then a dear woman that I knew gave me a ring this week, and she traveled up to my office on Friday, and I had the great joy of pointing that dear mother to the Savior. It's a great thing, friend, to know Jesus Christ. It's a wonderful thing to have a personal Savior. It's a glorious thing to have Christ in your heart, the hope of glory. Will you receive Him? Will you trust Him? Will you believe on Him? And you'll go home rejoicing. And you'll not only rejoice tonight, but you'll rejoice tomorrow. And you'll not only rejoice tomorrow, but you'll rejoice for all eternity. For Jesus said, Ye shall rejoice, and your rejoicing no man will take away from you. May God start the joy bell ringing as the sinners come home tonight for Jesus' sake. Let's bow our hands. Gracious Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for grace and for strength and for help to preach the word. We thank thee for the Lord Jesus who was wounded in the house of his friends. O Lord Jesus, we pray that there may be joy in your heart because we read in thy word who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross. There is joy in the presence of the angels in heaven. over a sinner coming home. And we remember the great shepherd said, Rejoice with me, for I have found the sheep that was lost. Lord, may thou and us rejoice tonight over sinners coming home, over backsliders being restored, over Christians dedicating their lives to Christ. As our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed, the meeting's almost over, but Jesus is standing right beside you now. He's a living Christ. His hands bear the wounds. Whence did you get these wounds? I was wounded in the house of my friends. You've wounded a woman, haven't you? You've wounded a man. You've inflicted many wounds upon the hands of Jesus, isn't that right? Are you going to wound Him tonight? Are you going to crucify or thrash the Lord of Glory? Are you going to put Him to an open shame? No, friend, don't do it tonight. Just come to Him and trust Him for all eternity.