And it has been announced that I would preach upon the strangest Jew act in the world. In this portion of Scripture, we are confronted with a prison, with a town jail. Jails and prisons are loathsome places. No matter what they tell you about Crumlin Road, that it is Her Majesty's hotel, don't you believe it? For I have had bed and breakfast there for many a day, and I can give you a personal relationship of what is happening there. And I'm not saying anything about present conditions. when I let you into that great secret. But what I want to tell you is this, that there is something loathsome about a prison. On a Sunday evening, at approximately half past four, that's very early, the prisoners are locked in. And they don't get out until half past seven the next morning. That's on Sunday. That's why prisoners don't like Sunday. And that's why they don't like holidays, because that's a long time to be shut in. Other nights you're shut in a little bit later at half past six o'clock. And I have lain in the prison cell And I have heard the rattle of the keys, and I have heard the slamming of the bolts. And then you hear the resulting effect on the prisoner. Sometimes you hear the groans of a man, and they say of him, he can't do his time. I had a man up above me, a man when the door closed, he used to groan all night. He couldn't take it. Then some would curse, and I many a night had to cover over my ears as I listened to volleys of the most hideous blasphemies coming from prisoners shut in with their with their habits, shut in with their sins, shut in with their temptations, and shut in with their frustration. Yeah. Jail, prison, is a loathsome place. So don't you think that it's a happy place for man or unhappy. You know, in the Old Testament, There is nothing in the law of God about a prison. Do you know that? Oh, there's capital punishment in the Old Testament under the Mosaic law. Capital punishment. But there's nothing in the Old Testament under the Mosaic law about keeping a man in prison day after day. It's unnatural. It's unhealthy and there's something loathsome about the hurting of individuals day after day, year after year, decade after decade. And presently, there's something strange and loathsome about it. Now, in this portion of Scripture, you start off with preachers suffering. Have a look at it. They're in trouble. Look at verse 16. They're in trouble because of a woman. It's a bad thing when the devil wears trousers. It's a far worse thing when he wears skirts. And the devil met Paul in a skirt. And 14, this devil possessed the preachers of the Word. When the gospel is preached the way it ought to be preached, there will be opposition from the devil. Make no mistake about that. The devil hates the gospel. You show me a church that is at perfect peace with everybody, And I'll show you a graveyard where there is no life. You show me a church that is battered, ridiculed, slandered, attacked, opposed. And I'll show you a church where God's gospel is being preached. There will always be opposition when the gospel is preached. I must tell you something. After I was elected to the band side, a man was bringing a friend of his to our evening service, first Sunday after I was elected to the Stormont party. And this man said to my friend, he said, you know, I'm glad Mr. Peasley won the seat because I believe it will make him respectable. And he said, wait till you hear his sermon tonight. He'll be all changed. So that night the two of them sat down in the church. I don't remember what I was preaching on, but evidently it was a very strong sermon. And every time I said something pretty strong, this man, he said, I just stuck my elbow into his ribs. And he said, the poor man nearly had fractured ribs before the end of the sermon. For he said, the strength and power rose up in that message. And when I came out, he said he wrung his hands. And he said, I despair they'll never make that man respectable no matter what they'll do with him. Let me tell you, friend, When a gospel preacher is respectable with the devil's crowd, there's something wrong with him. The gospel is against sin. The gospel is against iniquity. The gospel is against evil. And when the gospel is preached the way it ought to be preached, the preacher will suffer, suffer, suffer the opposition and the persecution of the world. Have a look at it. These men that employed this woman, they saw the hope of their gains was God. My, I want to tell you, when the gospel takes away the ungodly gains of ungodly man, then there'll be opposition. When we went preaching, first of all, on the Raven Hill Road down the road there, there was an unholy evil thing across the road. It was in the shape of a sort of billiard hall, but it was actually a sort of boozing club with all the associations of sin that went on in that place. And you know what we did? We prayed. And then we saw men that drank in that place. and played cards in that place, and went to the devil in that place. We saw them sinned by the grace of God. And the owner of that place was mad, stark, raving mad was this preacher. And he said, I am told, I'll get rid of that preacher. But my friend, the gospel is more powerful than the vested interests of man. And we were so successful in seeing man saved that the man had no customers. So he had to close down. Hallelujah. And you know what happened? It came so low that he actually offered me that place for rent. He says, maybe you would take it over and have some sort of Sunday school or something in it. I can't get rid of it. I said, no, sir, just keep it. We don't want it. We have trade you out of business. Hallelujah. Let me tell you, friend, it's no wonder there was opposition in this road to this church. I could write a book about people who rose up in wrath I remember one evening meeting a dear lady, and she said to me, she said, I'm going to see you off this road. I said, you are? She said, yes. You're going to go, and I'm the woman who's going to do it. Well, I'm still in the Ravenhill Road. Twenty-five years, I don't know where the poor dear is tonight. She was determined. Let me tell you, Fram, that the man that preaches the gospel will suffer, and the church that preaches the gospel will suffer. They're suffering. Suffering. The preachers in suffering, Paul and Silas, under the scourge of suffering because they were loyal to Jesus Christ. you find the preachers in stocks. Oh yes, it came to the place when they were before the magistrates. They fell foul of the law. They got themselves into trouble. And when they got themselves into trouble, They found themselves eventually in the stocks. I want to show you the way to prison. Preach the gospel. Cast out the devils. Rob the ungodly of their ungodly gains. Go before ungodly magistrates. Have the crowd, the devil's crowd, against you. You'll get your back opened with many strikes. You'll go to prison and you'll end up in the stocks. That's the way. It's the way of the cross. Jesus Christ was taken from prison and from judgment. Who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living. For the transgression of my people. Was he stricken? And we find the preachers in stock. I read a letter the other day, some time ago, sent out by me, people advising a certain church not to have anything to do with me. And they said, don't you know he's a jailbird? Don't you know that? Don't you know he's a jailbird? I like to know that I'm a jailbird. I'm quite proud of it. I have no apology for being a jailbird. My friend, around the walls of this church, if you take a care to look, passing down these aisles, you'll see plaster cast heads of some of the great martyrs. Every one of them was a jailbird. But there were worse than that. They went all the way to the gibbet and to the hangman's noose. because they were faithful to Jesus Christ. He's a jailbird. Don't have anything to do with them. My, if Paul came to Belfast, Sir Cheryl Black wouldn't be giving him a dinner. I know that all right. Nobody would touch him. But I want to tell you I would do curate to the Apostle Paul any day. And I would say, Paul, let them have it. I'll stand with you, and my church is open to you. You're welcome. Let me tell you, friend, they ended up in the stocks. The preachers in the stocks! Listen, my friend, The way of preaching the gospel leads not only to suffering, but to the stocks, the pillory, pilloried by man, thrust into the inner prison. Feet made fast in the stocks, stripped, jagged by the world, every method under heaven used to stop the ministry of the man of God. But you could have soon stopped the Niagara Falls with a teaspoon, or the rising sun tomorrow morning with a lollipop stick. Stop the preaching of the gospel and man that preach the Word. It can't be done. Tried to do it, you know, with John Wesley. They closed the Episcopal church where his father preached. What did Wesley do? He stood in his father's tombstone and he had a resurrection of sinners among the gravestones as he preached the gospel. The Methodists tried to do it in their turn. The new connection Methodist church with William Booth. William Booth was having great meetings. Sinners were being saved. great stir among the people. And his brethren got jealous. The green-eyed monster of jealousy awoke in their heart. And so they called at the conference a special resolution that no Methodist minister was allowed to go out of his own district to evangelize. The church found that by a man who said, the world is my party. And they tried to circumscribe William Booth's ministry. William Booth had a very strong wife. Her name was Catherine Booth. She was up in the gallery. And when they passed the resolution, she shouted down, never William! William, being a good boy, walked out of the Methodist church, did what his wife told him. The result was the founding of the Salvation Army, which in its early days carried its flag of blood and fire to the very depths of the East End of London, leading thousands of hardened sinners to the place of repentance and peace through the blood of the Lamb. You can't stop the preacher. You can put him in the stocks, but the gospel will go on. But we must come to this duet. You have the preachers in song in that verse 25. Preachers in song. This was the strangest duet in the world because it was sung in the stocks. Silas wasn't at the organ and Paul wasn't in the pulpit. He was in the It was the strangest duet in the world because it was sung by two preachers. And I never met a preacher yet that could sing in tune. Have you? And these two preachers sang. It was the strangest duet in the world for they were both in harmony. And it's the greatest thing in the world to get two preachers in harmony. You could hardly do it. It was the strangest duet in the world. because it was sung by men with bleeding backs and battered bodies and lacerated ankles. It was the strangest Jew app in the world, for what did it bring? It brought an earthquake. I often, when I lay in my pallet in my cell in the Crumlin Road, said, Lord, I wish I could sing like Paul. I wish I could have an earthquake in this prison. I'd like to see these warders running up and down and saying, where are all these prisoners? I'd love to shout out at them, do thyself no harm, we are all here. It must have been some night in Philippi, mustn't it? They sang praises! In the stocks, yes! In suffering, yes! Why? Tell me why. because these were the servants of the Most High God. And although their backs were sore, and their muscles were torn, and their whole bodies were pulled apart, these men had God's peace within their hearts. A tempest outside, a great calm inside, trouble without peace within, turmoil without, eternal heaven within. Oh, let me tell you, friend, this was a song, all right. It was the song, the new song of heaven begun below. Do you know anything about this song? Have you learned the first notes of this chorus? The psalmist sat down one day and he said, I waited for the Lord my God and patiently did bear. At length to me he did incline my voice and cry to hear. He took me from a fearful pit and from the miry clay and on a rock he set my feet. Establishing my way he put a new song in my mouth. our God to magnify, our God to magnify. It is the song of revenge. And last of all in this chapter, you have the preachers in service. It wasn't very long until the dealer that put their feet in the stocks was transformed by the grace of God. What must I do to be saved? With the old prison rocking in its foundation, with every man's chains loosed and every door opened, the dealer hardened old dealer that he was. bitter antagonistic hearer of the gospel that he had been. In a split second, he's transformed by the mighty grace of God. What has happened? Jesus came. When Jesus comes, all is changed. My blessed Lord, Fram, the Church is powerless to do anything about your soul's condition. All the ceremony and ritual of the Church is impotent to see Him. But Jesus Christ can see Him to the very uttermost. All that come unto God by Him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for us. You can be saved tonight. You can be saved now. You can learn the first notes of the new psalm. You can come to Jesus Christ today. Will you come? Man and woman, this week the sickle of death will be laid and will cut its sword in the field of humanity's millions. You may fall a prey to death's dark sickle this week. We don't know what a day will bring forth. Don't be foolish, Don't think you have a long time to go, or it may be that this is your last Sunday evening in God's house. I plead with you tonight, let solemn reflection, let solemn thoughts pass through your mind. Get ready for eternity, by trusting in the blood of Christ. Jesus alone can pardon. Jesus alone can heal. Jesus alone can save. May you trust Him now in the Savior's name. Amen. Let's bow our hands. Our God and Father, We thank Thee for Thy presence. We thank Thee for Thy Word. We thank Thee for the Gospel. We thank Thee for the blood of the Lamb. O God, we pray that tonight sinners may come to Christ.