In this sermon, the speaker reflects on growing up in a home without musical instruments or worldly distractions. He emphasizes the importance of not despising God's visitation and warns of the terrible consequences for those who do not respond to it. The speaker mentions certain churches that refrain from playing musical instruments during the week of the Lord's passion, resuming on the day of His resurrection. He also highlights the significance of recognizing the time of God's visitation, drawing parallels to the destruction of Jerusalem and the need to understand the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.

This week we remember the Lord's passion from today where we remember where the Lord entered Jerusalem riding a donkey where they were calling out Hosanna, praising God. But a few days later, by Thursday in this week, they were already calling out, crucify him. That's a typical picture of man, today he praises or he thanks you and tomorrow he condemns you or he may condemn you today but tomorrow he'll thank you. When Jesus entered Jerusalem, he saw Jerusalem and he wept. And he called out and he said, if only Jerusalem, you knew the time of your visitation. They called out Hosanna, that the Pharisees even said, let them keep quiet. And the Lord said if they keep quiet, the stones, the rocks will call out. But even though they were called out Hosanna, they didn't recognize the times. It was the time of their visitation in German, the time of him seeking to call them home. But they were blinded, their eyes were closed to the fact. And Jesus called out, he cried, he wept. And he said, you who don't recognize the time of your visitation, the time will come when you will be surrounded by your enemies. Jerusalem will be destroyed, not one stone will be left upon another. And the Lord said, you who don't recognize the time of your visitation, the time will come when you will be surrounded by your enemies. And the Lord said, you who don't recognize the time of your visitation, the time will come when you will be surrounded by your enemies. And it was only about 70 years later, the Roman general surrounded Jerusalem, besieged it, the inhabitants of Jerusalem eventually ate their own flesh, of their own children, drank their blood just to try to survive. And the city was destroyed. Take note when God visits you, don't despise it, because the end is terrible of those who don't respond to God's visitation. There are certain churches throughout the world that don't play any musical instruments during this week, because it's the week of the Lord's passion, and they only start playing instruments again on the day of his resurrection. They don't play any musical instruments during this week, because it's the week of the Lord's passion, and they only start playing instruments again on the day of his resurrection. I even grew up in a home like that, where there was no musical instrument, didn't even listen to the radio, but that didn't help me, it was just a tradition. But that is what the people of old said, that it's a week of mourning, of his passion, and we don't want anything worldly amongst us. My message today is so long, I don't think I'll get through it. But I'll just read some verses. We'll read from Isaiah 52. From verse 13. Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high. Just as many were astonished at you, so his visit was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men. Chapter 53, verse 1. Who has believed our report, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form of comeliness when we see him, and when we see him there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from him, he was despised and we did not esteem him. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him. By his stripes we are healed. We will stop reading there. Here we read about how the Lord was tormented and mocked, tortured. And his visit was mauled more than any man. These days I saw a photo in a newspaper of the leader of the opposition in Zimbabwe, Tsvangirai, how the police had beaten him up and you could see his face was all swollen and hurt. But it says here that his face, the Lord's face, was mauled more than any man. His face was mauled. There was no healthy spot left on his whole body. He had been beaten terribly. His whole body was full of wounds and his face and the crown of thorns on his head. It was a terrible sight and his face was full of a spittle, how they spat upon him. They treated him terribly. His back was like a ploughed field. His hands and his feet had been pierced by those nails. It was a terrible sight. No one wanted to even look at him. He was the Lamb of God that had been led to the slaughter but he closed his mouth. And they left him saying God had smitten him because of his own iniquity. Yes, the Lord God Jehovah had smitten him severely but not because of his own sins but because of your sins and my sins. They mocked him, speaking all types of evil about him. They raised three crosses. The two on either side of him were murderers and he was in the middle. By that implying that this man in the middle is worse than those on either side of him. He was tormented not just physically but even in his spirit because he had to carry all our guilt to the point where even God forsook him. And he cried out, he said, Oh my God, why have you forsaken me? May God through his Holy Spirit in these days paint a picture of Jesus, how and what he went through for your sake and my sake in these days. Because of our sins he became accursed because of us and he was nailed to that cursed cross. People enjoy sin. They continue in their sin but they need to look at the cross to see what sin really means and how terrible it is. Let's never be like the people of Jerusalem calling out Hosanna, God save us. Throwing palm branches before where he was going through and yet not even knowing what we were doing. Palm branches in those eastern countries signified peace. Even to this day they decorate the churches in those parts with palm branches during this time. But then on Thursday they remove those branches. So even those palm branches have a significance during this time that we can remember that those palm branches stand for peace, being peace with God and peace with our fellow man. And if you have hatred and grudges and jealousy and envy in your heart, there is no peace between you and God and between you and your fellow man. You are an enmity with God. Jesus said you must forgive one another so that our Heavenly Father will also forgive us. And the Lord says you have been forgiven thousands of pounds worth of debt but you fail to forgive someone who owes you just a few cents. And God says if you do that neither will you be forgiven. The wounds of the Lord Jesus have not yet helped you. The blood of Jesus has not helped you and will not help you if you fail to forgive those that have sinned against you. So on this first day of the Lord's Passion search, test your heart and life whether there is not a root of bitterness in your heart and if it is there you need to repent. If there is any sign of hatred, you have not understood what the Lord's Passion and Crucifixion is about. You also have a heart of stone and the death of the Lord Jesus has not meant anything in your life. And Jesus called out because the inhabitants of Jerusalem did not understand. They did not recognize the time of their visitation. May we receive that grace to recognize the time of the Lord's visitation that we will understand what His death means to us. Now let us look at the Lord Jesus as He is on the cross. He was despised and rejected by men. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid as it were our faces from Him. He was despised and we did not esteem Him. I am amazed how Isaiah describes the Lord's Crucifixion. When you read these words it is as if you are reading a report of someone who had stood by the cross and experienced the whole event. And yet he had lived over 600 years before the crucifixion. But God had revealed to His prophetess servant the whole event, the whole crucifixion as if he had experienced it. He saw how he had been beaten, how he had been forsaken, how he was smitten and how they had mocked him. He saw how they mocked him saying you could save others, save yourself. If you are the son of God get down from the cross. And they spoke all that evil of him. No one ever suffered like he suffered. No one even looked the way he did after they had beaten him. And as I said after they had beaten him and done all those things to him there they put him in the cross between those two criminals thereby implying that he was even worse than they were. He was implying that he was the worst murderer of them all. But the Bible says it was all like that because he carried our diseases, our sicknesses and he carried our sins. But we said like those people who stood by the cross they said well God has smitten him because of his own iniquity. But the word tells us that he was smitten, yes God did smite him but it was because of our sins. We tell lies. Jesus took that guilt upon himself. Your immorality, drunkenness, your disrespect. Jesus took that guilt upon himself. Your immorality, drunkenness, your disrespect. And Jesus was prepared to take all that guilt, all that sin, our sin upon himself and God chose to smite him because of it. Jesus was bruised, he was beaten, smitten, mocked because of your sin. He was hurt because of our transgressions. He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes we are healed. And look how he was bruised because of your sin and you say sin is nice. I can't forsake sin. You must have a heart of stone and be a blinder than the blindest man in this world. If you are not touched and moved by the name of God slaughtered on the cross for you. And the Lord brought upon him all our iniquity. And then in verse 10 it even says yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He has put him to grief when you make his soul an offering for sin. Something I can't understand, that God in heaven, that it pleased him to bruise him, to bring his judgement down upon him. No wonder he called out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why have you forsaken me? You go with your friends, with the world, in all your worldly ways and you can't stand for the truth. That's why I say may the Holy Spirit do something special in this week that we will recognize him as he was, what he went through for our sakes. And then from the time of Adam right to the end of time, will ever have gone through or will ever go through what Jesus had to go through the way he was smitten and beaten. What he had to go through in spirit, soul and body. Jesus should be precious to us. Jesus should mean more to us than our father, our mother, our own child. He should be number one to us. He should be number one to us. Look at Jesus on the cross and realize what that means for us. God's wrath was going to come down upon sin and Jesus stood in the gap. He came and he said, let it be upon me. He carried that guilt for us and that punishment. He said, let it be upon me. He carried that guilt for us and that punishment. And then even our diseases he carried. Our sicknesses and what manner of diseases don't you get today? All sorts. And even today you get AIDS where the flesh just rots away. Jesus carried all of that for us. No wonder there's a hell because one deserves a hell if one rejects such a salvation. But the worst sickness in this world can't be compared to the smallest sin. Sin is 10,000 times worse because sickness kills your body. Sin kills your soul. It kills you for all eternity. If you don't repent of it, turn away from it, part with it, quit sin, break with it. So Jesus, the lamb of God. So Jesus, the lamb of God carried our sins, not his own, he had no sin, but he took our sin, your sin, my sin upon himself and it pleased God to smite him because of the fact that he took our sins upon himself. If you have ever sinned for Jesus on the cross, your sins will never taste good again. You will never go back to your mother to buy drinks or perfume. It's the worst thing that you do. If you just see Jesus once on the cross, it will never be nice again for you to sin, to get into your car to go and buy drugs or drink or to go and sin. And then you young person, you go and flirt around with girls and being immoral and not chaste and pure. Do you realize what you are doing? You are crucifying him anew and spitting into his face and fisting him. And then you comfort yourself and say, nobody knows it. Nobody sees it. I do it behind closed doors. I do it in the bathroom. I smoke in the toilet. They don't know about it. They don't know about it. What a fool you are. And what a fool the devil has made of you. They don't know about it. They don't know about it. What a fool the devil has made of you. They don't know about it. They don't know about it. What a fool the devil has made of you. But then you look at people all over Africa, throughout the world, living in their sin as if nothing has ever happened. They make the death of our Lord, His passion, His death, to nothing. It means nothing to them. And then when they nailed him to the cross, after he hung there for a while, he called out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And everyone said, well, this is the end. It's the end of it all. What's the darkest hour this world has ever witnessed? Never there'll be a darker hour than that. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why? Because of my sin and your sin.