A Secondhanded Robe (56-1125M)
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E-1
I was talking with the pastor. I said… I asked him yesterday to call
me; and I come to find out, I just… All day long there was no calls,
and I thought, "Well, wonder what's wrong? Something's… Everything's
so peaceful." And after while Sister Wood come up with a handful of
calls; my phone had went out. So if any of you had called… The phone
rings, but it wouldn't echo in there; so the trouble was down at the
switchboard. They fixed it about eight o'clock last night, or maybe a
little before that, and the phone… The calls are coming through now.
E-2
We're happy to be in this service this morning. I got an awful cold,
that usually I get when I come home. Wade around in snow up to your
waist, and sleep out at night, never think of it away from here, but
just cross that hill there at New Albany is all you have to do is get
in this valley, then I got a bad cold. And it's… I don't know;
there's something right in the valley here that keeps us down, and as
low, and it just don't agree with me at all.
Now, we're happy to be at the church, as I said, and to be hearing our
dear good pastor offer his word of petition for us, and–to the Lord
Jesus. And–and to hear… Sad to hear so many sick and needy, and how
the devil is on the rampage making everybody sick.
And–and a little lady raised up about her sister back there. And I
know Sister Sires down there, was with her. The doctor sent her home to
die now. And she still believes she's going to be healed. And she's in
a serious, very serious condition, my mother-in-law, the same way.
Seventy years old now, she's in very bad condition. And certainly a lot
of sickness around the country. And then there is a Holy Spirit around
the country (You see?) that heals our sickness, if we can only find
favor with Him.
E-3
And now, being that my throat is sore, not sore, but it's raw, and I'm
not going to try to preach but just speak to you awhile from the Word,
and then go into praying for the sick, which I'd promised to do. But
just before doing this, I would like to announce some more meetings.
I… In my services I have had kind of a little opposition of, not
opposition, but just a little misunderstandings. And many times I–I
don't have that outlet to my service as–as many of the other brothers
on the field has, such as radio, and television, and magazines, and so
forth. And in doing so, why, someone'd say, "Brother Branham's to be
here."… Now, I'm advertised in three places for this week, just
today, three different places: One down in Kentucky, two in California,
that I know of. And there's nothing you can do about it, 'cause I
haven't got any other official outlet; so it makes it kinda hard.
E-4
And if there happened to be someone from down around Madisonville,
Kentucky, here, I was announced to be down there last week, and I
didn't know nothing about it. And I come home, and–and they had
announced it, and the brother that did it by the name of Ethings, I
believe that was his name, with all good faith he did it. He called me
and asked if we could just drop down to–to be a blessing and get a
blessing from his people. And he called; I told him to ask Brother
Moore. Well then, I had to leave. I told him I had to leave the same
day. Well, Brother Moore failed to let anyone know. And when… Or let
me know or let my wife know. So I was up in Idaho and just come back
and the meeting was on. So–so I seen during that… It can't make
arrangements from Louisiana for things that's going on here. So I just
took over the arrangements myself, to make my own arrangements for the
meetings until my meetings has… I just kindly…
Oh, I don't know, I think confession's good for the soul, don't you
think so? I just been too dilatory about these things. And just letting
anyone anywhere just haphazardly let it go. And I find out it doesn't
pay. After a long time you put… You have to have some system to it.
E-5
And now I am trying to make the arrangements, and I–and I'm going to
see Mrs. Arnold. I… There's a man here in Louisville that's been very
good when I was having meetings here. And his name is Brother Durvan.
And he wanted a–a night or two service. I'm going to see her little
Teddy, I believe Teddy Arnold, for some time this week.
And then the coming Saturday and Sunday, if I can, the Lord willing, I
want to be down at Madisonville. They had twenty-five, thirty ministers
out there, all of them setting there, come for some, one of them just
six, seven hundred miles. Well, no one there, so… wasn't there… And
no fault of my own, but I just– it just through misunderstanding or
neglecting to call him. I'll try to be down there next weekend, the
Lord willing.
Then on the fifth to the sixth, I'm in Brooklyn, New York. And then
from… Then on the 14th, 15th, and 16th in Parkersburg, West Virginia,
just made those two arrangements last night and this morning. Now,
Charlotte, South Carolina, is just on the list, but I don't know. Then
the holidays… [Blank.spot.on.tape–Ed.]
Then we go over to the west coast, which they're fixing a–a big
auditorium meeting. Now, these are–are little meetings like in high
schools and things like that. The one over there on the west coast is
going to be two cities, a joint city, a meeting of Oakland and San
Francisco.
And then, the Phoenix delegation, being that Brother Roberts can't be
there this year, I'm to kinda take his place down at Phoenix in the–in
the whole Maricopa region meetings. That's a union effort. And pray for
me, because I–I need it. And I realize that every time faith sets
itself up, the devil turns every gun in hell right on it like that. You
see? So it makes it pretty hard.
E-6
So this morning to pray for the sick… Now, we want to read some of
God's eternal Word, and speak just a few moments from the Scriptures,
and then have prayer for the sick.
Oh, how I love to talk about Him, don't you? I just love to talk about
Him. Now, I want to read out of the Bible: II Kings the 2nd chapter,
the 12th verse, a portion of it.
And now, for a way of text or subject, I want to speak on "A
Secondhanded Robe." So may the Lord add His blessings as we talk to you
this morning. And you be in prayer for us.
E-7
During this time of the reign of Israel in the land, Israel was a
nation. And it was a mighty nation, and it was kind of a peaceful time
among the military part of it, but in the–the spiritual part of it, it
was kinda a–a time of–of impersonation. And if we look back into the
Old Testament, we can always find examples of what's going on today.
Always in the Bible the things that are now are just the antetypes of
what was at the beginning.
Now, the book of Genesis produces everything that's in the world today.
There's nothing in the world but what didn't begin in Genesis, for it
is the beginning. In there started every ism. In Genesis started
everything that started. And the true Church started in Genesis. And
the false believers started in Genesis. And the indifference started in
Genesis. Genesis was the beginning.
E-8
And now, during the reign of Elijah, or the pilgrimage of Elijah here
on earth, which was God's prophet for the hour… And God has never
left Hisself on the earth without a witness. God has always, somewhere,
some place, had a person that He could put His hands on and would stand
for a witness. So if He's did that down since Genesis, the beginning,
surely somewhere God has a man that He can lay His hand now. For
He–He's… It's more than one man now; He has many men that He can lay
His hand on, because we're coming down to the–the gathering time, the
harvest time.
Genesis was a planting of the seed, and these six thousand years has
been the maturing of the harvest; and now the seed has become a seed
itself. It's went back to the blossom and from the blossom to the–to
the fruit. And it's the gathering time now, harvest time, all the great
things that started. The true Church that started in Genesis has come
down to the fruit time, the fruit of the Spirit. And the antichrist
that started in Genesis is come down to its fruit. And we're just in
the closing time of this world's entire dispensation, the–of the
mortal being.
And we're… It's the greatest time that anyone, or that any age ever
lived, is this time. It's a shaking time. It's a troublesome time for
sinners. But it's a marvelous time for Christians, because we know that
we are–are packing up, or gathering the last little efforts together
to go home and meet the Lord. Now, people today as you look around and
see the great trouble and distress facing the nation, where…
E-9
A few nights ago I was talking to someone, was one of these here
lookout agents that watches, and they said, "Brother Branham, we were
just instructed by the government never to advise people anymore to lay
down by… away from the window on the floor if the bomb hits, or never
to go into a basement, because this new bomb that they could radio
guide from Moscow to Fourth Street in Louisville and hit right on the
street; shoot it up, it's got target things in it, that explodes it,
takes it so many thousands, so many thousands, guided it by the stars
and radar, and drop it exactly on Fourth Street in Louisville from
Moscow, Russia. And when it would hit there, don't have to…?… and
use the plane nor nothing, just shoot it off here and it'll land right
there. And it will blow a hole in the ground of the area… the depth
of a hundred and seventy-five feet for fifteen square miles either way
it goes: fifteen square miles."
There ain't nothing to do but get ready to take a flight upstairs, is
the only thing to do when them times come. Just think, they can shoot
fifty of them or a hundred of them at one time if they wanted to. It'd
all be over within the space of, I believe it's a sixty or eighty
minutes, or sec–seconds, rather, from there to here, to the entire
annihilation of the whole thing would take place. There wouldn't be
nothing left between Louisville and Henryville, and between Louisville
and–and Bardstown, or down in there, but one hole in the ground with a
bunch of dust laying in it; that is all would be left, besides the
areas it would go out and burn for miles and miles and miles beyond
that. And while one's a dropping there, another one's dropping over
somewhere else to meet with it.
E-10
I'm so glad that we have a shelter. "The Name of the LORD is a mighty
tower: the righteous run into it, and are safe." No matter how many
bombs, or how many anything else, we're safe there. So the world and
the sinner not having this shelter, or this safety place, it's a
shaking time. I believe if I wasn't a Christian, I'd go crazy, to
thinking of what might happen at any time. And with a house full of
little kiddies and everything, I wouldn't know what to do. But I'm so
glad that I can stand in my house and introduce to them a shelter that
no bomb could ever touch, or nothing else. Under the protecting wings
of the Lord Jesus. "Not by power, not by might, but by My Spirit, saith
the LORD." See? That is our protection.
And what a great, glorious time it is to know that all sin and
struggles and trials of life will soon be over. It'll all finish one of
these days, and we'll go home to be with the Lord. Now, what's left is
a time to preach the Gospel and to bring in to this great tower as
much, as many as we can.
E-11
And then, as we see the pattern of our lesson today, of Elijah during
his reign, he–or his pilgrimage on earth, why, he was a great, mighty
man. God was using him in mighty ways, with mighty power. And we find
out that during this time, there was a group of impersonators who tried
to impersonate Elijah, who tried to do the same things Elijah done. And
so we find the same thing today: impersonation of Christianity, people
who try to act like Christians, who try to make themselves Christians.
You can't do that. God has to do that. See? He's the only One Who can
do it.
So they formed a school and called it the school of the prophets. And
they all went up to the school of the prophets and they educated them.
And I could imagine all those preachers up there wearing the same kind
of coat that Elijah wore. I can imagine trying to impersonate him on
his voice, the way he spoke, and–and way he presented himself,
everyone trying to do the same thing, because Elijah was a great man
used of God.
And we find the same thing today. I was listening to the radio
broadcast not long ago; they got Billy Grahams all over this country
since Billy was in Louisville, everybody trying to impersonate the same
thing almost: comb their hair the same way, and–and wear the same
thing, and same kind of voice and so forth. But you can't do that. You
just got to be who you are and what God made you to be. That's right.
And so we find how that perhaps in them days the same things took
place.
E-12
Now, God seeing, foreseeing that Elijah's days were numbered, that he
had so long he could stay here on earth (as everyone has), so He was
going to have a successor to Elijah. And when He did, God called this
man. He wasn't in no seminary when He called him. He was plowing in a
field with a yoke of ox, doing the service, or taking care of his
mother and father. And God called him to be the successor of Elisha, or
Elijah. Perhaps many up at the school thought they was sure to do,
going to be his successor, they was going to wear his robe as soon as
he was finished with it. But God does the calling. God does the
choosing. God does the electing. God does the setting in order.
God has set in the church, some apostles, some prophets, some teachers,
some evangelists, and pastors. God does that Himself. We cannot make
one hair black or white; neither can we add one thing to our statue by
taking thought. God in His infinite grace, and by His election, and His
foreknowledge sets these things in order, and every wheel works just
right. I like that. I would be a discouraged man this morning if I
didn't believe in the election and calling of God.
E-13
If I thought that this world was left to the outcome of it, by the
power of man, and by the wisdom of man, and by the big fours and the
U.N.'s, and who never even mention God's Name, I'd be a discouraged
person. But I'm not looking to that for the outcome. I look down in the
pages of this old book here, where God wrote it out, and everything
will come just exactly the way He said it, and that's all. So the only
thing for me to do is not line up with them, but line up with Calvary,
line up with God, line up with His Word, stay in His Word. No matter
how much it looks like it's going to be that way, it's going to be the
way God intends it to be. It can't be nothing else. For Him, being
infinite, knowed the end from the beginning, and He makes everything
come to His praises. That's right. All things will have to work
together. Everything will have to shape right up to its place.
My, if that wouldn't make the courage in a Christian. Nothing can go
wrong. After all, it's not our Bible; it's His. It's not our wisdom;
it's His. And the only one thing we have to do is put our faith and
trust there, and set still and see the glory of God. See how it moves
around to its place, and every wheel move in it. It may be scattered
from side to side, but it'll move right into its right place when God
speaks the Word. He knew the end from the beginning. He knew who He was
going to choose. He knew Elisha would take Elijah's place before the
world was ever formed. Everything has to work just exactly right.
And we're worried about our loved ones and so forth, will they ever
come in? Their names, if they were written in the Lamb's Book of Life
before the foundation of the world, they'll work right in there; that's
the only thing it could do. We give witness and shine the light; God
does the one that brings it to them.
E-14
Now, notice in Elijah. Then after he threw his robe on him and tried it
on him… In other words, Elijah the prophet, who had the mantle of God
on his shoulders, he came down and laid it across Elisha, the farmer,
to see if it would fit him. And it taken about ten years to get altered
to fit that mantle. You know, God usually puts us in the shop and trims
us up. Now, He didn't alter His robe to fit Elisha; He altered Elisha
to fit the robe. And that's what He does today. He alters us to fit the
robe, not the robe to fit us. Sometimes we want to make the robe fit
us. But we can't do that. You've got to let–be altered yourself for
the robe. It's God's robe and He made it perfect. And we've got… He's
got to bring us into that realm to make the robe fit us.
So we can't be perfect ourself; we know we can't. There's no way for us
to be, and yet He said for us to be. So, but what He did, He made
appropriation for us, the Lord Jesus Christ and His righteousness.
That's where the perfection comes of ignoring our own holiness, of
which we have none, and our own thoughts which ought not to be, but we
rest solemnly upon the finished work of the Lord Jesus. God sent Him to
the earth, and it was in Him that we rest.
E-15
Notice, all these years, as far as we know, he just had that one
baptism of the robe going over him. But through the years God had
molded the man's character into a place to where, after he was called,
that he would fit into the robe and be the servant of the Lord. And
then when Elijah passed through and throwed it on him, and they started
up towards Gilgal, and many of the other places, they went on to the
school of prophets, on their road, journeying on. And finally Elijah
was trying to get Elisha to turn back. Did you notice it? Trying to get
him to turn back, said, "I… Otherwise maybe the road's a little too
steep for you, son. Maybe it's a little too narrow for you to walk."
You know where Elijah was, was straightness. And wherever God's true
servant preaches the Gospel, it's a straight, unadulterated Gospel,
where it's preached.
E-16
Well, one day he went up there to the school of the prophets to visit
them, and they asked him to leave. They said, "It's too straight around
here for us." What we need today is some more straight Gospel preaching
that'll separate the wheat from the chaff or the right from the wrong.
Make what's right right and what's wrong is wrong. All these fellows
with their experience, and all that they were, they sent out to get
something to eat, and one of them got a wild vine, and gathered some
wild gourds and cooked up some death in their ecclesiastical pot. And
the first thing you know, they cried out, "There's death in the pot."
But Elijah, with a double portion knowed what to do, so he put a
handful of meal in the pot, said, "Now, go right ahead and eat it." In
other words, they'd…
E-17
Today in a type I would think that we've got a lot of Methodist,
Baptist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Pentecostals, and everything else, all
mixed together; one's fighting against the other. And we don't need to
oust the whole thing and do away with it; we need another handful of
meal. Keep the same church. The meal was from the house, or the school
there, which was the meal offering that the people had brought in; and
the firstfruits of the harvest which was grounded a certain burr that
made every grain of meal the same.
And then, when this meal being the same, was a type of Christ. Meal is
life. And when the type of Christ, the meal, being ground up, the same
meaning, Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever… And the
meal and the meal offering… And when they put this meal into there,
putting Christ into death brought life. That's what makes the
difference. In our dead form, in our differences, in our ecclesiastical
arguments and everything, if we would just bring Christ into it, it
would change death and separation into life, if we would just do it.
There's nineteen million Baptists in America. There's thirteen million
Methodists in America. There's eleven million Lutherans in America, and
ten million Presbyterians in America, and God only knows, how many
Catholics, which outdo any of the denominations. But in all of it, what
do we need? A handful of meal. We need to bring Life to the church. And
Christ is the Life. He came to bring us Life.
E-18
So they had their disputes and their schools and their theo–theologies
and so forth. And then Elijah told Elisha, "You better turn back,
because the way may be a little hard." But a man of God who's once
faced it, or been throwed across His shoulder, the robe of God's
righteousness and power, it's not too easy to turn back.
When I heard the pastor say this morning that our… Many are becoming
discouraged. What we need brother is take courage. What we need is to
be encouraged. And it's right. Trials may come; we never was promised
to be immune from them; but He will give grace to go through them. If
the mountain's too high to go over, too deep to go under it, too wide
to go around it, He will give grace to go through it. That's right.
Just don't worry, but keep your eyes on Christ, for He's the only one
that can take us through.
E-19
Now, we see him as they journey on, come to the school. And he said,
"You stay here now. Be here and settle down and be a good teacher of
theology, and so forth. And you probably someday may become the dean of
the college here. But I've got to go on down a little farther." Could
you imagine a man of God being satisfied to be a dean of a college when
the power of God laid right around where he was standing? No, sir. He
said, "As the Lord liveth, and your soul liveth, I'll not leave you." I
like that. Stay with it no matter how much discouragement comes from
your mother, your papa, or from your pastor, stay with him.
E-20 On to the Jordan they went. They crossed over and Elijah said, "Now, what will you that I do for you?"
He
said, "A double portion of your spirit to come upon me." He knowed he
had a work to do. He said, "A double portion," not just a good warm
experience, not just a good handshake, or a good fellowship with the
rest of the church; but what I want is a double portion of what's the
best now.
I tell you when God sets a man for a world task, he's got to have
something better than the world's got. He's got to have something
better than the church has got. He's got to go for a double portion.
And if there ever was a time that a double portion is needed, it's
today in the realms of the people. Something better, something
higher… I…?… I think beans and corn bread is very good, but
sometimes I have to reach up a little higher. And we do that. We've got
to. We got to keep climbing. Israel was backsliding if they kept
staying on the same grounds. He's got to be moving on or moving back.
That's the way the church is.
E-21
So as they went along, it wasn't but a few minutes until he said,
"You've asked a great thing; but nevertheless, if you see me when I go,
you can have what you ask for."
Now, that has to be singleness of motive, singleness of heart,
singleness of eye, keeping your eye on the promise. If you're sick this
morning, if you're afflicted, there's one great promise, not by Elisha,
but by God Himself. "If thou canst believe… When you pray, believe
that you get what you ask for and you shall receive it." No matter what
the doctor says, how much this goes or that goes, keep single on the
promise.
Elijah give him a condition. "If you see me when I go, it'll come on
you." There's a promise. "If thou canst believe, all things are
possible to them that believe."
E-22
Sometimes I look at myself and think I've been such a jellyfish in my
life. I have waited and missed many thousands of souls into the
Kingdom, because I've waited and said, "God…" depending too much on a
spiritual gift, and said, "Lord, if You'll just show me, and if You'll
give me a vision what to do." And God give the vision, then I'll turn
around let somebody talk me into something else. And, oh, I have never
come to the spot yet, until I–like I have at this time, that I feel
it's a faith, that we must step out there, because it's a promise. And
the things that He has done, and the healings that He has performed,
and the miracles, even so much as come down and have His picture taken
by the side of us, and so forth, which has never been known since the
world began. And then stand around like a jellyfish, it even makes me
discouraged with myself. It's time to keep your eye on the promise. And
that's what, by God's grace, I aim to do. And I realize that every
devil of hell will shoot at it. But by God's grace, I aim to keep my
eye on the promise.
E-23
Elisha said, "If you…" Elijah said, "If you see me when I go, you'll
have what you ask for." That's right. You got to keep your eye on it,
watch the promise. Now if…
What if from the school, did he turn back and say, "Hey, boys, how am I
doing now, following right along behind the prophet?" He'd have failed
maybe. But he didn't care what the school thought, or what all the
teachers thought. He didn't care what the neighbors thought, or the
houses, or who looked at him. He kept his faith in the promise.
What we need today is faith in the promise of God, and don't pay no
attention to what this one says or that one says. As a brother said, "A
minister had two girls that were mutes. And that their… criticism on
Divine healing. That the children could not be healed." Don't pay no
attention to the critics. Keep your faith on the promise. God said so.
"The prayer of faith shall save the sick, and God shall raise them up."
If He can make one deaf mute to hear He can make another deaf mute to
hear. We know by infallible proof that He does that. Keep our faith on
the promise, our eye single, our ear single, our heart single, and one
thing on Jesus Christ; and He's able to perform that which He has
promised. Oh, when we think of that, it changes the whole scene, when
we get that.
God made the promise. God was the one that said it. Now, here was God's
representative said it. And now God Himself has said it. Then what can
we do? Nothing but keep our mind on that.
Said, "If you see me when I go away, you can have the promise." Elisha
kept his eyes on Elijah. No matter what hollered from each side, what
taken place on each side, what taken a place before, back, he never
even looked at it; he kept his eyes on the promise. There you are. Your
eyes on the promise…
I think of the lady that we visited the other night, Sister Styler, and
the doctor telling her how bad she was. And never told her, told the
loved ones, and how impossible it be for her to ever get well. Now,
brother… Her son-in-law asked me about it. I said, "If she can keep
her eyes on the promise…" No matter what takes place, keep your eyes
on the promise.
E-24
A few weeks ago, Sister Wood here, and Brother Wood, two bosom friends
of ours here at the church. I was in Michigan with my friends Leo and
Gene. We left the Chicago meetings and went to some of their people
to–for two days to go deer hunting with bows and arrows. And on my
road back, my wife had got a hold of me, and she said, "Pray for Mrs.
Wood's mother. A cancer that is eating off her face." And said, "I have
never seen Sister Wood so alarmed; she's weeping."
Sister Wood has always been a hero of faith since God healed her boy
with a crippled leg, and healed her with TB, and so forth. But she'd
given down. There at the room that night we prayed. Coming in Mrs. Wood
said, "Brother Branham, we'll go over…" And we went to her mother,
which was in Louisville. And she'd had a cancer on the side of her
nose. And the doctor had tampered with it, scattered it to just a
little ring the side of her nose and up just about a eighth of an inch
from her eye, just the bone laying there, just eating it just as fast
as it could eat away.
E-25
Go into the room and I knelt down; I said, "I want to speak to her
alone." And I goes into the room to pray with the woman. And while in
the room, I thought, "O God, if You'll just show me a vision of what's
going to happen to the woman."
Mr. and Mrs. Wood setting on the outside waiting to see what the vision
would say… But while I was there, I got condemned. I was condemned by
waiting for a vision; seemed like something referred back, "Wasn't the
calling. What do you need a vision when the promise is already been
said." So I knelt down and prayed. And while praying something just
answered on the inside, the faith of the promise.
Come back out and Mrs. Wood, when I told her about it, she said, "Did you see anything, Brother Branham?"
I said, "I never exactly seen anything, but I felt something that told
me that His promise was true, and He was going to do it. And I believe
that He's going to do it."
And in less than twenty-four hours the end of that cancer begin to
break away and a scab form over it. Cancers don't scab as you know,
less its dead. So there it was now, and the woman is healed and home.
What a wonderful Christ. By keeping our eyes on the promise, God said
so…
E-26
But when we are prayed for sometimes, we go off and say, "Well, it
wasn't done just immediately, so maybe we'd better go back again." Oh,
no. Keep your eye on the promise. God said so; that settles it. That's
all of it. If God said so, God's able to keep His promise or He'd never
make it.
Abraham called those things which were not as though they were, and for
twenty-five years stood on the impossible, because he counted God was
able to perform what He had promised. Amen. And we are the children of
Abraham by faith. Certainly Elijah kept his eyes on–or Elisha on
Elijah.
E-27
And as they went on… And after while the chariot come and parted
them, one to one side and the other. And then the… He picked up
Elijah upon… He stepped on the chariot and went up and put his robe
off his shoulders, and threw it back to Elisha, because Elisha had
growed into it (You know?), so it'd fit him right. And could you
imagine…
Oh, I want you to give me your undivided attention, as I feel my throat
tickling. I want to ask you something. Could you imagine how Elisha
felt when he picked up this robe, placed it upon his own shoulders. Oh,
what a feeling.
E-28
I don't mean this to be personal, but about ten years ago from the
pulpit here, I preached on a sermon, "David, the warrior, with a sling
in his hand and Goliath before him." In them days there were no healing
campaigns on the field, nowhere as we knew of. And, oh, how critical
people were on Divine healing. But there was something, after meeting
with a Being.
And the pastor told me that I was losing my mind, that it couldn't be
so, But from this same box here, I spoke on David said, "Do you mean to
tell me that this, the armies of the living God, will let that
uncircumcised Philistine defy this army?"
A little old stoop shouldered, curly haired boy with a sheepskin coat
on and a sling shot in his hand, with the whole army of Israel standing
backed up, and he alone walked out, with a man with a–with a spear
some nineteen feet long and a… And the–the thing on the end of it
weighed several shekels, maybe twenty pounds of steel sharpened, a
nineteen foot spear; with fingers fourteen inches long. And David
probably weighed ninety pounds, and stood bouncing up and down like a
little bandy rooster… "And then you mean to tell me (Oh, my.) that
you'll let that uncircumcised Philistine, if he stays in his place let
him stay, but he's defying the armies of the living God. Oh, my, what a
hero.
E-29
"And all of you are afraid to go fight?" Said, "Let me have him." Oh,
my. He said, "The God of heaven let me kill a lion with this sling
shot. He let me kill a bear with this sling shot. And how much more
will He deliver that uncircumcised Philistine into my hand." Certainly.
And when the first victory was won and Goliath was downed, the whole
armies of Israel followed David. And they chopped heads, and beat
Israel–or beat the Philistines plumb into their own land. They backed
them into the corners, and slaughtered them, and took their cities, and
everything. They had the victory.
Brother and sister, the same thing has been done in the realms of the
nat–supernatural when they said, "Divine healing cannot work. The days
of miracles is past." If the days of miracles is past, the days of God
is past. The church that don't believe in supernatural will finally die
and God will leave the church, have to. And God gave a promise and
God's promises is eternal.
E-30
Here some time ago when some girls was fooling with radium, and would
dip it and paint the radium hands on–on–on the watches… I have some
on this one. And a girl made a mistake and took the brush and stuck it
in her mouth. It killed her. And years and years later they took a
microscope and put it on the skull of that girl, and they could still
hear that radium going on, "Burr, rrr, rrrr." It's endless. It keeps
working on and on. There's no stopping to it.
And, oh, brother, if radium has that kind of an effect, endless, how
much more will the endless, eternal, supernatural, all powerful, all
infinite, almighty God. He has to have the same effect as He started,
He has to have it all through, or He's not the almighty, all powerful
God. He's still waiting for somebody with a burly faith that'll step
out and challenge the enemy on the basis of His Word and say that it's
so.
E-31
And now, what happened? As soon as the great healing campaigns started,
then thousands of soldiers of God's men, who laid back in little
churches, like Oral Roberts, Tommy Hicks, and many of the other
outstanding men on the field, pulled their swords and away they went:
this Sword that cuts both coming and going, up and down, in and out, a
discerner of the thoughts, even to the marrow of the bone. They pulled
their Bibles (their swords), walked out when they seen that it could be
done, and we beat the enemy by the grace of God, till the whole world's
had a healing revival. Be done…
Little pastors, who had little two by four churches and so forth,
caught fire and seen the vision, jerked the sword and went forth and
defied the enemy. How do you know it'll work? There's great men,
Congressman Upshaw, King George of England, and many great men who lay
sick and afflicted are healed by the power of Almighty God. So they
can't say nothing about it now…?… Certainly. He was…
E-32
Then when Elijah, after his whole heart's desire was to get that
promise. He wanted the promise. That was his motive. That was his all.
That was his life. That was his intent. Everything, all, everything
hung on getting that promise. I'm persuaded to believe that we're not
sincere about this thing that we're talking about. If your whole
motives this morning rests upon giving God praise for my healing…
"I'm determined to be healed by the power of God. I'm determined to
live a Christian life. I'm determined to walk in peace with God. I'm
determined to do it. I don't care what mother says, what church says,
what pastor says, what anybody else says, what the world says, I'm
determined. That's the singleness of my heart." You're going to get
somewhere then.
Then when Elijah saw that he was determined, to get… Elijah–Elijah
saw that Elisha was determined; he gave him the promise. Now, the
promise was, "If thou can see me when I go, if you can see me when I
leave…" Now, it's left up to Elisha. He wanted to hear the promise,
so he's got the promise. Now, there's an if in it. "If you can see me
when I go."
Now, if you're sick this morning and you want to be healed, I can prove
to you Christ gave you the promise. The promise is yours if thou canst
believe, if thou canst believe. Don't be defeated.
E-33
Now, Elisha wrapped in the robe of Elijah, the prophet… What a
conqueror's march, how he walked treading ahead as a conqueror. He had
heard the promise. He felt the power. He was walking like a warrior
right down to Jordan. Praise be to God, friends. Every believer this
morning that's robed in the righteousness of Christ is walking towards
the Jordan road. That's right. Let atomic bombs come. Let it…?…
You're robed and walking as a conqueror. Amen. I… "Fear not, I have
overcome the world." Yes, sir. Remember, what? "I have overcome the
world." Christ said that.
Elisha was walking with a secondhanded robe on, feeling like a
conqueror (Correctly.), coming through the Jordan. Brother, let me say
this in respects to you. Don't you put on somebody else's robe that's
all moth-eaten with doubts, where all these defeats, and superstitions,
and ups-and-downs has put holes in it, and it leaking all through. You
put on the robe of the Conqueror, Christ. Don't trust in your church
who once taught salvation by the baptism of the Holy Spirit, who once
taught Divine healing, and now deny it, all eat up with the moths of
doubt and everything else. Put on the robe of Him that never lost a
battle, for you're on your road to Jordan. Amen.
E-34
Now, he had on a secondhanded robe; that's true. And many of the people
this morning has secondhanded robes on. But when he come to the Jordan,
he realized that the robe alone wouldn't do the work. That's right. And
the church, the Methodists, the Baptists, the Pentecostals, the
Presbyterian, oh, we have schools, and, my, we have all the ethics of
the Bible down pat. We've got all the woven robe all right, the
promises. We've got it all. Oh, we're baptized, go down, and we're very
apostolic. We have on the apostolic faith. We believe in Divine
healing. We believe in God. We believe in the powers of God. We
baptize, in the Bible, the way the Bible says. We've received the Holy
Ghost. We've spoke in tongues. We do all of that.
But, brother, if that's the only thing you need, you'll find your lack
too when you come to Jordan. Oh, you may be taught; you may be smart;
you may have a D.D., Doctor of Divinity. You may have a Ph.D., Doctor
of Philosophy. You may have L.L.D., Doctor of Latin. You may have all
kinds of degrees. You may have the robe of Methodist church on you. You
may have robe of Pentecostal church on you. You may have the robe of
Assemblies on you, or the Oneness, or the Trinitarians, or whatever it
might be. It's only a secondhanded robe to begin with (That's right.),
some manmade dogmas been thought up, so forth like that.
E-35
And even if you have been a Christian, and the Church has been a
Christian, and robed correctly… But when Elisha, standing out,
conspicuous to a whole bank line full of prophets and critics, seeing
what he would do… And here he come walking with Elijah's robe on. Oh,
my. He's schooled otherwise; he's educated; he's submitted; he
believes. There's nothing wrong with him. He's coming down to the
Jordan. The world's a watching him.
O God, how we need that today. With many schooled and educated
scholars, with many men who can tear that Bible apart and set it
together in mathematics… Many men who can do great things in the ways
of teaching, who knows Bible history to the very moment, Who could tell
you the hour that hell was lit and the hour it went out. They can tell
you all these things. And they're–they got the water baptism. They've
got the spiritual baptism, as they call it, the robe. They got
everything just set in order. So did Elijah.
E-36
But when he come down to the Jordan to face the critical world, what
did he cry? "Where is the God of Elijah?" It wasn't the robe of Elijah
that done it. It was the power of the God of Elijah that done it. And
the thing the world needs this morning is the power of the God of
Elijah. You might have spoke with tongues and shouted and run over the
floor, but what we need is the power of the God of Pentecost to produce
the lives and things that was lived in that day in the apostolic hour.
A secondhanded robe was all right, but he needed a fresh call in his
heart from God. He needed a fresh anointing from God. He wore a
secondhanded robe when he come to the river, but he needed a brand new,
first-handed call from God. And a first-handed power from God to
perform the miracle.
E-37
And my brother, don't you be afraid to ask God anything. You must
demand God, or ask God for anything that He has promised. For if I am
introducing a God that's omnipotent and all powerful, and if I be a
servant of God, I must do the works of God. And if I do the works of
God, I must be man of God to bring these things to pass, because He's
demanding of me to produce the impossible. I have to ask Him. I have to
call upon Him and stand there and say, "God, You promised it"; so do
you, every person.
"You shall receive power (Acts 1:8) after the Holy Spirit is come upon
you." After the Holy Spirit is come upon you, after you're robed as a
Christian, after your faith is set in Christ, then you shall receive
power. There you are. Yes.
And, brother, sister, every one at that morning… May I say this
before praying for the sick, may I say this, by God's help, you pray
for me as I stood ten years ago at this platform preaching on David and
Goliath. Now, it isn't that Goliath that's hindered me. God has slayed
him before me. But the thing that's hindering me is the lack of faith,
the lack of something that I knowed was around. And this morning before
this little tabernacle again, I'm screaming, "Where is the God Who gave
this promise? Where is the God Who met with us yonder? Come forward,
God, and give me a courage, give me a strength, and give me a
determined mind, regardless of what comes or goes, whether it looks
dark, or whether it looks, whatever it looks like, move on; the promise
is true."
E-38
Brother, sister, one of these days… To you sinner friends here this
morning, and to you people who are trying to impersonate Christianity,
you may belong to church. That's very fine. I have nothing to say
against that, nothing against your fine, scholarly education, or
against your theology. I have nothing against that. But, oh, where is
the God?
It wasn't Elijah after all. It wasn't Elijah who opened up that river.
It wasn't his robe. Elisha took it from his shoulder; he folded it just
the same way that Elijah did. But when he begin to kind of wave it,
there was no power there. Then he cried, knowing that God was
somewhere, "Where is that God. Where is He?" Then something must have
struck the prophet, for he waved that robe and struck the waters, and
she opened hither to thither. And before the clergy of that day, before
the critics of that day, he walked across the Jordan just like Elijah
did before him.
E-39
We don't need the teaching; we have that. But we need the God of
Elijah. We need the power of the God of Elijah back in our church, the
power to make us hold there, and call God's Word right, regardless. And
we're every one here this morning, that's human beings, on our road to
Jordan. And when he came to Jordan… You're going to arrive there one
of these mornings, or one of these nights. When he came to Jordan, he
was walking as a conqueror. But when he came to Jordan, that was a
difference. He had a secondhanded robe on; another man had wore it. But
it was a good robe, and he knew what the man was that wore the robe.
E-40
Brother, sister, one of these mornings I got to come down to Jordan. I
was thinking this afternoon. We're going down to Brother and Sister
Wright's. Don't forget that; this is their golden wedding anniversary.
I'm to leave the church here, going to have a–a dinner with them. I
was thinking the other day, fifty years. And I see them both well aged
and stricken down. I thought, "Yes, I'm forty-seven years old; they was
just married three years before I was born." Forty-seven, I'm marching
towards Jordan. I've got to come down. I've got to get there. I'm going
to arrive there. It may be an accident on the road. I may drop from the
air in a plane. I may be shot through with a devil's dart somewhere and
die. I don't know how I'm going, but there's one thing I know: I'm
going. But I'm walking towards Jordan. But when I get there, I want to
know one thing, that I've got a secondhanded robe on too. I ain't
trusting in mine, 'cause it's no good.
For as soon as Elisha picked up Elijah's robe, he tore his into pieces
and threw it down. And that's the way it was when I found Christ. I
tore my own self up, my own ideas, my own nonsense, my little petty
things. And I thought when I was a little Baptist preacher I was just
about as–I was somebody. But I tore it out. I put on His robe. And
when I come to Jordan, I want to find myself wrapped in His robe. He
will follow that. And we'll arrive there one day. So let us pray just a
moment.
E-41
Heavenly Father, as we're on our Jordan march this morning as
conquerors, and someday we got to present something to the Jordan;
that's to death. And, oh, what a horrible thing it'll be, a separation
from God. We can't cross over. No. But Elijah when he got there, he had
on Elisha's robe–Elijah's robe. And when he took off the robe, the…
Elijah, the man who had been well pleasing in Your sight, and You had
accepted him and brought him up into heaven with You. And Elisha was
wearing his robe, so he presented to the Jordan, death, the robe of
Elijah. And it was accepted, and the Jordan opened, and he walked
across.
Dear God, someday we got to come down. We can't present our good works;
we have none. We can't present anything in the world. I don't even
desire anything to try to present, but I trust wholly in the merits of
Jesus. You accepted Him and raised Him from the dead. And He was
brought into the Presence of God and there it will abide forever. And,
God, I want to present that to You, that I believe on Him. And I love
Him. And by grace He has clothed us with His robe.
And I pray, Father, that You'll help us now in the days of battle. And
where the man of God must do the works of God, I pray that You'll let
us take the robe of Christ, the power of the Holy Spirit, and call for
the God Who lived in Him. Grant it. In Christ's Name we ask it.
E-42
And while we have our heads bowed, I just wondering here this morning
if there's a person who's trying to walk down to Jordan without this
robe on. If there's a person who has not the robe of Jesus Christ on
you, and though it was wore one time by the Son of God, I wonder if you
don't have that on this morning, if you'd raise your hands to God and
say, "Dear God, this hour I now want to accept it." God bless you,
lady. Would someone else would raise your… God bless you, son.
Someone else will just raise up your hand? God bless you, little boy.
God bless you, young man. Someone else to raise your hand? God bless
you back there, sir.
E-43
Just say it, "By God's help this morning, I want to forsake my
self-righteousness, my own ideas, and my thoughts of pleasures and big
time and sin that I've lived in. And I want Christ to put His robe on
me this morning, that I'll use His robe. I know it's a perfect one."
God bless you, son. Someone else, saying, "I'll just raise…" You
raise your hand, say, "I now want to accept the Holy Spirit in my life.
I want to be robed in His righteousness. When I get there that day, I
won't present myself and say, 'Well now, you know, I bought somebody
some coal. I did this.'" That's nice, that's very nice. For that,
something had to die for you to live. And only through the act of that
can you be saved. Will you raise your hand, say, "Christ, I now forsake
my own ways; I accept Your ways. I want You had mercy on me when I come
to the end of the road"? God bless you, lady. God bless you. All right.
Now, we're going to have prayer.
E-44
Now, righteous heavenly Father, some seven, eight, ten hands has went
up. I do not know their status. Thou knowest all about them. I do not
know. But they're in need today, and they realize that they're in need,
and they're willing to come and accept help in a time of trouble, to
see the–the great hour that's at hand now, the atomic bombs, the great
things that's waiting for us.
And I pray, Heavenly Father, that You will bless these people, and
today lay Your hand upon them and take away all their iniquity and
doubt. And may they throw away their old moth-eaten robe of
self-righteousness where the cankerworms, and the crickets, and the
moths of superstitions and churchanity has eat holes through it and
they… It won't hold any longer. May they just throw it away and reach
over and get the robe of the Lord Jesus, say, "I trust in Him. I wrap
myself, not in my righteousness or on my own thoughts, but from this
hour on I'm trusting You." Grant that they'll receive it, Father. For
we ask it Christ's Name. Amen.
