I'm going to ask you to turn to
1 Kings, please.
1 Kings, and chapter 18.
Now, if there's a little coughing during my
speaking, rather than to ask you to excuse
me each time, could I just give you
a blanket request now?
Just excuse me, OK?
But I'm in good company, because there's a
number of others that I'm sharing the same
affliction with.
1 Kings, chapter 18, verse number 3.
I realize that the first speaker in the
afternoon can be challenging.
I'm reminded of the words of what C
.H. Spurgeon said on an occasion.
He said that he had listened to messages
whereby he had discovered that sleep was a
kindness of nature.
Then he went on to say, you know,
brother, he's not done yet.
He said, I really feel that some preachers
would be judged correctly if in heaven they
had to sit and listen to their own
ministry.
And I've gone into homes, and they've had
a tape or CD going, and I've been
speaking, and they shut that thing off.
Shut that off.
I can't stand my own voice alone.
So bear with me.
1 Kings, chapter 18, and verse 3.
And Ahab called Obadiah, which was the governor
of the house.
Now Obadiah feared the Lord greatly.
Verse 5, and Ahab said unto Obadiah, go
into the land under the fountains of water
into the brooks peradventure.
We may find grass to save the horses
and the mules alive that we lose not
all a beast.
Now verse number 8.
And he answered him, I am.
And go and tell my lord, behold, Elijah
is here.
Now he's saying this to this man Obadiah
that, of course, is living in King Ahab's
palace.
Verse 9, and he said, what have I
sinned that thou shouldest deliver thy servant into
the hand of Ahab to slay me?
So you see he's just a little jaded
at that.
Down to verse number 19.
Now therefore, send and gather to me all
Israel unto Mount Carmel and the prophets of
Baal 450 and the prophets of the groves
400, which eat at Jezebel's table.
Now over, please, to chapter 19.
Chapter 19.
And verse 18, for the sake of time.
Verse 18, I'll just reference to passages that
I will not take the time to read.
Verse 18 of chapter 19.
Yet have I left me 7,000 in
Israel, all of these which have not bowed
unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not
kissed him.
So he departed thence and found Elisha, the
son of Shaphat, who was plying with 12
yoke of oxen before him.
And he with the 12 and Elijah passed
by him and cast his mantle upon him.
And he left the oxen and ran after
Elijah and said, let me, I pray thee,
kiss my father and my mother.
Now notice these words, and then, and then,
I will follow thee.
And he said unto him, go back again,
for what have I done to thee?
And he returned back from him and took
a yoke of oxen and slew them and
boiled their flesh with the instruments of the
oxen and gave unto the people and they
did eat.
Then he arose and went after Elijah and
ministered unto him.
Now, we'll go back to Numbers chapter 20,
please.
Numbers chapter 20, Exodus
chapter, or rather Numbers chapter 20 and verse
25.
And stripped Aaron of his garments and put
them upon Eliezer, his son.
And Aaron shall be gathered unto his people
and shall die there.
And Moses did as the Lord commanded.
And they went up into Mount Hor and
the site of all the congregation.
And Moses stripped Aaron of his garments.
Now, this is his brother stripping him of
his garments and put them on Eliezer, his
son.
And Aaron died there on the top of
the mountain.
Moses and Eliezer came down from the mount
and all the congregation saw that Aaron was
dead.
They mourned for Aaron 30 days, even all
the house of Israel.
And we'll go to a final reading of
1 Samuel chapter 18.
1 Samuel chapter 18, just before the kings,
for the sake of young believers here that
may not be familiar with your Bible.
1 Samuel chapter 18, verse one.
And it came to pass when he had
made an end of speaking unto Saul that
the soul of Jonathan was knit with the
soul of David and Jonathan loved him as
his own soul.
Saul took him that day and would let
him go no more home to his father's
house.
Then Jonathan and David made a covenant because
he loved him as his own soul.
And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that
was upon him and gave it to David
and his garments, even to his sword and
to his bow and to his girdle.
And David went out with us over Saul
sent him and behaved himself wisely.
And Saul set him over the men of
war and he was accepted in the sight
of all the people also in the sight
of Saul's servants.
That will suffice for our reading.
What I would like to speak on this
afternoon at the opening of this ministry meeting
is the transferal of garments.
Transferral of garments.
Now just stay with me and I'll try
and make it as simple as I can
to you what we're talking about.
I want you to notice the first case
that we read about here is the mantle
of a man by the name of Elijah
going to another man, a younger man by
the name of Elisha.
I would suggest that at the initial in
chapter 19, chapter 19 of 1 Kings here
is really what I would call too much
too soon.
Because if I had taken time to read
with you when we get to 2 Kings
in about chapter two, you would find that
he receives it again so he must have
given it back.
Too much too soon.
When we come to the second one that
we read about, here is a really it's
a sad scene.
Now I know that I don't want to
spoil anything you've enjoyed about this mountain scene
but must have been awful hard for a
man like Moses with a man like Aaron.
Two of those men coming from that great
noble family that they came from with their
sister Miriam to simply trudge their way up
that mountain knowing what was going to take
place.
And a brother actually strips his own brother.
Takes his own hands, takes those priestly garments
off of Aaron.
We'll put them on his son Eliezer.
I would suggest to you that that really
isn't too much too soon but that is
really what at least what I have called
too little too late.
Too little too late and we'll come back
to that.
There would have been something of value if
Aaron simply could have disrobed himself and passed
them to his son.
Now I'm not being hard on Aaron today
and there's many, many commendable things about Aaron
but just think of that for a minute.
Last that we have when we come to
David and Jonathan is what I call enough
at the right time.
There was just a juncture in David's life
when he needed what Jonathan was passing to
him.
And there was so much tension in the
palace, so much friction between Saul, so much
jealousy, so much nonsense going on.
Here comes a man that is so devoted,
so loved by David.
I mean as Mr. Moody used to say
that David came back from the battle with
the head of the giant and with the
heart of a Jonathan.
With the head of a giant and the
heart of a Jonathan.
He loved him as he loved his own
soul.
And to show that love, to demonstrate it,
here is a man, you know what he
does?
He takes off what was closest to him,
what was so personal and he will actually
transfer that to David.
What's to say concerning David after that takes
place?
Behaves himself wisely.
Now there's a real contrast here.
If you think of Elisha coming from the
house of Shaphat which I take was a
wealthy home, he was likely dressed pretty good.
And it's kind of, now he's gonna take
Elijah's garment?
You just saw Elijah's garment, none of you
fellows were to wear it here this afternoon.
No, sir, guarantee.
After all, something that would be, so it's
really kind of a step down.
But now here's David, he comes from the
house of Jesse.
Poverty, nothing too much is said about the
clothes of David.
Somehow I've linked them to the clothes of
the Lord Jesus because David is such a
beautiful type of the Lord Jesus.
And now here is really a step up
because now here is a rejected man, just
a poor boy coming from the house of
Jesse and he's now going to wear kingly
apparel.
I mean, Jonathan would be dressed in accordance
with the family that he came from.
Now what I'm drawing from this is a
truth that really has been, I've been working
on this winter a bit.
In fact, I've been working on it long
enough that I'm not going to butcher it,
trying to cramp it into too few minutes
as I sometimes do, but I will watch
that clock and try to be a good
boy like our brethren were this morning and
keep within somewhat of our time, but you
can allow me a little bit.
First of all, let's come to this man,
Elijah.
Hadn't been easy days for Elijah.
I would say that in reading this and
studying this, you know what's rankling him a
little bit?
I'm out here taking it in the cheek.
I'm out here getting my nose rung.
And here's this man of all things Obadiah
and he's in the house of Ahab.
He's got it good.
Why am I taking the fall of all
this?
Why am I taking this heat?
No, he never says that, okay?
He never says that, but deep down in
his thinking, that was it.
Because you're noticing as he goes down the
chapter and he meets Obadiah, and I mean,
we read those words that he feared the
Lord greatly, there's things commendable about him.
And that's why Elijah is saying, I'm the
only one here.
I'm the only one that's left.
God says, what are you talking about?
I have left me 7,000 that have
not bowed their knee to Baal or kissed
him.
And this man Obadiah had taken those 100
prophets by 50s and had hid them in
the caves and so on.
So there was commendable things about him.
But he is a little bit nervous when
Elijah comes to him and says, listen, listen,
you go tell that Ahab who's here.
He's, wait a minute now, you put my
neck on the line?
No, no, I'm gonna do that.
His words, what have I sinned that thou
shouldest deliver thy servant into the hand of
Ahab?
And so he simply backs away from him.
I'm just giving you that kind of a
background to think of the man himself.
Because here's a man as we were hearing
this morning that gets into a very bad
case of being despondent in actual depression.
Only once in my life, only once in
my life did I ever try to speak
on discouragement or depression.
I had about five believers come after and
they said, listen, all due respect, you don't
know a thing about it.
Do they know that?
Are they sure about that?
Don't be too sure.
I mean, on the front, watch this man
running in front of those chariot, in front
of the chariot ripping down the road, one
minute.
The next he's running from Jezebel.
You know, God gave this man exactly what
he needed.
Elijah, exactly what he needed.
Because you know what was coming up?
That the man that thought really he was
the only one left, he's gonna leave his
work.
He's gonna pass it to a coming generation.
He's gonna pass it on to another man.
But you know what he needed?
God gave him a divine provision by which
he was refreshed.
Refreshed, I love it.
What did he give to him?
First of all, you'll notice that he gave
him it.
It tells us right in chapter 19 that
first of all, he gave him a wafer.
We say it was a cake bacon.
Would you allow me to stick with the
alliteration?
It was a wafer for this afternoon.
And then he gave him something else.
He gave him water, a cruise of water.
And notice that when he gave him the
wafer, it wasn't a cold one either, it
was a warm one.
It was baked on coals.
But you know the best of what he
got?
He got a whisper, he got a whisper.
Just something from the Lord, just a whisper.
And I wanna tell you, when it come
personal experiences, as we were hearing this morning,
sometimes that's all you need, just a whisper
from him.
That's a small voice.
Because what's coming up for this man Elijah
is not gonna be easy to take.
So the first of all, there was a
divine provision by which he was refreshed.
There was a presence by which he was
reassured.
I'm here, I'm here, I am here.
And then last of all, there was a
divine purposes by which he was going to
be replaced.
And that brings me to what really is
before me this afternoon, and it is the
transferal of these garments, of this mantle rather.
When we come to chapter 19, okay, he
is told, there's a king he's going to
anoint.
And now he's going to find a young
man by the name of Elisha.
And this man, by the name of Elisha,
that he is going to go, he's going
to be one that's going to be anointed
by the prophet because he is actually going
to take his place.
I want you to notice where he found
him.
He found this man plowing with 12 yoke
of oxen.
Now that would have been a family operation.
And you think that he would kind of
lead the pack and say to the rest
of the guys, say, wait a minute now,
I'm the boss here.
You boys in the back.
Okay, I'm dad's boy.
I'll take my share of the oxen, but
no, no, no.
Notice where he takes, he takes the lowest
place.
That's what it tells you right here at
the end of chapter 19.
That when he finds him plowing with the
12 yoke of oxen before him and he
with the 12 and Elisha passed by him
and he cast his mantle upon him.
Must've been quite a shock.
I would suggest to you that the father
of Elisha was one of those that had
not bowed the knee to Baal.
God had blessed them.
Wait a minute, I don't know a lot
about oxen.
I could tell you a few things about
farm tractors, but not oxen.
But you'd have to have a fair amount
of grass to feed the oxen.
Well, how come no grass hunt?
How come the King Ahab personally is out
with Obadiah doing the grass hunt, looking for
the grass?
Well, what does Ahab say?
Well, you gotta save the mules and we
gotta save our beast.
So they're on a grass hunt.
And here's a man in touch with God.
He's not out in some kind of a
grass hunt.
He likely had more than enough.
12 yoke of oxen, I'd say that's a
big operation.
Do you already saw?
I know enough about this that in plowing,
you have a future that's before you.
And when things were so dark and things
were so dismal and the nation was in
such a condition, here's a young man and
he's not sat down and said, listen, we're
giving up.
We're giving up, we're quitting.
Here's a man out and he's going at
it.
But you say in the midst of a
famine, how can he do it?
Well, it wasn't so much what he knew
about plowing with oxen, but he knew God.
That's the secret of this man, Elisha.
Very commendable man.
He's out there and he's working away, like
I say, it was family duties, farm duties.
David was the same.
When God's looking for a man to do
his work, not to be too hard on
you, he's likely not gonna go to Florida,
look underneath some umbrella, say, I think I
use this boy.
He's gonna look for somebody that's committed to
duties.
You remember what David's brother will say to
him, who did you leave those few sheep
with?
Come on, you're back to your sheep.
You look after that.
Do they realize who that man's gonna be?
Who David is going to actually be?
Their king?
Joseph, what's he doing?
Same thing.
Tending the sheep, looking after them.
Now here's a man and he's committed to
family responsibilities.
I would say that anybody, anybody, I'm not
talking just strictly overseers.
Anybody that's gonna lead God's people in any
measure is somebody that understands the responsibility of
family duties.
I say, it's not my house, it's dad's.
Good.
Do you appreciate it?
What do you mean?
You're telling me that you're 28 years of
age and you haven't paid a week's board
yet?
Who else is spoiling you?
I say, boy, that's rough.
Some facts.
Here's a man that understood this.
Here's a man that God's gonna use.
This man, Elisha.
And so he's going along, he's plowing.
My, what a picture of the regathering of
the nation.
12 yoke of oxen.
You know, I'm sure there were those from
the palace of Ahab that would have gone
by and thought, what on earth is he
doing?
What is he doing?
It would be just like last summer when
you're trying to conserve all that moisture and
some boy's out there with the hair on
the disc and the dust is flying.
You say, what is he thinking?
His thinking was right.
That there is going to be a future.
Brethren and sisters, there's going to be a
future.
Now, that future is being passed to younger
hands.
Now, my challenge this afternoon is this.
I'm not saying, do we have them?
We do.
I'm looking at the faces of a number
of young brethren and sisters, young couples, recently
married over the last few years here, right
in this area of Iowa and in Wisconsin,
and to your hands, it's falling a mantle.
But you say, you told us this was
too much, too soon.
It was, it was, because you're going to
go through like the period of 10 years,
I think, from first to get the second
Kings chapter two, and he must have given
the mantle back.
Good for him, good for him.
You know, he didn't go home, put it
in the thing where you store the clothes
and say, well, I'll keep that, future day
come along, I'll get this farming looked after,
I'll look at it, I've really killed the
oxen, I've boiled them, and I'll get a
few things attended to, no, no, no.
You say, what do you do with the
10 years?
Well, if you go to chapter two of
the next book, what's it tell?
He's pouring water on the hands of Elisha,
or Elijah, rather.
Elisha's pouring water on the hands of the
older prophet.
You would think he would say sometimes, and
I actually left what I was doing to
do this, yes.
But this is too simple.
Anybody could do it.
That's where he was wrong.
Do you hear that, brother?
That's where he was wrong.
Not anybody can do it.
You say, I never get any appreciation, and
I taught Sunday school, and nobody ever has
thanked me, and you know, anybody can do
it, dear brethren or sisters.
Sorry, some places it's not against the law
for sisters to teach Sunday school, if you
don't mind me.
Did you ever go and thank them?
Did you?
Let me speak to Sunday school teachers.
Not anybody can do it.
Not anybody can teach your class.
You can.
And if the brethren have been trusted by
God's help, you with that job, you understand
the value of it.
I look back and think of things that
I learned at Sunday school, and I appreciated
them.
But I want to tell you, what a
wonderful thing, and let me speak to those
my age called grandparents.
It's not nice to look at all those
grandchildren and see them going, oh, my God,
they're going to a Sunday school and hear
the word of God.
Do you understand today?
Not too often, there's some of us that
have grandchildren, thank God ours aren't, and they're
going to a place so different than they
were brought up, where they're drawing pictures and
they know nothing of the Bible.
So we value that work.
Not anybody can do it.
So Elisha, understand not everybody can do what
you're doing.
You're gonna be a man that God's gonna
use, you're gonna understand the value of just
pouring water in the hands of Elijah.
You say for 10 years?
He's prepared to do it.
I mean, go through all the training people
that God used in the Bible, just pouring
water in his hands.
I mean, look at David's mightiest.
The three you'll always remember were those that
broke through the ranks of the Philistines, and
what did they go for?
Water for David, and when he got it,
what did he do?
Poured it out on the ground.
You say, what was that all about?
Well, they honored David.
They loved David.
They just gave it to David saying, David,
whatever you do, whatever you, it's yours.
It's yours to do as you like.
Remember David would say himself to the Lord,
of thine own have we given thee.
And so now if we were to come
to the end of chapter two, here's a
man, this man, this good man, Elisha.
He's come up now and they're, they're at
the Jordan, interesting place to be.
And the sons of the prophets, of course,
you know, they're telling him, what are you
doing?
You're a master, he's going.
Well, what are you hanging around for?
You know who the sons of the prophets
are?
Those are the learned boys that had all
the answers, but didn't know one of the
questions.
But what did they have the answers?
Well, you ask them, they'll tell you.
They could make Greek stand on his head.
But if you ask them something simple, they
wouldn't know.
I mean, just look at them.
Now, if they weren't all, do you know
the best they ever became?
Notice the change in these men under the
influence of an Elisha.
Oh, they're not going to get too close
to this, to this man that's ready to
depart.
It's just they stood a far off to
view.
In other words, no mantle for them, but
we'll see what happens.
There will be people like that in the
brethren, excuse me, people like that, the assembly,
you know, you delve into something and you
think this thing can go north or south
or whatever way it's going to go.
And there's others, oh no, no, no, no.
You go yourself, boy, if it doesn't go
right, I don't even know you.
That's Peter Orszag used to tell me, he
used to make some visits sometime when they
were a little dicey.
He's a mechanical, he says, if this goes
bad, I don't even know you, okay?
So that moment comes, what happens?
There he is, right in the spot.
Days of pouring water in the hands of
Elijah are past.
And up he goes, up he goes, floating
down comes that mantle.
And he grabs that mantle.
And boy, the language, you have to take
time, excuse me, go over to 2 Kings
chapter two, just for the sake of connection
here.
2 Kings chapter two and verse number 11.
And it came to pass as they still
went on and talked that behold, there appeared
a chariot of fire, horses of fire, and
parted them both asunder.
And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into
heaven.
And Elisha saw it and said, my father,
my father, the chariot of Israel, and the
horsemen thereof.
And he saw him no more, and he
took hold of his own clothes, and he
rent them in two pieces.
And he took up also the mantle of
Elijah that fell from him and went back
and stood by the bank of the Jordan.
He took the mantle of Elijah that fell
from him and smote the waters and said,
where is the Lord God of Elijah?
And when he had also smitten the waters,
they parted hither and thither and Elisha went
over.
Elisha went over.
You see, at that moment, do you realize
where that prophet was caught?
He found himself on the wrong side of
a Jordan.
He found himself on the wrong side of
the Jordan.
He's got to get back to serve the
Lord where the Lord wanted him.
Yes, back to Gilgal, back to Bethel, back
to Jericho, but he's here at the Jordan.
And he takes that mantle and he smites
the waters and they part.
It's interesting.
You know where he started?
He started right where the older man left
off.
Are you prepared to do that, brother?
Or have you got the mentality?
That was them.
They are so backward.
They're so old fashioned.
Oh, oh, well, I want to tell you
something.
If you don't mind personally today, I said
at our Easter conference at Bridgewater, a large
conference, I only wish that I was passing
to a coming generation, testimony in the condition
of which it was passed to me 35
years ago when I moved to the Maritimes.
I'm afraid I haven't, brethren.
This man starts right there.
What was the secret to it?
The secret was to keep his eye on
a man that was soon going to go
up.
And so he keeps his eye on a
man as he is going up, it says.
And when I take that over to Acts
chapter one, there's a beautiful connection.
In Acts chapter one, what are they doing?
It says they look steadfastly.
They look steadfastly as he was taken up
from their midst.
When you go to Acts chapter two, the
people are looking up steadfastly in chapter one
or continuing steadfastly in chapter two.
They continued steadfastly in the apostle's doctrine and
the fellowship, the breaking of bread and prayers
and so on.
So understand the two go together.
The secret to this is, brethren, not keeping
our eyes on each other, but keeping our
eyes on an ascended man.
What is it that allowed Stephen to go
through what he did that day as they
picked up those stones or they stoned him?
His eye was fastened on a man in
glory.
Acts chapter nine, the conversion of the apostle
Paul.
Who does he see?
Nothing but a vision of a man in
glory.
The eyes on an ascended man, transfixed, if
you like.
And that mantle comes floating down.
Now it's the same mantle.
I don't believe you got another one.
I don't believe that Elisha had the other
one stored.
I believe it was just a little too
soon at the time.
And he did the proper thing.
He just gave it back to him.
I know we have no verse.
Be easy, brethren.
I know we have no verse that says
that, but you can't give me a verse
either that says he tucked it under his
arm and hid it somewhere in the attic.
Not there.
But now we come to a different scene
10 years later.
A different man, and a man's about to
leave, and up he goes.
And now here's a man and notice that
that training he got with Elijah was indispensable.
You know what I would have done, naturally
speaking?
I would say, just give me 10%
of what that man has.
Just 10%.
10% will do me.
10% is all I can handle.
No, he says.
He wanted to double.
He wanted to double what he had.
You say, that's greedy, isn't it?
No, you know what that is?
That was exercise.
Now, it's not that we start off, but
we need, we need double.
And whatever those men of a former day
had that stood on this platform and that
went before the saints of God, there isn't
an overseer here today to argue with me
or a fellow preacher either, that we don't
need the double, that we need that mantle,
that we need to keep our eyes on
an ascended man.
Now, I'll come very quickly to the second
one that we read about back in Numbers
and chapter 20.
Here's one.
As I say, it was an interesting day.
They, you, something to watch that, maybe I
got too much imagination, but I watch Aaron
and he's trudging his way up that mountain
and he knows this is the end.
But you know, the old man goes up
the mountain.
Notice it's not the young man that goes
up the mountain with those priestly garments on,
which were very, very heavy.
And I don't know whether Eliezer carried them
down or wore them down, but I know
this much.
Saw Eliezer going down the mountain and wasn't
going up.
Took the old man to go up.
Took the old man to lead the way.
I often wonder what took place.
They stand there looking at each other for
a while.
I think they would have embraced.
Somehow there was something between them.
I know there's the issue of Miriam.
I know there's the issue of the leprosy.
I know there's the issue of the calf,
but you can't tell me those two brothers
didn't embrace.
When that was done, it says that Moses
stripped Aaron of his priestly garments right in
front of his own son.
It's not an easy day when older men
that have had the responsibility for years have
had to have been stripped.
They just didn't see.
They just didn't understand.
Hey, there's an Eliezer here.
I know he'd already lost two boys, Nadab
and Abihu.
They didn't get occupied with their graves, but
there's an Eliezer.
One of the three.
Now he's gonna wear those priestly garments.
And there's something very just heart-wrenching about
those words that they stripped Aaron.
The man that wore the garments of glory
and beauty.
The man that went before the people day
in and day out.
The man that heard the murmuring and the
complaining of the people of Israel and so
on.
And now, excuse me, before them, they are
going to be stripped.
But to Aaron's credit, what did he do?
Well, I'll tell you what he did.
And I'll tell you what he didn't do.
I don't read anywhere in here, and I
look them very close, and I don't read
anywhere that he left them any funds or
any farms or any future.
But do you know where he left them?
Priestly garments.
Priestly garments!
Now let me go one by one down
through this audience.
Where do you leave in your young men
today?
Would you mind a personal reference to a
93-year-old man that happens to be
my father?
I used to have a funeral in Toronto
two weeks ago, Mr. Fred Hammesinger's funeral.
One of the brethren from the Langstaff Assembly,
Mr. Harry Klingin, if you want to know
who it was, it was my brother-in
-law, picked me up at the airport.
I don't think we'd gone a mile.
Well, he says, Murray, I'm going to tell
you something.
Your father still worships God on Sunday morning.
And physically, physically, he can't walk 100 feet.
But those legs will lift him off that
bench to worship God.
Mr. Klingin went on to say, went on
to say more than that, the freshness, the
freshness.
I thought bringing forth fruit in old age.
No, I mean it with all my heart,
okay?
I know nothing of wills or whatever.
That meant more to me than if the
executor of his will said to me, your
father's left you X number of dollars.
I mean it with all my heart.
I mean it before God.
When he left Garneville, brethren told me the
same thing.
When he left down in Hickory, North Carolina,
Stan Moorer told me the same thing.
You know what that did?
That humbled me.
Priestly garments.
Watch that man worship.
When the assembly was very, very small, he'd
worship on Sunday morning, give out a hymn,
have to give a word, sing with the
children.
There were others to do it.
Preach the gospel Sunday night.
You know what I did realize at that
time?
In my foolishness, he was passing, he was
passing to his sons priestly garments.
Didn't have to be strict with him.
Last one is, it's a delightful one really.
Now I know you can get up here
and say, you know, Jonathan, he gave David
his robe, his garments, his sword, his bow,
his girdle, but he didn't give himself.
Oh?
You're gonna tell me that if you were
there, you would have done different?
Are you?
You're gonna tell me that you would have
done different than Jonathan?
Well, then you're a better man than Jonathan.
I sure am not.
But this was just what David needed at
this time.
This wasn't the highest point in David's life.
Listen, David was a man given to discouragement
and depression, as was Elijah.
Let me speak to believers here.
I'm glad I don't think, they're my own
relatives that beat up on me that time
I tried to give a word of depression,
so you'll forgive me, okay?
I haven't forgiven them.
But anyhow, I'm telling you, here were, Elijah?
Elijah?
Who was a better prophet in the Old
Testament?
Never had a book named by him or
Elisha.
Who was a better one?
More used of God.
Hard to find.
Think the miracles that he did, the power
he demonstrated.
Was there a man that ever suffered more
from depression than him?
No.
David, Israel's great king.
Was there anyone that got lower than David?
If there was, he would have given you
the Psalms, not David.
Jonathan, just at that moment, just at the
right time, he would take all of his
Ezekiel, I don't know if he wore what
David, the son of Jesse was wearing.
He wouldn't have worn it.
I wouldn't have either.
I don't know those boys of mine would
never have worn it.
Would have been much.
But clothes were a big ticket item to
David.
There was better things than that.
That wasn't what he loved.
You know what he loved?
He loved God.
Isn't it wonderful to love God today?
And the result of that is that he
will just simply peel that off, strip himself
of all this, and he just passes it
to David.
There was a love that was confessed.
There was a love that was compensated.
There was a love that was crowned.
So let me just gather these things together
and it's this.
At the Bridgewater conference, our Easter conference, three
weeks ago, I went over to Robert McElwain
and I said, I've never been so glad
to see you at a conference all my
life.
He stepped back.
He said, well, McCandless, this doesn't sound like
you.
I said, what's up?
Robert knows me and so does Mr. Hall.
He said, what's up?
Well, I said, too, you arrived.
I was the oldest man here, but I
feel a whole lot better.
Oh, he said, for any sake.
Brethren in Stout, it seems like yesterday when
I sat in your conference in the old
hall and those older men, if they're not
gone, they couldn't do it today, I'm sorry
to say.
And I'm not sure I've cut the mantle.
I'd like to.
I'd like to serve.
I will never be better than them.
That was the lament of this man.
He'd learned he wasn't better.
In other words, for a while, maybe he
thought he was till he discovered his own
weakness and his own inabilities.
Nevertheless, even though it was too much too
soon, there came that day when this man
that didn't give up in spite of what
the sons of the prophets are telling him
and everything.
In that moment, floating through that air came
the mantle of Elijah, which he grabs ahold
of it.
And what the words are used there, wasn't
he just kind of took ahold of it
and thought, well, I'll do this act and
this is it.
No, no, no.
He took ahold of it as if never
to let this go again.
Now, brethren and sisters, that's the way to
take ahold of divine truth.
That's the way to take ahold of testimony.
It isn't necessarily taking ahold of it in
a verbal, personal way that you're gonna do
this.
No, it's before God.
These men that we've read about are humble
men.
They're men that God used mightily.
So like in every generation, we live in
the transferal of garments.
God help us to wear them appropriately.