Exodus 36:1 Then wrought Bezaleel and Aholiab, and every wise hearted man, in whom the LORD put wisdom and understanding to know how to work all manner of work for the service of the sanctuary, according to all that the LORD had commanded.
2 And Moses called Bezaleel and Aholiab, and every wise hearted man, in whose heart the LORD had put wisdom, even every one whose heart stirred him up to come unto the work to do it:
3 And they received of Moses all the offering, which the children of Israel had brought for the work of the service of the sanctuary, to make it withal. And they brought yet unto him free offerings every morning.
4 And all the wise men, that wrought all the work of the sanctuary, came every man from his work which they made;
5 And they spake unto Moses, saying, The people bring much more than enough for the service of the work, which the LORD commanded to make.
6 And Moses gave commandment, and they caused it to be proclaimed throughout the camp, saying, Let neither man nor woman make any more work for the offering of the sanctuary. So the people were restrained from bringing.
7 For the stuff they had was sufficient for all the work to make it, and too much.
8 And every wise hearted man among them that wrought the work of the tabernacle made ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet: with cherubims of cunning work made he them.
9 The length of one curtain was twenty and eight cubits, and the breadth of one curtain four cubits: the curtains were all of one size.
When God raises up a man, He wants that man trained by Him. He does not want men who want to promote some earthly philosophy. We have warned of men like Jack Hyles and Paul Chappell. Jack Hyles is dead. He promoted a form of religion known as “easy believism”. He was a smooth talker and he managed to gather a large following. Baptists are people just like anyone else. If a Baptist is groomed the wrong way, he will not be a blessing to man or God. There are many Baptists out there who are unsaved. They have chosen to identify in a certain way for the specific purpose of corrupting the truth. There are Baptist pastors who are unsaved. The pastor has the authority from God to decide who should be allowed to be a part of the church membership that God has called him to lead. The problem today is that many pastors were not called of God. They followed the same route as politicians. They put together a resume and they came before a board and were questioned. They studied what kind of answers would fly and what kind would not work. They learned how to read the group they are before. They are people pleasers, not God pleasers.
No man can fool God. God has very straight and very righteous requirements for His leaders. Those requirements have never changed. None of those requirements can be met apart from Biblical salvation. None of those requirements can be met through subtlety and deception. God is allowing unqualified men to lead unqualified religious groups. He does not allow unqualified men to lead His true churches.
The key to a godly man is not that he is a Baptist first of all. The key is that the man is truly saved. If he is truly saved, he may be impressed with man for a time, but if he is truly saved, he will have the indwelling Holy Spirit in him. With that Holy Spirit in him, he will discern the difference between a false teacher and a true man of God. Jack Hyles, even though dead, still has a large following. That is a troubling fact.
Paul Chappell is alive now and he also has a large following. He has quite a “machine” at his disposal as well. One of his big areas of danger is his desire to use CCM music, but in a modified manner. In order for him to use that music he must have someone in his group that is listening to that music. They listen to it and like it but realize they cannot use it like that at this present time. Thus they have to modify it and slip it into the church in a more subtle manner. Music is a powerful tool that can be used for good and can also be used for destruction. It is important to be born again and to understand the deceptive and subtle ways of the devil.
II Corinthians 2:11 Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.
In our text, we read that God had prepared the hearts of certain men for a specific purpose. The LORD equips His servants for the work He has for them. Notice in verse 1 that these men were prepared to do all that the LORD had commanded. These men were equipped by God. They were not equipped to look at God’s design and see if they could revise it and make it “better”. Part of God’s preparation of His man is that He impresses upon His man the importance of absolute obedience.
Remember, these men were going to make the Tabernacle and the vessels that would be used on a daily basis for a number of years. This would be a major teaching tool for the nation of Israel all the way until king Solomon would replace that Tabernacle with the Temple.
God does not need us to remodel what He has designed. We cannot improve on what God has declared. Sadly most people are not content with what God has decreed. In fact, most people do not believe that God decreed anything. They believe He made some suggestions and we are still trying to figure out what He said. They say we cannot be sure so we should not be too firm on what we “think” God said.
The fact is that we do not need to “think” of what God said. We can “know” what God said because He made sure that His Word would be copied down accurately. He also preserved His Word for every generation.
You notice in verse 2 that these men heard the words of Moses and their hearts were stirred up by God to do the work that He required. These men received the offerings of the people. They did not skim off the top to build some fancy dwelling place for themselves. They did not look at themselves as something to be exalted. They took those offerings and they began the process of building this magnificent structure.
Notice in verse 5 the problem these wise men encountered. The people were giving willingly every day, and there was much more than they needed. What a wonderful challenge to have.
What is missing today, is that not many people see the value of God’s Word. Most people want entertainment. Thus most churches have the “worship teams”. The preacher needs to be a bit of a jokester. He has to get the people laughing. He needs to be careful not to speak the truth. If he does, he will drive people away. People do not want to hear the truth.
We need to remember that the people were offended with Jesus Christ. In John 6 we read that the majority of the disciples following Him at the beginning of that chapter, left Him by the end of that chapter. They did not like the teaching. They did not want to feed only on Jesus. They wanted some compromised message. Jesus turned to the twelve and asked them if they would leave Him as well. Peter gave the correct answer.
John 6:68 Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.
69 And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.
The men that God chose to make the Tabernacle and the vessels were equipped by God to do the work. It was not that difficult for them to make it. The vessels were quite detailed. That detail was not so that people would worship the vessels. Those vessels were designed by God in such a way that they would point to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Today is the Lord’s Day. It is the day that God has set aside for His people to go to His house in your local area and to fellowship with other saints. It is the place where the “stranger” can come and hear the truth and also witness the effects of the truth on the saints. Every person reading this should be praying for God’s direction in finding a true local church that will help you to know the God of Creation, the God of salvation better. You will never know the true joy of the Lord until you are surrendered to His will. Your soul will desire that. Will you follow the Holy Spirit of God today and learn of God?
Pastor Bartel