I invite you tonight to turn to the second book of the Bible. Second book of the Bible, we have for some time been working through the book of Exodus. And tonight we come to Exodus chapter 35 and we will read through verse 7 of chapter 36. Last time we gave consideration to the Sabbath regulations here in the first three verses. I want to just back up to the beginning of verse 35. Our text will be verses 4 of chapter 35 through 36, 7. This is the word of the Lord. Moses assembled all the congregation of the people of Israel and said to them, These are the things that the Lord has commanded you to do. Six days work shall be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death, shall kindle no fire in all your dwelling places on the Sabbath day. Moses said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, this is the thing that the Lord has commanded. Take from among you a contribution to the Lord. Whoever is of a generous heart, let him bring the Lord's contribution. Gold, silver, bronze, blue, and purple, and scarlet yarns, and fine twine linen, goat's hair, tanned ram skins, and goat skins, acacia wood, oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil, and for the fragrant incense and onyx stones and stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breast piece. Let every skillful craftsman among you come and make all that the Lord has commanded, the tabernacle, its tent and its covering, its hooks and its frames, its bars, its pillars and its bases, the ark with its poles, the mercy seat and the veil of the screen, the table with its poles and all its utensils and the bread of the presence, the lampstand also for the light with its utensils and its lamps and the oil for the light, and the altar of incense with its poles and the anointing oil and the fragrant incense and the screen for the door and the door of the tabernacle, the altar of burnt offering with its grating of bronze, its poles and all its utensils, the basin and its stand, the hangings of the court, its pillars and its bases and the screen for the gate of the court. the pegs of the tabernacle, and the pegs of the cord in their cords, the finely worked garments for ministering in the holy place, the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and the garments of his sons for their service as priests. Then all the congregation of the people of Israel departed from the presence of Moses. And they came, everyone whose heart stirred him, and everyone whose spirit moved him, and brought the Lord's contribution to be used for the tent of meeting, and for all its service, and for the holy garment. so they came, both men and women. All who were of a willing heart brought brooches and earrings and signet rings and armlets and all sorts of gold objects. Every man dedicating an offering of gold to the Lord. And everyone who possessed blue or purple or scarlet yarns or fine linen or goat's hair or tanned ram skins or goat skins brought them. Everyone who could make a contribution of silver or bronze brought it as the Lord's contribution. And everyone who possessed acacia wood of any use in the work brought it and every skillful woman spun with her hands and they all brought what they had spun in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twine linen and the women whose heart stirred them to use their skill spun the goat's hair and the leaders brought onyx stones and stones to be set for the ephod and for the breast piece and spices and oil for the light and for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense. All the men and women, the people of Israel, whose heart moved them to bring anything for the work that the Lord had commanded by Moses to be done, brought it as a freewill offering to the Lord. Then Moses said to the people of Israel, See, the Lord is called by name Bezalel, the son of Uri, son of Hur of the tribe of Judah. And he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship. to devise artistic designs to work in gold and silver and bronze in cutting stones for setting and in carving wood for work in every skilled craft and he's inscribed him to teach both him and aholiab the son of ahissamach of the tribe of dan he has filled them with skill to do every sort of work done by an engraver or by a designer or by an embroider in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, or by a weaver, by any sort of workman or skilled designer. Bezalel and Aholiab, and every craftsman in whom the Lord has put skill and intelligence to know how to do any work in the construction of the sanctuary, shall work in accordance with all that the Lord has commanded. And Moses called Bezalel and Aholiab, and every craftsman in whose mind the Lord had put skill, everyone whose heart stirred him up to come to do the work. And they received from Moses all the contribution that the people of Israel had brought for doing the work on the sanctuary. They still kept bringing him freewill offerings every morning, so that all the craftsmen who were doing every sort of task on the sanctuary came, each from the task that he was doing, and said to Moses, the people bring much more than enough for doing the work that the Lord has commanded us to do. So Moses gave command, and word was proclaimed throughout the camp. Let no man or woman do anything more for the contribution for the sanctuary. So the people were restrained from bringing for the material they had was sufficient to do all the work and more. May the Lord bless tonight hearing of his word. Let me just say before I start the sermon, what a fascinating text, isn't it? Didn't you feel that tonight? This section in Exodus is just glorious. And did you feel the contrast of everything that we've been considering here? The book of Ecclesiastes makes very clear that there is a time to build up and there is a time to tear down. We looked this morning at the time to tear down in Jerusalem when the temple all went down. Every stone upon another was thrown down, every single one. There's always wisdom needed to recognize when the Lord is building or when He is tearing down. Isn't that true? There are seasons that come. There's a time that He's tearing down. And when the Lord is tearing down, it should be a signal in a church, in a place, that deep repentance needs to come upon the people. for their sins in judgment God tore down the temple the great temple in Jerusalem when the people had apostatized from the truth remember the doors of the temple nobody even cared to come up for worship anymore sad and they stopped fulfilling the calling for which God had set apart a people in the earth and that challenged us this morning it's no different that if we fail to abandon Christ's great commission in preaching the gospel and baptizing in a word and sacrament ministry, if we abandon that, there is always the real danger if we forget our purpose that just as the church in Ephesus had happened and had a threat from Jesus, the Lord can pull the lampstand out of a church. You know what that means, of course. That a church could go on and sing all of its great songs and the Lord won't be there. It's a sad reality. But then there are times when the Lord is really building. Throughout history, we've seen fresh new beginnings from the Lord. We see this all throughout the Scriptures, don't we? When the Lord was doing something, when He was pouring out grace and restoration upon the people, when the Spirit was really working and stirring the hearts of the people. And the worst thing that could happen at moments like that is for the people, when the Lord was ready to build, to be complacent, to be lazy, when God was ready and commanding that to be done. He was moved in His decree to act and strengthen and give the people, and sometimes throughout history, great moments of restoration. I talked about one this morning with Hezekiah and Josiah. Great moments. Read those moments. It's just remarkable how much they tore down all the idolatry in Israel and Israel was built back up strong. At times he had to give them a swift kick to get them going. That's Haggai. That's the book of Haggai. God had promised restoration when after the 70 years of captivity and judgment, he had promised it and he would again pour out his spirit and the people should have been expecting this and then remember what happened as you open up the book of Haggai. God was bringing, He had brought them back into the land and this is what we read. Verse 2, Thus speaks the Lord of hosts saying, This people says the time has not come that the Lord's house should be built. Then the word of the Lord came by Haggai, the prophet saying, Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses and the temple to lie in ruins? Is it? In other words, you all know how to panel your houses pretty good. And the Lord's house looks like a dump. Thus speaks the Lord of hosts, saying, This people says the time has not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built. Then the word of the Lord came by Haggai, the prophet, saying, Is it time for you to dwell in your paneled houses and the temple to lie in ruins? He's always saying something is terribly backwards in your thinking. you have plenty of time and resource to build your own things. We're not the Lord's house. What we have tonight is a similar kind of scenario. Only God had planned to build a tabernacle. And what is shown to you tonight is something that anticipates, I believe, New Covenant ministry. It's shown to you willing hearts in this project. Did you see how many times that was said to you in the text as we read it? Willing hearts, generous hearts, giving hearts. In fact, it's so wonderful, he had to tell them, stop the giving. It's too much. It's a remarkable moment in Israel's history. I'm not going to be a pastor up here applying that today in the wrong way. Don't worry. I've seen the TV preachers who do that. But I want you to think about the principle that's in front of you tonight, That God had planned to build this tabernacle and what had happened in Israel was a heart of the people, single-minded, unified, and joyful in the project. Full of joy. It's really refreshing after this morning, isn't it? Where the Lord had to tear down and the ugliness of that passage. What this foreshadows tonight is something that we get to enjoy today in Christ's building project. It's Jesus' building project. And it's only grace that will drive us to have willing hearts that want to be a part of this and to want to be here with joy, to want to be here with willing hearts, to want to give with willing hearts. You essentially have three things going on here. You have a heavy emphasis on giving, the kind of giving that is accompanied with a sincere heart, That's the first thing I want to look at here tonight. And I want to begin with the question of how did Israel get here? It's so radically different from what we've just been discovering and learning in the book of Exodus. Well, when you look at verse 4, we see that Moses talked to all the congregation of Israel in chapter 35. And this is the thing he said to the people of Israel. the Lord has commanded. Take from among you a contribution to the Lord. Whoever is of a generous heart, let him bring the Lord's contribution. You have a long list there of treasures that God had plundered Egypt with for them. Remember when they came out of Egypt, they had all this gold and all this plunder that the Lord had filled their lives with on the way to the promised land. They were a rich people on the way. No nation like this people. It was this that they had taken the gold and made the golden calf, remember. This is really important. This was an entirely different moment in Israel's history because what just happened is God said, I'm ready to build now. I'm ready to go. Can you imagine hearing this? In other words, I'm ready to come down and to dwell with you. That's chapter 40 of Exodus. It ends with the glory spirit coming down and the glory filling the tabernacle there in chapter 40. The whole thing, however, had been put on hold. Why? Well, one reason. They had been holding up a giant golden calf calling it Yahweh, having great worship. And God had sent down His servant with the law and there they were worshiping another God. Another God. One they had crafted. One they said, this is your God, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Could God come down and dwell with them with that sin in the camp? The whole thing had been on hold. Israel had fallen into awful idolatry and the question had surfaced. Remember, the Lord had planned to come and dwell among you, but how can he among idolaters? We've been wrestling with this whole Sinai Covenant and looking at all the details of this and is God going to abandon us was the question because remember, he had promised to come down and be with them but then once this golden calf event happened, he threatened to pull the project. In other words, he started tearing it down. What do I mean? 3,000 of their leaders were wiped out, I believe. And he says, I'll start over. An entirely new nation. Moses says, you can't do that. These are your people. Remember Abraham. Remember the covenant of grace. They were not ready. They were not ready for the building project to start because serious sin needed to be confessed. And that was the purpose of the law. What you see, that's what the tabernacle was about. God was building a tabernacle. He didn't need it. The heavens in all places, the Lord fills heaven and earth. The tabernacle was teaching them about salvation. It was a visual of Christ in the wilderness. It was a structure that God was raising up to show them the way that through the blood of a perfect lamb without spot, they could know God indeed was with them. That God was going with them. Now, what we have in this particular section is a people prepared, and I believe whose hearts have been deeply and profoundly affected by the Gospel. It's foreshadowing something for us. God spared them. God didn't destroy them. He gave them grace. Remember that was said. Moses kept appealing to it. You said you give grace. And the Lord gave a great gospel sermon to Moses and to Israel. The Lord God, a God merciful and gracious, long-suffering, abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin. He proclaimed that. and the announcement was that this law the righteous requirements of the law would be met by the lord and we know what that all foreshadowed and what that all anticipated as moses was hit in the cleft of the rock well what begins to happen in the people's hearts this is what i want you to see tonight it's one of the more important sections of exodus because we finally see a people whose hearts have been ready now and been made ready by the lord they're responding to grace finally the whole time he had been demonstrating his deliverance look what he did for him pulled him out of egypt showed all his power nothing but love nothing but deliverance they've been a bitter murmuring complaining reckless idolatrous people never saying thank you once bitterness that's been the people bitter read paul and first corinthians 10 bitter people complaining people always moaning never happy never satisfied not here not in this passage finally and i believe you have a great old testament passage telling you how to respond to grace their bitter angry complaining hearts were replaced with a simplicity of heart in thankfulness to be in the lord's house and in the lord's work you get that their bitter complaining hearts were replaced with a simplicity of heart to love and to be in the lord's work and in his house because look what you read here God begins by saying whoever has a willing heart let him bring an offering it's a test a little bit isn't it who has a willing heart you could paraphrase that whoever here has been moved by grace whoever here understands the love of God whoever here has been deeply touched and understands the great sacrifice that's been made for you to be. Whoever here gets justification by faith alone, whoever here understands the righteousness you need, let him show it in a free will gift. God had just told him to rest. I don't want you out working, I want you to Sabbath. I want you to enjoy in the weekly pattern of rest so that you get to focus yourselves on me and you get to enjoy worship and you get to rest from all of your evil deeds. And after calling them to rest, now he's calling them to be a part of something. To be a part of something beautiful. And what moves me is that God could have dropped a ready-made tabernacle out of the sky, couldn't he? It would have been pretty impressive. Here it comes, look at it. He didn't do that. He doesn't work that way. He's working through the willing hearts of His people. And this comes after receiving grace. I want you to notice verse 20. Then all the congregation of the people of Israel departed from the presence of Moses. And they came, everyone whose heart stirred Him. Notice it's heart. Heart, heart, heart, heart, heart, heart. And everyone whose spirit moved him and brought the Lord's contribution to be used for the tent of meeting and for all its service and for the holy garments. So they came, both men and women, all who were of a willing heart, brought brooches and earrings. This is all the stuff they used to make the calf with. Now look. All the gold. Willing hearts, stirred hearts, giving hearts. There was never the question of, is it 10%? This principle comes out of exactly what Paul picked up on. And I think Paul's reading the Old Testament when he says many things. God loves a what? Cheerful giver. He who sows sparingly, I say, will reap sparingly. He who sows bountifully will reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes where? In his heart. not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work. I know what he's reading. I know what he's reading. He's reading Exodus 35. Hearts were stirred, willing hearts are giving, willing hearts, Loving hearts, responding hearts, and what makes this so beautiful is it's not just money he's after. Look at all the service going on here. Notice the emphasis on the women knit, you can say this today, I hope, knitting and sewing. It's okay. Some of you laughed. It's a beautiful thing. It's a beautiful thing. All the tapestry, all the beauty that went into this. verse 30 god raised up bezalel and filled him with the spirit moses said to the children of israel see the lord is called bezalel the son of uri the son of her of the tribe of judas filled him with the spirit of god uh in wisdom and understanding and knowledge and in all manner of workmanship to design he's putting in his heart the ability to teach too I think I know what Paul was looking at in Ephesians 4. I'll come back to that. The Spirit shows up. Only a few times here we've read in Genesis and now in Exodus a few times, and he's equipping certain men to lead the congregation in the building project. He's equipping certain men. I believe it's fascinating because the people, they had no way of knowing what to do, how to build. You ever feel that in the Christian life? I don't even know what to do. I don't know how to be a part of this. I don't sometimes know what's expected of me. All of you go through that. I know that because when we come in and we talk to new members and we talk about gifts, nobody seems to know what they are. Notice he set apart certain men to teach and to train in that way. well that's pretty close to ephesians 4 he himself gave some to be apostles some prophets some evangelists some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry for the edifying of the body of christ till we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the son of god to a perfect man to a measure of the stature of the fullness of christ and he goes on to say from the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies according to the effective working by which each part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. Again, I can't get Exodus 35 out of my mind now when I read these passages. It's all here. God equips each one of us, and notice that. The larger point being, and notice there are certain men set apart to do the work of the ministry, but then notice how involved the congregation is in this. They're all part of this. You'll notice that he singles out women in verse 25. I love that. The women and the men were given a vital part and the women just as much using all their gifts and their talents. You've got to be clear about that. it took a lot of money and a lot of time to build the tabernacle which paved the way later for the temple. Which in turn was intended to be a blessing for all the nations. So this was a glorious project they were a part of. Think about what they were a part of. God's kingdom. What a moment. In all the darkness of Israel's failures, God was building. You know what's being highlighted? Verse 29. All the men and women, the people of Israel, whose heart moved them to bring anything for the work that the Lord had commanded by Moses to be done, brought it as a free will offering to the Lord. It keeps being said to us, instead of idolatry, it's this. God has given us a local church, hasn't He? God's given us all a local church to be a part of. Everyone here tonight, if you're not a member of this church, you're a part of somebody. Look over the life of the church. Look over what you've known in church life over the years. What have you experienced? I'm sure that if you looked over the course of your church life, because this has been my experience, you've had times of real tearing down and you've had times of real building up. maybe some ministries you were under were not faithful. Maybe the people wanted it that way. Maybe God had a different purpose. We never know the mind of the Lord as to why things go certain ways at times, do we? Sometimes there's tearing down. Maybe there was sin in the life of the congregation that was not confessed and leadership was doing nothing about. The tearing down is an exposure of hearts of the people. And what you often see in times of tearing down is what? Unwilling hearts. A lot of unwilling hearts. A lot of discouraged people. A lot of people not giving. A lot of people untouched by grace. Maybe they're not even getting it. then there are times when God is really building locally. I believe, you can justify this all over the Scriptures, that the call tonight is to recognize these seasons. And I believe that there are fresh seasons of building and blessing. And He's calling all of us to be a part of a giant building project that He has put in place. Like I said, he could have dropped a ready-made tabernacle out of the sky, but he builds through his people. And here's the thing. They had a taste of their sin in the golden calf, in false worship. It produced nothing but strife, division, misery, a joyless, miserable people. But here's a moment of erecting a new tabernacle in unity and in beauty and in peace. And look at it. This is all foreshadowing the time in which you live. I believe that strongly. Why do I say that? Because in verse 2 of chapter 36 we read that God called Bezalel and Aholiab and every gifted artisan in whose heart the Lord had put wisdom in everyone whose heart who stirred to come do the work. And what we read is that the people kept bringing the free will offerings. So much so the craftsmen come back to Moses and say, tell them to stop. We can't handle all the stuff. They're bringing too much. Too much. So Moses gives a commandment. Stop giving. Let neither man nor woman do any more work for the Lord's sanctuary. That should just stun us tonight. That's the intention of that. We have enough. We have enough. What a moment in Israel's history. Here's your motivation for giving yourself to Christ's service. It's because God Himself gave you His Son and gave you His best and forgave you all your sins and your idolatry and your lawless deeds that you continue to do. And this is what happens when the Gospel regenerates hearts. Right here. You know, if you ever go back maybe tonight and read Psalm 110. When it said this, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. The Lord said, send the rod of your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of your enemies. Then it says this in verse 3. Listen, your people shall be volunteers in the day of your power. Willing servants it means. Not forced. Not coerced. Joyful, willing servants to be a part of this. That's evidence of salvation. when christ rules his people will not be forced they will not be held as slaves under the law they will come to him and they will serve him and they will love him as willing volunteers in the day of his power christ people will be joyful christ people will be a happy people christ people will be a giving people. Christ people will be a building people. Worship won't be a chore. We're not canceling evening services. We want to be here. That's what happens when salvation happens. And evidence of tearing down is that our hearts don't even want to worship. And that's why Hezekiah, when he brought his reforms, the first thing he did again was open wide the door of the temple because it had been closed nobody cared it's like the woman who comes and breaks the alabaster flask everything she has a value in this life on Christ's head and everyone says you're wasting Jesus says she gave everything what do you mean that's a gospel memorial right there study it look at it I don't want 10%. Give me your best. Give me a heart. You'll see that point tonight. Why does God invite us to give? Does He need it? No, He doesn't need it. He gives so that you have something to show how thankful you are in all the ways you serve, in all the things you're a part of. But He also wants you to know that He raised the tabernacle, the temple, in the raising of His Son, His very body from the dead And in that body, the church that he is continuing to build is being built all over the face of the world today. That's why we sang that psalm. We gather in this building. It's a place, it's a small reflection in a small place, but it's part of the body of Christ that souls in this corner of the earth may know him, may be built up as living stones, that the kingdom would be advanced. I don't know about you, but I feel that God has opened the storehouses of His grace to this church to give us a place where we can freely worship. An actual building project. Think about it. Why are we doing any of that? Because it's part of a larger building project. That the message of grace would go out and that people would hear about His Son and that the building project, there would be a building of souls. I know the people of Haggai's day were more interested in their paneled houses than they were the Lord's house. But all that's going to burn. Tonight I'm reminded and you're reminded God has been merciful to you. He's been long-suffering. He's been abounding in loving kindness. And He's not holding over your head saying, you give, you give. He doesn't want that from you. It's not what salvation should bring. It should not be, do I have to worship? Do I have to? Do I have to? Do I have to? We need to go back to the Gospel constantly, don't we? I'm not giving you, says the Lord, what your sins deserve. That's what I'm not giving you. And if you're enjoying a fresh season of that love in the ministry of the gospel, you have to ask, how are you a part of that project? What is your attitude to that project? Bitter, still complaining? Or free? Every part of the body does its share for the building up of the structure. A holy edifice. The Lord has you here tonight and I close with these words. It wasn't even a very long sermon. I have set before you, dear church in Philadelphia, an open door. A season of building I'm giving to your church. I'm putting before you an open door. Go through it. Go through it. Amen. Heavenly Father, thank you for teaching us tonight about the joy of being a part of your kingdom and we all confess our selfishness. Starting from pastor all the way through the elders and deacons and bitter hearts that need changed. Thank You for Your building project. Let us be joyfully a part of it. And thank You for what You showed us here tonight of what You're doing in the earth, even when it seems that it's foolish and there's no power in it. We've seen in incredible weakness and frailty and in nothing in this world, You work in wonderful ways. Strengthen this church. Build us up in the truth. Build these things strong, Lord. We've been praying for our Christian school. We've been praying for our seminaries here. The Westminster. Keep these institutions strong in the truth of Your Word. Convicted about what we're a part of. May You be glorified, O Lord, in all that we say and do. Make us willing servants in the day of Jesus' power. In His name we pray. Amen. Thank you.