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INTRODUCTION

Whenever you need a job done in your house or even in our church it is so important to get a good tradesman for the job. Perhaps we have all experienced the situation were we appoint someone to do a job and they do it charge us and then we discover that the job is not of a particularly high quality. We have probably all had at least one occasion when that has happened to us.

Well God does not make those mistakes when it comes to building his tabernacle for God has taken great care so that Moses will carry out his instructions exactly as he has given them. Moses is to ensure that the tabernacle is built to God's specifications and not to his own. Now I want you to notice in this passage:

1. GOD'S WORK MUST BE DONE GOD'S WAY (vs.1-11)

In chapter 18 Moses selected a number of men whom he judged as capable of being leaders of the people (18:25). But when it comes to building the tabernacle and its furnishings God will not entrust it to Moses instead He will personally appoint the workmen. The Lord said to Moses 'see' (v 1), which means look, pay attention to this matter; see what I am doing. The task of choosing a builder to make the tabernacle was far too important to leave it to the wisdom of mere men even to leave it with someone of the spiritual stature of Moses was not sufficient. No! God would choose the workmen and when God when chose the workmen He did not look around to see who had some natural ability and aptitude for this type of work, just as Moses had done when choosing his leaders.

God specifically called a man by the name Bezalel to head up the building work. When it comes to God's work it is God who calls individuals to His work. God is not looking for a general number of competent workmen to do his work he calls specific people. The A.V brings this out better with its translation of verse 2 "I have called by name Bezalel."

Now God does exactly the same thing today; for God is still interested in the building trade. But He no longer builds physical tabernacles or temples but today He builds his church (which is God's spiritual temple). Remember what Jesus told Peter in that marvellous encounter in Matthew 16:18. Jesus says that on this rock that is Peter confession of Christ "I will build my church." Now notice the personal pronouns 'I' and 'my' church.

It's not Peter's church or anyone else church its Christ's church and therefore He takes full responsibility for his building work. He is in charge of building his church. Now what this means is that He decides who will be in his church; He calls people by name and He appoints them for the work of serving Him in his church.

Therefore you and I do not choose those who are saved and called into God's church. It's a good job too isn't it? For whom would you and I want to be part of our church here? What sort of job description might we place in the job market if we were looking for people to join our church?

Would you have chosen me or would I have chosen you to be in God's church. Highly unlikely, but God by his grace has called each of us by name if we are true believers this morning and He has placed us in his church. We are part of this great building programme that is going on all over the world and the amazing thing is that God has called us by name by his grace. You see there was nothing that attracted God to us; we had no special gifts that God thought would be useful to his church.

We did not live moral lives that so impressed God that he chose us. No! The Bible is clear we are called purely out of God's sovereign grace, before the creation of the world (Ephesians 1:4). Therefore we have nothing to boast about except in the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to this passage from 1 Corinthians 1:26-29, the truth is that God is his wisdom chooses the most unlikely people to be saved the ones that you and I would never think off. But God is in charge; it is his building work and if you are saved this then you ought to thank God for his grace and mercy shown to you. We need to understand that the only reason why you are in God's true church is because God has chosen you and called you by name.

But God did not just call Bezalel and then leave him to get on with the task of building the tabernacle. No the Lord equips him for the task for we read that He is filled with the Spirit of God. God gave him the skill that he needed to do the task through the Spirit.

God never calls anyone who He does not equip for the task to which that person has been called. If you are a Christian then you have the Holy Spirit within you and therefore He will equip and empower you for the task for which you have been specifically called.

That task is to live a holy life (2 Tim 1:9) as well as be his witnesses (Acts 1:8) here on earth. But how are we able to live holy lives in this sin-dominated world and how can we be effective witnesses to others? The answer lies outside of ourselves. God has called us to himself and He grants us his Holy Spirit who grants us his power and gifts to live for Christ in our world. Therefore whatever God has called us to do He has also equipped us for the task.

But notice who is this man Bezalel? Is he some great Priest? No! Is he some great prophet or preacher? No! He is an ordinary man called to be a workman for God. He is filled with the Spirit of God so that he is given the skill, ability and knowledge to do the job (v 3). Now you and I are just ordinary people there is nothing special about us. But if you are a real Christian then you have been called by God and therefore you posses the Holy Spirit so you have all that you need for whatever God asks you to do for him.

We are all workmen seeking to simply obey God in order that his church might be built. He builds the church we are called to do the manual labour. He is in charge we are his workmen but He gives us the power and ability and knowledge to do his work by living holy lives and by being his witnesses in our world.

Now a workman works hard and so must we. Paul urged Timothy "to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed" (2 Timothy 2:15). This ought to be our aim in life; we ought to be hard working Christians seeking to work in such a way that we will not be ashamed when we stand before God. You see when God called you by name unto salvation and when He gave you his Spirit He did so for a purpose. That purpose is to live for him; it is to serve him in this world.

We are saved to serve that means that we should all be very active in working for him; we should all use whatever gifts God has granted to us for the purpose for which He gave them to us. We should always seek to use our gifts in such a way that we give our very best in service to him. Perhaps you think you do not have any gifts or just a few gifts. You might be right but whatever gift you have; are you using it for the Lord?

Maybe one reason why some Christians have so few gifts is simply that the ones that they do have they do not use. God will not entrust you and I with any other gifts or with any other work until we show him our willingness to use whatever he has given us in his service and for his glory. 

But the important thing about God's building programme is that it is too much for one person that's why God appoints Oholiab to help Bezalel. Once again it's not Moses who calls Oholiab but God does it; so these men are to work together along with other craftsmen (v 6) in the building of his tabernacle. It seems that Bezalel is in charge and everyone else is to help him but whatever the case may be they all have to work together for the purpose of building the tabernacle.

Now in the same way within in the church we do not choose those who will work with us in the task of seeing God's church built. God appoints the workers but it is our task to work together in order that God will accomplish his purposes through us. Of course in churches just like the tabernacle there is structure. The bible is clear there are to be Elders and Deacons in leadership roles that of course have to make decisions and take responsibility for caring and leading the church.

But every one of us must fulfil our role we are all helpers together; we must all pull in the same direction; we must all accept one another and accept their gifts if we are going to see God's purpose fulfilled. It's not a case of 20% of the people doing 80% of the work within the church. No! It should be the case yet sadly it often isn't but it should be 100% of the people doing 100% of the work of the church.

Churches are severely hindered when only a small percentage of the church is really committed to the work of serving God. When only a few are really interested in holiness or prayer or the evangelism of the church then the work of God is so often hampered. Of course even we are 100% involved and committed to God's work of the church we must be careful that we do God's work his way.

Bezalel and Oholiab were not given a free hand they had to make the tabernacle exactly as God has instructed them (v 11). In the same way whatever we do in the church we must do it exactly as God instructs us to do it. Many of the books out today about church growth are simply man centred ideas and philosophies.

Real church growth comes from God and comes as a result of His people understanding their calling and fulfilling their responsibilities to live holy live for Him and to witness of his grace to our sinful and dying world.

2. OBEY GOD'S COMMANDSMENTS (vs. 12-17)

As the tabernacle was being built the builders must remember to obey all God's commands. One of the temptations that the builders were faced with was the temptation to ignore the Sabbath day and if they continued to work on that day surely the tabernacle would be built quickly and as a consequence the people would be able to worship God within the tabernacle. But no! There is to be no compromise with the Sabbath commandment it must be obeyed.

Notice also this is a command "you must observe my Sabbaths" (v 13). God is not expressing an opinion as if he thinks this would be a good idea no this is a command and the punishment within the land for breaking it was death (v 14). That was to underline just how important this command was to the people and to God. Now if you think that the punishment was too severe then you really do not understand that breaking God's commands is sin and sin is so serious to God that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).

Now the word 'Sabbath' means 'rest' or 'to cease' so God is talking about a day of rest one-day in seven when we cease from our normal working routine and rest by doing something different. The different thing that we are to do is to spend the time that the day of rest brings in worship of God and in the study of his word. Of course we are to do that everyday of our lives even when we are working but on one day in seven we are to cease from our working activity in order to rest physically and mentally but also in order to rest spiritually.

The way we do that of course is in spiritual activity that we do not have the same time for during the normal six-day working week or in many of our cases 5-day working week.

Now for us because of Christ resurrection the Lord's Day has replaced the Old Testament Sabbath day but although the day has changed the purpose stays the same. Its is a day of rest but in our passage there is another purpose given; for the Sabbath day is a sign between God and us so that we may know that He is the Lord who makes us holy (v 13). In other words holy people keep God's holy day. This is a sign to us that God is our God that we have been made holy by him.

Before we were Christians did we care much about the Lord's Day? As a child I hated it; I was not allowed to do this and that. But when God saved me I began to want to make Sunday special I wanted to keep it for the worship of God with his people. God created within us a hunger for keeping his day. When a Christian is careless about this day then that is a clear sign that there is something wrong spiritually. When they do start to miss church or have no conscience about Sunday working then there is something wrong. Although the Lord's Day is a sign to us it is surely also a sign to other people that we are God's holy people.

In our own day no one keeps Sunday holy unless they are true Bible believing Christians. Even religious people who go to church on this day do not keep it holy; the only difference for them is that they go to church just as they go to the shop on a Monday. But when people see us going to church and keeping the whole day as holy unto the Lord, is this not a sign to them that we are different that we do this because we want to do it because we are God's holy people?

There are opportunities to witness to unbelievers by the way we keep this day, and these opportunities will increase as our society increasingly becomes secularly.

So it is a day of rest a sign that God has made us holy and that we are his people but there is something else here. It is a celebration (v 16). That celebration means joy therefore today for Christians should be a joyful day. That ought to be reflected in our worship and in our manner throughout this day. It is not a day to dread because there are certain things we feel best not to do on this day. No it is a joyful day a day of celebration. But what do we celebrate. We celebrate the fact that the Lord's Day is a sign and remember that a sign is a physical pointer to a spiritual reality; it's a sign of God eternal covenant relationship between God and his people (v 16).

So on this day we celebrate that fact we rejoice that God has made a covenant to be our God and that we are to be his people. It's good at some stage throughout this day to think about that great truth. You and I Christian did not choose God, He chose us and He did so because he made a covenant to save a people for himself and in time he sent his Son into our world to accomplish the very thing he promised to do. Therefore Christian rejoice today in God's redemption and in his faithfulness to his covenant promises.

But there is also another thing that we are to celebrate today. We are to celebrate God's creative act (v 17). This surely is very important in our day when the fact that our world was created has practically disappeared from the mindset of people and when evolution is presented as the answer to our world. Surely when people come into our church they should know that we rejoice over God's creative act. As we look around us here in the Dales we ought to praise the Lord for the beauty of our world and celebrate the fact that God created it for His own glory and for our good.

So as I conclude let us who love the Lord follow the example of God who after his creative act rested (v 17) that means He ceased from his creative acts.

Lets us cease from our everyday activity and on the Lord's Day let us remember that this day is a sign that God is our God and we are his people. Let us therefore celebrate that God has made us holy in Christ, let us celebrate the fact that God is faithful to his covenant promises and then finally let rejoice is God wonderful and marvellous work of creation.

Amen