(Exodus) Exodus 31:1-6

Now, our study today seems to be a departure from the tabernacle, but actually it is not. What we have before us today is the fact that the interval of the giving of the law and the instructions for the tabernacle, Moses spent a great deal of time up there in the mount getting all these instructions, and the children of Israel became a little impatient down there, we're going to see what happened and the broken law. But in chapter 31 we have the workman who built the tabernacle, and one in particular who was given a special gift for making the articles of furniture, that is, those that were the most difficult to make.

Now, I'm reading beginning with chapter 31 at verse 1, And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, See, I have called by name Bezalel, the son of Uriah, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God in wisdom and in understanding and in knowledge and in all manner of workmanship, to devise cunning works, to work in gold and in silver and in brass and in cutting of stones, to set them, and in carving of timber, to work in all manner of workmanship. And I, behold, I have given with him, and now you have the list of those that worked with him. And this man, we find out, he made certain things very definitely, and he also made the garments, he and his helpers.

Now, they were given a special gift for doing this. The Spirit of God equipped them for it. Now, the question might arise whether Bezalel was an artisan or artificer before.

I'm of the opinion that he was. This man was one who worked with the gold and with the silver and with all of these other delicate things. Now, to do this thing for God, he was given a special gift for it.

My feeling is that whatever man's equipped to do, that is the thing that he should do unless God makes it clear to him to do otherwise. In other words, I think that there are a great many people today that are equipped to do certain things that are technical, that are needed in the Lord's work. Now, I find that there are those that cannot speak, and yet they want to speak.

I know quite a few laymen that just determine that they are going to be speakers. They're not equipped for it. They do not have even the semblance of a gift, and yet they will do that, and yet these men have remarkable gifts in other connection.

Now, I know a man in radio today. He's a technical expert, but he wants to speak. Well, the fact of the matter is he has a special gift, I think, for radio.

Well, I don't think that he ought to be speaking. I think that he ought to confine himself to the gift that God has given him, and I believe that in the church today that there are all sorts of things that need to be done, that God gives a special gift for. I remember when I was pastor in Nashville.

I had a deacon in the church. He came to me the very first day I was there, and this man had known me from the time I was a boy, and he said to me, Vernon, don't ever call on me to lead in prayer. He said, I absolutely am frightened to death.

I don't know actually what to say. I have a stage fright that, he said, it must be abnormal. I just can't overcome it.

And he said, I make a fool of myself when I try to speak in public. Now, this man was an executive. The fact of the matter is he was superintendent of the streetcar company and had charge of their entire equipment, and that was certainly a place of responsibility.

But he told me this. He said, now look, I can't do anything publicly, but if there's anything that you want done around this church or you want done personally, you let me know, and I'll be glad to do it. And very candidly, I never had a more wonderful helper than that man was.

I would call him many times even on Saturday night. Now, the streetcar company, see, operated all night. He had a crew down there, and I've called him Saturday night to tell him, well, something's come up about Sunday, and we need this for Sunday.

For instance, the putting up of a screen or the different arrangement or the putting in of chairs. All I had to do was call him, and he'd have a crew out there in less than an hour. And I never had anyone that was such a helper as he is.

And you know what? Before I left that church, I was thanking God that he did not have the gift to speak in public because it made him faithful at the gift that God had given him. Now, here's a man, Bezalel. I am of the opinion he could have been very much like some layman today.

He could have said, now, look here, Lord, I want to wear these high priestly garments like Aaron, and I want to serve you like that. But God says, that's not the way you serve me. And in one sense, his gift is more important than that of Aaron.

His gift is one that was essential for the building of the tabernacle. And I think God will give you a gift, friends, that will develop whatever talent you might have or gift you might have. You see, God gives us talents, but he wants us then to dedicate them to the Lord and let the Spirit of God take us and use us.

And that doesn't mean we are all to do the same thing. There is a wrong impression today that in the church, if you can't sing in the choir or teach a Sunday school class or speak publicly or be an usher, that you're pretty much out of it. There's nothing left for you to do.

And I think there are literally hundreds of gifts that God gives to men to serve today. And it's up to the individual to determine, find out what that gift is. And it may be whatever God's given you as a talent that he'd like for the Spirit of God to take it and use it for his service.

And I think it's up to the individual to determine what that gift is.