In this sermon, the speaker discusses the importance of giving offerings to the Lord. He mentions that there are different ways to serve the Lord, including financial contributions. The speaker also highlights the craftsmanship and beauty of the tabernacle, estimating that it cost at least five million dollars to construct. Additionally, the speaker emphasizes the significance of observing the Sabbath day and the strict rules that were applied to the Israelites during that time.

And I move on to chapter 35, and again the Lord returns to talk to them about the Sabbath day. This is the third time, and I'm reading at verse 1 of chapter 35 of Exodus. And Moses gathered all the congregation of the children of Israel together, and said unto them, These are the words which the Lord hath commanded, that ye should do them. Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you a holy day, a Sabbath of rest to the Lord. Whosoever doeth work therein shall be put to death. Ye shall kennel no fire throughout your habitations upon the Sabbath day. Now you'll find out that as we go along, the Lord insists, first of all, that the reason for the Sabbath was because it belongs to the first creation. God rested on the Sabbath day. Then he told them it was a very particular and definite relationship between him and the children of Israel, because as mankind left the creative hand of God, he got away from God. And there came a day when he no longer recognized God. He began to worship the creature, and he gave up the Sabbath day. Now God said that it was then a peculiar relationship between him and the children of Israel. Then he began to put down these strictures that actually apply more to the land than the people than they would to any other place. If anyone did any work on the Sabbath day, he'd be stoned to death. It would be very hard to carry on our society today without somebody working on the Sabbath day. And that would be Saturday. Of course, that's the Sabbath day. And suppose no fire was to be kenneled on the Sabbath day. The problem would be great in the frozen north, you see. This was accommodated to that land over there. Now you will notice verse 4, "...and Moses spoke unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, This is the thing which the Lord commanded, saying, Take ye from among you an offering unto the Lord, whosoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it an offering of the Lord, gold and silver and brass." Now you will notice that these gifts for the making of the tabernacle were to be voluntary. The people were not required, and no demand put upon them at all. This is not even the tithe here at all. This is to be a voluntary gift. And here are the things that they were to bring, not only the gold and silver and brass, but in verse 6, "...blue, purple, scarlet, fine linen, goatshair, ramskins, dyed red, badgerskins, chitim wood, oil for the light, spices for anointing oil, and for the sweet insects, and onyx stones, and stones to be set for the ephod, and for the brass plate." And these were the different things given. You see, in that day there was no such thing as a legal tender. That is like our dollar bill and five dollar bill or a fifty-cent piece. There's nothing like that. And the method of barter was the exchange of goods. And here you have them giving these things to the Lord's work. And I feel very frankly that this is a way today that a great many people can serve the Lord by giving either things that they have. Down in San Diego, I was down there several years ago, a man had two Ampex recorders. They are the very best. He bought them thinking they would be very serviceable going around to hospitals, and he found out they're a big recorder, that they took up a great deal of space and were rather awkward to take around. So he had them stored there at his house. And he said to me, I don't need them. If you can use them in your ministry, we'd like for you to have them. And very frankly, these two recorders have become very valuable to us because it means we would have to go out and spend a great deal of money to get them. And they came in at just the right time. It's amazing today, a great many people think that you have to always write out a check. Well, that's needed also. When we ask for money on the radio to get one of these machines that duplicates, and it's not called a duplicator, it's called something else, but it will take one of my tapes, the one I'm making right now, and it will make, I think, six at one time. And we keep that machine busy. It's just continually repeating, you see. And that was given to us by a dentist who's very much interested in the program. He bought it for us so that we found that there are more ways than one to serve the Lord, and that's the way these folk have done. And you will find out, and I'm not going to read all of this here, but it's amazing the different things that the people gave. Now, of course, the question will arise, well, where did they get them? They were slaves in Egypt. Now, remember again that they collected back wages. They'd been in slavery a long time, and they were paid. The Egyptians were glad to get rid of them and pay them off, and that's what they did. And they left with a great deal of the wealth of the land of Egypt. Now we come to verse 30. And Moses said unto the children of Israel, See, the Lord hath called by name Bezalel, the son of Uriah, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. He hath filled him with the Spirit of God in wisdom, in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship. Now this is the man that we'll see. He is the one made these articles of furniture that are so important, by the way. And we find here in verse 34, And he hath put in his heart that he may teach both he and Aholiab, the son of Ahai-Samash, of the tribe of Dan. So you see, he was able to pass on this gift that God had given him. And them hath he filled with wisdom of heart, to work all manner of work of the engraver, the cunning work. And so this tabernacle was a beautiful thing. It was a jewel in and of itself. Not large, not a great big warehouse, but a very small building that was just like a precious jewel. And it's been variously estimated of the amount of money that went into it. And I think it's conservatively estimated that at least five millions of dollars went into the construction of this tabernacle, according to the value of the metals in our day. And I expect right now it would go much higher than that.