Take the Blinder's Off

Why a Horse Has Blinder’s.

If you’ve ever watched a horse race, you may have noticed blinders on the sides of a horses head. They are there for a reason. They keep the horse focused and free of distraction while they are running the race. If they see the horse next to them or the crowd in the stands they may get spooked and not run as well.

Similarly, horses sometimes even wear face masks. This has many purposes, including keeping flies out of their eyes and ears. But also as a calming device. With the sun blocked out a little they act calmer and are less likely to be spooked.

Do human beings wear blinders or hoods?

The answer to that question is a big YES. No, we don’t often wear blinders like horses do. Nor, outside of 2020, do we normally wear face masks or shields. But spiritually, we often hide our face or hide the face of others so that we don’t have to deal with God.

Think of it this way. We get into the habit of doing things a certain way. We like the way we do it and pretty soon, subconsciously we begin to think that any other way of doing something is not only wrong, but sinful.

I got the pleasure of visiting 13 different churches during my sabbatical and let me tell you, not a single one did things exactly like we do. I only went to one church that still passed an offering plate. Most have gone to online giving or a box or basket at the back. Is that a direction I think we should go? No, but we do have a box in the back if someone DID ant to give that way.

I went to churches that had load music. I went to churches that had snacks after every service. I went to a church that ran like an interactive Bible study.

There are many thinks I picked up during my time away that I hope to introduce here in the future. Not all at once, but it is time to take off the blinders of the way we’ve always done things.

The gospel has never changed, but how we get it out there has. And we must learn to reach everyone.

Let’s look at our 3:16 for today.

2 Corinthians 3:16 ESV

But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.

Paul here is writing to a very special Church. It’s the church in Corinth and why is it so special? He planted it. He spent over a year of his life building up this body and teaching them and studying with them.

In the 2nd letter to the Corinthians we should understand that this is likely the 4th letter to Corinth, but for some reason or another the others we lost to history. And that’s okay, If we had every word of Jesus written and every word of Paul, and the other writers, we would have a very big volume, indeed.

One thing we have to know about Paul is that he was a Pharisee. And a good one at that. His teacher was one of the best teachers in all of Judah. Paul kept the law better that most. He knew the law. He was the best of the best.

But he was wearing blinders. And pretty thick ones at that.

Acts 9:8 ESV

Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus.

Saul, who became Paul was on his way to jail and persecute Christians. He had it in his head that since Christians didn’t do things the “RIGHT” way, then they had to be stopped. And Jesus showed him how he was living. He was living with blinders on. He could only see one direction spiritually, so Jesus struck him physically so he couldn’t see at all.

How do we get our blinders off?

Saul had a great Holy Spirit experience to get his physical blinders removed. Jesus sent a man named Ananias to see Saul, Ananias didn’t want to go. Saul was a bad guy. But Jesus told him to. Ananias didn’t have blinders on. God told him to do something; it was different and scary, but he did it anyway.

Acts 9:17–18 ESV

So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized;

A whole new world opened up to Paul. He wasn’t the cream of the crop Pharisee anymore, he was a traveling tentmaker who built church’s. To put this in perspective for you. Elon Musk is one of the richest and most influential people of the day. Image if tomorrow he got on TV and said that he was giving it all up and became a greeter at Walmart. That is the extreme of what’s going on in Paul’s life. He changed his name, his job, his entire lifestyle, all because of Jesus.

What is the context of our passage today?

Exodus 34:29–35 (ESV)

When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him.

But Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses talked with them. Afterward all the people of Israel came near, and he commanded them all that the Lord had spoken with him in Mount Sinai. And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face.

Whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would remove the veil, until he came out. And when he came out and told the people of Israel what he was commanded, the people of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face was shining. And Moses would put the veil over his face again, until he went in to speak with him.

Paul is speaking of a veil being removed.We see in Exodus 34 that Moses, just from being in God’s presence is physically affected. He’s glowing. We’re not talking pregnant woman glowing, though that is pretty amazing in and of itself. We’re talking a very visible and drastic change to Moses appearance. He looked different than what the people knew him to look. And it scared them. Much like a man who has had a beard for decades and shaves it off. People would react, some negatively.

So, Moses wore a veil to make the people more comfortable. He took it off in God’s presence, because he was not afraid of God. But the people weren’t afraid so much of what Moses looked like, but of the being that made him look like this. The people were afraid of God and so they set the precedent to DO things, so as to not make God mad.

For example, they have the commandment: Remember the Sabbath and keep is Holy. This commandment was placed for their benefit, so that they would rest and not overwork themselves, and so that they would remember God in their lives. But what they turned it into was:

Blinder 1.Don’t eat grain off that stack on the Sabbath or you’ll make God mad.

Blinder 2. You can’t carry anything on the Sabbath or you’ll make God mad.

Blinder 3. You can’t even do good on the Sabbath, because that’s work and it’ll make God mad.

Those blinders seemed to have done their job, because over time the religious leaders had forgotten about the God of the universe and were worshiping the God they had created on paper. And what it had turned into was they had made themselves god and said they were the ones made because things weren’t getting done their way. And the Pharisees got mad at Jesus, who is God, for not following their rules.

Their blinders made it impossible for them to worship. How much more in the Church today have people placed blinders on themselves. If you don’t think that’s happening it was even happening in the 1st century church.

Let’s look at the context of our 3:16 again. Verse 7

2 Corinthians 3:7–8 ESV

Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory?

Here Paul calls the 10 commandments the ministry of death. Aren’t the 10 commandments good rules to follow? Yes they are, but Paul is saying that since humans can’t attain the law then it only leads to death for those who just try to attain it. Something else MUST attain it for you.

What is Paul getting at here?

Paul had this big log in his eye all his life. Yesterday at men’s breakfast we talked a little from Matthew 7 where Jesus says that if you have a log in your eye don’t talk to people about the speck in their.

Paul’s log or blinders, were the Law. He was so focused on how things should be done he had forgotten who he was doing them for. Thankfully Paul removed the log from his eye and was able to help those with a speck in theirs.

The Law is important and we should do our best to follow it, but with the understanding that no matter how hard we try, the Law is not what gets us to God. James 2:10 Says this:

James 2:10 ESV

For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.

Paul recognized this and is telling the people of Corinth and us today that it is through Jesus that we will find righteousness, not the law. Not in the blinders, but in removing them and seeing all of God’s glory.

Moses is listed as the greatest of the OT prophets and for good reasons. You would never expect anyone to criticize Moses in the 1st century if they knew what was good for them, but did you catch Paul’s words in our passage today?

2 Corinthians 3:12–13 ESV

Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end.

Can you imagine Paul saying that in a room full of Pharisees. They would stone him to death.

We don’t have anyone close to Moses in our time, but imagine I started telling you all the things Billy Graham did wrong, or A.B.Simpson. You might get mad at me for slamming such great men of faith.

But look at what Paul is saying here. He’s saying that Moses hide the effects of God’s glory because it made people uncomfortable.

And you know what Paul is saying, that was wrong. We should never hide what God has done for us. God doesn’t give us blessings to keep just for ourselves. He gives us blessings to share.

So Paul addresses a fault of Moses and encourages us not to take the same path. Don’t hide what God has given you.

What has God given you?

He has given you eternal life. If you bought a lottery ticket and won you wouldn’t cheer and cheer in the privacy of your own home and then hide the ticket in a shoe box under your bed. No way, you would cash it out and make a few phone calls. And if it was a big enough prize, your friends might start hinting at things they always wanted. They want to share in your winnings. Now, that’s not the most wholesome example, but if we treated the gospel like we would a winning lottery ticket can you imagine what would happen?

“I got eternal life from Jesus. Isn’t that great”

People might what to know what’s up.

You don’t share eternal life by hiding behind blinders.

What a lot of non-believers see when they look at Christians. And I’ll preface this with the disclaimer that the enemy tells them lies about us in one aspect, but also that sometimes we veil ourselves off to show that we are the ones that are great and not God.

Non-believers often look at Christians and think of self righteous people who think they do everything right and everyone else is wrong. They see the church full of hypocrites and sinners who just pretend not to be.

They do get one thing right though. The Church is full of hypocrites and sinners, but as long as Jesus is our Lord and savior, we are made righteous by His works, not our own. We are saved, not because of anything righteous we have done, that way we can’t brag or boast, but because of what he did. We respond by what he did by showing his glory in our lives so that people can see.

Check out the end of our passage, including our 3:16

2 Corinthians 3:16–18 ESV

But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

The people didn’t want to look at Moses because God had changed him. Moses, for some reason, covered up what God did to him.

If the Holy Spirit lives in you. Take those blinders off. Remove the veil. Stop worrying about what people think about your relationship with Jesus and show it to them

Do we still shy away from God?

When you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you were changed. Sometimes, for the comfort of others, we cover up that change. Don’t be afraid of that change.

The Israelites were afraid of the change and wanted God on their terms. They were afraid of the change and wanted to distance themselves from God. Even when God blatantly said he wanted to be with them, they shied away.

Exodus 20:18–21 (ESV)

Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.”

Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.” The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.

So, the people were assured that it was okay to let God near you if you wanted to be near him, but they were so afraid that even with assurance from Moses they wanted God at a distance.

And still today, we want God at a distance. we want to hide behind tradition, or rules. We want to veil God’s glory. WHY? for the sake of not offending people? To get people to see us more than God? I don’t know. But what I do know is, that when we hang on to the blinders, when we block God off for the rules we have written, then his glory is also covered up. In essence, we halt the gospel, and ourselves from his glory.

And to be honest there are times in our lives, yes, in my life, where I put a veil on and block God’s glory. We need to make the choice, sometimes daily, to remove the veil and let his glory shine.

That is my invitation to you today. Ask God if there are any blinders in your life. Ask him to expose them to you and take the veil off so as to be a more effective witness for the gospel. Because we know from scripture that when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.

Let’s Pray