Looking Unto Jesus — Brian Long

Endurance in the Christian Race

We're going to turn to Hebrews chapter 12 this morning, Hebrews chapter 12, two verses, verses one and two. Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Amen. Now, the book of Hebrews was written to Hebrew Christians that were being persecuted, no doubt some of them were growing very discouraged and they were being tempted to draw back and drift away.

The going was getting really tough and many of them were growing discouraged and all because they'd gotten their eyes off of Jesus. And we see this theme throughout the whole book of Hebrews. There's this appeal and this call for God's people to endure, to persevere.

Don't quit. Don't give up. Keep your eyes on Christ. He likens the Christian life here in these verses that we just read to a race and the kind of race is not a not so much a sprint like the 50 yard dash or something short like that, but instead it's more like a marathon.

And the only one who finishes a marathon is the one who perseveres when the going gets tough. It's when your your legs get weak, your knees feeble, the body's growing tired, the lungs are burning. It's at that moment when the race doesn't get easier, does it?

It gets harder. Have you realized that, brothers and sisters? Have you realized that the race is it gets harder, not easier? That's OK, because God's grace is sufficient, but it gets harder. And that marathon runner, when his body is growing tired, his legs are getting weak as the Bible talks about weak hands and feeble knees.

His lungs are burning. Everything in him is saying, give up. It's at that moment that he has to remember, this is what I've trained for. This is my purpose. My whole purpose is the prize on the other side of that finish line.

Therefore, I will keep on going. I will keep on enduring. I will keep on persevering. Well, we have also been called by God to persevere. To stay on track, to endure to the end, there's so many scriptures in the Bible about enduring to the end, about perseverance, staying on on track.

And the only way, the only way that we will reach this finish line, the only way we will persevere and endure to the end. Is found in our text this morning, looking on to Jesus, looking on to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

There is no other way. There is no other way to stay on track. There is no other way to endure to the end and to persevere. But looking on to Jesus. And that's the message this morning. Three simple words looking on to Jesus.

Fixing the Eyes of Faith on Christ

The look is not a sideward glance or a passing glaze, but it's an intent focus looking on to Jesus. The Greek word carries with it here the meaning of looking away from everything else and fixing your eyes upon Christ, riveting them upon him.

In fact, Spurgeon says, really, the Greek is saying here not so much look on to but look into Jesus. That's how intent the gaze is. Let us look into Jesus. Fix your eyes upon him. One translation says it's so beautiful and accurate.

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. It's one thing to be deer hunting and to be up on a high point and to be looking all around for that deer. You're looking at the grass, the valley, the trees.

You're looking at the rocks and there's the river. But there's a whole nother kind of looking when you spot a deer and you think that's the big buck. And then all of a sudden you look away from the rocks, the grass, the river, the valley, and your eyes are focused and fixed upon that big buck deer.

And you say, give me those binoculars. I think I've just found him. You see that kind of look. It's an intense beholding, a looking into a focus. That's what he's talking about. Looking unto Jesus, let us fix our eyes on the author and finisher of our faith.

Faith has a focus. Faith has a focus and true faith, saving faith, enduring faith is faith that focuses upon Christ. He must be our focus. What does it really mean to focus on something? What is a photographer when he's out photographing?

What does he do? He finds something that he wants to capture in a picture. Once he finds it, he looks at it intently. He puts it dead center in the middle of his frame and he focuses. He focuses until that object of his picture is in clear, crystal clear focus.

And then he snaps the picture. OK, what does it mean to focus? I want this morning to hold up this lens of faith and have you and I look through it together and see crystal clear what is the focus of faith, true faith?

You know what it is? Christ, Jesus Christ alone. If anything else is your focus, you're going to get off track. You will veer off the course, you won't finish the race. Christ must be our focus, this crystal clear focus of our faith.

That's the only way we will stay on track and the only way we can endure to the end. It doesn't matter how we how hard we run. It doesn't matter how fast we run. If we veer off the track, we won't reach the finish line and therefore we won't reach the prize.

There were three young men back in the old days who needed a job, but the farmer only had enough money to hire one. So he says to these three young men, he says, all right, I'm going to have each one of you get behind the plow and whichever of you, the three of you can plow the straightest furrow.

That's the one I'll hire. So the first one puts his hand to the plow and he sets off. But he when he was finished, the furrow went this way and then it went that way and then it went the other way. And the old farmer said, young man, what were you looking at while you were making this furrow?

He said, sir, I looked right at the handles of that plow. I was looking right at what I was supposed to be hanging on to. And he said, that's your problem. That's why the furrow is so crooked. Second man laid his hand to the plow, got behind the mule, plowed a furrow.

It also was crooked as it could be. Young man, he said, what were you looking at? Well, he said, I was looking at the furrow that I was making, making sure that, you know, the plow was going deep. I was staring at what I was doing.

That's where you went wrong, he said, and that's why your furrow is so crooked. Third man plowed a furrow and it was straight as an arrow. Young man, a farmer said, what were you looking at? He said, sir, see that tree on the other side of the field.

I fixed my eyes upon that and never took him off of it. And he said, that's why your furrow is straight as an arrow. You are hired. Brothers and sisters, when you fix your eyes upon anything other than Christ, you're going to go here, there, you're going to be a double minded man, unstable in all of his ways.

But when you fix your eyes on Jesus Christ alone, you're fixing your eyes upon the one who is our constant one. He doesn't change like shifting shadows. The Bible says in Hebrews 13, a Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever.

Hallelujah. He's our constant one. Fix your eyes upon Christ who does not change and then we will make it to the end. Enduring to the end requires that we stay on track. That we not get sidetracked, there are a thousand and one things the flesh, the world and the devil will use to lure you off the track.

And then it doesn't matter how hard you run, it doesn't matter how hard you strive. If you're off the track, you're going to miss the mark. You won't reach the prize. You won't finish the race. Now, I want you to notice in our text.

This author, the author and finisher of our faith, how did he run? Because he is the one we're following. How did Christ run? Notice what it says in verse two, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

Who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, he endured the cross, he stayed the course all the way to the cross and no devil, not anything could get him off track because he set his face like Flint to go to Calvary.

He wouldn't be diverted over and over again. We also are called to endure, as I said, and I want you to just follow me quickly through the book of Hebrews and see this common thread and this appeal to people who were tempted to get discouraged, to give up and to and to fall back and drift away.

Warnings Against Drifting Away

Hebrews chapter two, first of all. Hebrews chapter two, verse one, therefore, he says, we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we what drift away. You mean there's a possibility of drifting away, getting off course?

Therefore, he says, we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. For if the words spoken through the angels prove steadfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?

There's the appeal. Chapter three and verse seven. Hebrews chapter three, verse seven. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your heart as in the rebellion in the day of trial in the wilderness.

Why did they get off course and wander in the wilderness so long? Why they harden their heart when they heard the voice of the Holy Spirit is saying to you, brothers and sisters, and to me today, if you hear his voice, don't harden your heart.

And how does your heart get hard when you when you hear the voice of God, you hear the word of God and you don't obey. There's a hardening that takes place over your heart and you're sure to be prone to drift away.

Then look at verse twelve of chapter three. Beware, he says, beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. The danger of departing, of turning away from him, of getting off course, chapter 10.

Verse twenty five, you see this throughout the whole book. Chapter 10, actually, let's look at verse twenty four. Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another.

And so much the more, as you see the day approaching here, the appeal is to encourage one another, spur one another on so that we we keep the faith, we fight the fight, we finish the race and we we endure to the end.

Now, also in chapter 10, look at verse thirty two, please. Verse thirty two, he says, but recall the former days in which after you were illuminated, you endured a great struggle with sufferings. You endured a great struggle with sufferings, partly while you were made a spectacle, both by reproaches and tribulations and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated for you had compassion on me in my chains and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and enduring possession for yourselves in heaven.

Therefore, do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward for you have need of endurance, that is, perseverance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise for yet a little while and he who is coming will come and will not tarry.

Now, the just shall live by faith, but if anyone draws back. My soul has no pleasure in him, but we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul. So you see, we're called to endure to the end, to finish the race, to beware of drifting away, to stay on track.

Keeping Christ Preeminent in the Church

Can I tell you, no matter how much we or anybody else may boast, we're not we're not a denomination of church. We're not a denomination. Can I tell you how denominations form? It's when something or someone other than Christ becomes our focus.

That's when it happens. Many great moves of God began because the leaders and the people at that time, their eyes were solely upon Christ and Christ was building his church. But as the years go by, man always has to put a label on it.

And so you become a name, you become a label following a particular man, a particular doctrine or particular tradition. And that's how it forms. I'm not here to point at everybody else. I'm here to point at us and say, let us beware.

Let us be where the only way church for us to stay on track is to keep our our focus upon Christ, keep him dead center in that frame. Look away from everything else, anything else, and let Christ alone be our our gaze, be the one that we behold.

Let us look unto Jesus. Let us look unto Jesus. So many, you know, it will become. Well, that's the church where so and so preaches. That's so and so's church. Oh, that's the church where where they have that particular doctrine or this this particular tradition.

That's the King James only church. Oh, that's the church where they lift their hands. That's the church where they don't lift their hands. That's the church where they speak in tongues. That's the church where they don't speak in tongues.

That's the church where the women wear a head covering. Oh, this is the church where they don't wear it. You see all the craziness and it divides and divides and divides and divides. Why? Because that particular thing becomes a focus and it never was supposed to.

They can be good things. They can be biblical things, but they are not preeminent. What must always have the preeminence in the church and your heart and mine and in our lives is Jesus Christ and him alone looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

How did you begin this race? Looking unto Jesus. How were you saved? Looking unto Jesus by his grace, his grace alone, no works of your own. It was his grace. It was his shed blood. It was his finished work at the cross.

You look to Jesus because you had nothing to offer but your sin. And the Lord came and saved you. He's the author of our of our salvation. He's the author of our faith. It also says here, let us looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

How will you finish the race? Many begin the race saying, well, I look to Jesus, but they think they have to finish the race by looking to themselves. Let me keep myself safe. Let me let me make let me look at myself, make sure I'm on track.

It's like the guy looking at the furrow to see what he's doing. You're going to get off track. You finish the same way you began looking unto Jesus and let nothing, nothing take my eyes off of him. Is that too simple?

Is that too simplistic, that's Bible, that's the word of God, that's what that's that's for those looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. They will not get off track. How about the church?

Not where this is that and this is the other. But how about the church where Jesus Christ is preeminent? How about being the church where, oh, that's the church where where everything is about Jesus? That's the church where their answer, those people's answer to everything is looking unto Jesus.

How about being that church? How about never losing that focus? Let this be our label, Christ. Let this be our identity, Christ. Let this be our doctrine. Jesus Christ died for our sins, was buried, raised again and ascended and seated at the right hand of God.

Let this be our message. Let this be our gospel. Jesus Christ is risen. He is alive. He saves. He is Lord and he is savior. Let that be our message. Simple, praise God, it's simple. It is simple for those who are looking unto Jesus for everything.

And you see, looking unto Jesus is not just it's not the same as looking at him. If I if I can't fix my broke down car, which typically I wouldn't be able to, if it goes much beyond the battery or changing the oil or those simple things, if I cannot fix that, I don't have the knowledge to.

I don't have the tools probably to. But I know who I can look to. I can call Curtis Stanley. And so far, he's always been able to give me an answer when it comes. What am I doing? And when I come to him in this with this knee, I don't say, Curtis, let me look at you.

That's not going to do anything for my car. I come to Curtis and I say, Curtis, I'm looking to you to fix my car. He could say to me, Brother Brian, look to me. I'll see to it. You see the difference, not just looking at Jesus, but depending on Jesus, looking to Jesus, but putting all of your dependence and reliance upon him.

Worship and Dependence on Christ

I believe that it's important for us when we praise the Lord and worship him. I believe God gives certain gifts and talents. They're God given. And it's a beautiful thing when you can have someone that plays skillfully.

It's a beautiful thing when you have someone that does have a gift to sing and has a voice to sing. Now, when I'm by myself, it doesn't make any difference. I praise the Lord with all of my heart. But when it comes to congregation coming together, isn't it wonderful when you have someone who has that gift, that ability to lead us in that?

I can't stand up here and say to you, look to me and I'll lead you in worship. But I can say, look to Stan, look to the look to Kaylee, look to Pam and Brenda. Look to those who God has given gifts and will join together and look to.

Now, we're not fixing our eyes on them, but you see what I'm saying? We're depending upon the gifts God's given them to help us look to Jesus and to praise him and to worship him. I don't say let's look at Stan.

But I'm looking to stand to lead us out, and it's like that with every gift, so we're not just looking at Jesus, we're looking to him. But notice and notice that's the only way, brothers and sisters, that's the only way you will not grow discouraged.

It is impossible to get discouraged and quit if your eyes are upon Jesus. The reason people get discouraged and quit and give up and turn back and drift away and go back to the old lifestyle is because this is very simple.

They stop looking at the Jesus. They may start looking to themselves and that's the way it often is. Well, look at me. I can't do this. I keep falling. I keep failing. You keep failing because you're not looking unto Jesus.

You're looking to yourself. You're looking to a man. You're looking to a method. You're looking to something could be a thousand and one other things looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

But not only did you know, do you notice that he endured the cross? But what's the next thing he says? Who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, he despised the shame.

They shamed our Lord Jesus Christ. By stripping him naked and nailing him to a cross, they laughed at him, they mocked him, they scorned, they ridiculed. I know most of the pictures show Jesus on the cross with some loincloth around him.

Wasn't so part of the humiliation was that they stripped him naked and hung him on a cross, he suffered shame, shame and rejection. But you know what? He despised the shame. That is, none of it moved him.

None of it could get him off the track. None of it could keep him from finishing the course. You know why? Because he was totally secure in the will and the love of his father, he was totally secure. The shame couldn't move him.

He despised the shame. And brothers and sisters, not only must we look unto Jesus to endure to the end, but we must look unto Jesus to despise the shame for those who look to him shall never be ashamed.

Put this verse in your margin or listen to it. Look at it with me. Psalm thirty four, verse five. What a beautiful scripture. To say what. I believe the Holy Spirit is saying to us today. Psalm thirty four and verse five, it says they look to him and were radiant and their faces were not ashamed, they looked to him and were radiant and their faces were not ashamed.

It's the insecure that need and want the approval of men. It's the insecure that need and want the approval of men. But when you look to Jesus and you see him looking to you at you and get in and you have his approval, you can become unshakably secure, even if the whole world laughs and mocks and scorns and shames you, whose approval.

Really matters, it's amazing how the Lord always ties this in, Laurie, what you were sharing at the communion table, that little testimony. About when she was in school. All of us could relate to that, we don't want people laughing at us, we don't want people making fun of us, and so what happens when they do, we have a tendency to draw back.

What is the message throughout all of Hebrews? Don't turn back, don't draw back, endure. OK, how am I going to despise the shame? How can I become such that the peer pressure and the shame that the mocking and the laughing and the scorning won't take me off track?

It's when you become secure and the approval of Christ, the love of God, it's when you look to him and your face is radiant and you know, if I have your approval, Lord, let the whole world come against me, let the whole world laugh at me.

Whose approval do I really need if I have God's approval? If I have God's favor, if I'm looking to him and he's looking to me. But what about the shame of your past sin? How do you despise and overcome that shame?

The shame of your past sin, whether it be 10 years ago, whether it be 10 days ago, whether it be yesterday, you look unto Jesus, you stop looking at yourself, look unto Jesus and his shed blood that washes away all of our sins and cleanses us from all unrighteousness and blots out our past sins never to remember again.

Hallelujah. You know why the past shame will weigh you down and get you off track and keep you from enduring to the end? Because you're looking at it. Look unto Jesus, who paid it all, it's finished. Hallelujah.

Praise be to God. Become secure in the finished work of Christ. Now, how about how about the storm? How about becoming secure in the storm? You know, the scripture Peter was in the boat with those other disciples on the Sea of Galilee, this violent, raging storm came in the middle of the night.

It was dark. The winds were howling, crashing against the boat. The waves must have been coming over the boat. They were terrified. And one of them saw somebody up there look like a ghost. No, it's not a ghost.

It's the Lord. Lord, Peter said, if it be you bid me to come to you on the water. Jesus says, come in the midst of the storm, come. And Peter steps out of the boat and walks on water. This is supernatural.

This is impossible. How can he do it? Looking unto Jesus, looking unto Jesus, he's walking miraculously above his circumstances in the midst of his storm. He's not seeing he's not seeing Jesus through the storm.

He's seeing the storm through Jesus. He's looking unto Jesus. He's walking on water. But you know what happened? What happened? The winds and the waves became so much that he took his eyes off of Christ.

The Bible says when he saw the wind, the waves, he began to sink and he'll finally cry out, Lord, save me. And the Lord reached down and grabbed his hand and pulled him back up on top of the water. When does it happen?

Brothers and sisters, when you take your eyes off Christ, the storms of life will absolutely overwhelm you. They will not when your eyes are upon him. How are you doing? Someone says good under the circumstances, you should never be under the circumstances.

Christian. Circumstances are like a mattress, you never to be under it, you always to be on top of it, you get under it, you'll smother. On top of it, how looking unto Jesus, when we look unto him, you're still going to go through storms, we're still going to go through storms, we're going to go through fire, we're going to go through flood, we're going to go through attacks, we're going to go through persecution.

Yes. But Jesus is right there. Put your eyes on him and you will overcome. What's better to have no storm, to have no trial or to have it all and have Jesus right there in front of me, calling me, come to me.

If it's you, Lord, bid me to come to you in this storm. Come, he says, and you walk on the water like the guy that had the dream. Night after night, he had this dream. He was rowing upstream in this river and he kept hitting something underneath a rock.

He couldn't go. And he kept saying, Lord, remove this hindrance, remove this hindrance, remove this obstacle, remove this trial. Lord says, I won't remove it, but I'll do something better. I'll raise the level of my grace and you'll overcome.

That's what God does. I'll raise the level of the water. The hindrance is still there. The storm is still there. The trial is still there. But keep your eyes upon me and in my grace is sufficient, God says, and you will overcome.

Come to me on the water. We can be secure in the midst of shame. We can be secure in the midst of of the storm. We can be secure when the devil tries to bring back past sin, secure in Christ, secure because of who he is.

Keep your eyes on Jesus, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Somebody says, what about eternal security? How many times have I been asked this? Brother Brian, what's your stance?

What do you do? Do you believe in eternal security? I do. If you are looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith, that is my answer. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

I don't. If you're looking anywhere else for your salvation, if you're looking to to the day you walk the aisle, if you're looking to that some sinner's prayer, you prayed and you're looking to that. You're looking to your baptism in water.

You're looking to your so-called good works. You're looking to the fact that you help the old lady across the street. No, there's no security for you. There is no eternal security outside of Christ, the person of Jesus Christ.

My eternal security is in him. Very simple, very simple. Eternal security. Yes. If I'm looking to Jesus, all of Jesus, only to Jesus, none but Jesus. Yes. See him, brothers and sisters, look unto him.

And look and see him endure the cross, and you also will endure and not grow discouraged. Look unto Jesus as he despised the shame. And you also will be so secure in him that no shame, no storm, no satanic deception will ever be able to pluck you out of his mighty hand.

Christ's Finished Work and Victory

And finally, look unto Jesus, it says here in verse two, as he has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Do you see it there? Verse two, he is sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

In other words, it is finished. Jesus Christ has triumphed. Jesus Christ has the victory. There is victory in him. Only he who has finished the race can sit down. The Bible says here he is seated at the right hand of the throne.

If you sit down before you reach the finish line, you forfeit the race. The only one that sits down is the one who's finished the race. He's the author and finisher of our faith. He is seated at the right hand of God.

It is finished was his cry on the cross as he died to pay for your sins and mine and full to less die was the word to less die. He cried on the cross. It is finished. Sin debt paid in full. Done, Christ, the perfect sacrifice, the lamb of God who takes away the sin, the world took took our sins away and cried, it is finished and therefore victory is in Jesus and only in victory you want victory over your sin.

Stop looking at your sin. You want victory over anger, stop looking at your anger and look unto Jesus. You want victory over the sins of your tongue, your mouth, gossip, look unto Jesus, you want victory over lust, look unto Jesus, you want victory over depression, look unto Jesus, you want victory over sin, stop looking to yourself.

The photographer who is taking that picture is nowhere in the frame. He's behind the frame. We were created in such a way to look out. Somebody said that the only eye that sees itself is blind. We weren't created that way.

Look out. Steve, our Steve, always out here taking photographs, you ever see one with him in the frame? He's looking out where the problem that we're so defeated is when we get in the frame, when we get in the picture, when we think it's about us and we look at to ourselves, to our strength, to our striving.

Strive all you might, if your eyes are not on Christ, you will not finish the race. He is the victor, he is the one seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Let us look to him looking unto Jesus in faith is having complete reliance and dependence upon Jesus Christ alone.

My dear friend and brother, Frank Macalini, you most of you know, wrote this, and I wholeheartedly agree. Listen carefully. He writes. A man must never believe that he has arrived. How many of us have thought we learned a lesson only to fail the very same lesson days later?

How many? OK, me too. What great things the Lord does when a man does not even realize that he's being used, the greatest humility comes when we look full into his face, when we look at worship, worship banishes, isn't that true?

Brothers and sisters, when we look to am I playing this just right, am I singing this just right? We become so consumed into the worship, the worship's gone. The focus of worship is who? Jesus, Jesus only.

When we look to worship, he says, worship banishes. When we look at humility, pride always finds a way in in looking at any of the virtues of Christianity. One must take his eyes off Jesus and look to the left or to the right or in front or behind.

Yet to look into the face of Jesus and see the glory of God. This is where we are rightly shaped. Amen. We don't become humble by studying and looking at humility, especially our humility. You the moment you do that, you become proud.

We become humble one way, looking at Jesus, because when you're looking at Jesus, you're not about to compare yourself with anybody else. The comparison you're looking to him, it's impossible to walk in pride when you're looking at the one who is clothed in glory and majesty and holiness and perfection and beauty.

How can we walk in pride looking unto Jesus and we will walk in humility? You don't become holy by looking to yourself to become holy. You become holy by looking unto Jesus. You don't become loving by saying, I'm going to try harder to love that person.

I'm going to strive. I'm going to try harder to love them. You'll never love them with the love of Christ. You will love them with the love of Christ when you look unto Jesus and you receive his love and you're changed by his love and you're overwhelmed by his love.

You will begin to love them without even striving. Laurie said it at the communion table. You're changed and you didn't even know it. Something happened as you were looking unto Jesus. You were being changed from image to image and glory to glory.

You say, is that in the Bible? Look at this beautiful scripture. Second Corinthians, chapter three. Watch this. Second Corinthians, chapter three. First of all, notice, he says in the fourth verse. And we have such trust through Christ toward God, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God.

It's from God, not from myself, but from God. Now, jump on over to the 16th verse. Watch this. Second Corinthians three, 16, nevertheless, when one turns to the Lord and that's he's talking about turning our eyes to the Lord, nevertheless, when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

Now, the Lord is the spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all with unveiled face, beholding, looking, gazing intently as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the spirit of the Lord.

He's saying that we're literally changed to become like Jesus simply by beholding the glory of Jesus. As you look unto Jesus, as you behold his glory like a caterpillar becomes a butterfly metamorphosis, you are transformed to become more and more like Jesus.

You spend an awful lot of time in a rose garden and what do you start smelling like roses? You spend an awful lot of time in the sun and people can tell it you spend a lot of awful lot of time with Jesus looking unto Jesus always, only none but Jesus.

And what happens? You're becoming like Christ. You become like the one you worship. He transforms us by his spirit is a work of the spirit of God, no striving of the flesh. Praise be to God. Hmm. See Christ seated in glory and majesty at the right hand of God, and you will be changed, see Christ seated in majesty and glory at the right hand of God, and you will live in light of eternity.