And I'll tell you this,
Hebrews 3 talks about the deceitfulness of sin.
And it hardens you.
And the reality is it's deceitful.
That means you don't even know you're drifting.
You don't even know where you're at.
Why? Because you're deceived.
Oftentimes it's the people who think it's okay
that are in the most danger.
They're not desperate.
You remember how Kevin said
he found confidence in Psalm 102
because God hears the cries of the destitute.
But you get to where you're comfortable,
things are okay,
and you take your eyes off Christ
and you begin to become relaxed in this place,
and this place is not a playground as Tozer said.
You better know that there is an adversary
and you need to watch and you need to pray
and that's what Scripture calls us to.
Don't lull your own self to sleep
by saying: Well, I'm saved!
I got saved!
So I don't need to fear this.
Listen, you don't endure in crowds.
You're not born again in crowds.
You aren't saved in crowds.
And you're not going to die in a crowd.
This is individual.
You individually come into the Kingdom
and you individually are saved
from this wicked and crooked generation
and we individually repent,
we individually lay hold on the Lord Jesus Christ.
We individually call on the name of the Lord and are saved.
And we individually endure.
Now we can help one another
and we can stir up one another.
That is true.
But Jesus is not talking about you
helping the other guy.
He is saying: the one who endures.
You have to endure.
And listen, look at your life.
One of the tell-tale warning signs
is when you can look at your life
and you can say like those Hebrews:
Past tense, I used to do this.
Past tense, I used to do that.
That's when you're in trouble.
That is a dead giveaway.
Brethren, you need to remember something.
Faith is a confidence in things that are not seen.
And you know what Scripture says?
All those saints who made it to the end,
they had an opportunity to go back,
but they didn't go back.
You know why?
A confidence in something not seen.
You know what's said.
Noah.
What about Noah?
By faith... what did he do?
By faith.
Do you know that chapter, Hebrews 11,
it talks about Noah; it talks about Abraham;
it talks about Moses;
it talks about all these different people.
You see, they made it.
What was going on with these guys?
You know what it says?
Faith is a confidence of things not seen.
The confidence of something not seen.
You know what he says?
We believe that everything that is seen
was made not by anything that is seen.
It's made by the unseen.
You see, we live in light of realities
that we cannot now see with these eyes,
but they are so real to us.
We have a confidence.
He has gone through the veil.
I can't see the veil.
He's gone through that veil to the other side.
I can't see the other side.
It's an unseen Christ.
I can't see Him.
He's gone to His Father's side.
I can't see the Father.
There's glory ahead. I can't see that.
They couldn't see it either.
You remember what Abraham was called to do?
He was called to go to a land
that he did not know,
he had never seen before.
"By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out of the place
that he was to receive as an inheritance
and he went out not knowing
where he was going."
Why did he go?
He didn't know where he was going,
but what was he looking for?
He was looking for a city.
"He was looking forward to the city
that has foundations
whose Designer and Builder is God."
And it says, "These all died in faith,
not having received the things promised,
but having seen them and greeted them from afar."
See, the thing that can't be seen they saw.
I would just say this, do you see it?
Is it ever before your eyes?
You see, sometimes the things that get in our eyes
is the stuff of this world.
We get taken up. We get absorbed.
And Scripture's constantly saying:
Don't let go of the confidence
that you had at the first.
Don't let go of it.
Keep on going.
The end of this thing is eternal life
and it's not that far away and don't get distracted.
Because listen, you say,
how can somebody fall away from the living God?
The same way somebody can fall
away from the door without actually going through it.
You could walk over to that door, not actually go through it,
and then fall away from it.
That's how it happens.
Yes, you could liken it to: going through the door
is genuine salvation.
But you know what?
My eye cannot discern
and your eye cannot discern
whether people are on this side of the door
or that side of the door.
But what our eye does discern
is we watch people fall away from that door.
Now it may prove whether they were
God's house or not -
you're God's house if you hold fast
your confidence to the end.
But we haven't reached the end yet.
And you better beware of presumption and pride
because that will be the first way you'll fall on your face.
Brethren, our confidence -
our confidence is in our God.
That is where we need to be.
Our confidence.
Brethren, don't grow weary of prayer.
That's one of the hardest things to maintain.
That's one of the hardest things to battle through.
See that with your eyes
which they saw, which cannot be seen.
See the realities.
We have a God in Heaven -
a God Who is the Father of lights
and Who rejoices in giving to us.
We have us a Savior
Who spent His blood to redeem us.
You can't see justification. I can't see it.
You can't see that blood.
But you know what, we live on promises.
If they had been thinking of the land
from which they had gone out,
they would have had opportunity to return.
Don't walk away from the door.
Go through it all the way.
How do you know if you're in or out?
Well, I'll tell you this, it's going to be persevering.
It's going to not be falling away.
It's not going to be giving yourself
to some kind of drift that takes you off
or some kind of error that takes you away,
taking your eyes off of Christ.
This excerpt is taken from the full sermon:
"Keep Going" by Tim Conway.