It is not by any means uncommon for young believers to be upset by people telling them not to be “too sure of being saved,” because there were some “professing just as they do, who fell back into their old ways.”
Now, this is perfectly true, and it is best to look the matter straight in the face, and not evade it. The truth never contradicts itself. Some, even in apostolic days, who at one time professed to “believe,” went back to the world and the devil, after all. Simon Magus was one of this sort; Judas Iscariot was another. But I want you especially to notice, that in neither of these cases is it said, that the persons were born again, or possessors of eternal life.
As I said before, God never contradicts Himself, and seeing He has so plainly and fully written in His Word that the believer is everlastingly secure in Christ, it is simply impossible that any part of Scripture could teach the opposite.
To profess to be converted is one thing; to be born of the Spirit, united to Christ, and a possessor of eternal life, is quite another. There is great danger of the children of believing parents, and others who have been taught God’s way of salvation from their earliest days, professing to believe in Jesus, without actually possessing eternal life. They can quote texts, and tell all about it, but there is no manifestation of the new life in them. Their hearts are not won for Christ. They are in the world and of it; their lives and ways are just the same as other worldlings, the only difference is, they profess to be the Lord’s.
But a profession of this kind is of no value whatever, and we need not wonder, if sooner or later it is given up, and an open departure into ungodliness immediately follows.
But this need in no way shake the real possessor of Christ, or make him question his security. He is “in Christ Jesus,” past condemnation (Rom. 8:11There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. (Romans 8:1)). His “life is hid with Christ in God,” (Col. 3:33For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:3)); where neither man nor demon can reach it. He is safely held in the hands of the Father and the Son, and none can pluck him from thence (John 10:28,2928And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. 29My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. (John 10:28‑29)); so that while the blasts of temptation may blow around him, and the enemy roar loud against him, the youngest saint can truthfully sing—
“No condemnation,” blessed is the Lord;
“No separation,” forever with the Lord.
Eternally secure in the everlasting arms are all the saints of God.