I've entitled this message, Faith
Alone is Never Alone. And I hope you'll understand
why I say that by the end of this message. Faith alone is
never alone. In John chapter 15, verse 8,
the Lord Jesus says, Herein is my Father glorified, that you
have faith alone? No. Herein is my father glorified
that you bear much fruit." And then he said in the 16th verse
of this chapter, you have not chosen me, but I have chosen
you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit. and that your fruit should remain. Faith alone is never alone. It will always have fruit. If my faith is not alone, when
I'm speaking of faith alone, it's not faith at all. Faith
that is not alone is not faith at all. What do I mean by that? Listen to this scripture, Romans
chapter 4 verse 5, to him that worketh not, but believeth on
him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Now, hear what this verse says,
him that worketh not, you know, if you have faith, that there's
absolutely nothing you can do to be saved. Salvation by works
for you is impossible. Here's where your hope is. You
believe on Him who justifies the ungodly. That's where you
hang your hat. That's your only hope. That He
as an act of His sovereign will through the death of the Lord
Jesus Christ actually justifies and clears of all guilt, guilty
sinners. That's faith alone. In John chapter
six, verse 28, some people ask the Lord, what must we do that
we might work the works of God? And here's his reply. This is
the work of God that you believe on him. whom he hath sent." Now
that is faith alone. There was a period after that,
not that you believe on him whom he has sent and no, this is God's
work that you believe on him whom he hath sent. Now, the only way we get this
thing of faith alone is from the scriptures alone. The Scriptures
alone are our only authority. Not what a denomination says,
or a preacher says, or a seminary says, but what does the Bible
say? That's all we care about. The Scriptures alone. And the
Scriptures alone speak of Christ alone as the only grounds of
salvation. Not Christ and, but Christ alone.
I love that passage of Scripture in Hebrews 1-3 when He had by
Himself purged our sins. Notice it doesn't say He purged
our sins, but it says He, by Himself, purged our sins. That
means we had nothing to do with this. He did it by Himself, and
He alone is our only ground to salvation. Christ alone. Grace
alone. Salvation is all of grace. From
election, before time began, until glorification, when we
stand Perfect in Christ Jesus, accepted in the beloved, standing
in heaven, and everything that happens on earth, it's all of
grace. It has nothing to do with works.
Listen to this scripture. By grace you say through faith,
and that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. Faith alone, the only evidence
of salvation, is someone who looks to Christ only. They believe
he's the Son of God and this only gives glory to God. Now faith is always alone or
it's not faith. And faith alone is never alone. Somebody says, well, that's contradictory.
No, it's not. You listen to this message and
you'll see that that's not contradictory. Faith alone is never alone. Now, wherever there is faith,
there's a reason for that faith. Life. You've been born of the
Spirit. And the reason you have faith
is you've been given spiritual life. The reason you repent is
because you've given spiritual life. These are the actions of
the new nature. That which is born of the Spirit
is spirit. And if you're born of the Spirit,
which would be evidenced by you having faith alone, you will
have the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the spirit, not
the fruit of your works, the fruit of the spirit is love,
joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and
temperance. Now fruit is a concept found
throughout the scriptures. In the word, in the Bible, the
word is used for the fruit of plants. A tree is known by its
fruits. An apple tree bears what? Apples. A tree or a fruit is,
fruit is used as the fruit of the loins, your children. Fruit
by definition is that which originates or comes from something. It is
the effect. It is the result. For instance,
you turn on a light switch. Electricity goes through the
current. And what is the fruit of that? Light comes on. And
if light doesn't come on, what do you do? You throw away the
bulb. It's no good. Now, where there is spiritual
life, there will be fruit. Where there is no fruit, there
was no spiritual life. Now when Christ spoke of his
death, he talked about the results, the effects of his death. He
said in John chapter 13 verse 24, Verily I say unto you, except
a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone.
But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. And he's talking
about his death. His death brought forth much
fruit. Here's the effect of his death. Here's the fruit of his
death. Everybody he died for saved. When he said it is finished,
the salvation of all of the elect was accomplished. There was fruit
to his death. When people came to John the
Baptist to be baptized, He looked at them and said, bring forth
fruits, meat for repentance. Now what did he mean by that?
Well, if you have true repentance, you'll come broken. There'll
be the fruit of humility. There'll be the fruit of a need
of Christ. There'll be the fruit of a broken
heart. There'll be the fruit of a desire to be found in Christ.
There'll be the fruit of desiring to walk with Christ. There'll
be fruits with true repentance. And what about the parable of
the sower? The Lord gave four different grounds. Three were
bad. You remember the wayside ground,
the stony ground, and the thorn-choked hearer. And what did all three
of these hearers have in common? None of them bore fruit. The
good ground here is the only one which bore fruit. Now everybody, without exception,
who looks to Christ alone bears fruit. They all love God as he's
revealed in his word. And they all love their brethren.
And they love men. They want them to hear the gospel
and believe. They all have joy. Oh, how they
rejoice at the fact that all of their salvation is in Christ.
And it's not dependent upon their works in any way. And they have
peace. They have the peace of justification.
They have the peace of knowing that they stand perfectly righteous
before God because Christ's righteousness is theirs. They're all long-suffering,
patient. They know God's on the throne
and they're waiting on him. They all have gentleness, kindness,
goodness. That's a capacity for mercy. They all have faith. They really
do believe the gospel. They're meek before God. Everything
God sends their way is right because he did it. And they all
have temperance, control from within by the power of God the
Holy Spirit. Every believer, now no doubt
some, the fruit is developed more in them than it is in others
through growth and grace, but even the newest born child of
God has the fruit of God the Holy Spirit. Every believer has
the fruit of the Spirit. Now what inspired this message
was when I was reading in John chapter 15 and verse 8, The Lord says, Herein is my Father
glorified, that you bear much fruit. And my thought was, I
want to bear fruit. I want to bear much fruit that
God would be glorified. Now, I'd like us to look at this
passage in John chapter 15. And this is a parable. that Christ
gives to teach one specific lesson. It's the parable of the vine
and the branches. And I want you to remember with
regard to a parable that not all parts of the parable are
given to teach things. A parable is given only for one
purpose, not to teach nine things or 10 things, but one thing.
For instance, the parable of the good Samaritan, that man
who was on the side of the road in the ditch The Lord said he
was half-dead. Now, does that mean sinners are
only half-dead? Of course not. That's just part of the story.
And in this passage of Scripture, in 1 John 15, verse 2, where
he says, Somebody says, does that mean you can be in him and
be a branch and not bear fruit? No, if you're born of God, you
will bear fruit. Does that mean a believer can
lose his salvation? No, a believer cannot lose his
salvation because his salvation is in Christ. If salvation were
by works, you could lose your salvation. But if it's in Christ,
no, he gives eternal life. So I wanted to point that out.
There are things in this parable that may seem to insinuate certain
things that they're really not insinuating. So let's read this. John chapter 15, verse 1, the
Lord says, I am the true vine, and my father is the husband. Now, the only one from which
true fruit comes from is the true vine, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, we read in the scriptures
of true riches, not what the world counts riches, but true
riches, true life. True worshippers. There's false
worshippers. True bread. The only true God. The true tabernacle, which the
Lord pitched and not man. We read of a true heart. A true
witness. The true sayings of God. And here we read where the Lord
says, I am the true vine. And my father is the husband. Perhaps they were walking along
and he saw a vineyard and looked at it and said, I am the true
vine. Verse two, every branch in me
that beareth not fruit, he taketh away. And every branch that beareth
fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Look
in verse four. Abide in me and I in you, as
the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in
the vine. No more can ye, except you abide in me. I am the vine,
you are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I
in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me, severed
from me, you can do nothing. Now here the Lord Jesus is teaching
union with himself. I am the vine, you are the branches. And this union is the closest
union imaginable. Now, what do I mean by that?
Well, there are very close unions. You know, the scripture says
when a man and woman are married and go through the intimacy that
is brought on by marriage, they become one flesh. That's why
sexual sin is so wrong. It's against this picture of
the relationship between Christ and the church. A man becomes
one with his wife. Now that's a very close union,
but it's not as close as this union. I think of the closeness
of a baby, a child in its mother's womb. What a close relationship,
but it's not as close as this relationship. You see, when the
Lord says, I am the vine and you are the branches, the same
stem that goes through the vine goes through the branches. There's
not a connecting point. There's not a point where they
become one. They're always one. And that's
what the Lord is teaching. The believer is one with himself. Hebrews chapter 2 verse 11, both
he that sanctified and they who are sanctified are all of one. For which cause? He's not ashamed
to call them brethren. When the Lord spoke to John the
Baptist, he said, thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Now, John the Baptist was a sinner
like me and you, but he was in Christ. And when Christ was fulfilling
all righteousness, John the Baptist was. And so was every other believer
because they're united to him. They're one with him. And this
is the very foundation of salvation, being one with the Lord Jesus
Christ. This is what's depicted in baptism. Now why does a believer
go in the water? and go under the water and come
back up out of the water. Is that just a meaningless religious
ritual? No, it pictures the gospel. And
let me say this before I go on. That's the reason baptizing infants
is evil. It's not baptism. It's saying that that act somehow
helps that baby more likely to be saved. It's wrong. Somebody
says, well, that's what we've always done. Then stop doing
it. Infant baptism is wrong. It's anti-scriptural. It's anti-gospel. Now, what is baptism? It's believer's
baptism. It's someone who understands
that this is their only hope. When Christ lived, I was in him. When he kept the law, I was in
him. When He suffered and died, I
was suffering and dying. My sins were being paid for because
I was in Him. When He was raised from the dead,
and that's what happens when we come out of the water, when
He was raised from the dead, I was in Him. That is all my
salvation, union with the Lord Jesus Christ. When we partake
of the Lord's table, What we take when we eat the bread and
wine, it becomes a part of us. It becomes united to us. It becomes
part of our body. You in Christ, Christ in you. And Christ crucified is our whole
salvation. The entire Salvation is found
in union with Christ. No other doctrine is really understood
apart from this. I am the vine and you are the
branches. Now, you cannot be united to
him and bear no fruit. It's impossible to have his life
in you and to not bear fruit. The branch that bears no fruit
is taken away. Now, whatever that means, I know
this, it doesn't sound good, does it? The branch that bears
no fruit, it wasn't really connected to the vine or it would bear
fruit. It appeared to be in the vine. There are a lot of church
members who appear to be in Christ, but they bear no fruit. They're
not really in the vine. Now, the branch that bears fruit,
the Lord tells us he purges it. He prunes it, that it might bring
forth more fruit. Now, have you ever seen a great
vine pruned? It's cut down so much that you
don't think it could even live. And that's what the Lord does.
He prunes his people. He sends trials. afflictions,
troubles their way that will make them look as if they, I
must not have any faith. I must be the weakest, most sinful
man to ever live. He'll do that that they might
bring forth more fruit. This is the Lord's purging. This
is the Lord's chasing. And it's that we might bring
forth more fruit. And then in verse three, the
Lord says, now are you clean? through the word that I've spoken
to you. Now this is a description of every believer. You're clean.
You're righteous. You're holy. you're without sin. That's what justification is.
Justification means I have never sinned. But you have sinned. Well, my sin was born by Christ
and he put it away. And his perfect life is given
to me, to all those who are united to him. And thus I am clean. Do you feel clean? No, I don't.
Are you clean? Yes, I am. Because Christ said,
now are you clean? There is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus, being justified freely by his
grace. You're clean. Now you're clean
through the word that I've spoken to you, the gospel I've preached
to you, and you believe it. And look what he says in verse
four, abide in me. Abide in me. And I in you, as the branch cannot
bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can
you except you abide in me. Now, in me, abide in me, in Christ
is a place. It's a location. And if you abide
in a place, that means you do not leave that place. Now listen
to these words of Paul, the apostle. Philippians chapter three, verses
eight and nine, Oh, that I may win Christ and be found in him. not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ, the righteousness, which is of God by faith. Now, Paul says, when God comes
looking for me, I simply want to be found in Christ to where
all he sees is Christ. Now, if Christ returned today,
You'd probably like to be found reading the Bible or witnessing
or praying or certainly not in the commission of some sin. You'd
like to be found like that. But Paul said, not me. That's
not how I want to be found. I want to be found in Christ
so that all he sees is Jesus Christ, and I want to stay in
him, and I don't want to go anywhere else because I know all of God's
blessing, all of God's salvation is in the Lord Jesus Christ,
and I want to abide in him, and at no time do I want to leave
that place. Now, the only way a branch can
bear fruit is by being in the vine, in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if it's severed from the
vine, it cannot bear any fruit. And I cannot bear fruit except
I abide in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's a conscious desire
to be found nowhere else. Abiding in Christ is a conscious
desire to be found Nowhere else. And if I abide in him, look what
verse says, it says abide in me and I in you, as the branch
cannot bear fruit except it abide in the vine, no more can you
except you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches.
He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth
much fruit. But without me, severed from
me, you can do nothing." Now somebody says, give me something
that'll help me in this thing of fruit bearing. Should I read
the Bible more? Should I pray more? Should I
try to stay away from places that could be a bad influence
on me? Should I try to suppress sin more? All those things are fine. But no, I'm not going to tell
you to do anything except to abide in Christ in order to bear
fruit. If you abide in Him, if that's
the desire of your heart, you will bear fruit. And you know, if you're trying
to bear fruit, you won't bear it. If that's what you're trying
to do, trying to do things to make you bear fruit, you're not
abiding in Christ. You're outside of Christ. It's only abiding
in him so that all God sees is Christ. That's where you will
bear fruit. He said, without me, severed
from me, you can do nothing. Now, words couldn't be any plainer. Severed from Christ, I can do
nothing. He doesn't say you can do hardly
anything or it's with great difficulty you'll do things. He said, without
me, you can do nothing. Verse six, if a man abide not
in me, He's cast forth as a branch and is withered. And men gather
them and cast them into the fire and they're burned. You see,
if you don't abide in Christ, you'll be a fruitless branch.
Won't be any fruit coming from you. And all you do with a fruitless
branch is throw it in the fire for it to be burned. If you abide
in me and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will and
it shall be done unto you. Only by abiding in Christ is
our prayers heard. Outside of Him, there's nothing.
Verse 8, herein is my Father glorified, that you bear much
fruit. Now, if your fruit that you think
you have glorifies yourself, it's not the fruit the Lord's
talking about. If you have fruit, true fruit, it's for the glory
of God, and you know it comes in a way that God is glorified,
then God gets the glory for it. You know certainly no glory goes
to you. Herein is my Father glorified,
that you bear much fruit." And then I want to go back to verse
16. He says, you have not chosen me. This is speaking to his disciples.
He says, you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. I've heard preachers say, well,
we choose Christ because he chose us. Well, the Lord said you didn't
choose me. I chose you." Now he's talking about divine election,
the choice he made of his people before the foundation of the
world, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world. He says, you have not chosen
me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that you should
go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain. It won't leave. It will be there
eternally. Now, somebody says, well, he's
telling the apostles that they will be greatly used of God and
there'll be a lot of fruit to their preaching. Thousands of
people will be brought to a saving knowledge of Christ. That's true.
That's true. but they also would go and bring
forth the fruit of God, the Holy Spirit. Now here's the point
I want to leave you with. You have not chosen me, but I've
chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth
fruit and that your fruit should remain. If you're one of God's
elect, you will bring forth fruit. And the reason you bring forth
fruit is because he chose you to that and ordained you to that. It's his work of grace from the
beginning to the end. You've not chosen me, but I've
chosen you." You know, every Christian says amen to that.
Someone says, I don't believe that, then you're not a Christian.
Every Christian knows that. You have not chosen me, but I've
chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth
fruit and that your fruit should remain. You see, the faith that's
alone, that looks to Christ only, that abides in Christ and wants
to be seen nowhere else, is that faith which is never alone. It always brings the fruit of
God the Holy Spirit. Now we have this message on DVD
and CD. If you call the church, write
or email, we'll send you a copy. And this is Todd Nyberg. We'd
love to have you come out and visit and hear the gospel preached. And we pray that God will be
pleased to make himself known to you. That's our prayer. Amen.