Text: Matthew 4:1-11

Title: Enough is Enough

 

Introduction: Enough is enough mean “in a tolerable degree.”  It means “that I have had enough.”  I guess Popeye the Sailor said it best when he got fed up with Bluto or any opposing character, “That's All I Can Stands, I Can't Stands No More!” There comes a point in our spiritual walk with the Lord that we must be willing, ready, and able to tell the enemy “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.”  Tell the enemy he has no place in your life, tell the enemy that he has been in your marriage long enough, he has been giving you grief long enough.  The enemy is always in your business.  He is in you family, your finances and your faith.  The purpose of this sermon is to motivate and encourage someone to tell the enemy to “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!”

 

I.                   His Preparation (1-2)

·        Jesus had been baptized and God, the Father, made a heavenly declaration that Jesus was His Son, in whom He was well-pleased. Although the temptations were given by satan, it was a part of God’s perfect plan for the redemptive work of His Son.

·        It was Spirit-led (1).  God is not going to lead you into something that He can’t bring you out of.  “Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.”

·        It was Comfort-less (1).  He was led to the wilderness.  The wilderness of Judea is a hot, barren, and desolate area that extends west from the Dead Sea almost to Jerusalem, and is some 35 miles long and 15 miles wide.  One expert said, “Nowhere in Palestine could Jesus have been more isolated or in less comfort.  God proved through his Son that spiritual and moral failure are not caused by circumstances but by the character and response of the one who is tempted and tried (as was the case of the 1st Adam vs. the 2nd Adam).

·        It is not a test-free zone (1). To be tempted.  MacArther says, “Christians cannot be tempted in a way that God cannot use for their good and His glory.  James 1:2-4 says, “…consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

·        And he fasted 40 days & nights (2).

 

II.                His Temptations & His Responses (3-10)

·        From the outset, the enemy came more than once.  Margaret Thatcher said, “You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.”

·        The 1st temptation was for Jesus to distrust the providential care of His Father (3-4).

·        The 1st Response (4)– Dt. 8:3.

·        The 2nd temptation was to presume (take for granted without proof) on the Father’s care by putting Him to the test (5-7).

·        The 2nd Response (7) – Dt. 6:16

·        The 3rd temptation was for Him to renounce the way of His Father and to substitute the way of the enemy (8-10).

·        The 3rd Response (10) – Dt. 6:13 – It was at this point that Jesus said ENOUGH IS ENOUGH…Get to stepping. “Get out of here!”

 

III.             His Triumph (11)

·        James 4:7, “Submit yourselves therefore to God.  Resist (oppose; make war on the one who opposes you) the devil, and he will flee from you (be put to flight).”

 

Conclusion: 

·        God must have said enough is enough, Paul says in Galatians 4:4-5, “But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them there were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.”

·        Jesus went all the way to Calvary…suffered on the cross…buried in a borrowed…stayed 3 days/nights…said enough is enough…and GOT UP with ALL POWER!