Let us read together from the
Holy Word of God. It's on the second page of your
sheets. There's two readings. The first
one is from the Gospel according to Luke chapter 22. We'll read
from verse 31 to 38. And the Lord said, Simon, Simon,
behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you
as wheat. But I have prayed for thee that
thy faith fail not, and when thou art converted, strengthen
thy brethren. And he said unto him, Lord, I
am ready to go with thee, both into prison and to death. And he said, I tell thee, Peter,
the cock shall not crow this day, before that thou shalt thrice
deny that thou knowest me. And he said unto them, When I
sent you without purse and script and shoes, lacked ye anything? And they said, Nothing. Then
said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take
it, and likewise his script, and he that hath no sword, let
him sell his garment, and buy one. For I say unto you, that
this that is written must yet be accomplished in me, and he
was reckoned among the transgressors, for the things concerning me
have an end. And they said, Lord, behold,
here are two swords, And He said unto them, It is enough. And the second reading is the
Gospel according to John chapter 18 and verses 4 through to 11. Jesus, therefore knowing all
things that should come upon him, went forth and said unto
them, Whom seek ye? This is in the Garden of Gethsemane,
when Judas came with the rulers to apprehend him. They answered
him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am He. And Judas also, which betrayed
Him, stood with them. As soon then as He had said unto
them, I am He, they went backward and fell to the ground. Then
asked He them again, Whom seek ye? They said, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus answered, I have told you
that I am He. If therefore ye seek Me, let
these go their way, that the saying might be fulfilled which
He spake, Of them which thou gavest Me have I lost none. Then Simon Peter, having a sword,
drew it, and smote the high priest's servant, and cut off his ear. The servant's name was Malchus. Then said Jesus unto Peter, put
up thy sword into the sheath, the cup which my father hath
given me, shall I not drink it? Thus far the reading of God's
holy word. The word I decide to bring before
you is on the end of our first reading. Luke 22 and verse 38,
the last part of that verse, and He said unto them, It is
enough. And it is specifically the words
that our Lord said, It is enough. Our Lord is speaking these words
to His disciples at the time of the Passover in the upper
room before He was to suffer, and He was preparing them for
what they would meet with, not just immediately when he was
to be numbered with the transgressors when they saw him crucified and
slain, but also later on in their ministry. He asked them how it
was when he first sent them out while he was with them. He sent
them without purse and script and shoes, and he asked them,
did they lack anything? And they said, nothing. Obviously
their needs had been supplied by those that had received them,
and they had not need to bring the things of themselves. But he says, now I say unto you,
and now it is going to be different, now they're going to need a purse
and a script. And he even mentions regarding
a sword. Now really, the Apostle Paul,
we know that in his ministry, that he had no certain dwelling
place, especially in ministering to the Corinthians. He ministered
with his own hands. He wouldn't take anything of
them. He was a tentmaker. They were in a very different
situation, and they had much opposition. much hostility, many
times they were to be taken, imprisoned, persecuted, stoned,
beaten. The things that they were to
come against, the Lord is intimating this to them. Now He's going
to give them an illustration, and for that illustration He
needs a sword. And he mentions the sword here
intimating the opposition, the adversaries that they shall have. But when they say, Behold, here
are two swords, he says it is enough. Now obviously for what
was coming, if they were really to fight, It would not be enough. There are 12 apostles. Are two
going to use the swords and the others fight some other way?
But it's enough for the Lord's purpose because He is going to
teach them this lesson that then unfolds in the passage we read
in John and if we'd have read further with Luke we would have
found that as well but when they came to apprehend the Lord Jesus
Christ then Peter, he having the sword, he drew it, smote
the high priest's servant, cut off his ear. Now we know the
Lord later, he healed that servant. But here our Lord then says to
Peter, put up thy sword into the sheath, the cup which my
father hath given me, shall I not drink it? And this was a vital
lesson for the apostles when they went forth. Instead of when
they had opposition, of resisting it, of fighting, of using swords,
they were to remember this word of Peter, put up thy sword into
the sheath. You, my disciples, will have
a cup as well to drink, and you also will have to say the same,
the cup which my Heavenly Father hath given me. Shall I not drink
it? The Lord had a need for these
swords to teach a lesson, to instruct them, and a lesson really
which they needed all their ministry and their life through, and you
and I need as well. How many times the Lord has needed
perhaps over our life to speak this word to our soul, put up
thy sword within its sheath. Don't fight. Don't resist. See the cup that your Heavenly
Father has given you to drink. And so, what is on my spirit
is this Word. It is enough. It's not just this
occasion here that this Word applies to. Right through Scripture,
we see how the Lord has use things just enough to achieve his purpose
and no more and we are to remember these lessons as well and i just
want to bring just a few of them before you this morning the time that we dwell in a place. The children of Israel, they
left Egypt, and yes, there was a time that they had to spend
there, and they went then into the wilderness and to Mount Sinai. There they received the law of
God and the pattern of the tabernacle, and they had to dwell in that
place for nearly two years. But the Lord says to them, ye
have dwelt long enough in this mount. And it was then time for
them to move on. Long enough. Long enough for
have done what needed to be done there. The giving of the law,
the making of the tabernacle, whatever needed to be done, It
was done, and then they could move on from there. Maybe you remember that, and
maybe you can look back over your lives, that there's been
places that you have been brought to, and the Lord has said it
is enough. You've spent enough time here.
What is accomplished, what is meant to be done, is done. and
now you move on from here. Our Lord later on in the Garden
of Gethsemane, or in fact before the second reading here, He had
the time that the sins of all His people were laid upon Him,
where He sweat those great drops of blood, where He prayed to
His Father, the disciples they could not watch with Him one
hour, They were sleeping for sorrow. But then he comes to
them and he said, It is enough. The hour is come. How long should
the Lord spend in the Garden of Gethsemane? It is very necessary
that He do spend some time there. But how long? Enough time. Enough that there
The sins of his people should be laid upon him. Enough time
it should be seen the disciples they couldn't bear that burden
with him. They couldn't watch not one hour. And there may be many things
that were done there that we really do not apprehend or can
fully enter into. But the Lord is able to say it
is enough. It is enough. The hour has come. And so he then is willing and
he goes and he goes to the cross. May we look upon those things
in our life as well as time spent in a place that if we're still
to continue there is not yet enough time. There's still things
that are being done. with us here below, the day of
grace. When the work of grace is done,
when the time is ready, the Lord will bring his dear people home
to himself, but not before. We think of the afflictions that
we have. We read in the scriptures of
the woman with the issue of blood, 12 years. We read of the man at the pool,
38 years at the pool. Each one of them, their afflictions
came to an end. As if the Lord said, it is enough. 12 years, enough. Heal her. 38 years, enough. Heal him. And we know in our
lives those times of affliction that have come. And then the
Lord has put a thus far and no further. And He's given healing. He's given respite to it. Why
the length of time that there was? The Lord saw that there
was a need, that for those ten years, or however many years
it was, or however many months, or even weeks, that we were afflicted. But when it has done its work,
when he's accomplished his purpose, he says it is enough. and then
move on. It may be a help to us to bear
our afflictions and our path and the time that we have spent
under these things. The Lord is in control and he
sees while he holds us there, it is not yet enough time. But when it is, then he will
deliver us out of it. We think of dear Jacob when Joseph
was in Egypt. He'd made himself known to his
brothers and given them a charge, given them the wagons and everything
to bring his father, his whole household, to be with him in
Egypt. But poor Jacob, when they first
came to him, He couldn't believe it. His heart just fainted within
him. He couldn't believe that his
son after these 20 years was alive. But then when he heard
the words of Joseph that they conveyed to him, and he saw the
wagons, where did they get all these wagons? Where did they
get all this provision that Joseph had given for his father? And
when he saw all these things, we read that the spirit of Jacob
revived and Israel said, it is enough. Joseph, my son, is yet
alive. I will go and see him before
I die. It was enough evidence. Many
of us, we may struggle with unbelief, struggle with doubts, we want
an evidence, we want a token, we want that to rest on, to trust
in. And the Lord knows, as He did
with Jacob, what would be enough to bring us to believe and to
trust, and to venture as dear Jacob could then, to go with
his sons and to go down into Egypt. And so Jacob was able
to say, it is enough. How many times in our life has
the Lord been pleased to give us those things, convince us,
convince us of our sin, teach us of the Saviour, show us our
interest in Him, and we have said, it is enough. when we ventured
in the way of church membership, or baptism, or in service, in
ministry. And the Lord has given us enough
to show us His will, make us willing. John, in his Gospel,
he says that there are many, many things that Jesus did that
are not written in this book, but these are written. that ye
might believe that Jesus is the Christ, and that in believing
ye might have life through his name." In other words, there
is enough written to be savingly effectual for the people of God. Enough written. It is enough. We think of chastening Every
one of God's dear children will be chastened and corrected. There
is no man that doeth good and sinneth not, and there is no
son that the Lord receives that He does not chasten. But what
is enough chastening? The Lord does enough to bring
His people to be exercised, And those that walk through that
path, that the chastening is not pleasant but grievous, yet
afterward, there is an afterward, it yieldeth the peaceable fruits
of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby. When David
and Israel was chastened, when David numbered Israel, then the
angel, after those three days of destroying, He said, it is
enough. 70,000 were slain in Israel over three
days. We may have had that over nearly
a year of the virus, but they had it in three days. But there
came a time the Lord said that it is enough. There's one solemn
thought I'd leave just before, with you as we close, and that
is with Esau. When Jacob came and met him,
and the Lord gave them peace, and the Lord gave, or Jacob was
to give Esau those presents, but Esau wouldn't receive them. He said, I have enough, my brother. Well, yes, he had enough of the
earthly goods, But he didn't have grace, he didn't have Jacob's
God, and yet he thought he had enough. When we are thinking
of do we have enough, may we not measure it in earthly things,
but in the blessings of the Lord. Do we know our sin enough? to make the Saviour precious
and needed. Some think, oh, I've got to have
great depths of conviction of sin. But what is necessary is
just enough to make Christ precious and to know just enough of Christ
to make Him the one thing needful. We always say, I without Him
perish must. It is not the greatness, the
volume, but it's enough. Enough of real, saving faith,
eternal life, the gift of life through our Lord Jesus Christ.
That is enough to die by, to die resting and leaning solely
upon Christ. May we truly discern then that
we have enough. The Lord said to Paul, My grace
is sufficient for thee. It is enough. You do not need
more. And the saving grace of God and
faith in Christ is enough. Enough to live, enough to die
by. So may the Lord bless this word,
give you further meditation through the day upon it. It is enough. It is enough. May it be the Lord's
word to you this morning.