Chapter 4:1-11 The Temptation of Christ

4:1 Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
He had just been baptized, the Spirit of God had descended upon Him, and the Father had borne witness to Him... yet, immediately after all that, He was led into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. 

*So, after your times of sweetest fellowship with God, after the happiest enjoyment of gospel ordinances. After the sealing of the Spirit within your hearts, you must expect to be tempted of the devil.

*There is no conquest without a combat. 

Christ was tempted, that He might overcome the tempter. 

Satan tempted the first Adam, and triumphed over him; but he shall not always triumph, the second Adam shall overcome him and lead captivity captive.

4:2 And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He was afterward an hungred.

See how Satan seizes opportunities. When he finds us weak, as the Savior was through long fasting; — when he finds us in trying circumstances, as the Savior was when hungry in the desert; — then it is that he comes to tempt us. This dastardly foe of ours takes every possible advantage of us, that he may, by any means, overthrow us.

4:3 And when the tempter came to Him, he said, If Thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
And when the tempter came to Him..... By "the tempter", is meant the devil, see 1 Thessalonians1 3:5 so called, because it is his principal work and business, in which he employs himself, 

--to solicit men to sin; 

--and tempt them either to deny, or call in question the being of God, 

--arraign His perfections, 

--murmur at His providences, 

--and disbelieve His promises.

Coming to him - In a visible form; probably in a human shape, as one that desired to inquire farther into the evidences of his being the Messiah.

He begins with an “if.” He tries to cast a doubt upon the Savior’s Sonship, and this is the way that he often attacks a child of God now.

4:4 But He answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
Christ said, “It is written,” — That is the only sword that Christ used against Satan, — “the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” (Ephesians 6:17). There is nothing like it; and the old dragon himself knows what sharp edges this sword has.

4:5 Then the devil taketh Him up into the holy city, and setteth Him on a pinnacle of the temple,

Then the devil taketh Him up,.... This was done, not in a visionary way, but really and truly: Satan, by divine permission, and with the consent of Christ, which shows his great humiliation and condescension, had power over His body, to move it from place to place; in some such like manner as the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, Acts 8:39 he took him up, raised him above ground, and carried him through the air, into, the holy city.

4:6 And saith unto Him, If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down: for it is written, He shall give His angels charge concerning Thee: and in their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest at any time Thou dash thy foot against a stone.

Cast Thyself down - Our Lord had repelled the first temptation by an act of confidence in the power and goodness of God; and now Satan solicits him to make trial of it. Through the unparalleled subtlety of Satan, the very means we make use of to repel one temptation may he used by him as the groundwork of another. This method he often uses, in order to confound us in our confidence.

Observe, The Devil said, Cast Thyself down. 

The Devil could not cast Him down, though a little thing would have done it, from the top of a spire. 

Note, The power of Satan is a limited power; hitherto he shall come, and no further.  

Note, Whatever real mischief is done us, it is of our own doing; the Devil can but persuade, 

he cannot compel; 

he can but say, Cast thyself down; he cannot cast us down.

4:7 Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God - By requiring farther evidence of what He hath already made sufficiently plain.

4:8 Again, the devil taketh Him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;

An exceeding high mountain, and showeth Him - If the words, all the kingdoms of the world, be taken in a literal sense, then this must have been a visionary representation, as the highest mountain on the face of the globe could not suffice to make evident even one hemisphere of the earth, and the other must of necessity be in darkness.....by "the glory of them", is meant, the riches, pomp, power, and grandeur of them.

4:9 And saith unto Him, All these things will I give Thee, if Thou wilt fall down and worship me.
And the devil said unto Him, All this power will I give Thee  - In which words he sets up himself to be the god of this world, and the sovereign disposer of it: 

--he pretends it was delivered to him by the true God, who had left it to his arbitrary disposal; 

--and that he could invest Christ with the power and government of it, and put Him in possession of all its glory, and make good and support his title to it, and interest in it. 

Never was such monstrous arrogance expressed as this; 

when this poor, proud, wretched creature, 

has not the disposal, at his pleasure, of anyone single thing; 

no not the least in the whole universe. 

--He could not touch, neither Job's person, nor any of his substance, without divine permission; 

--nor enter into an herd of swine without Christ's leave; 

*and yet had the front to make an offer of the whole world, as if he had a despotic power over it; and that upon this horrid and blasphemous condition.

4:10 Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.

Christ will not endure any more of this talk. 

When it comes to a bribe the promise that the devil will give Him earth’s glory if He will but fall down and worship him, Christ ends the whole matter once for all.

4:11 Then the devil leaveth Him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto Him.

Behold, angels came and ministered unto Him - That is, brought that food which was necessary to support nature.
The name given to Satan in the third verse is very emphatic, ο πειραζων, the tempter, or trier, from πειρω, to pierce through. 

To this import of the name there seems to be an allusion, Ephesians  6:16: The fiery Darts of the wicked one.