Hints to Preachers

Verse 1.—The great Proprietor, his estates and his servants, his rights and wrongs.

Verse 1.—“The earth is the Lord’s.” I. Mention other claimants—idols: pope, man, devil, etc. II. Try the suit. III. Carry out the verdict. Use our substance, preach everywhere, claim all things for God. IV. See how glorious the earth looks when she bears her Master’s name.

Verse 1 (last clause).—All men belong to God. His sons or his subjects, his servants or his serfs, his sheep or his goats, etc.

Verse 2.—Divine purposes accomplished by singular means.

Verse 2.—Founded on the seas. Instability of terrestrial things.

Verse 3.—The all-important question.

Verse 4 (first clause).—Connection between outward morality and inward purity.

Verse 4 (second clause).—Men judged by their delights.

Verse 4.—“Clean hands.” 1. How to get them clean. II. How to keep them clean. III. How to defile them. IV. How to get them clean again.

Verses 4, 5.—Character manifested and favour received.

Verse 5 (second clause).—The good man receiving righteousness and needing salvation, or the evangelical meaning of apparently legal passages.

Verse 6.—Those who truly seek fellowship with God.

Verse 7.—Accommodate the text to the entrance of Jesus Christ into our hearts. I. There are obstacles, “gates,” “doors.” II. We must will to remove them: “lift up.” III. Grace must enable us: “be ye lift up.” IV. Our Lord will enter. V. He enters as “King,” and “King of glory.”

Verse 7.—The ascension and its teachings.

Verses 7-10.—I. His title—the Lord of hosts. II. His victories, implied in the expression, The Lord strong and mighty in battle. III. His mediatorial title, The King of glory. IV. His authoritative entrance into the holy place.—John Newton’s “Messiah.”

Verse 8.—The mighty Hero. His pedigree, his power, his battles, his victories.

Verse 10.—The sovereignty and glory of God in Christ.