Theological term
Vanity
2 sermons · All terms
Live Stream - January 08, 2023
Ecclesiastes 8:10–17 confronts the believer with one of the sharpest enigmas of a fallen world: the wicked die unpunished, the righteous suffer unjustly, and God's judgment appears indefinitely delayed. The preacher argues that Solomon's response is not philosophical resignation but two concrete imperatives — fear God and enjoy what God gives — grounded in covenant trust rather than in sight. The sermon closes by pressing the theological significance of God's delayed judgment: without it there is no gospel, no day of grace, and no salvation for elect sinners who would otherwise have perished in their first sin.
What is Good for Man?
Ecclesiastes 7:1–14 poses the question raised in 6:12 — who knows what is good for man in this vain, shadow-like life? Working through the 'better than' sayings of the chapter, the sermon argues that what is genuinely good for man is often the very thing he instinctively avoids: sorrow, rebuke, and adversity. These are not ends in themselves but instruments by which God cultivates wisdom, exposes the emptiness of riches, and teaches his people their creaturely dependence, so that their hope is ultimately anchored not in temporal blessing but in the incorruptible inheritance secured by Christ.