https://open.spotify.com/episode/1VQNZtJJkV6FhlCiBHXfYU?si=iE1UymdURS6L_VOMJRS1Eg Saying that you have a favorite book of the Bible kind of feels as wrong as saying that you have a favorite child. It is all God's inspired Word, so we should love all of it equally, right? Well, maybe favoritism is the wrong way to think of it; nevertheless, I do think that …
Continue reading Rethinking the Relationship Between Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, & Song of Songs
You may have noticed that this sermon is not on the Gospel of Mark. I was invited to be a guest preacher at another church yesterday, and I was given Ecclesiastes 8 to preach. It was joyous to be back in Ecclesiastes again, and I pray that the sermon will be a blessing to you …
Continue reading Yet I Know That It Will Be Well | Ecclesiastes 8
Thus far, the Preacher has presented before us his investigation to find something under the sun that isn’t vanity. He attempted giving himself to unmitigated pleasure. He studied the rhythms, randomness, and inevitability of time. He observed the necessity of community, while also noting how we each threaten to destroy that community. He has presented …
Continue reading The Life of the Unsatisfied | Ecclesiastes 6
If you see in a province the oppression of the poor and the violation of justice and righteousness, ado not be amazed at the matter, for the high official is watched by a higher, and there are yet higher ones over them. But this is gain for a land in every way: a king committed …
Continue reading He Who Loves Money Will Not Be Satisfied With Money | Ecclesiastes 5:8-20
Again I saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun. And behold, the tears of the oppressed, and they had no one to comfort them! On the side of their oppressors there was power, and there was no one to comfort them. And I thought the dead who are already dead more fortunate …
There is no book, inside or outside the Bible, like Ecclesiastes. The Preacher, likely Solomon, writes Ecclesiastes in order to analyze life under the sun for any lasting meaning, joy, and purpose. His answer is that all of it is a vanity, with no more substance than a breath of air. All who live will …
Continue reading For Everything There Is a Season | Ecclesiastes 3
In almost every book or sermon to be found on Ecclesiastes, the emphasis of these verses is placed upon how we worship God, and while worship does form the bulk of the discourse here, the point of this passage is more interested in why we worship than how we worship. The Preacher is diving at …
In chapter one, Ecclesiastes’ author, the Preacher (most likely Solomon), wrote us a poem about the vanity of everything under the sun. He observed the endless repetitions of the sun, wind, and seas and realized that we are same. Like the sea never fills, so our ears never hear enough. Like the sun continues to …
The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises, and …
The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil. Ecclesiastes 12:13–14 (ESV) Throughout Ecclesiastes, as the Preacher has systematically stripped the hope out of various avenues …
Continue reading The End of the Matter | Ecclesiastes 12:13-14
B. C. Newton 