The Meat of the Word

“Brothers, I could not speak to you as to spiritual men… I have fed you with milk and not with solid food. For to this day you were not able to endure it…”

— 1 Corinthians 3:1a-2

The late Dr. Donald Gray Barnhouse pastored Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. Barnhouse was the gentleman through whom I first heard the Gospel on the radio and through whom Christ was pleased to reveal Himself in me. And so he has been a person whom I have always appreciated, though I only met him one time. At that time, I told him who I was and that I had been converted about 4 years prior to that through one of his radio broadcasts.

He had preached for 16 years on the book of Romans and he got me at Romans 3:19 and 20. He generally preached on one or two texts at a time and went into them with a great deal of depth. Obviously the more texts that you try to preach on in a sermon the shallower will be the digging that you do. He believed in trying to go deeper and dig a deeper hole over a smaller area. So one or two texts a week took him 16 years to get through the book of Romans and so he had a great love and delight for the Apostle Paul.

There are different preaching styles. Dr. Barnhouse’s style may be too slow for some, but it does show that we can deeply plumb the depths of God’s Word and still come up with treasures. The meat is there for those who want to find it.

Lord, give us strength, insight, and wisdom to dig deep into Your Word. Let the Holy Spirit feed us the meat of Your Word…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN FIND
THE TREASURES IN GOD’S WORD.