D. Scott Meadows

In theology, we usually use the word “inspiration” to mean that process by which God produced the Scriptures, his very words, through men. “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God” (2 Tim 3.16). Now I would use it with reference to the phenomena of true worship as produced by God and as motivated in men. Both Holy Scripture and holy worship are inevitable because they are the effectual work of the Almighty Holy Spirit. “The Father seeketh true worshippers to worship him,” and so he sends his Spirit to quicken and transform the true worshippers he seeks. Without this Spirit, absolutely no true worship can possibly begin or continue. The Lord our Redeemer deserves all the credit for all true worship.

Continue reading A Call to Pure Worship IV: The Inspiration of Worship →

D. Scott Meadows

In this series entitled, “A Call to Pure Worship,” the first message proclaimed that God desires pure worship. We proved this straight from Scripture in our simple exposition of John 4, with its testimony that God the Father desires worshippers who worship him in spirit and in truth. In the first message we also beheld from Scripture that sinful man offers corrupt worship. Jeroboam in 1 Kings 12 is a quintessential case of religious corruption, and I hope you are convinced it is practically a paradigm for all kinds of corruptions popular in the visible church today, and corruptions which we should abominate with all our hearts.

Continue reading A Call to Pure Worship III
The Standard of Worship Part II →

D. Scott Meadows

Let’s resume this short series of messages on “A Call to Pure Worship.” In our first message, “The Corruption of Worship,” we considered the absolutely greatest evil of all time, namely, that while God desires pure worship, man offers corrupt worship. God the Father seeks true worshippers who worship him in spirit and in truth. However, man the sinner will not and cannot worship as the Lord wishes, but instead corrupts his worship with all kinds of things which are offensive to God. The whole biblical history is littered with corrupt worship. During the Old Testament period, true worshippers were virtually nonexistent among the Gentiles, and were the exception to the rule, even among those identified as the people of God. One particularly glaring example of corrupt worship is the case of Jeroboam, first leader of the North in the divided kingdom period, and symptoms of his spiritual plague were seen in all his royal successors until the line of northern kings ended with the Assyrian captivity as an expression of God’s wrath. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son into the world to redeem a people from all nations for his praise, and the hour now is, when the true worshippers are worshipping the Father in spirit and in truth, thanks to the Savior who was crucified, buried, rose again, ascended to heaven, poured out his Spirit, and ever lives to make intercession for his people.

Continue reading A Call to Pure Worship II
The Standard of Worship Part I →

D. Scott Meadows

No topic is more important than pure worship, since God’s glory is the ultimate end of our being, and nothing therefore could eclipse this in our ministry before God. He calls us by his Word to serve him in this way, the way of pure worship, and by that I mean nothing more or less than worship that is completely according to God’s will. There is a fundamental conformity to God’s will which is required for worship to be true worship at all, but we wish to promote the reformation even of true worship so that it becomes more and more pure, growing ever greater in conformity to God’s revealed will, and so that in the particulars of what it is, what it contains, what it lacks, how it is conducted, and in everything about it, we are more and more pleasing to God himself, we glorify his name the most, and we become better prepared to assume our places in that worship of the age to come, already begun in this age by the grace of Christ and the gospel.

Continue reading A Call to Pure Worship I
The Corruption of Worship →