This has been, without doubt, one of the best conferences I have ever had the privilege of attending. The material has been of a consistently high standard; it has been a feast of fat things, of wines on the lees well refined.

I am enjoying my first visit to Grand Rapids, Michigan, and my first taste of the Puritan Reformed Conference. The Conference is sponsored by Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, at which Dr. Joel R. Beeke serves as President and Professor of Systematic Theology, Church History, and Homiletics.

This year’s theme was The Beauty and Glory of Christ…what a wonderful subject.

David Murray, who teaches Old Testament at the Seminary, opened the conference with a marvellous address on the beauty of Isaiah’s Servant, in which he showed that there is only one Person who adequately fulfils the servant concept in the Book of Isaiah – the Lord Jesus Christ.

I then followed with a talk on ‘The Song of David’s Son’, based on Song of Solomon 1:1, in which I argued that the Song is written by Solomon, and is occasioned by his marriage to the daughter of Pharaoh. It’s not a common thesis, but I think it is consistent with a theme running through Scripture – the inclusion of outsiders into the covenant by virtue of their marriage union with a covenant heir. In this case, it is the Davidic covenant that enables us to read the Song and say ‘A greater than Solomon is here’.

After lunch Rev David Carmichael, the minister of Abbeygreen Church of Scotland in the village of Lesmahagow, spoke on ‘Jesus, Master of Storms’. He was followed by Rick Phillips of 2nd Presbyterian, Greenville, speaking on the imputation of Christ’s righteousness. Brilliant stuff.

That evening Joel Beeke gave a wonderful address on a book by the Puritan Thomas Goodwin on Christ’s wonderful heart – a sermon Goodwin gave on the heart of Christ in Heaven for believers on earth. It was worth coming to the conference just to hear it. If it’s available online at all, be sure and listen.

I wished we could just have gone home at that point, but I had to give my second paper on the Song of Solomon, which was down to the usual standard. God was gracious.

On Friday we began with a lecture from Rick Phillips on the glory of Christ’s incarnation; launching from John 1:14, he emphasised that the incarnation was never an end in itself, but a means to the cross. Christ shows us the glory of humanity as well as the glory of God.

The second session was by Jerry Bilkes of Puritan Reformed Seminary. His theme was the glory of Christ in the parables, and was the most masterly devotional study on the parables, in which Dr Bilkes highlighted the scenery of the parables, their kingdom focus, and their transforming effect. He brought out the way in which Jesus’ references to nature and to everyday human activities showed his interest in every aspect of our lives.

After lunch we had the first session from Al Martin*. What can I say? This man was feeding my soul through his tape ministry thirty years ago. To be in the same room as him is to be on holy ground. I hope I’m preaching like this at 78 – powerful, passionate, thorough, Calvinistic, masterful treatment of the glory of Christ’s victorious death.

The battle today, he urged, was for propitiation – for highlighting the cross as the place where wrath is poured out on Christ instead of us. Gethsemane is the presentation and preview of the cup of wrath; Golgotha is the drinking and the draining of the cup of wrath. Why did Jesus refuse the drugged cup of wine? Because there will be no drugged cup of wine for sinners in hell. Awesome thought – brilliant preaching.

Who wants modern stuff in church when this kind of preaching can do everything the people of God need – it humbles us, it shows us Jesus, it brings the glory of the atonement alive.

After dinner James Grier, Adjunct Professor of Ethics and Apologetics spoke on Revelation 5. Then came Al Martin again speaking on the glory of Christ’s Victorious Resurrection.

Saturday the conference wound up with Ray Pennings, teaching elder in the Calgary Free Reformed church and student at the seminary on the topic of Living Christ-centeredly in Everyday Life; then David Carmichael again on Jesus, Master of Stress; and closed out with James Grier Hallelujah to the Triumphant Christ (Revelation 19)

This has been, without doubt, one of the best conferences I have ever had the privilege of attending. The material has been of a consistently high standard; it has been a feast of fat things, of wines on the lees well refined.

There is no substitute for preaching. Not just for woolly evangelical preaching, but solid, Calvinistic, Reformed preaching. Note to self: start learning to do it.

Theology is for the people of God. We need our best minds in pulpits, not just behind lecterns; the Word of God is for the church of God, and the church of God is the people of God. Their souls delight in fatness; and the greatest blessing has been to see God’s people moved, often in tears, as Christ has been exalted and glorified.

Preaching is truth through personality. I am often reminded of Dr John Kennedy’s assessment of the evangelicals of Ross-shire, when he said that all the moderate ministers of his day looked and sounded the same; put the evangelical ministers together and they are all different. Different in style, in voice, in method, in personality.

That has struck me over these days of conference: we are all different, us preachers – we ought not to try to be anyone other than who we are. But we ought to work hard to be vessels fit for God’s use.

*Editor’s Note: For those not familiar with the name Al Martin, he served as a minister at the Trinity Baptist Church of Montville, New Jersey since its inception in 1967. Over forty years of pastoral experience and an evident gift of pointed, applicatory preaching has made Pastor Martin a widely recognized counselor and pastor. He is often called upon to speak at conferences and other special meetings around the world. He is currently retired and living in Western Michigan. He will be speaking again in October at his home church, Trinity Baptist in Montvale, New Jersey at their 27th annual Pastor’s Conference.

Iain Campbell is a native of the Isle of Lewis in northwest Scotland where he serves as pastor of the Free Church of Scotland congregation in Point. He also serves as Adjunct Professor of Church History at Westminster Theological Seminary. This article first appeared as a series of postings on his blog, Creideamh ((pronounced ‘kray-jif’), Gaelic for ‘Faith’, and is used (with a few edits to make it one) with his permission. http://creideamh.blogspot.com/