The sermon titled 'The Advantages of Early Piety' by Scott Brown emphasizes the benefits of turning to Jesus Christ early in life. It explores the earthly advantages, such as having all needs provided, gaining a good reputation, experiencing more enjoyment, early adoption into God's family, and undergoing personal transformation. The sermon also highlights the advantages in death, including overcoming fear and finding comfort in the Holy Spirit, as well as the eternal glory and blessings that await those who turn to the Lord early.

So it's on page 127. It's true of anything in life, if there's something good, you want to get in on it early. Because the earlier you get in on it, the longer you're getting in on something good. So that's pretty obvious, isn't it? But if there's something so beneficial for you, then you're better off going after it as quick as you can as early as you can.

That's the whole proposition of this book, early piety, speaks of the blessings of early piety or the blessings of turning to Jesus Christ early, turning away from the world early in life, the earlier in life you possibly can, the greater blessing you'll experience as the years go on you know I was in my early teens when I turned to Christ my only regret is that I didn't do it earlier because of the goodness because of the blessing because the kindness of the Lord that's been extended to me every day of my life. You know every day that you don't turn to Jesus Christ is a day that you don't have the blessing of God in your life. So every day is important. And this chapter here, chapter 6, speaks of a whole different angle on that and The preacher is talking about advantages in the last chapter the whole focus was on the goodness of God And this is focused on the earthly advantages and the heavenly advantages of turning to Jesus Christ early. And of course the central verse that he's using as a springboard into this is Proverbs 8.32.

Now therefore listen to me, my children, for blessed are those who keep my ways and He uses this word blessed which speaks of the broad and deep and long Blessings that there are The word blessed in the Bible speaks of this comprehensive happiness that takes place. And you're exposed to this early on and it's such a blessing in order to do that. So this phrase, blessed are those who keep my ways This is the whole proposition of the chapter that there are outward blessings their inward spiritual blessings Their blessings to your soul. There's blessings to your body. There's blessings to your life there's blessings to you in death and after death forever, that's the whole proposition And he begins with this first proposition that your happiness is at stake.

You can see that in the middle of page 128, where he says this, that all those who hearken to the voice of Christ or become truly pious and religious in their childhood and youth are and shall be happy and blessed in a very exclusive and distinguishing manner. So he uses those words exclusive and distinguishing in order to try to communicate there are many different levels to this and he's going to talk about them. Look at how many they're listed here. So he goes through quite a bit of detail and so he says I'm just going to choose some of the more remarkable ones of them. Now I think that we could list dozens and dozens more.

You could take all the promises of God and add those to the list. You could take so many different things that you know about the beauty of the power of God and salvation and add those. And then The second point he makes is by mentioning the whole matter of the power of God's covenant. When God makes a covenant with his children, he makes a promise to help them. And so a person who turns to Jesus Christ early has early help.

And that God gives everything needful for your support and he quotes Psalm 84 no good thing will he withhold from those who walk uprightly and God gives every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places to those who love him. He pours it out. This is his fellowship with sinful mankind. Even while we're forgetting him, even while we're not even thinking about him, he's blessing us in ways we have no ability to even process because he's doing it in supernatural ways. No good thing will he withhold.

Then he begins to itemize these various advantages, earthly advantages, of turning to God early. And There are 15 of them listed in your outline you can see them and the first thing CD mentions is that All you need will be provided All you need will be provided and you'll live in your early days with an assurance that God is your provider and it's such a blessing to know that when you're young. When you're young you have lots of fears about the future, about yourself, about your personality, about your skills, about what's going to turn out, what are you going to be able to even make it in this world, are you going to be married, are you going to be even able to make a living, are you going to be poor, or anyway you just have all kinds of questions and fears about your life, But when you understand early that God will provide everything, it saves you all that trouble in your soul. It saves you from being slowed down by all those fears. You know, this is what David was referring to when he said, I sought the Lord and he heard me and he delivered me from all my fears.

So he gives you everything that you will ever need. And you need to know that. The younger you know that, the better off you are. The less anxiety, the fewer tears, the less time wasted anguishing about either what just happened or what you fear might happen. So outward advantages all you need will be provided.

The second that's listed here is on page 130 as well a good name And he speaks about the fact that when you turn to the Lord early your heart is Inclined in a way that is a blessing to others and He says that you will be valued by others as wise, good, sober, and virtuous. And you'll stand in sharp contrast to what he calls the vain and extravagant use who are a shame to all those who are connected with him. Now this is a little bit like what the apostle says to Titus where he turns to young men and he says, young men be sober minded. And then he answers the question, why? Because you'll shame those who aren't.

So there's this matter of a good name that he further goes on and says you'll receive favor not from everybody and this is really important you'll receive favor from those who matter. You won't receive favor from fools. You'll receive favor from godly and blessed people who are wise. So you'll have favor in the sight of the right people, not the wrong people. But he mentions that it may actually include the hatred of the world but the favor toward the godly and then he also mentions wealth I thought this was interesting near the top of page 132 and He quotes a proverb He who has a slack hand becomes poor but the hand of the diligent Makes rich and what he's trying to communicate here is when you turn to the Lord early You have a diligence that you never had before You began to point your energies in a positive and profitable direction.

And that really is true. I found that to be true of those who've been converted. Their whole value system changes and they begin to set their minds on things that are profitable. I think that happened to me. You know I you know I didn't really start reading things for my own profit until I was converted.

But it was because I wanted more. I didn't want to be the same person I was and so I began to read. I began to be more diligent in my studies and various other things, but there are rewards for this kind of diligence that Proverbs 10 verse 4 speaks of and then enjoyment he mentions this as a fruit of turning to the Lord early. He says, your enjoyment will be more sweet and pleasant. You will not have those stings of conscience which usually attend an ill-gotten estate and a guilty mind.

And What he's talking about is when you're in your youth and you waste your days on sinful living you have regrets. There's scars. There's baggage that you carry as a result of it. And some people carry that baggage into their marriages and it doesn't help that much. What you do in your youth with your body, with your mind, with your emotions, it really casts forth what you will be and do and feel in the future.

And what he's saying here is that your enjoyment won't be interrupted by a bunch of bad memories of foolish and stupid and immoral behavior. You haven't squandered your life among the pigs. And so you don't have those memories to slow you down or the anguish from it. Then he goes further and he says, the truth is you'll have actually more enjoyment in everything else as well. Not only will you have, you won't have the disappointments of the past to burden you, but everything that you do will have greater blessing to it.

And he quotes Psalm 37 verse 16, A little that a righteous man has is better than the riches of many wicked. And he presents the scene of a person losing everything. He says even if you're reduced to having nothing, to what he calls the lowest circumstances even having nothing will not steal your enjoyment because your enjoyment is not in worldly things and so whether you're rich or you're poor you still have that same kind of enjoyment. Why? Because God is with you.

Are you sick? Are you on your deathbed? Have you lost everything? You still have help from heaven that no one can take away. So what he's saying is that you'll enjoy everything else more if you turn to him early and then number five the fifth earthly advantage is early adoption and he's speaking here of the fact that you enter into a relationship with God where you become a son or a daughter and he treats you as kin.

He treats you as connected and he favors you because you are his kin and you are a son you are a daughter and he has adopted you he says you are a beloved son you are the son of his love you're called sons of God because this is what God does he treasures his children And he cares for them and then they're changed. This is another advantage number six. You will be changed this is in the lower quarter of page 134 This blessing is that God will be changing you that you will be transformed into the image of God, that you'll become less like yourself and more like the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says that by a gracious adoption, you will have the image of the heavenly Adam vividly stamped upon you. That image of his which consists in righteousness and holiness.

And he says that there's this transformation that begins early and you'll have what he calls the majesty of God that is being laid upon you as a result of the Spirit of God that is filling you. So turn to the Lord early because you'll be changed. You'll have more time of change possibility in your life. What you'll find is that there's a lot to change and you'll find that you'll never stop changing. You know this evening we were gathered around our table and we were sharing various things we learned from 1st John today in the preaching and my mother was sharing and she said she said well I'm just realizing how much change I need to make well she's 89 years old I said well you better get it figured out because you're almost at the end of the line.

But the truth is, you never stop and you never change enough, you never can. And this is why it's so unprofitable to demand, for us to demand some rate of change in people's lives because you never end this rate of change and then finally on that last day you are changed you're transformed into his image completely and the struggle is over the struggle is not over yet but here's what you do want You want to be early in the process of change, and then he speaks of his compassion that this is another advantage is that you receive the fatherly compassion of God. He quotes Psalm 103 verse 13, as a father pities his children so the Lord pities those who fear him because the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to his cry. Psalm 34 verse 15. This is God's compassion toward his children.

You know when you're walking around do you sense God's compassion for you? How do you, What is he like to you? What is God like? Is he like a father? Or is he like an ogre in heaven?

You know one of my favorite Fear of God devotional videos that we did recently was one by Paul Washer where he addresses this issue. Who is God? Is he the ogre under a bridge, you know, there to knock you off? Or is he a kind father to help you across? So you receive his compassion.

And then Number eight, pardon and peace. Quoting Romans 8, one, there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. And it's this whole matter of just being pardoned. There's no condemnation. The former wrath of God has been reversed.

God through his son has made his wrath to be appeased. This is what propitiation is. The appeasement of the wrath of God, quelling, calming the wrath of God toward you. And so the result of that is that you are pardoned and there's peace in that pardon. And he brings up the whole matter of redemption of sinners.

And then number nine that you escape from the degradation of sin and that this early dedication allows you to escape innumerable sins and snares and temptations and sorrows that others unavoidably involve themselves in. You know I've never met anybody who said you know I wish I'd waited a few more years before I trusted the Lord. Nobody ever says that. They always regret every year that they did not turn to the Lord. That's just a reality.

And why is that universal? Why does everyone do that? Because they realize what they've been saved from. I shudder to think of where I would be today had God not reached down. Where would Dwayne be?

Where would Paul be? Where would my father be? Where would our whole family be if we hadn't turned to the Lord? Well, you can't turn to the Lord too early and you'll never regret turning to him early. And then 10, delight.

He gives delight to his children. He says, by entering the the service of God you will find the duties of religion more easy sweet and delightful to you than ever you could have and he he talks about the the blessings of being on the narrow way, that path, that narrow path that you walk, keeping your eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and the perfecter of your faith. When you're able to do that, you are filled with delight because the God of delight is God who gives delight to his children. And then number 11, he says your heart enlarges and what he's saying is that your heart becomes more capable of more good itself. He enlarges your heart that you run the way of his commands more completely and then number 12 a holiness is cultivated that there's a growing holiness in your life And the kingdom of God is capturing more of the kingdom of darkness.

You know, making, pushing the lines of battle back and capturing more territory in your heart by degrees year after year. You know, how much of your heart do you want captured by him? Well if you believe that he is good you will want him to capture. You always want the good army to do the capturing. You want the good army to displace the abusive, harsh, evil, hateful army.

That's what you want. And holiness is cultivated. In this war, God wages. He brings forth the beauty of His holiness in that war. And then 13, weakening of sin, that's at the bottom of page 139.

I really like this language and I know we've spoken about this concept a number of times over the years in the preaching of the Word of God here, but he speaks of the habits of sin growing weaker and weaker. This has to do with starving the devil of what makes him strong. Anything of the flesh makes him strong? So there's this weakening of sin that takes place and then More glory for him number 14 on page 140 The sooner you begin the service of God the more work you are likely to do for him and So bring the greater revenue of glory to his name So this is the matter of serving God to bring him more glory more years more glory and then 15 finally in this list of earthly advantages he says you'll experience more and special favor from God and he quotes Proverbs 817 I love those who love me and those who seek me diligently will find me so he's speaking of the favor that comes to a person when he turns to God there is a special way that God treats you When you read Scripture it becomes very apparent that God treats his own differently than he does treat those who hate him.

He favors his own and he does them good. And this favor from God you know brings forth comfort and all kinds of good things so he speaks of these earthly advantages so we're done talking about the earth then he switches to advantages in death He speaks of this inevitable reality in our lives we are going to die and he mentions three specific things that I've outlined that are advantages in death because we will all turn to dust, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. And first of all there's the overcoming of fear at death And he makes the argument that if you seek the Lord early at what he calls the morning and the flower of youth Then it prepares you for death you prepare for death in your youth by placing all of your confidence in him and when you are getting ready to die or you think you're getting ready to die you have a greater comfort in life because you look back on your past and you reflect on the years that God gave you and it's a sweetness to you not a grief to you because when you look back you see that your heart was bent toward Him and how He blessed you.

And how even though you are a wretched sinner with a heart that still struggled with evil, you'll see how God blessed you during your years during your dying hour and he quotes Psalm 25 7 do not remember the sins of my youth nor my transgressions according to your mercy Remember me for your goodness sake Oh God. So you look back when you're ready to die and you have memories of sweetness To look back upon not memories of grief And then he also mentions that you have the comfort of the Holy Spirit that you have been submissive to the Holy Spirit you've been filled with the Holy Spirit and now you're walking through the valley of the shadow of death and you say in your heart thou art with me because he's always been with you he's walked with you through everything He's seen you through so many troubles and here you are now in the last trouble of your life and all you can think of is thou art with me. Thy rod and Thy staff, they come for me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil.

My cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever that's what happens when you turn early is that you have this life that was in submission to the Holy Spirit and that filling and that submission carries you through the time of your death. And then you also have an honorable name in your death on page 144 and that you look back and you see that at least you know God preserved your name. And then there are special advantages of early piety in eternal glory and blessings from heaven. So there it is.

God rewards marvelously those who turn to him early. So these preachers that gathered in Boston are as you can see they're appealing to young people to turn to Jesus Christ Not to forget not just his goodness, but also what good things he does and anybody who's been a Christian can testify to these things. You know I've been a Christian for almost a half a century, not quite, and I can testify to every single one of these and I'm so thankful that at least the Lord drew me when I was in my early teens but I just wish it had been earlier for more blessing for more hope for more help for more of a sense of the legacy of God's kindness toward me. So turn to the Lord early. Because here's the reality.

If there's something good, you always wanna get in on it early.