The sermon titled 'The Obligations to Early Piety' by Scott Brown emphasizes the importance of giving one's all to God early in life. The sermon is based on Proverbs 23:26 and highlights the argument that youth are more likely to learn and change. It explores the obligations that come with giving your heart to God, such as giving up all you are and all you have. The preacher appeals to the goodness of God and explains that God preserves, observes, does good, gives laws, and judges. The sermon concludes with a call to turn to God early, highlighting the consequences of not doing so.

Okay, open up to early piety. This is chapter five, page 97. You have an outline there in front of you that might help you track with this whole thing. Let's pray before we begin. Oh Lord, we pray that you would give us wisdom from heaven, that you would give us hearts to take it in, ears to hear it, and Lord, a sense of how we might understand it and put it into practice.

Lord, we praise you for your kind instructions toward us that lead us always in the best ways. And I pray, oh Lord, that you would give it to us tonight that our hearts would be so wide open, our mouths would be open, that they might be filled from heaven. Amen. Okay, so here we are at chapter 5 of early piety and this whole chapter is an argument for why you should give your all to God. And of course, the whole proposition of this book is that it's always best to give your all to God early.

Early in your life, give everything to God. That's really the whole call and appeal. And if you remember the whole context of how this book came to be put in print, in 1721, Cotton Mather and his father, Increase, saw that they were losing the next generation in Boston. And the holiness, the fervor, the great sense of the presence of God was being lost when compared to the early Pilgrim Fathers that came to America in 1620. And so they saw this revival that they had seen with their eyes fall away.

And they were losing the younger generation. So Increase Mather and Cotton gathered together a number of pastors in Boston to give lectures over nine successive Thursdays. They brought the families together and preached to the parents and their children together. And so these chapters are messages that were delivered during this nine-week conference. And this message was delivered by Mr.

Prince on April 27th, 1721. So if you can imagine the context of parents and children sitting there listening to these messages, if you recall the first message that was given was really delivered both to parents and children at the same time, back and forth, back and forth. And then the rest of these, while they do have an application for the parents, there are laser beams focused on young people particularly, and hence the name early piety. And I read an original manuscript of this probably about ten years ago and I was so taken by them I determined that someday I would reprint it And so this book is the result of that effort. And many of you in this church were involved in the editing process and the proofreading of this book, which I'm very grateful.

But this chapter here is focused on the answering of this question. Why should you give up your all to God? Why should you give up all you are? Why should you give up all you have? Why should you give your whole heart?

So he begins in this sermon with Proverbs 23 verse 26. This is the main text. This is the seminal biblical argument that he's making, which is recorded there in Proverbs 23. My son, give me your heart. So he begins with this appeal.

He explains somewhat about the book of Proverbs that Solomon wrote down about 3, 000 Proverbs. And of course, they're not all recorded in the book of Proverbs, but they were designed to bring the wisdom of God and to be like rain water on a dry ground. So if you have the outline in front of you, you'll kind of see where this whole thing is tracking. The first argument that he makes on page 98 is that youth are more likely to learn and to change. And it really is a reality that you can observe.

For some reason, God has it that those who are converted, most of them are converted in their youth. Now not all, but we just interviewed a couple for membership today and as we heard their story, it was very consistent with this. Jesus Christ rescued them in their youth. What a blessing it is to be rescued in your youth. I was in my youth.

I was in my early teens when the Lord rescued me and I am so glad He did. I shudder to think of what would have happened to me had I not been rescued in my youth. And how many harmful things he saved me from, what a wonderful thing is. But God has ordained that youth is the time of salvation for some reason. And if you're sitting here and you're not converted and you're in your youth, watch out, God's on the move.

He moves on young people big time. And that's sort of the point that he's making is that youth are more likely to listen. And he says this, the tender youth were the most fit and apt to learn and the easiest and likeliest to receive instruction. That's on the bottom of page 98. And then he speaks that Proverbs is a book for young people and It is true.

Proverbs was written by a father for fathers to teach their children. Proverbs is one of the most remarkably helpful texts for teaching children. And it should be part of the education of every household. It should be really the fundamental principle that you're always going back to. And that's, you know, one of the blessings of Proverbs is that it's organized into 31 chapters.

And guess how many days are in most months, 31 days. Read one Proverb a day and you'll find yourself really built up and helped. And so he also makes it very clear that this whole call, my son, give me your heart, is repeated over and over again. That this terminology, my son, appears 23 times in the book of Proverbs. And I really love this one observation that the preacher makes here.

He speaks of the fact that you have a king who's speaking to children. That's in the middle of the page on page 99. This great and renowned King condescends to be a preacher to children. He speaks to every child about him when he says, my son. And he calls upon them by this endearing term in our text to express his tender affection and engage them toward him.

So as he speaks of this whole matter of the strategic moments of youth, he makes this wonderful observation that a king is speaking to children. And then he makes a second major point where he asks the question, what is it to give your hearts to God? And he goes through several points, and I have them listed there for you. What does it mean to give your heart to God? What does it mean to respond to the appeal, my son give me your heart?

And the first thing that he identifies is that it means that you give up your all to God. On page 100 in the top half of the page he says, it is to give up yourselves and all you have entirely to Him in your early days. You must give up your bodies and all its parts and members and especially the tongue to God. You must give up all your senses, your strength, your vigor, your health and beauty. You must likewise give up your spirit, your temper and all your various appetites and passions to Him.

He says, give up your imagination, your understanding, your reason, your judgment, your conscience, your affections, your will, your memory. Give it all up to God. That's the appeal that he's making. What does it mean to answer the call, my son give me your heart? Well the heart is the fundamental driver of everything in your life.

So when you give God your heart it's in effect giving him everything. So he says give up all to God and then the second point that he makes at the bottom of page 100, all that you are, giving up all that you are, quoting Titus 212, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, that we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age. And then he turns to another category, give up all that you have. And he speaks of your powers of speaking, your powers of thought, your powers of action, your studies, your learning, everything you're interested in, your reputation, your recreations, your pleasures, your affairs, your time, whatever you esteem, whatever you value, give it all up to God. Put it into service.

He says keep nothing from him. And then he speaks of this all as a means of eternal adoration to find yourself and every part of you in happy service to God. He then speaks of your heart in the middle of page 102. All of your heart is to be given. He says, no, your hearts are the principal and most peculiar things that God regards.

And he says they contain all the others. And he says if you don't give him your hearts, you give him nothing. And he then speaks about this matter of sincerity and giving all of your hours. I was really struck by this phrase near the top of page 103. He said this, And this really correlates to the previous chapter regarding the use of your time.

You must not allow yourselves to live an hour, no, not a moment, till you have given yourselves to God. Not an hour, not a moment. God gave you life and you ought to return all of your life back to Him. And then the fifth point here is he speaks of these obligations to God and he says I can think of nothing that is not an obligation on you to be religious. And he's talking about this fact that some people try to separate their spirituality from their life.

They try to sort of live in two different worlds. This is the spiritual part of my world and this is the secular part of my world and he is Dispensing with that whole idea that there's some part of your life that is not spiritual that is not somehow related to the kingdom of God He says every mercy you receive every affliction you meet with every good every evil everything contained in the Word of God, and everything you have or able to do for God is an obligation on you to give yourselves to him. So he's just speaking of the fact that every opportunity in life obligates a person to turn toward him and to subject everything to the work of the Spirit and the control and the government of the Word of God. Everything. So you don't have a secular part of your life and a spiritual part of your life.

Like your work is not a secular part of your life. Everything is part of your spiritual life. And then after saying this, he makes it very clear that the God who is requiring this is of a particular kind of God. And he says, God is absolutely perfect. This is in the middle of page 104, a most pure spirit without body, parts, or passions, you recognize that from the Baptist Confession and the Westminster Confession, and free from all composition.

You have also learned that he is infinite, eternal, unchangeable. He's full of justice and goodness and truth and power and holiness. He's immense, he's omniscient, he's omnipresent. That's why you should give yourself to him. He made all things for his glory.

And so that's why one ought to give everything unto God. And then he speaks of all things for his glory at the top of page 107 as this last argument for what it is to give everything up to God. And I thought this was very helpful, the way that the preacher worded this. He says this, that we should give our whole life up to God because of God's plans that he has for us. Because God is good, his plans are all good.

So he says the end of God's making all things, the end of God's making all things is for his sovereign glory. The end of his making you is for you to glorify and enjoy him forever. Therefore, you should be entirely devoted to him. And then later on he says you should devote yourself to Him because He cares for you and because He is sovereign. Then the preacher turns to a whole other category and he spends most of his time talking about what God does for you.

He first calls, give me your heart, give me everything, And then he gives the reason why you ought to do it. This is really a disclosure of the person of God Himself. And so what does God do for His own? And he makes it very clear that God is your preserver and therefore you should turn to him that he supports and upholds everything and therefore to turn away from him is madness and so as you can see there are eight things listed and then some sub points at the end first of all you should turn to him because he is your preserver. He says, God is your constant and supreme supporter and defender.

He continually holds your souls in life and protects your lives from multitudes of evils and that he protects you and upholds you. He says this, and if you have not given yourselves to God, you would now be with multitudes of other wicked children suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. And then not only is he your preserver, he is your observer. That's the second point. God is the sovereign observer of all things and he takes a particular notice of you and therefore you should be entirely devoted to him.

And then he says that he does you good. Number three, he observes your wants that he may pity you and supply them. He observes your sins and dangers that he may warn you of them and save you from them. He observes your troubles that he may support you under and deliver you out of them. He observes your duties that he may quicken and help you to do them.

He observes your prayers that he may answer them. He observes your ways that he may bring them into judgment. In other words, he's good. Not only does he see, but he is good to you as he observes you. And then number four, that he is a supreme and sovereign Lord, that God has an absolute right to govern the things that he has made that he works all things according to the counsel of his will and the fifth reason that you should trust him and give all to him is because of his laws that he gives, that he shows you what he requires of you, that he teaches you in the way in which you should go.

And so he's worthy to be given to because he is given so much. And then number six, he's the sovereign judge, that he is the judge and the rewarder that he repays just as you deserve. And so you should turn to him early because there is judgment from God that falls upon those who rebel against him. And then he spends quite a bit of time talking about the judgment of God on page 111 and I'll just quote part of one of the texts that he cites Matthew 16 17. You will see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of the power and coming on the clouds of heaven, when the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory.

All the nations will be gathered before him." And so he pictures this scene on the last day where God gathers everyone who has ever been born and everyone who ever has died and gathers them all before his throne. And he separates the sheep from the goats because God will judge everything. You should turn to him because God will judge absolutely everything. And then he issues this call to fear God. And then another thing that God does for his own is that he is gracious.

That's the seventh point in the lower half of page 112. God has been wonderfully kind and gracious to you, and therefore you are under the highest obligations to give up your hearts to God. And then the next thing that he says is that he has ordered your circumstances. That's the bottom of page 112. And then there are various circumstances that He identifies that He has created for you.

And see if you can relate to these circumstances. But his whole point here is that God has been very gracious to you. Why don't you turn to him? Don't you see his love? Don't you see how he's caused his reign to fall on the just and the unjust?

Don't you see how kind he has turned to him? You should understand who this is. And so he begins to itemize these different things that God does. I'm just going to...they're listed there in your outline. First, he keeps you.

He has been keeping you. He says this, God has been gracious to you ever since you were born. He has fed you, clothed you, and nourished you, and He has made you increase and grow. He has tenderly watched over you, both by night and day. He has ordered it, that most among you should have a good and happy education.

He's advanced your knowledge, your learning, and he goes on and on, expressing these different ways that God has kept you. You know, it's so easy to take for granted the gifts that God has laid upon you. Just think about it. What blessings has God given you in your youth? And then he speaks of temporal blessings.

He says God has been wonderfully gracious in the multitudes of temporal blessings. And he talks about protecting you from dangers, keeping you from sickness. He says you don't have any idea how many things you've been protected from in this life. Because God has done it silently. And then he speaks of the work of Christ as another way that God has ordered your circumstances.

He says, when you were condemned, lost, and perishing, God, from His astonishing and sovereign grace, has given His only and eternal Son to die to redeem you. So he provides the Lord Jesus Christ to give you a way of escape from your sins so that you wouldn't have to bear the burden of your sin all your life long. So that He would take you unto Himself and He would teach you and He would sanctify you, He would bless you, He would heal you, He would give you power, He would give you wisdom, He would change everything. And He does this through Jesus Christ. He has provided Christ.

Next He talks about spiritual advantages at the bottom of page 113. He refers to these as a multitude of spiritual privileges and advantages of grace and of eternal life. He speaks of your access to the knowledge of God through the gospel and he quotes 2nd Timothy 3 15 regarding Timothy in his childhood and many many of you have had this very same kind of childhood that Timothy had From childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." And then he explains that God has sent instructions and warnings and examples and corrections and all kinds of things so that you might turn to God. And then he speaks of his care in the bottom half of page 114. God is still very wonderfully gracious to you he says the devils are your malicious enemies and as a as roaring lions they would fall upon you and dreadfully torment and devour you except That God continually restrains them You know I look I look back when I was young, and I'm astonished at what God protected me from.

The world I was living in and the protections He gave me. The ways that He just directed my steps to protect me. This is what he's talking about here. And he says that God just continues to give you multitudes of temporal blessings. He says this, His powerful restraints have been on many violent lusts and the lively helps of the Spirit to enlighten and awaken and convert and comfort you, lead you to the way of everlasting." These are all manifestations of God's care.

And God brings this very same kind of care to the unbelieving young person. I know that's true, and so do you. And then eternal happiness. This is another way that God has ordered our circumstances is to provide eternal happiness. God is giving you at this very moment the means to save you and to bring you to eternal happiness.

So this is really all to prove what God has done for His own people. Remember the logic of the preacher is this. Give everything to God. All of your mind, all of your thoughts, all of your affections, all of your skills, all of your wills, everything. Why?

Why should you do such a thing? Because He's your preserver, because He's your observer, because he does you good, because he is sovereign, because he gives laws, because he's the sovereign judge, because he's been gracious, because he's ordered all of your circumstances. That's why you should give yourself to him, because he's already been caring for you. You might as well just fall into his arms and find all of his care to be extended to you. And then the preacher begins to issue a call and he says God is calling and he's calling you to a particular thing.

And I like the way he explains it. He says you're being called to friendship and to sonship. You're being called to be God's friend so that you would be his son and he would be your father. He says God is ready to receive and forgive you. He's ready to be reconciled eternally to you and to enter into an everlasting covenant of grace and friendship with you.

Now I like this next phrase, he is ready to make you his children forever. Anyone who has ever become a child of God has become so because God made it happen. God made it happen. He says He is perfectly free and ready to save you and make you happy forever. And so this is a call to friendship and fatherhood.

It's a call to heed the appeal. And then he makes it clear that it's not what you deserve, that you deserve to be banished because you've abused his mercy, because you've ignored him, because you've disobeyed his voice, you've dishonored his name, you've thrown aside his authority and you've been your own person, and you've wanted to make something of yourself rather than to turn your heart over to him. And then he speaks of your duty at the bottom of page 117. He speaks of this fact of the light, that the light leads you to him and shines. He says, God himself has set up a shining light in you to lead you to him.

The wise man therefore tells us, the spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord, searching the inner depths of the heart. This heavenly light shows you as soon as you come to know anything of God that you should be devoted to Him. When you refuse to give up yourselves to God, this light of your conscience clearly discerns it and it shows you your wickedness. And so he speaks of this fact that God sends out his light so that you can see the way in which you should go. And so he moves from your duty to your conscience at the top of page 118, that your conscience is being given to you and then he speaks of the word of God next the word of God calls you and then there's this appeal give him your heart at the top of page 119 and Here the preacher turns back to the same kind of appeal that he started with and he quotes Psalm 34 11 Come you children listen to me.

I will teach you the fear of the Lord And Proverbs 8 32 now therefore listen to me my children for blessed are those who keep my ways." This preacher is constantly appealing to the blessing that God is to his people, and he is wooing all young people to recognize how good God is. It really makes me think of why is it that I continue to believe? Why is it that I do hope in His mercies? And I know it's a work of God, but fundamentally, I really believe that God is good. That's why I'm a Christian.

I believe all His ways are pleasant ways. All His paths are peace. I believe that everything that God draws me into is something beautiful. I believe that He's good. I believe that He's love.

I really believe that. And that's why I totally reject the whole atheistic and evolutionary proposition. Because many of them believe there is a God, but they don't think he's good when they do believe him. But this appeal is really based on the goodness of God. And Then he speaks of the fact that there's nothing of greater importance on page 119.

And then he speaks of why it's important. And he itemizes several things. You can see there are five things that I've listed here beginning in page 120 for the welfare of others because you've been put in the world to promote what's beautiful and good in the world. Secondly, for your own happiness, not just to be useful to others, but for your own happiness itself. He says, unless you give yourselves to God, you can never be happy, for you can never share in his favor, and you can never enjoy him who is the only suitable and perfect happiness and satisfactory portion.

All of us are in a desperate search of happiness, every human being is. Here's the secret the only true happiness comes from God. Everything else is makeshift everything else is a farce, Everything else is a replacement for true happiness. Everything else is a downgrade. When you get the world, you get a downgrade.

It might be interesting and exciting, but it's a downgrade. And so he speaks of this matter that you should do it for your own happiness. And then number three, to please the heavenly hosts. I thought that was really interesting. And then to please men, number four.

And then number five, to please God. So he's just trying to establish how important it is to turn to God early, because of the welfare of others, because of your own happiness, because you stand in the midst of the heavenly hosts. You know, when one turns to the Lord, all the angels rejoice in heaven. And it's a pleasing thing to turn to God. And then he speaks of the predicament and the obligation.

The predicament is that without turning to Him, We are objects of wrath and we will perish in a helpless estate he calls it. And at the same time you have a kind father and turn to such a kind Father who will not destroy you. And then he lists some final obligations. First of all, to avoid evil, top of page 123. And then to have urgency.

Now, when he speaks of this avoiding of evil and the importance of urgency, there's a statement that he makes I thought would be worthwhile to read. He says, the spring and prime of your lives is certainly the thinnest and most suitable season, the most easy and pleasant for you, and the most honorable and delightful to God. Here's what he's saying. To avoid evil in your youth is a blessing to you because your youth is like a spring and it overflows into the rest of your life. And what you do with your youth creates a trajectory and there is harm that's done in one's youth.

Because youth is like a spring. It keeps on flowing in your life. So clean the spring. Turn to God early in your life. And then he ends with an appeal to Proverbs chapter 1 verses 20 through 33.

I'm going to read this to us here and go ahead and turn to it. Proverbs chapter 1 and begin in verse 20. And we'll conclude with this because I think he has cited this in order to sum up everything. Wisdom calls aloud outside. She raises her voice in the open squares.

She cries out in the chief concourses. At the openings of the gates of the city, she speaks her words. How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? For scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge. Turn at my rebuke, surely I will pour out my spirit on you.

I will make my words known to you. Because I have called and you refused, I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded. Because you disdained all my counsel and would have none of my rebuke. I also will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your terror comes, when your terror comes like a storm, and your destruction comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you, then they will call on me, but I will not answer.

They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me, because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord. They would have none of my counsel and despise my every review. Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way and be filled to the full with their own fancies. For the turning away of the simple will slay them and the complacency of fools will destroy them. But listen to this last verse.

But whoever listens to me will dwell safely and will be secure without fear of evil. And this is the whole reason why this preacher appeals to this passage of scripture, because he's really trying to prove how good God is, That you should turn to Him and give everything to Him. All of your plans, all of your thoughts, everything you can possibly imagine to see nothing in your life that doesn't belong to Him. The reason is, whoever listens to me will dwell safely and will be secure without any fear of evil. It's because God is such a blessing.

He is so good, and that's why one should turn to the Lord early.