Acts 2:38 Then Peter said to them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins… I. THE HOLY SPIRIT IS GIVEN TO RENEW AND PURIFY THE MORAL FEELINGS. He awakens the conscience to a sense of guilt and danger. He opens the eyes to see the exhalted purity of the moral law, and to feel the justice of its righteous condemnation. He affects the heart with the tidings of a Saviour's love, and creates within the soul that godly sorrow which worketh repentance to salvation, needing not to be repented of. The work thus begun in the soul is carried on through the same Divine agency, for the Holy Ghost is the Sanctifier Of all the elect people of God. It is through Him that we die daily unto sin and live unto righteousness, that the old man with his corrupt deeds is put off, and that the new man is put on, which, after God, is created in righteousness and true holiness. Nor are these the only influences which the Holy Spirit exerts on man's moral nature. Our Lord has promised that He shall be present with His people under the endearing character of the Comforter. It is His special work to heal the brokenhearted, to set at liberty them that are bruised, and to comfort all that mourn. II. THE HOLY SPIRIT IS GIVEN TO ENLIGHTEN AND GOVERN THE INTELLECTUAL POWERS. It should never be forgotten that the Spirit bestowed upon the first disciples was "the Spirit of power, and of love, and of a sound mind"; and that He is promised to us also for these great ends that we may attain to a right judgment in all things, and have power to accomplish the will of God. It is thus that man is to present himself a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, and is to become a temple of the Holy Ghost, consecrated in all his faculties to the glory of God, and yielding the powers of his mind, the energies of his body, and the affections of his heart, to the service of Him who is the Creator, the Redeemer, and the Preserver of men, and to whom alone all honour, and power, and glory belong. (W. Niven, B. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. |
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