The Way to God and How to Find It by D.L. Moody

Author:D.L. Moody
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2013-08-31T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

Repentance and Restitution

“God commandeth all men

everywhere to repent.” - Acts 17:30

Repentance is one of the fundamental doctrines of the Bible. Yet I believe it is one of those truths that many people little understand at the present day. There are more people to-day in the mist and darkness about Repentance, Regeneration, the Atonement, and such-like fundamental truths, than perhaps on any other doctrines. Yet from our earliest years we have heard about them. If I were to ask for a definition of Repentance, a great many would give a very strange and false idea of it.

A man is not prepared to believe or to receive the Gospel, unless he is ready to repent of his sins and turn from them. Until John the Baptist met Christ, he had but one text, “Repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 3:2). But if he had continued to say this, and had stopped there without pointing the people to Christ the Lamb of God, he would not have accomplished much.

When Christ came, He took up the same wilderness cry, “Repent; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 4:17). And when our Lord sent out His disciples, it was with the same message, “that men should repent” (Mark 6:12). After He had been glorified, and when the Holy Ghost came down, we find Peter on the day of Pentecost raising the same cry, “Repent!” It was this preaching—Repent, and believe the Gospel—that wrought such marvellous results then. (Acts 2:38–47). And we find that, when Paul went to Athens, he uttered the same cry, “Now God commandeth all men, everywhere, to repent” (Acts 17:30).

Before I speak of what Repentance is, let me briefly say what it is not. Repentance is not fear. Many people have confounded the two. They think they have to be alarmed and terrified; and they are waiting for some kind of fear to come down upon them. But multitudes become alarmed who do not really repent. You have heard of men at sea during a terrible storm. Perhaps they have been very profane men; but when the danger came they suddenly grew quiet, and began to cry to God for mercy. Yet you would not say they repented. When the storm had passed away, they went on swearing the same as before. You might think that the king of Egypt repented when God sent the terrible plagues upon him and his land. But it was not repentance at all. The moment God’s hand was removed Pharaoh’s heart was harder than ever. He did not turn from a single sin; he was the same man. So that there was no true repentance there.

Often, when death comes into a family, it looks as if the event would be sanctified to the conversion of all who are in the house. Yet in six months’ time all may be forgotten. Some who read this have perhaps passed through that experience. When God’s hand was heavy upon them it

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