He pleased God – Heb 11:5
Hebrews 11:5 Enoch … had this testimony, that he pleased God.
What a wonderful epitaph – Enoch pleased God – or at least it would have been if there had been a tombstone to write it on! (More on that another time.)
What won him this commendation? In one way the question is easy to answer because this phrase is an alternative translation of something from Genesis that we have already considered. It is taken from the Septuagint’s translation of the Hebrew words in Genesis that he walked with God. Paul also linked them “how ye ought to walk and to please God.” (1 Thessalonians 4:1). To please God we must walk with Him and, conversely, we can’t walk with Him unless we want to please Him!
Summarising what we saw last time, Enoch:
· had communion with God – that involved talking and listening (prayer and Bible study)
· had a surrendered will
· had godly habits
· kept company with those who walked with God
· enjoyed deep settled joy and peace
· raised a family in a way that honoured God and maintained the godly line to Noah
· made progress in his spiritual life. a growth in the knowledge of the Lord – a deeper appreciation of God’s excellency, a greater enjoyment of His perfection and a more earnest concern for His glory
There is, however, a difference of emphasis between the phrases. Walking involves action, pleasing is about motivation. Enoch walked with God because he wanted to please Him.
Next time we shall, God willing, see how Enoch witnessed and preached about coming judgement. This is also crucial to pleasing God. As Paul put it in 1Th 2:4 as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts.
Why did Enoch want to please God?
First, lets think about this from our own experience. Why do we want to please someone else? There are two main reasons. Firstly we want recognition from a superior –the key driver for many people at work. If we impress our bosses then perhaps we’ll get promoted or a pay rise; at least we won’t get the sack if things go badly. Often it doesn’t work and just leads to exploitation.
The other reason is love. We try to please someone that we love, our husband, wife, children or parents. We want them to be happy because we love them and so we put their interests before our own. We expect no financial or other rewards, but making those we love happy also makes us happy. That is true love and it must be our driving motivation ¾ if we are to please God.
The question is: do we want to please the Lord? We say that we love Him, but this is the true test. Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious. 1Pe 2:7 Is Jesus precious to us? Do we want to gladden His heart? Do we long to hear His well done? "His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant;… Enter into the joy of your lord.’ Mt 25:21 Is this what drives us, or is it the desire for material possessions and the pleasures that this world offers? Lk 12:31 "But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you. … 34 "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
In all ages some have pleased God and it should be the aim of us all. It is possible, despite our imperfections and weakness, but only through the power of the Holy Spirit. Ro 8:8 those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. If we live to please the Lord, we are only acting as we ought to act. For we ought to please the one who made us, died to save us and, even now, lives to sustain us. He is our Lord and God. Pleasing Him is the highest calling.
Do we really want to be those upon whom God smiles? The approval of our fellow men is pleasant, but people are imperfect and often mistaken. We may please them and yet may be anything but righteous, indeed it is more often than not that way. God makes no such mistakes.
Our greatest example in this is our Lord Himself. Jesus declared that He always did what pleased His Father John 8: 28 I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things. 29 … I always do those things that please Him." Clearly this was not an idle boast for the Father confirmed it: a voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!" Mt 17:5 It is crystal clear that, as He pleased His Father, He also helped men and women in so many ways. If we are to please God we must follow in His steps.
We certainly won’t please God unless we are completely determined. If we are content with anything less then we shall miss the mark entirely, at the cost of contentment peace of mind and our testimony. We end up with a sense of guilt that bows us down and robs us of joy and if our faith depresses us, how can it attract others to Christ? When we proclaim the gospel to sinners and seek to pull them out of the fire, do we lack that winsomeness that is the mark of the presence of Jesus? If so we shall be uncertain and ineffective witnesses. If we speak of the witness of the Spirit, and the blessedness of salvation, but are always complaining of our leanness and trials we give the impression that God is a hard taskmaster and that He deals out His pleasures sparingly. This will put off those that we meet rather than encourage them!
So we can’t really help our fellow men unless our top priority is to please God but, if we please God, we shall also be a blessing to others. The joy that flows from love, and communion with God will commend our Saviour to others, and draw them to Him. Our example will rebuke and stimulate; our peace will convince and invite. In light of this it is not surprising that David prayed: 12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.13 Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners shall be converted to You. Ps 51
Does our testimony commend our Saviour to others?
How can we please God
The writer to the Hebrews gives us the key in the verse after the one referring to Enoch. He asserted that faith is essential, if we are to please God. He did not say it is difficult, he declared it to be impossible. Without faith we have no capacity for communion with God at all. The things of God are spiritual and invisible—without faith we cannot recognize such things, but are dead to them and they to us. It is only by faith that we can recognize God, approach Him, speak to Him, hear Him, feel His Presence and be delighted with His perfection.
In our natural state our sin completely separates us from God. When we trust in the Lord Jesus, our sin is forgiven and the Lord God accepts us for the sake of His beloved Son. Faith in Christ completely transforms our relationship with God—we who were enemies are reconciled. This also transforms all our actions in God’s sight — imperfect though they are, they spring from the heart of one that He loves, and therefore they are pleasing to God.
The verse goes on: for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Note the emphasis must believe — it is a necessity. Before we can walk with God, it is clear that we must come to God and if we don’t believe He exists then we obviously can’t come to Him! Naturally, we are far from Him and so we cannot walk with Him, nor be pleasing to Him. Many believe in a hazy, impersonal force which they call God. But they do not think of Him as a person, nor do they understand that He cares for them, or that they can know Him in any meaningful way. “I am the Way…. No man comes unto the Father but by Me.”Jn 14:6 To come to God we must believe in Him as He is revealed by Jesus in the Bible. If we do we shall surely find Him for He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Heb 11:6
Unbelief takes away the common ground upon which God and man can meet. God’s great object is the glorification of His Son. If we despise, reject, distrust, or even neglect Jesus, His beloved Son who He delights to honour, it is impossible for us to please God.
The reward
Serving God is, in itself, gain. To live to God, to know Him, to adore Him, to commune with Him, to become like Him is the only way for us to be truly happy and fulfilled. Anything less leaves a sense of dissatisfaction in our hearts. Only when we serve Him like this we can truly say, like Paul, that for us to live is Christ – Phil 1:21.
Here we may get little reward or recognition from those whom we serve —indeed, people often repay kindness or diligent work with base ingratitude. Joseph was a faithful servant to Potiphar, but Potiphar put him in prison on a groundless charge. If we expect just rewards from our fellow men we shall often be disappointed. In complete contrast God, by His very nature is a rewarder. No work done for Him will go unrewarded. In His service the wages are sure and generous. Like Abraham we can hear Him say: I am your shield and your exceedingly great reward. Gen 15:1
Pleasing Him is essential for answered prayer ¾ 1Jo 3:22 And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. But God Himself is enough for the Believer. Can we truly say Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You? Ps 73:25
Hab 3:17 Though the fig tree may not blossom, Nor fruit be on the vines; Though the labour of the olive may fail, And the fields yield no food; Though the flock may be cut off from the fold, And there be no herd in the stalls – 18 Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. 19 The LORD God is my strength.
Conclusion
God cannot watch a man struggling against sin, battling against evil, enduring sorrow contentedly through faith, and labouring daily to draw nearer and nearer to Him without being pleased. He must be pleased with the work of His own Grace. The desire to come to God, the way to come to God, the power to come to God, the actual coming to God—these are all gifts of His sovereign grace.
Coming to God, however feebly we come—and seeking Him, however much else we miss, must please Him. For it is the result of His own purpose and Grace which He gave us in Christ Jesus before the world began. God is pleased with those that have faith, those whose actions are performed for His honour.
God never tells us to make bricks without also providing the straw. He does not require us to do something without making it possible for us to do it. It is true that God is holy and that his requirements are perfect. Although he requires us to love him with all of our heart, and soul, and strength, and our neighbours as ourselves, it is equally true that his grace is sufficient for His requirements.
Php 2:13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
This world exalts man. Faith magnifies God. So if we really have faith surely we must make it the great object of our life to please God. Do I, as a Believer, really want and live to please God? Is my life surrendered to God, controlled by God, lived for God? To please God, even a little, is infinitely better than to have the acclamations of our fellows.
Do we really want to please Him?
