PLEASING GOD
E. M. Walkinshaw
Luke 3: 21–22; John 8: 28, 29; 1 John 3: 21–23; 1 Thessalonians 4: 1, 15–18
My desire, dear brethren, is to say something about pleasing God. Naturally we please ourselves, particularly when we are younger. “When thou wast young”, the Lord said to Peter, “thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst where thou desiredst; but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and bring thee where thou dost not desire”, John 21: 18. When we are young we are often ambitious, we want to go where we will. But the Lord Jesus, I believe, would exercise our hearts that there might be a greater concern with us to please God, rather than to please ourselves. “For the Christ also did not please himself” (Romans 15: 3); we might have thought He was entitled to do so, being who He was. But it says. He “did not please himself; but according as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproach thee have fallen upon me”. I suppose that was because He was always pleasing to His Father.
I refer then first of all to this passage in Luke because there is to Him the expression of the Father’s pleasure, or delight, in Him, absolutely and infinitely perfect. There had been others before Him, such as David, who is referred to by God as “a man after my heart” (Acts 13: 22), but David failed, as we know, and he failed very badly too. Nevertheless in character, as typical of
Jesus, he was a man after God’s heart. But when we come to Jesus we come to a Person the like of whom there never was before, nor has there ever been since in blood and flesh, and the Father signalises this by a voice out of heaven, “Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I have found my delight”. We have often been reminded that that would refer to the thirty years of His life hidden and secret. There was nothing within that was ever against the Father, no wrong motives or impulses, no sin. He was begotten, as we know, of the Holy Spirit; the conception was by the power of the Spirit, and He was as Man in flesh and blood free from any taint of sin whatever. There was no other man like Him.
We might refer back to Isaac’s birth, which in a certain sense was miraculous, but he was of Abraham and Sarah. But Jesus was unique. He was Himself, and the only One in whom there was no taint of sin whatever. Hence the Father says, ‘ In Thee I have found My delight’. He is not referring, as far as I understand it, to what He did, although the Father’s pleasure would surely be in that, but to what He, the “knower of the hearts of all” (Acts 1: 24), found in Him.
The purity of motive, the affections towards His Father, His perfection in dependence and subjection as Man, all flowed from what He was within. If we think of the burnt-offering we find that the inwards and the legs are referred to, but there is no reference to the kidneys.
There was no need for purification with Jesus at all, and His walk was the perfect expression of what He was within. Hence He was the only One upon whom the Holy Spirit could descend as a dove and find a resting place with nothing out of accord with His holy nature, and nothing out of accord with the Father.
So Jesus, first of all, is spoken to—“Thou art …”. What that must have meant to the Father, to have a Man after so many years, four thousand plus, perhaps, in whom He had found His delight! What it must have meant to Jesus for the Father to say that to Him. I would love to have some sense of approval from God, but none in blood and flesh could ever have that unqualified approval from the Father save Jesus. So we find Him alone, but He takes His place in lowliness with the people and is “baptised and praying”. I think, dear brethren, we can take our model from Him and be marked more by identification with the people. I think you will find with all those who have served the saints in such a distinguished way in the recovery that they have always taken the saints where they have found them and, associating themselves with them, have served them so that they might be in practice what they are in the divine view. Now, Jesus here was baptised. As to Himself, He needed it not. No doubt there is an implied figure of His own death, so essential if any were to come into blessing, and the Father would find His delight in that, but what I would like to emphasize is that the Father found Him inwardly, in His every motive, thought, and affection, absolutely in accord with Himself.
When the Holy Spirit descended in Acts 2 as “parted tongues, as of fire”, it sat upon each one of them. The root of sin was in them, and the root of sin is in every man and woman until he or she dies. Let us not be carried away with any doctrine of sinless perfection. It is not the truth; it is against the truth; let us not presume it. There was only one Man in blood and flesh in whom the root of sin did not exist and that was Jesus. So the fire sat upon them; it was essential for the negating of the evil that was there in
the flesh I have no doubt. Many came into the good of that, and the exercise is for us to do the same, but what I call attention to in the contrast is this, that the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus as a dove and found a resting place upon and in One who was in perfect accord with Him.
Now in John 8 the Lord Jesus refers to Himself. We have all heard of ‘the Man of John 8’.
We often speak of ‘the man of John 9’ and, of course, we do well to do so because he is a wonderful example of “the works of God”, John 9: 3. But when we contemplate the Man Jesus of John 8 we find that He is in conflict there. He can say of Himself, “Altogether that which I also say to you”, John 8: 25. His speech was the expression of Himself. Often, I find with myself, and perhaps you do too, that what I say is not truly a reflection of what is passing through my mind, in fact, it could be the opposite; but with Jesus what He said was the perfect expression of Himself, with no trace of hypocrisy, or of anything inconsistent. As I think of the ark (Exodus 25: 11) it was the same without as it was within, and no one could look into it. What would be the point in any case? There was the outward, the same as the inward, and I think of the Lord Jesus like that, “Altogether that which I also say to you”.
‘Who do you make yourself?’, they say to Him. Think of their saying that to Jesus! “Whom makest thou thyself? “(John 8: 53). It has often occurred to me when thinking of their gibe at Jesus that He “made himself of no reputation” (A.V.). He “emptied himself”, Philippians 2: 7.
Think of this lowly Man here in conflict, the perfect expression in His speech of what He was inwardly. Hence He says to them, “He that has sent me … has not left me alone”; now notice the word, ‘because I do always the things that are pleasing to
Him’. What things were those? I suppose we could go through the gospels and see them. He was very limited in the area in which He lived. I do not know how many miles Jesus travelled, or what area He covered; it was not as many miles as some of us have travelled. He was very limited in His circumstances, a poor Man, and yet doing always those things that pleased the Father. Therefore the Father did not leave Him alone. The Father was with Him in that bitter conflict. Think of the persons who opposed Him—the religious hierarchy, and the Jews, and Jesus in the presence of it maintaining the truth as a Man, “a man who has spoken the truth to you” (John 8: 40). They claim Abraham as their father. They go back to the origin. Sometimes we may be inclined to do that. Some claim that they are the continuation of the recovery. God does not look at things like that. The question is what I am morally under His eye as He takes account of me. The Jews make this claim to Abraham in the presence of Jesus. They say, “We are not born of fornication” (John 8: 41). They claim a genealogy without mixture whilst accusing Him of being a Samaritan (John 8: 48). But in the midst of the conflict He was never left alone by the Father “because I do always the things that are pleasing to him”. Well, that is the Lord Jesus, about whom I feel I have spoken very feebly.
Now we come to John’s reference to ourselves, “Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, we have boldness towards God, and whatsoever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments, and practise the things which are pleasing in his sight”. “If our heart condemn us not”—you can see, in the principle of it, a certain similarity to the Lord’s words, although leaving the Lord unique. Can that apply to all? Can that apply to our young people?
You may think immediately,
when you speak of practising the things that are pleasing in His sight, of great exploits. You might think of being a distinguished preacher, or someone who has some prominent place in the testimony. I doubt if that is really what is in mind, although it may be included. I think practising the things that are pleasing in His sight would involve simple righteousness. If, for example, I am due to start at nine o’clock at the office, I should be there at nine o’clock, not five minutes late! If I am due to leave at five, I leave at five, not five minutes to—all these simple things in life. I maintain my simple relations with my wife, with my children, with the brethren. I maintain what is right in the assembly. I come into the assembly in a dignified way. If I came into the room and there was nobody in it, I might not take my hat off. That would not matter. If I felt so disposed I might whistle a little, or sing; but if I came in and there were one or two members of the assembly sitting there I would immediately recognise the assembly and act accordingly.
All these simple practices in life, dear brethren, are included in “the things which are pleasing in his sight”. Not just that you avoid the things that are displeasing; John does not put it like that. There is no doubt, of course, that you would; but the exercise is positively to “practise the things which are pleasing in his sight”. And we “keep his commandments”; in point of fact he puts that first, “We keep his commandments, and practise the things which are pleasing in his sight “. Now I think the Lord Jesus would exercise us about this so that our relationships are maintained rightly here under the eye of God. And remember this, please, that with God it is never ‘out of sight, out of mind’, never! We are always in His sight; no matter where we are His eye is upon us. “The
eyes of Jehovah are in every place, beholding the evil and the good”, Proverbs 15: 3. We are never out of God’s sight. Sometimes we are out of the sight of our brethren; in fact we are out of their sight more than we are in it, but with God it is never ‘out of sight, out of mind’; we are always in His view. Let us be exercised to “practise the things which are pleasing in his sight”.
Then consider the reference to keeping His commandments; “And this is his commandment, that we believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and that we love one another, even as he has given us commandment”. What a commandment that was! “A new commandment I give to you, that ye love one another … By this shall all know that ye are disciples of mine, if ye have love amongst yourselves”, John 13: 34, 35. I find that I link all kinds of things with discipleship which the Lord does not link with discipleship at all. This is how men will know
“that ye are disciples of mine, if ye have love amongst yourselves”.
Now, dear brethren, I fully agree that you cannot love to order, and you cannot manufacture love. You cannot suddenly decide, ‘Well, I will love So-and-so’, can you? That is not possible. How then can we come into this affection for one another? How can we have love
‘amongst ourselves’? Someone once said, ‘Well, if you see love is missing, bring it in!’. If you see sympathy is missing, bring it in. Do not be critical because it is not there; bring it in!
If you go into a brother’s house and some necessity is not there, do not criticize him because it is not there—give him what is needed. That is it; bring in what is needed! And so it is in the assembly—bring it in. But, I believe, beloved brethren, the way in which we can be maintained in love for one another
is by strengthening our link with Christ. The more we strengthen our link with Christ by seeking His presence, seeking His face, looking into His word, the more our love for Him will develop and the more, necessarily, will our love for one another develop too. That is the way, I think, that love is brought about. It is not a mental decision, not a conscious decision to form love or try to love, but the more we are with God, the more we shall be formed according to His nature and the more we shall love one another.
My final passage, in 1 Thessalonians 4, refers to walking ‘so as to please’ God (see footnote to verse 1). The apostle here commands the Thessalonians. He says, “We … exhort you in the Lord Jesus, even as ye have received from us how ye ought to walk and please God, even as ye also do walk, that ye would abound still more”. “Still more”; there is always room for further abounding, so as to walk and please God, that is, in our passage through the world.
Perhaps I could remind you of what is very well known, that these were young believers, young in the faith, and Paul speaks to them of serious things a little later, about which young people need to be warned. In this so-called ‘permissive society’ sin is regarded lightly, and I find men are not only completely disregarding the institutions of God, such as marriage, but they have no thought whatever of walking in righteousness. Another thing I have noticed is that the word sin is dropping out of the general conversation of men. They use all kinds of terms to cover up sin. Now Paul is warning these young believers to walk so as to please God. Do not allow this ‘permissive society’ to affect you. Keep near to God. If your links with God and with the Lord Jesus are not maintained,
then the environment of the world will affect you. And we all know full well that what we have been taught is true, that what exists in any city is likely, if there is not care, to infiltrate into the assembly. Now, young people, I would like to exhort you to take care in this
‘permissive society’ and be exercised to walk so as to please God. I would say in simplicity and faith, “even as ye also do”, but “abound still more”.
And what is the conclusion of the chapter? We “shall be caught up … to meet the Lord in the air”. I have often in my mind written ‘Enoch’ across this chapter. He walked so as to please God; “Before his translation he has the testimony that he had pleased God”; he “was not found, because God had translated him”, Hebrews 11: 5. That would be similar to ourselves, walking so as to please God, and we shall not be, because God will take us! I understand that Mr. Darby said towards the end of his life, ‘Well, now I am going to be taken; the question is, What will the Lord say to me?’. You have to keep Scripture in its context. The rapture is based on grace, therefore every believer will be there. We can well be continually reminded of that. But then there is the judgment seat, and what will He say to me there? Everything will be assessed perfectly. He will approve nothing that should be disapproved. He could not possibly say that anything that was right was wrong. What will He say to me? Now that is 75
brought home to us in our present responsibility so that our consciences and hearts might be exercised, so that we might walk so as to please God, and when raptured what God raptures is a people that please Him. So, as we have been reminded, may we be reminded again, that the assembly is not transferred to heaven because she failed on earth; she is transferred to heaven because she belongs there,
and I believe there will be few when the Lord takes the saints away, those here, if but a few, who are walking so as to please Him. May every one of us here be in that company, for His pleasure.
Address at Barnet
7 August 1976