What is necessary to please God?

Les explains that Abraham, the great man of faith as pertaining to the flesh, found that justification is not by works. If Abraham could have merited favor with God by works, he would have become proud and boasted. But he did not work; he simply believed God. His believing was accounted unto him as righteousness. Les emphasizes that Abraham was not morally better or holier than anyone else; he was ordinary and had failures. Yet the whole premise of faith, without which it is impossible to please God, meant that by faith Abraham so pleased God that God called him a righteous man. The lesson is that simple belief, not repentance, baptism, joining something, or groveling, is what pleases God.