In Jason Dohm's sermon titled 'The Praiseworthy Splendor of His Undeserved Favor,' he revisits familiar biblical phrases to deepen understanding and appreciation. The sermon explores Ephesians 1, where Paul addresses the Ephesians, emphasizing the grace and peace given through Jesus Christ and the spiritual blessings stored in the heavenly places. Dohm highlights the concept of believers being chosen by God before the world's foundation, underscoring their blameless standing before Him due to Jesus' work. The sermon unpacks the unity of Paul's complex sentence structure in Ephesians 1:3-14, emphasizing the Trinity's role in salvation—God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit working together to save sinners. Dohm focuses on the theme of adoption, explaining that God's decision to adopt believers into His family was made before creation, driven by His nature of love and grace. The sermon further elaborates on the believer's identity as an heir with Christ, emphasizing the intimate relationship believers have with God as 'Abba, Father.' Dohm concludes by encouraging worship of God for the magnificence of His grace, which has made believers highly favored, accepted in the beloved.

The title of the sermon this morning is, The Praiseworthy Splendor of His Undeserved Favor. You'll notice I'm just swapping in words. That sounds a lot like, to the praise of the glory of his grace. It is. By swapping in different words, the praiseworthy splendor of his undeserved favor, I'm working hard to try to get us not to just skim over the top of words that are familiar to us.

We get so used to the wording of familiar passages that the meaning doesn't sink in. So I'm going to try to hit it from a lot of different angles today so that the punches of scripture land. Well in verse 2, Paul communicated grace and peace to the Ephesians. He's writing to the Ephesians, they're not long out of paganism, worship of false gods, and Paul writing them a letter and he starts by communicating grace and peace to them from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And then in verses three and four, he erupts in praise.

It's like he can't help himself. He has to praise God for the grace and peace that are so freely given to those who believe in Jesus. And he says that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. In other words, they are stored up for us in the heavenly places where no one can get to them. They're safe, they're secure.

Every spiritual blessing is ours. There's not one missing and there's one that will ever go missing because they're secure in heaven for us. He is imparting them, He's giving them from the security of heaven. Last week's text ended with Paul speaking of the standing of the believer before God due to God's choosing him or her before the foundation of the world. He says that believers have been chosen by God while you were alive?

No. At birth? No. Before you were alive? Before the world was ever made, God made these decisions.

He knew all the people who would ever live, and He chose some before the foundation of the world to be holy, meaning to be set apart. He determined that he would set apart a people for himself and that he would make them blameless. They would be blameless before him. The judge who sees everything would look upon certain people and say, you're blameless not because they were blameless but because of what Jesus has done. And then he ends with these two wonderful words, in love.

That really summarizes the standing of the believer before God. They stand before Him blameless in love. He loves them. Our text this week picks up right there. And as a note, in the original, Paul wrote this letter in Greek, in the original, verses 3 through 14 are one sentence.

So we complain about the length and the complexity of the Apostle Paul's sentence in English. If you only spoke Greek, you wouldn't even get the four sentences. New King James has 3 through 14 divided into four really long, complex sentences. Most translations break it up even more than that, either into six or eight sentences, but in Greek, three through fourteen is a single sentence. What's the point of that?

Well, The point is that Paul has a unity of thought. It's appropriate as dense as the truth is here, as much truth as he packs into the space here. It's appropriate to look at it little by little because we really do need to unpack it as we go, but we do not want to lose the unity of thought. Paul used one sentence, not because he didn't know how to use punctuation, but because he wanted to keep these things together. This is a unified thought, So we need to fight as we look at them sort of through a microscope little by little as we go to also keep them connected to the unified thought of Paul.

One final point, something I said last week that I want to remind everybody of before we get started in the text. Verses 3-6, we're studying it this week, are about God the Father's work to save sinners. Then verses 7-12 are going to be about God the Son's Jesus' work to save sinners. And then the next two verses, verses 13 and 14, are going to be about God the Holy Spirit's work to save sinners. So Paul is working in sequence.

The Father did this to save the sinners. The Son entered into that and did this to save sinners. The Holy Spirit entered into all that and did this to save sinners. This is about the Trinity. The three in one God.

God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit working together to save sinners. And it's beautiful. At the end of each of these three sections, he'll say essentially the same thing, praise God for the glory of His grace. So we'll encounter that in today's text. Alright, let's pray and ask God to help us.

Oh God, the glory of your grace. I wonder if a preacher has ever preached on these two verses, without a great sense of being inadequate to do them justice. Any preacher who would stand before your people to preach on these two verses, and not feel unable to really bring forth all the goodnesses, would be a fool. I pray that you would help me to do my best to bring forth such goodness and communicate it to your people in a way that would make them happy. Let us be so happy in Jesus today.

So happy in the standing before our Father in heaven that believers in Jesus enjoy. May it be so in Jesus' name. Amen. We've got two verses, only two verses, Ephesians 1, verses 5 and 6. So let's just split them up by verses.

We'll tackle verse 5 and then we'll tackle verse 6. Hopefully you still have your finger in Ephesians chapter 1. Follow along as I reread verse 5. Right in the middle of the sentence. Having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will.

I'll read it again. Having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will. In verse 5 we have something wonderful planned from the very beginning. So if you're taking notes on the handout, by filling in blanks, wonderful and beginning, fill in the blanks. Something wonderful planned from the very beginning.

This follows verse 4 and it's highly connected with verse 4. We're mid-sentence and so Paul is building a stream of logic through this sentence. It has to do with our standing before God in His love. He just said that at the end of verse 4. We, believers, stand before God in love, in His love, which resulted not from our lovability, that's not why He loves us, because we're lovable, but from his choice from before the foundation of the world.

In other words, before the world, planet Earth was even under construction, he chose to love his people. It wasn't that they were lovable. It's that he chose to love them. That this choice before the world was made has resulted in God the Father predestining us to adoption. To predestine is simply to decide beforehand.

Decide what you're going to do before you do it. God the Father decided decided beforehand to adopt the lovely? No. To adopt rebels. To adopt sinners into his to adopt sinners into his family, to be not only their God and judge, but to be their father.

Not all sinners, he chose some before the foundation of the world. And he decided beforehand to bring those sinners into his family. So Paul is just developing what he said in verse 4. He's building a stream of logic, a chain of logic. Now let's look at Galatians 4 for more of this.

Turn to Galatians 4. It's actually only a few pages back. Go left a few pages to Galatians 4. Paul says the same thing, but he says it more fully in Galatians 4. He speaks of adoption of those who were outside the family to bring them into the family so that God the Father could be God their Father in Galatians 4.

Galatians 4 verses 4 through 7. Read along as I read Galatians 4 verses 4 through 7. Paul writes, But when the fullness of the time had come, so just the right time, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. So you can see he's talking about the same thing as in our text here. That we might receive the adoption as sons.

So you can see he's talking about the same thing as in our text here. We might receive the adoption as sons. Verse 6. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, Abba, Father. Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

An heir of God through Christ. I want to draw out three wonderful truths here from Galatians 4. Number one, redemption through Jesus paves the way for adoption. Jesus bleeding and dying for sinners, buying back sinners out of condemnation. In our natural state, all of us deserve condemnation both for what we've done but really for what we're like.

For what we're like. We like all the wrong things and we hate the things that God loves. Jesus redeeming us, buying us out of that condition, Him paying the price that we couldn't pay, paves the way for adoption. In other words, How in the world can this perfectly righteous God adopt rebels and make them His sons? This is how.

The blood of Jesus makes them adoptable by cleansing them of all the things that aren't family traits. That aren't family traits. That is why Paul says in today's text, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ. He is saying the same thing here in Galatians 4, but just with more content. Jesus' work is the only way that a sinner can be adopted into the family of God.

As Jesus himself said in John 14 verse 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. You could never be adopted into the family. No one comes to the Father except through me says Jesus. His redemption of sinners paves the way for adoption.

Number two, truth number two from Galatians 4. God wants us to have more than the doctrine. Doctrine is just teaching or more than the truth of what is being taught here. He does want us to have the truth. I'm not belittling the truth.

We love truth. Truth is good. God wants us to have the truth, but he wants us to have more than just the truth that's being taught here. One of the functions of the indwelling spirit is to give us this impulse to cry out to God as our Father. So does he want you to have the truth in your mind?

Yes. He wants it to be so much more than that for the believer. He wants you to have an indwelling impulse because he has put his spirit permanently indwelling, living in believers. The Holy Spirit permanently lives in believers. Giving this impulse to cry out to God as their father.

Abba, father, this is the familiar intimate term. In sermons sometimes you'll hear it spoken of as daddy. A father is too formal for what's being communicated here. So Abba, Father, the intimate, personal, familiar way that you would speak to a father. By the way, Abba Father are just the two Greek words that Jesus used in Gethsemane.

So the night before he died on the cross, when he was agonizing and he was crying out to his father, he said, Abba Father. So when the Indwelling Holy Spirit in the believer gives us this impulse to cry out to God, Abba Father. We are just mimicking how Jesus cried out to his Father. Isn't that amazing? So number one, our redemption through Jesus paves the way for adoption.

Number two, God wants us to have more than the doctrine. He sends the Holy Spirit to indwell believers, to have this impulse to cry out to God as a father in the most intimate, familiar way to address Him. Number three, being adopted makes the believer an heir through Christ and with Christ. Being adopted makes the believer an heir through Christ, because of Him, and with Christ. Christ is the ultimate heir.

You become heir with Christ. This communicates the right of access and relationship. Free, unrestricted access to God in relationship. So is he the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords? Yes.

Does that mean you're not welcome before him? No, that's not what that means for the believer. The king can have sons, and the sons aren't like everybody else. They have free, unrestricted access. That's what is communicated here.

By being an heir, you have access and relationship that no one else has. And it means the right of identity, the family name, and it means the right of inheritance. All that is the father's is yours because you're the heir. You've been designated as the one who enters into the property, the family property. Right of access and relationship, right of identity, right of inheritance, the family property.

Your earthly parents might leave you a lot or a little. Now think about the family property of God the Father. Nothing could compare. So the eternal Son, Jesus, the natural Son, often in the New Testament, is called the only begotten Son. It means that He is the Son of God in a unique way, in a way that we will never be.

He is eternally God's Son. He shares in His nature. Jesus paves the way for the adoption of more children. The natural Son paves the way for the adoption of more children. Millions of more children.

And this was not because God the Father had to, it was because He wanted to. It was because it was His pleasure to. It was because He deemed it good to. Deemed it good to. Back to our text, according to the good pleasure of His will, God planned to adopt these children beforehand.

He thinks it's a great plan. He takes pleasure in the plan. He takes pleasure in accomplishing the plan to see it come to full bloom. He wanted to do this. It is his pleasure to do this.

He says, ìIt's good for me to do this, according to the good pleasure of his willî are the words that Paul used. There wasnít anything outside of himself which compelled him to do it. He didn't have to do it. There was nothing in us that could compel him to do it. There was no principle which obligated him to do anything other than to administer justice.

Really, the principles involved that would compel him, would compel him in the opposite direction of adopting us into his family. Meaning he must be just because of who he is. So if you were saying that there's a principle compelling God, wouldn't it be the principle to execute justice? To see justice done knowing that he knows everything, all of our thoughts, all of our words, all of our deeds. There was no external compulsion.

There was only his internal compulsion of love and mercy and grace. Nothing external. He didn't have to. Nothing was pressing on him to save sinners and adopt them into his family, there was only the internal compulsion of love and mercy and grace. I think what I am getting ready to say next is the most important sentence of the sermon.

What God the Father has decided to do, and then did, is only because of who He is. You can be in love with what He did. I am. I'm in love with what He did, but just know that even upstream of what he did is who he is. That's why he did what he did.

What God the Father has decided to do and then did is only because of who he is. It's according to the good pleasure of His will, what He was like had Him do this. So what was the wonderful thing which was planned from the very beginning? Our adoption into his family believers in Jesus. Putting us so firmly in the standing of his love.

That was the wonderful thing which he decided beforehand to do. Okay, back to Ephesians 1, now in verse 6. Follow along as I read verse 6. To the praise of the glory of his grace by which he made us accepted in the beloved. In this verse we have praise for the grace which made us acceptable.

So if you're taking notes on the handout, filling in blanks, grace and acceptable, fill in the two blanks. Praise for the grace which made us acceptable. Let's look at the first phrase, or two phrases in this verse. Let's just look at the first phrase. To the praise of the glory of his grace.

You have these three elements in this phrase. I want to take them in reverse order. So we'll take the last first and work backwards. Number one, his grace, His undeserved favor, that's what grace is. You don't deserve favor, you don't deserve the goodwill, you don't deserve him smiling on you, But he does it anyway.

It's undeserved and yet given. And this is God the Father's undeserved favor. It is God the Father's unearned goodwill, smiling upon you. It's this disposition of wanting to bless and do good towards, thinking well of. So This pre-planned adoption of children was all of the Father's grace.

It's undeserved. It's unearned. More on this in a minute. I'm going to go fast through this one because we get to return to it in the second phrase. The number one was his grace.

Number two, this grace has a glory to it. This is no normal grace. Grace is good. Even a little grace is good. Paul is not describing this as a little grace.

This grace has a glory to it. Another word for glory would be splendor. Would be splendor. It's very naturally awe-inspiring. It has this majesty about it, this splendor about it.

You don't have to work up awe. It's just very naturally awe-inspiring because of what it's like. So Think of it like this. Parents taking their children on a mountain trip. The children are older, the kids are older, And all of them are occupied on their phones.

So mom and dad in the front seat, all the kids in the minivan seats that we have. And older kids, they're all buried in their phones. Something really important is on the phone some game or something is just occupying them and So they start out here. They start out in the flatlands and they're they're heading down occupied they don't see the foothills and the foothills become mountains and then at some point the van comes around a curve and There's just this expanse. And you can see dozens of miles in every direction, only it's not cityscape.

It is forests and mountains and rock faces. Mountains and rock faces. And dad says, hey kids. And they look up for the first time in miles and miles and they didn't have any advanced warning but there's just this view. And the phones are forgotten.

And dad doesn't have to explain. You should be impressed by this. Children, you should find this impressive. Children, this is magnificent. None of that needs to be said.

Brothers and sisters, when people who have eyes to see look On the grace of this pre-planned adoption of children, they see the glory, they see the splendor, they see the magnificence of what God thinks is good to do, and then did. Knew, and then did. These people who have eyes to see don't have to be told, this is glorious grace. This undeserved favor is magnificent. If you said that to them, they might respond, I'm enjoying the view.

Don't disturb me with your commentary. I'm enjoying the view. I'm looking out over God's eternal plan to take sinners and to sweep them into his kingdom. He decided beforehand, before he even made the worlds, to adopt them into his family. Be quiet.

I don't need your commentary. I'm enjoying the view. So number one was his grace. Number two was this grace has a glory to it. Number three, the splendor of this undeserved favor draws out our praise.

The splendor, the glory of it draws out our praise. Harold Honer, our Greek scholar, who I'm reading his commentary, it's so focused on the original languages and the nuance of the language says this, the word for praise, the Greek word that's translated praise here, from the earliest times in Greek literature has had the idea of praise, approval, applause. That's just a nuance. Praise is fine, it's a good translation, but now just think applause. The believer, the person who has eyes to see this, just contemplates God before the world was even made, deciding beforehand to adopt sinners and bring them into his family.

And just in that contemplation, just a well done applause. Sometimes I don't think the Doan family has done it this fall, but sometimes the Doan family in fall, when we drive by just a particularly beautiful gold or red tree, all the leaves have changed and it's almost hard to look at because it's so bright because of the color sometimes we'll just And we mean it for God This this is the thought the splendor of this undeserved favor draws out our praise you just have to like clap well done That God the Father chose some to receive His undeserved favor before the foundation of the world. And so He planned their adoption into His family, Not because of what they were like, but in spite of what they were like. I mean, that's what you have to get. That's what deserves our applause.

He didn't decide to adopt them because of what they were like. No, no, no. It was in spite of what they were like. We're coming to chapter 2 in several weeks, and in chapter 2, people before their believers in Jesus are called sons of disobedience, children of wrath. They belong to an entirely different family.

When you think of that, it's not... I'm a believer now, but it's not... God didn't accomplish that in my life because of what I'm like. He accomplished it in spite of what I'm like. I have been a son of disobedience.

I have been a child of wrath, a person that just deserves this pure God's anger because of what I am like, because of what I have always been like. They see this adoption into his family and it draws out their praise. The believer born again with a new heart and new affections is built to respond to that view. God the Father ought to receive praise for being like this. So set aside that He did it.

It's wonderful that He did it, but just set that aside for a moment and just think he only did it because he's like that. He only did it because he's like that. Nothing compelled him to do it. It's just because God is love. God is full of mercy and compassion, goodness, loving kindness, patience, long suffering.

He ought to receive praise for being like that, shouldn't he? And doesn't he? What are we doing here today? We all leave our houses once a week, and we come here, and why do we come here? To do this.

To get the view. The expansive, majestic view of splendor. To think again about what God did and then to praise Him. He ought to be praised for it, for being like that, and He is praised for it. Finally, Paul concludes this verse by telling us something about the Father's grace.

He says this, this is the very end of verse 6, we are in this last phrase now, verse 6. Verse 6. By which, by the Father's grace, that's what we've been talking about, He made us accepted in the beloved. By the Father's grace, the Father made us accepted in the beloved. Now let's start with this term, the beloved.

It's talking about Jesus, but he doesn't say Jesus. He just gives him this title, the beloved, the one who is loved. God the Father testified to this very thing at Jesus' baptism. Jesus goes to be baptized and we read in Matthew 3 verse 17, and suddenly a voice came from heaven saying, this is 7, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Again at the transfiguration, Jesus takes up Peter, James, and John, just the three of them, up to the top of a mountain, and He's changed in front of them, and His face shines like the sun.

This is near the end of his life in ministry. We read in Matthew 17 verse 5, while Peter was still speaking, Behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, the cloud saying, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased hear him. So the standing of the believer, what's the believer standing on? Does the believer have ground to stand on? The standing of the believer has been won by God's comprehensively loved Son.

That's the ground the believer is standing on. Ground that's been won by God's comprehensively loved Son. Comprehensively meaning there's nothing about Jesus that God the Father doesn't love. He loves it all. He loves Him completely.

Our acceptance, the acceptance of the believer, has been secured by the Father's eternally loved Son. Friends, eternally loved Son. Friends, how secure must that standing be, if it was secured by God's eternally loved Son. He made us accepted in the beloved. Believing brings union.

We're going to see it all through the letter of Ephesians. In Christ, in Christ, in Christ. The believer is in Christ, joined to Christ. Believing brings union, and union results in acceptability and in acceptance. You are able to be accepted now, acceptability, in Christ.

And you are accepted in Christ believers. But I have to say I don't love the translation. I think NASB and ESV render it better. This Greek word rendered accepted in New King James, accepted in the beloved, appears one other place in the New Testament. It appears in Luke 1.28.

In Luke 1.28, the same Greek word that has been translated by New King James as accepted appears, but only of the angel speaking to and of Mary, Jesus' mother. Listen to Luke 1.28. And having come in, the angel said to her, the angel said to Mary, to Mary, rejoice highly favored one. The Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women." So in Luke 1.28, it's not accepted, it's highly favored.

When you look at the Greek lexicon, that would tell us how to best bring that Greek word over into the English language, highly favored, is much closer to the Greek lexicon. You should have rendered it the same in both places, I think. NASB and ESV and their renderings are much closer to that, recognizing that. Yes, believers are made acceptable and accepted in the Lord Jesus Christ, but this Greek word goes further. Believers are highly favored, not just accepted, except it sounds so bland compared to what the Greek word is really communicating.

Believers are highly favored in the beloved. Listen to 1 John 3 verse 1. It's just the first part of the verse. 1 John 3 verse 1. John writes, Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God." Let me read that again.

John writes, Behold, Look at this, behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God. What a reflection of His tremendous love that we should even dare to take on ourselves the name, Children of God. He gave us that name. Why did John write that? I think one of the reasons John wrote that was he was sitting there or standing there when Jesus prayed this.

This is from John's Gospel, John 17 verse 23. John 17 verse 23, Jesus is praying, and John heard him pray this, I in them Jesus is praying this Jesus saying I in my people and you Father in me that they may be made perfect in one and that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me." Jesus you have loved me." Jesus prayed that about His people. That He would be in His people undoubtedly by his spirit and that God his Father has loved them, his people, as he has loved Jesus. As he has loved Jesus. So, highly favored in the beloved is indicating loved as the beloved.

Loved as the beloved. It's not right there, but it is right in John 17, 23 and 1 John 3. Now, let's go to the cross and give Dr. Martin L. Jones the final word.

You can go to Matthew 27 if you want to. I'd say just let me read it and listen. Matthew 27 verses 45 through 51. This is at the cross. Jesus is hanging on the cross.

Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour, there was darkness over all the land. At about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He's quoting Psalm 22 verse 1 there. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Some of those who stood there when they heard that said, this man is calling for Elijah.

Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed and offered it to him to drink. Then the rest said, Let him alone, let us see if Elijah will come to save him. And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his and yielded up his spirit. He died. Now listen to what Dr.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones says. He says, the height of the paradox of this love. The thing that no human mind can encompass is that when you stand at the foot of the cross and listen you hear these words being uttered, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The one who utters that cry is the beloved. The one who has basked in the sunshine of the eternal love from eternity without intermission.

If he had shrunk from it, we would not be saved. We would not be forgiven. We would not be Christians. Lloyd-Jones brings us to the gospel accounts of Jesus' death and Jesus saying, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And he connects it to this text and says, the one who uttered that is the beloved.

Think of what it would be to pay that price on both sides. For the Father to say that to adopt children, rebels, sinners into my family, the cost of that will be to send the beloved to shame and death, to bear their shame and their death, so that they can be free from their shame and their death. That's the cost. I'll pay it. And for the one who is the object of love, unbroken object of His Father's love from all eternity with no beginning to it, no intermission of it to say, I'll go and bear you forsaking me as I bear sin for the adoption of sinners into your family.

Back to our analogy, what of you? What of you? To the praise of the glory of his grace. Application I'll just give you and we'll close with Isaiah 46. One application.

Worship the Father for the magnificence of the high favor gained in the beloved. Worship Him. Worship the Father for the magnificence, the splendor, the beauty, the glory of the high favor gained in the beloved. Well done. Well done.

Applaud him. I end with Isaiah 46 verses 9 and 10. Isaiah 46 verses 9 and 10. God says, I remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure." Here in Isaiah 46, God is announcing Himself as the one and only one who can say from the very beginning what the end will be before any of it has been accomplished, and then it all happens just as he said.

And now consider that it pleases him that this is what will happen. He determined, He declared the end from the beginning. He declared that he would adopt sinners into his family from the beginning. And he does all his pleasure. God, What a privilege to have been taught these things decades ago.

Have the Spirit at work convincing me that these things really are true. Now to be able to stand and speak them. Pray that your spirit would be present, convincing many here that These things are true. These are not mythical things, but this is truth revealed from heaven. You really did decide beforehand to Adopt sinners into your family through the work of your son.

Receive all the praise. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.