In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes that God's love and grace are the reasons for our salvation. He explains that God didn't save us because of our attractiveness or goodness, but because He heard our cry and saw our desperate condition. The preacher mentions the covenant God made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and how God agreed to save anyone who would trust in Jesus. He emphasizes that God's love provided redemption and that salvation is not based on love alone, but on grace in action.

Well, then, why did God come down? Well, He tells us here two reasons. God says, I heard their groaning. The thing that appealed to God was their desperate condition, their hopeless condition. That's what appealed to God. And He saw that, and for that reason, it appealed to Him. And then, the second reason is, He says here that He remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God says, I made a covenant with Abraham that I'd bring his offspring after the 400 years, I'd bring them back into the land. God says, I intend to keep my covenant. What I say I'll do, I will do. And God confirmed that covenant with Isaac and then again with Jacob. Now, these are the two reasons that God came down and delivered these people. It was their desperate, hopeless condition. It was that which appealed to the heart of God. And the second thing is, God had made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Now, why do you think God has redeemed you? That is, if you are redeemed, why do you think God has redeemed me? Well, same reason. God found nothing in us that called forth His salvation. He makes it very clear that when He saves us, it's not because any merit is in us at all. Actually, it's without a cause. That is the thing that Paul says in Romans 3, verse 24. Let me read verse 23. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely. And that word freely means without a cause. It's the same word our Lord used when He said, They hated me without a cause. Now, you and I are justified without a cause. That is, there's no reason in us. God didn't look at us and say, You know, you're white, and you're Protestant, and you're lovely, and you're superior, and I'm going to redeem you. In fact, the matter is, it's the reverse of that. God saw us in the blackness and darkness of sin and ignorance. He saw us hopelessly lost, and we were not able to save ourselves. And so we're told here, being justified without a cause by His grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. And God saves us by grace. Actually, He doesn't save us by love. He loved us, but love didn't save us. Love provided a Savior. God so loved that He gave His only begotten Son. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that you and I might have a redemption. And we are saved, therefore, without a cause by His grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. That's the basis on which God saves us today. And I hope none of you listening in have any notion that God found anything in you that was worthy of salvation. Now, I think that a great many people think that, well, God did save me as a sinner, but He saw what a lovely person I would become. Did you know that you never become a lovely person? I hate to say that, but you don't become a lovely person. There's no good in that old nature. Paul says, I know within my flesh there dwelleth no good thing. Now, will you believe God that there's no good in you at all? My friend, there's nothing in you that's good. Oh, I know that hurts a great many people. That's a shoe that really pinches, isn't it? To think that God didn't find any good in us and there's never going to be any good in us. And that's the reason you and I have to have a new nature. That's the reason for that because, friends, you and I just can't produce anything good. He found nothing in us, nothing whatsoever. And He never expected that that old nature to ever produce anything good. In fact, He's eventually going to get rid of it. We need a new nature. And that is the thing that caused God to come down and deliver these people. There was no good in them, no good at all. He redeemed them because He heard their cry. And God saw our desperate condition and saved us. And then God had a covenant. I mentioned it a moment ago in that most familiar verse, John 3, 16. Long before I came into the world, God the Father so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. And the Son agreed to come and die. And the Father agreed to save any that would trust Jesus. And He didn't wait for me to get here to talk it over with Vernon McGee and say, now look here, boy, what do you think about this plan? If it pleases you, I'll go through with it. God didn't do that. God says, and I want to be brutally frank with you, God says, here it is, take it or leave it. This is my salvation that I offer you. He made a covenant. And anyone that'll trust Christ, He'll save them. A little Scotch lady who had worked hard, taken in washings years ago, sent a boy away to the university. And he came home for vacation. And that was in the days when the university was going modern and liberal. And so when he came, why, he had a few doubts. And he was a little arrogant, you know. But he didn't really want his mother to know too much. But one morning, she was fixing his breakfast. She's telling about how wonderful God was to save her. And she knew she was saved. And this young fellow just couldn't take any more of it. So he said, look, Mama, you don't seem to realize how really small you are in this universe. And that you really don't amount to very much. Then he gave her quite a lecture on astronomy. How big the universe was. And how little she was. And he said, why, if you lost your soul, God wouldn't miss it at all. It wouldn't amount to anything. Well, she didn't say anything. She just kept waiting on the boy till finally she got everything on the table. Then she sat down and she said, I've been thinking over, son, what you said. You were right. My little soul doesn't amount to much. And if I lose it, I wouldn't lose much. And God wouldn't lose much. But says, you know, if he doesn't save me, he's going to lose more than I would lose. The boy says, what do you mean? Well, she said, he promised that if I would trust Jesus, he'd save me. And he'll lose his word. He'll break his word. He'll lose his reputation and his character. He doesn't make good. You're right. I don't lose much, but he's going to lose a great deal. And friends, God's not going to lose a great deal. God's going to make good. And that's the thing that he's saying. Not that the children of Israel are attractive, but he is saying that he's come down now to redeem them because he has heard their cry and that appeal to him. There's nothing lovely that appealed in those people. And there's nothing lovely in us that causes him to save us. And he did make a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And God has agreed to save any that'll trust Jesus because it was on that condition that he came to this earth to die. God so loved. And it's that love provided a redemption. And God doesn't save by love. He saves by grace. Now, grace is love in action. It's easy to sit on the sidelines and talk about loving. God didn't do that. God's demonstrated his love to us today. Now, will you notice the last verse? And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them.