In the sermon 'Grace to the Lowly' by Douglas Campbell, the speaker reflects on the biblical account of the birth of Jesus, emphasizing the divine announcement made to shepherds. This choice highlights God's grace towards the humble and lowly, contrasting with societal norms that often disregard such individuals. The sermon references biblical passages from Proverbs, James, and Peter to underscore this theme, asserting that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Campbell further explores the metaphor of living life as though walking on thin ice, emphasizing the precariousness of human existence without divine guidance. He encourages listeners to humble themselves, repent, and trust in Jesus Christ for salvation. The message concludes with a Puritan prayer, celebrating the profound gift of Jesus, born as a Savior to rescue humanity from sin and spiritual peril.

Good evening. This evening if you have your Bibles, if you would turn with me to Luke chapter 2, I'm going to start at verse 8. Luke chapter 2 verse 8. I might be a little loud. Is that better?

Alright, maybe I wasn't. Luke chapter 2 verse 8. This morning looking specifically, the title of my message is entitled, Grace to the Lowly. Starting at verse 8, it says, In the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear.

And the angel said to them, Fear not, for behold I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people, for Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. And suddenly with the angel, there with the angel, a multitude of heavenly hosts, praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those whom he has pleased. When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherd said to one another, let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us let's pray.

Heavenly Father we we come to you tonight with great joy as we remember the birth of the Word, the birth of God in the flesh, the birth of Christ our Lord and Savior. Father, tonight as we remember this amazing and incomprehensible gift, Father, God, I pray that you would give us understanding and light of your Scripture, that we might understand this gift better, and that Father, we might be changed to glorify you, just as the heavenly host, and just as those who have, through the past, through the past couple thousand years, Father, all those who have come to know Christ as they have set their life upon glorifying you. Let that be our desire and cry tonight in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Well tonight as we think about the birth of our Savior, I thought it was very interesting as I read through the birth story just recently again as we come to this time, and as I thought about the first announcement of the birth of our Lord and Savior, the birth of the one who would go to the cross, who would take the punishment for our sin, the one whom will change us if we trust in Him.

That first announcement, that first proclamation was to shepherds in a field. It wasn't to the religious people, it wasn't to the governors, it wasn't to the politicians, it wasn't to the leaders. The first announcement went to the shepherds in the field. Now we often don't understand when we come to this word shepherd or this position in Bible times, we don't understand it completely oftentimes because we sometimes would compare it to maybe a farmer or someone who was raising livestock. But this job, this career in the Bible, was a career that did not carry with it much fame.

In fact, there were two options. It was either that I could afford to hire a shepherd because sheep are animals that need looked after. So I could either afford to hire a shepherd or I could watch my sheep myself, or which most often would happen is someone in my family, one of my children, would have to do the shepherding for the family. Now you would think even that as a child would be a glorious job, but this job was almost always left to the child who could not provide the best in other ways. So if you look at my children, I have Malachi, Matthew, and Elijah that are young men or young boys.

When I would look at them, I would look at that Malachi, and Malachi can put fence up faster than I can, so I don't want him to be busy with the sheep. I would, even though Elijah is probably the wittiest of the bunch, he's not the strongest, and so it would probably end up being Elijah's job to watch the sheep day and night. We find that demonstrated in the story of David, that David was a shepherd. So it was either that position, if I couldn't afford to hire a shepherd, or if I was to hire a shepherd in that time, The shepherd would typically be men who did not have a family and could not have children. They typically were the ones that would be hired as shepherds.

They were very anti-social because they had to live with the sheep. They were those people of whom you might see walking between towns, and you see these men who haven't taken a shower in probably many, many weeks. They're dirty, they're stinky, and this is their life. They wouldn't have been the upper class. There was a there's a man here in the church that told me one time he was at a get together with his wife and He said that he was talking to people that he didn't know, but they were people, it was kind of an uppity or an upper class event, and a lady asked him what he did, and he said, well, I farm, and she seemed interested in that, and he said, and also in the wintertime when I can't farm, I drive a semi.

And upon hearing that, she promptly turned around and did not talk to him again for the rest of the night because he wasn't up to her social standards. And that sounds crazy that people would be like that today. But at this point in history, that was how many felt towards shepherds. If you would have said, I'm a shepherd, They would have said, this guy don't have any money, he stinks, I need to find a better class of person to talk to. But is that the opinion of God?

We can find in the story that it's absolutely not. The shepherds were the first to be announced the birth of their and our Savior. They were the lowly. They were of those who did not have pride. And that's the theme we find all throughout Scripture.

In Proverbs 3.34 it says, "'Toward the scorners he is scornful, but to the humble he gives favor.'" That's reiterated two times in the New Testament. First by James in James 4-6, it says, and this is speaking of God, it says, but he gives more grace. Therefore, it says, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. And Peter in 1 Peter 5, 5 through 7 says, Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility towards one another, for God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that the proper time he may exalt you, casting all of your anxieties on him because he cares for you. Charles Spurgeon said, the heaven or the gate of heaven, though it is so wide that the greatest sinner may enter, is nevertheless so low that pride can never pass through it. And in fact, that is the problem that most men, most people have towards Christ and towards the gospel. First off, it's those who are so proud that they wouldn't even consider needing saved or needing God to help them at all. They are able to accomplish everything they set their hearts towards seemingly, and they have no perceived need of God.

But that is directly related to understanding where we're at, our position with God. Jonathan Edwards in his most famous sermon, sinners in the hands of an angry God, compared it as a man walking on thin ice. He compared your life and my life as people who are walking on very thin ice. That as we walk across this pond of thin ice, at any point in time, we could simply fall through the ice and be no more. It doesn't necessarily matter how old you are or how young you are.

As we walk through this life, as we sin against God, as we break His commandments, as we lie, as we steal, as we carry our pride with us, as we are in our thoughts, sin against God, almost continually before we come to Him to be changed, we walk on thin ice. None of us know the day that we will fall through. All of us are in great despair, because apart from God's help, none of us can make it across the ice alive. This evening, that is your position. That as you stand before God, whether it be in the pride of saying how good you are, how you don't need his help, or whether it just may be in that you see no need at all.

You've managed to navigate the ice good enough to this point, you haven't fell through yet, and so what's the immediate need? This evening the command is to humble yourself. It strikes against the very core of man, a man that says, I can do this. I can do enough good. I'm not that bad of a guy.

The pride just spews forth out of us over and over. God surely would like me because I'm just a great guy. But in fact, and I say this very often, if I was simply to put a recording device behind your ear and record all of your thoughts for the day, and we'll all come back tomorrow and I'll play them back for everyone to see, not only would you not show up, we would probably never see you again because our thoughts are wicked. We continually sin against a just God, a God who can't just overlook sin. When we understand that rightly, the gift in the manger becomes exceedingly big, exceedingly amazing, exceedingly grateful.

And for those shepherds that night, because of their position, because of their lowliness, because they had nothing to be proud of, it made sense. The angels appeared to them and they feared because they knew that they were nothing compared to a holy God. And yet as God proclaimed this great thing that's happened, the shepherds say to one another, we must go see what's happened. We must go see our Lord and our Savior. Luke 2, 10, 11 again it says, and the angel said to them, fear not, for behold I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people, for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord.

Tonight what gave the shepherd's joy is the very same thing that gives me joy. It's the very same thing that should and could give you joy. That 2, 000 years ago in the city of David, a Savior was born, one who can rescue you from the ice, one who can rescue you from the ice, one who can rescue you from your position, one who can rescue you before your time is up. The Bible says today is the day of salvation. The way that we partake of the Savior, the way that His life is credited to our account and our punishment is placed upon Him is to turn from our sin, to humble ourselves and repent and trust in Jesus Christ alone for your salvation.

There's no goodness in me. It's all in Christ. And tonight, as we look at the shepherds, The command to us is the same. It's to humble ourselves. Don't trust in our goodness anymore.

Turn to Christ and live. That's God's command to you. Don't trust in this world. Don't trust in our position. Don't trust in our finances.

Don't trust in our doctors. Trust in Jesus Christ alone. He is the only one who can save you. This evening I'd like to conclude with a Puritan prayer entitled Great Gifts. Let's all bow our heads and close our eyes.

The Puritan prays, Oh source of all good, what shall we render to thee for the gift of gifts? Thine own dear Son begotten, not created, our Redeemer, proxy, surety, substitute, his self-emptying, incomprehensible, his infinity of love beyond the heart's grasp. Here in his wonder of wonders, He came below to rise us above, was born like us that we might become like Him. Herein is love. When we cannot rise to Him, He draws near on wings of grace to rise us to Himself.

Herein is power. When deity and humanity were infinitely apart, He united them in dissolvable unity, the uncreated and the created. Here in His wisdom, when we were all undone, with no will to return to Him and no intellect to devise recovery, He came, God incarnate, to save us to the uttermost, as man to die our death, to shed satisfying blood on our behalf, to work out a perfect righteousness for us. O God, take us in spirit to the watchful shepherds and enlarge our minds. Let us hear good tidings of great joy and hearing, believing, rejoicing, praise, adore, our consciences bathed in an ocean of repose, our eyes uplifted to a reconciled father.

Place us with ox, donkey, camel, goat, and look to them upon our Redeemer's face, and in Him account myself delivered from sin. Let me with Simeon clasp the newborn child to my heart, embrace him with undying faith, exulting that he is mine and I am his, and him thou has given me so much that heaven cannot give no more." Father, as we come to you this evening, remembering that great gift, the gift above all gifts. Father, if there are those who have not trusted in Christ alone, who have not put all of their trust in Christ. Tonight, I pray God, you would draw them. And Father, for those who have partaken in this wonderful gift, God, on this Christmasly Eve, let us remember the immensity of the debt that was paid, the true love that you demonstrated, the true patience that you have demonstrated, the true kindness, Father, that you've demonstrated.

Through our Savior, born in a manger, died upon a cross, took the punishment for our sin, and rose again three days later, defeating death and proving beyond all doubt that he is the son of man. Father, let us remember tonight, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.