The Pitiable and the Pitiful

Introduction

Bible and open it as we begin to study together. I encourage you, whether you’re here in our auditorium or whether you’re out there at home listening to us on the YouTube page to get your Bible and open it up. Whether that’s a paper copy of a Bible or whether you have it digitally. I think it’s important for you to have the Bible open as we study the scriptures together. I want to give you three reasons why I think that’s important. There may be more. But here are three. Number one, and this is of least importance, but it may help, is it helps you to stay engaged? You’re turning along in the scriptures that we’re reading. You’re actively a part of this Bible study. You’re not a passive participant.

You’re an active participant, and hopefully it’ll keep your mind and heart engaged as we study God’s Word. Secondly, you need to be checking the scriptures that we’re reading this morning and the other words that are spoken to make sure that they really are the word of God. You have that responsibility. You have the responsibility to make that whatever this to check that whatever the speaker is saying truly is the word of God. I don’t know how you can do that without opening the word of God. And then thirdly, rather than just listening to the word of God quoted or read, if you’ll read it for yourself, then it may be further impressed upon you that this really is the word of God. It’s not the words of some man or the dictate of some church, that this is the holy word of God.

What better way to impress that upon you than to open up the scriptures as we study along this morning? We could take a survey this morning, couldn’t we? I could ask you what translation of the Bible have you opened up. We all have our preferences, don’t we? And that has change, and I know this statement’s about to make me sound like an old guy. But when I was a kid, it just seemed like there was one translation. And everybody used that translation, and everybody memorized their memory work from that one translation. But now there’s a multitude of translations to choose from, and we all have our preferences, don’t we? And unless you’re using the old King James translation, you probably chose the translation you’re using because it was easier to read.

One of the complaints, if you will, about the old 1611 version of the King James Bible is because it was translated in 1611, and words have changed. The use of words have changed. Sometimes even the meaning of words have changed. And so we might prefer a translation that’s easier to understand and easier for us to read.

And in a way it is more poetic, I think, in its reading. Now, like poetry, it can be a little bit more difficult to understand. I think there’s still something to be said for the old King James. And sometimes the use of those words that may have changed or just dropped out of usage altogether, can be educational. And so I’m not going to preach from the King James. I use the new King James. That still keeps me connected somewhat to that old King James. So I’m not going to preach from that version this morning, but I do want to base our lesson this morning upon one word that is used in that old King James version. And that’s the word pitiful. And you might say, well, the word pitiful is not just an old word.

We still use it today, but we use it differently today than it was used in 1611. In and around 1611, if they spoke of someone who was in a bad situation, they would not use the word pitiful, they would use the word pitiable, which meant that someone was worthy or evoking of pity. And if they use the word pitiful, they meant it in its literal sense, somebody that is full of pity. And so look with me in James chapter 5 and verse 11. We’ll be reading this morning this one verse from the old King James Version. And it says, Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience Job and have seen the end of the Lord. That the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy.

Now that’s not the way we would say that today. In fact, if you’re reading from a more modern translation, it doesn’t say that today. That phrase, the Lord is pitiful. Does not mean pitiful in the sense that you and I would use that word today, that is needs pity, is in a poor situation. But again, it means it in its archaic sense and its more literal sense. The Lord is pitiful, means he is full of pity. And so I’d like to talk about us and the Lord this morning. In that old usage of words, that you and I are pitiable. And the Lord is full of pity. And so before we proceed, to make sure that we’re all on the same page, let’s look at some definitions.

The word pity is simply a cause for sorrow or regret. Pitiable is one who is deserving or arousing pity. That’s us. And that will be the first point of our lesson. Today’s lesson just has two points. We are pitiable. We are deserving or arousing of pity. And our second point is based on the old use of the word, the Lord is pitiful. That is, he is full of pity, tender, and compassionate. And thanks be to God that He is because we are.

1. We Are Pitiable

And so truly the Lord is pitiful in the sense that he is full of pity and compassion. And I hope none of us could argue that we are not pitiable. And that is deserving of compassion, pity. And as we’re going to see this morning, God’s grace and mercy. So let’s start with the negative and get it out of the way so that we can end this lesson on a tearful positive note. Number one is we are pitiable. I wanted to remind us of our pitiable condition, of who we truly are. And to understand and connect these two thoughts, of us being pitiable, deserving our arousing of pity, and God being full of pity, is that our sin, our rebellion against God, and make no mistake about it, that’s what sin is, is a rebellion against our Maker.

That rebellion and that sin has caused untold sorrow to our God. Let’s look at a couple of passages of scripture that illustrate that. Look with me in the book of Genesis, in Genesis chapter 6. Genesis chapter 6, you’ll immediately recognize, is the story of the flood. A story of when God has had enough and has had to destroy the entire world. What picture do we get of God in both Old and New Testament? Do we get a picture of a God who delights in judgment, who delights in destroying his people, who delights in condemnation? Or do we get a true picture of a God who, yes, does judge and will destroy, but does so can we say reluctantly. Look at the story before the story of destruction and judgment.

In Genesis chapter 6, look at verses 5 and 6. You’ll be familiar with these verses. Genesis 6, verses 5 and 6, then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Let’s pause there. A misunderstanding, which many people, I’m afraid have, a misunderstanding of God, and particularly what they might call the God of the Old Testament, as he as if he were different than the God of the New Testament, would expect the next verse to say, since God saw that the evil of man’s heart was continuous, that God couldn’t wait to pounce, to judge and destroy, and that he, like some evil king or queen, were wringing their hands together and cackling in some evil laugh as he sought about to destroy.

But that’s not what verse 6 says. Verse 6 says, And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and he was grieved in his heart.

That’s a true picture of God when it comes to judgment. He doesn’t withhold judgment. But he does so with grieving in his heart. Because how we have treated a loving, giving God. Look with me in the New Testament in the book of Luke, two verses in the book of Luke. Rufus talked to us this morning in our Lord’s Supper discussion about Jesus being the consummation of the substance of God. And that was certainly true and personified in his incarnation. And would we not expect Jesus while here upon the earth in the flesh to show us the attributes of God? And he did exactly that. Look in Luke chapter 13, in very familiar verses in verses 34 and 35, in talking about a judgment, a destruction of the city of Jerusalem, and an ending of a covenant relationship with his people.

Notice what it says in Luke 13, verse 34, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who were sent to her. How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing. See, your house is left to you desolate, and assuredly I say to you, you shall not see me until the time comes when you say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Pronouncing judgment again, but do you see delight in that? Or do you see a God now in the flesh who is still grieving in his heart? If that’s not made clear for you there in Luke thirteen, look over at just a couple pages in Luke chapter nineteen.

He’s now coming into that city again for the last time in his triumphal entry in Luke chapter nineteen. And notice again the emotion of God in the face of judgment. Luke nineteen, verse forty-one, it says, Now as he drew near, he saw the city, that’s Jesus drawing near to Jerusalem, sees the city over it.

When God sees us in our sin and our rebellion and the impending judgment that will come upon that sin and rebellion, God is grieved in his heart. And here’s why. God can easily see that in his perfect vision and perfect knowledge, but we need to see that as well. We need to see our condition in sin. What is our condition? How does the Bible, how does God describe our condition in sin? We are described as being dead. The book of Romans, chapter 3, verse 23 says, all have sinned. Romans chapter 6, verse 23 says, and the wages of sin is death. Why is our condition in sin described as being dead? Number one is because we are separated from God. Death is all about separation. And dead, we are separated from God.

Dead also describes the inability or the inaction of the object or person that is dead. You go outside and you try to start your car and nothing happens, you may come back in and say, My car is dead. You don’t mean your car is separated from you, but you mean my car’s not doing anything. Death describes that inactivity, the inability to do anything. Separation from God, inactivity or inability to do anything that might glorify and bring honor to God. And maybe death is also used as a descriptor of our spiritual condition outside of Christ, because every one of us understands the condition of death and the sorrow that it brings. And so we’re dead. How else does the Bible describe us? It describes us as condemned.

Now, here again is where we might prefer the old King James because it does not soften the language, as if the word condemned is softened. The old King James, remember how it translates it? Damned. Look with me in the book of Mark, chapter 16. Why is obedience to the gospel? Why is baptism so important for the one who is seeking to come to God to remedy this dead condition? Because Mark 16, verse 16 says, He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned. Again, God chose language that we could easily understand. Everybody knows what dead is, and we all know the idea of being condemned. Maybe the ancients understood it better than we did. Their judicial system was much swifter than ours, and much harsher than ours.

Someone who was found guilty or condemned many times, if not most times, that was meant with the execution of life. They were then to be put to death. And usually that was done very swiftly. And so the ancient mind, the word condemned, would have instantly brought to mind. Judged, found guilty, and put to death. He who does not believe is condemned. The third way that we are described, separate and apart from God, that speaks of our pitiable condition is that we are lost. We won’t turn over there, but you remember the three stories in Luke chapter 15 that illustrate this the lost coin, the lost sheep, and the lost boy? Lost. That’s our condition without God. It too, like dead, speaks of the idea of being separated from God.

We’re lost. We are alienated and separated from Him. But lost, again, like dead and condemned, lost vividly describes that spiritual condition, doesn’t it? We’ve all been lost. Maybe you were lost as a child and separated from your parents, and maybe you can remember the fear and the anxiety of that. Maybe prior to, or maybe if you’re like me, even with the advent of GPS, you’ve been lost and know the frustration and the anxiety of that. But we’ve probably all, on some level, at some time, been what we might call emotionally lost. We just have no direction. We see no purpose in our life. Lost is a pitiable condition. Condemned and dead. That’s how God sees us. And it is no wonder that he is grieved in his heart when he looks it up.

It’s no wonder that Jesus would look at an entire city full of mostly lost people and weep over it. God sees us that way, and it is important that you and I begin to see ourselves and to see those who are lost that way. Because there’s no motive for salvation until there’s an awareness of being lost and condemned and dead. You remember on the day of Pentecost. The gospel, the good news, that’s what the word gospel, you know that, don’t you? The word gospel means good news. Before the good news, or as the good news was being preached, there first had to be bad news. You are lost. You are condemned. You are dead. Peter put it this way by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

You by lawless hands have crucified and put to death the Son of God. The bad news had to be delivered before the good news of Acts 2, verse 38. There is a remedy. You can be found. You can be exonerated, and you can be made alive. We do not appreciate nor seek the good news of God’s salvation until we appreciate and own the bad news of our spiritual plight in sin, of just how pitiable we are. And we’ve been given what I’d argue is the unenviable task of helping other people see that.

2. The Lord Is Pitiful, Full of Pity

It’s not fun delivering bad news. It’s not fun telling people they’re lost, dead, and condemned. But we can’t truly share the good news of the gospel until we share that bad news. Now we might argue that it, like all bad news, needs to be sprinkled with grace. But it still must be communicated that we are pitiable. But thanks be to God, that the old King James version says the Lord is pitiful. That is, he’s full of pity and compassion. I want you to think just of that third story. We alluded to Luke chapter 15, the lost coin, the lost sheep, and the lost boy. We know the most lengthy of those stories far better than the other two, don’t we? The story of the lost boy or what we call the prodigal son.

The word prodigal, by the way, just means an extravagance. And he’s called the prodigal son because he took his father’s inheritance and he wasted it. He extravagantly expended his father’s inheritance. That’s what the word prodigal means. That’s another one of those old King James words, isn’t it? And we see that that son, and by the way, even the elder son who stayed at home, were both pitiable, weren’t they? They were deserving of their father’s pity and compassion. But that father in that story, who corresponds to our Heavenly Father, was full of pity, wasn’t he. In fact, we’re going to talk about definitions of old words this morning. We could refer to that Father as the prodigal father, couldn’t we? Because when it came to grace and mercy, he was extravagant in his expense of it.

He didn’t give both of his sons just a little grace. If he would have, for the one son that went away and came back, he’d have said, Well, I’ll forgive you, but you need to live somewhere else. Or he’d accepted his son’s offer to be a servant in that household. But that’s not what he did. He welcomed him back. He hugged him, he kissed him, he killed the fatted calf, he celebrated. That was the extravagant expense of grace and mercy. And that’s our only hope.

And full of grace and compassion. Look in the book of 1 Peter, chapter 1. Whichever translation you’re reading from this morning, join me in 1 Peter chapter 1. And let’s look at two verses there. At our hope, in fact, our only hope of being dead, condemned, and lost in sin, 1 Peter 1 verses 3 and 4, say this. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, notice this language, who, according to his abundant mercy. Let’s pause there. That’s the picture of that prodigal Father. Who, according to his abundant mercy, has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you. In 1 Peter 1 verses 3 and 4, we have what we might call the antidote for being dead, condemned, and lost, all in those two beautiful verses.

Because we have a Father who is abundant in his mercy.

Of mercy. And of grace.

Mercy and grace. Mercy is this idea of pity put into action. If pity is described as the emotion, God being grieved in his heart, Jesus weeping the city, then mercy is pity put into action. It assumes the feeling of compassion and pity, and it also assumes the necessary resources to remedy that. That’s mercy. Pity put into action. Grace is just goodwill.

Of gifts given. Again, because of the pity of God. We’ve talked about this proposition before, but it bears repeating here. What was God to do? Based upon our pitiable condition, our condition and his character, the character of one being full of pity, mercy, and grace, what was God to do? As far as I can tell, God had three options. If you know of others, please let me know. Number one is God could have declared the law unjust. And just said, I was wrong. I set the bar too high. The law is wrong. You are right. We do that on a human standard, don’t we? If acting properly, that’s what the Supreme Court is supposed to do. He’s supposed to look at a law and say, here’s somebody, you’ve been condemned to this law, but that law is wrong.

And so you’re okay. God could have just ignored the violation of the law. And just said, Oh, I know, I know what I said, but we might call this the grandparent view of God. Of a grandparent who may talk gruff to the grandchildren and issuing all these laws, but in the end it’s just the softy is going to break down and not really punish the grandchildren. And so many have the view of God of that way. That’s not the picture of God at the flood. It’s not the picture of Jesus over the city of Jerusalem. There was grief, but there was grief because judgment had to come. Both of those options are really untenable options for God. The only option was to punish the transgression of the law.

Look with me in Romans chapter 3. After stating that all have sinned, what was God to do? The problem is stated in verse 23, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The solution is stated in verses 24 through 26. Let’s begin in verse 25, whom, speaking of Christ, whom God set forth as a propitiation by his blood through faith to demonstrate his righteousness. Because in his forbearance, God had passed over the sins that were previously committed. God, prior to the coming of Christ, had passed over, and so to some observer, it would have looked as if God was saying the law was unjust, or if God was just ignoring the violation of the law, but in giving Christ, God demonstrated that he was righteous.

And that is that the violation of the law had to be met with punishment. He demonstrated his righteousness, verse 26, to demonstrate at the present time, his righteousness, that he might be the just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Christ Jesus. To quote the words of the prophet, by his stripes, we are healed. And so what was God to do? To maintain his character of justice and of pity. Jesus Christ is what he could do. So we have God’s pity. Will we afford ourselves of God’s grace, mercy, and forgiveness this morning? You’re that prodigal son who has wandered away. The Father had pity for the Son, surely the whole time from day one that he left his father’s house. But the Son had to return to receive the grace and the mercy that the Father through his pity was willingly offering.

Conclusion

Will you come to your Father this morning? Will you believe, repent, confess, be baptized for the remission of your sins? Do you recognize your pitiable condition outside of Christ? And can you see your Father?

Will you come to him this morning? If we can help you in any way, let it be known right now, as together we stand and as we sing.