THE IMPORTANCE OF HAVING WHOLE THOUGHTS

G. C. McKay

Exodus 12: 1–10, 15–20, 37–39, 43–47; 1 Samuel 7: 5–11; 1 Kings 18: 30–32

I seek grace, dear brethren, to speak a little of the importance of having whole thoughts. We have spoken in the reading of the great result that God has in view and will certainly accomplish, and how our vision ought to be fixed on that great end and the divine operations in view of it. An important part of that exercise is the way that we hold the truth and the way that we hold Christ, that is, that we do not have any partial thoughts. We understand that God is going to bring everything through in Christ. The saints will go through in Christ—it is an unbroken thought. We read of the passover lamb that not a bone of it was to be broken. The whole lamb was to be before the souls of the children of Israel, as Christ in that character, and the exercises that go with it included the instructions that not a bone was to be broken. John takes that up in his gospel, that the soldiers did not break the legs of Jesus so that the scripture might be fulfilled. So John in his writings is bringing out that divine thoughts are going through intact, in the face of all the breakdown and departure. They are going through complete, they are not going through in fragments. We might feel able only for a little or a fragment but it is not a right approach. Our minds should be imbued with the thought of all the truth and all that Christ is, so that we do not reduce matters or say that we will take up one aspect of the truth and leave another, giving up something.

God is bringing everything through in Christ, and He would have Christ before us in that sense in a complete way, so that we might apprehend what God has in mind in Him and that it might go through. That applies I believe to our apprehension of Christ and our apprehension of the truth too. It has often been said that where departure comes in there is an underlying defect in the apprehension of the person of Christ, something lacking as to Christ in the soul. We are preserved, as we have Christ before us and hold all the truth. Indeed we have been taught by those who were much used at the onset of the recovery of the truth that we must base our stance on that, all the truth, not simply a certain doctrine or a certain set of doctrines. The term ‘brethren’s truth’ is hardly a right one. It is not a question of ‘brethren’s truth’, it is the truth or else we descend into what is sectarian. The truth is the truth as set forth perfectly in Jesus, accomplished in its entirety through His death, and we have to embrace that, all the truth. Together with that we must not have broken thoughts as to the assembly, because it bears on that too; not only our apprehension of Christ but our apprehension of the saints and what God has in mind in the assembly. Paul said to the Corinthians, “Is the Christ divided?” (1 Corinthians 1: 13), because they were following the party leadership of certain in the locality as if that was all right. They had not apprehended the full thought of what the assembly is in its unity, in its wholeness and completeness before God; underlying that I suppose there must have been some misapprehension as to the person of Christ.

So I turn to the first scripture that I read, alluding to the passover lamb. The beginning of months seems to be something that should enter into all our experiences, as if to say, How are we going to progress to a further apprehension of Christ, how are we going to take up and be formed by the truth if we do not begin with the passover lamb? The thought is that the flesh was to be eaten, nothing of it had to be left until the morning. The counting was according to the number of souls, “each according to the measure of his eating”. The point is to appropriate, to take into our souls, something of the preciousness of the Lord Jesus as the One who went into death for us, the One who was the Lamb roast with fire.

It is meant to touch each one of us. What is often said about this lamb and the time it spent in the household is something that we should think on. We should spend time contemplating the perfection of the Lord Jesus. The gospels give us that in detail and there are beautiful allusions in the epistles too as to the Lord Jesus, as to the spirit and manner of His life, for example how when reviled He reviled not again. What a way He went, what grace, what a spirit marked Him! The Psalms and other references in the Old Testament fill the matter out so that the perfection of the Lord Jesus can come before us.

The persons in the household would be saying, as they viewed that lamb, That lamb should not die, it is harmless, but it has to die for me. The firstborn I suppose would have a special sense of this. That is how we must view it, contemplating the Lord Jesus in His perfection, and understanding that He had to die and that He had to die for us. There was no mitigation in the suffering, the lamb was roast with fire. This is Christ set before us objectively and not broken up. If the house was too small, they did not divide it, “if the household be too small for a lamb, let him and his neighbour next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls”. We see the effect of this, that it would bind everybody in the household for they would all be under the shelter of the same blood, all eating the same lamb, all understanding that Jesus had died for them. Dear young people, you eat of that Lamb in your household and take your share in the eating of it. It is to be eaten, that is the point, you are to appropriate Christ in that way. The reference to the neighbour, the house next unto his, shows how persons might merge together. We begin to form a link together. It is very, very important that we form these links together, spiritual links, moral links, and this is one of the ways we do it. The word is, “the whole congregation of the assembly of Israel shall kill it between the two evenings”. They shall kill “it” as if it were one lamb, the whole congregation having its affections involved in this great matter that Christ died for us to save us from judgment. So that the judgment should not fall on us, it fell on Him. How attractive the Lord Jesus is, what grace He showed.

Now that, you might say, is the objective side—that is Christ to be appropriated, to be contemplated. There is the precious view of Christ, perfection in His person and perfection in His work. Then the other side is that something has to work in our souls, so we eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. That is not objective, it is what works in our souls as we eat that lamb, the unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Bitterness enters into it. What links we have together, dear brethren, as we share these experiences! We have the same moral exercises, each of us has eaten the bitter herbs, and understood the bitterness of the fact that we were sinners and He had to die for us. These deep exercises should be known amongst us. It should be part of the constitution, one might say, among the saints who have been through these exercises and have formed an appreciation of Christ.

Then the unleavened bread. There is a great deal said in these chapters about the unleavened bread. We all know what the leaven is, the working of the flesh—what a thing it is, the flesh!

What is working in you, what is working in me and what is working among the saints should be what is good and what is right, not the working of the flesh, and so, the leaven has to be got rid of. In the first day and for the whole seven days there was to be nothing but unleavened bread. Not only were they to eat only unleavened bread, but there was not to be any leaven in their houses. Well, what a test that is, the features of the flesh tend to invade our minds and hearts and houses. How they would spoil things, spoil the fellowship! The fellowship of the death of Christ is a pure fellowship, a fellowship of pure affections and a pure walk, a fellowship that involves love for Christ, where the leaven is not going to work, so that we can

enjoy things together. The Lord Jesus warned the disciples when He said, “beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees”. They did not understand at first but then they saw what it was (Matthew 16: 6). Just before that in Matthew the Lord Jesus had left the Pharisees and Sadducees; the footnote says He left them completely. He had taken the disciples with Him into a right position away from these religious persons, and then He says, “beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees”. It is possible to leave persons but to bring their leaven with you. That is a great test to us all that we do not allow any leaven to be carried over.

It is interesting that in this section in Matthew the Lord then comes to an area where He speaks about “my assembly”. It has to be a pure area where the assembly comes in, where that revelation comes into Peter’s soul, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God”, Matthew.16: 16. This is an unleavened area where the flesh is not to operate. How quickly the flesh does operate! It arose again in Peter a little later when he rebuked the Lord about the suffering path. Even if there might be something we think we have judged, or at least we have left aside, circumstances arise and up it comes again, the same thing. The Corinthians were puffed up and were boasting, although there was evil among them, “Do ye not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?”, 1 Corinthians 5: 6. There should be something good working amongst us, dear brethren, and I think there is. Over against the activity of the flesh, there are the operations and movements that belong to the Holy Spirit, springing up into eternal life. Thank God there was something else that began to work in the Corinthians, repentance began to work with them. “Grief according to God works repentance ... never to be regretted” (2 Corinthians 7: 10), and so something else began to work, right exercises and right feelings. That is what we would seek to stimulate among the saints. It is not simply that the truth is stated, but it is what is working among the brethren; what is working in my soul in the first instance, and in my house, what is working in the local meeting.

The working is connected with the presence of the Holy Spirit. The Galatians were legal, they had to be circumcised and they spoiled Christianity. They brought in something of Judaism into Christianity which destroyed its whole essence, “A little leaven leavens the whole lump”, Galatians 5: 9. So Paul says to the Galatians, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision has any force, nor uncircumcision; but faith working through love”, Galatians 5: 6. That is the kind of thing that we want to be working, “faith working through love”. The scripture puts these two things together, faith in our souls which is working through love, through the divine nature in us. These things are necessary, that we should have Christ before us and feed on His perfections, and that we should learn to negate the flesh. Then we can begin to take in the whole thoughts of God, and what answers to Christ in all the preciousness of it. We can move into Matthew 16 and see what is happening in divine operations which involve the building of the assembly. Christ is building, and He is doing it in the area where He says, “flesh and blood has not revealed it to thee”. We want to know something of what is in an area that is not flesh and blood. We have to live in flesh and blood of course, and we are always vulnerable. But let us seek to maintain whole thoughts and see them going through. I think it is very touching to think of John in his gospel emphasising that the bones of the Lord Jesus were not broken. There was nothing broken, everything is intact according to John. It is an astonishing thing. He goes right against the current of things, the whole background against which he wrote, the turning away and difficulties and apostasy, yet he says that things will go through intact. We can see it if we have the faith for it, and are diligent in these exercises that we might actually in our souls and our spiritual affections touch the reality of divine operations.

Something similar comes in where we read in 1 Samuel 7 about the whole burnt-offering. The burnt-offering in any case was burnt entirely, the whole animal was burnt and was offered up to God as a sweet savour, but some scriptures speak about the whole burnt-offering, and this is one of them. There must be some intensification of the thought in “the whole burnt-offering”. In Deuteronomy 33 Levi in his faithfulness would put incense before God’s nostrils, and whole burnt-offering upon His altar.

In Psalm 51 David also, when he goes through the exercises of repentance, speaks about the two things together, “burnt-offering, and whole burnt-offering” (Psalm 51: 19). It seems as if the deep exercise of Levi’s faithfulness, and the deep moral exercises that David went through, would lead to some intensification of the thought of what is precious to God in Christ in His offering. It is precious to think of that.

Here we have the two sides again, the subjective side and the objective side. The subjective side comes first here in this exercise in Samuel and it comes spontaneously from the people. Something begins to work. It is one of the most encouraging things to see what is right working among the saints. Sometimes we get anxious about certain things that operate but thank God for the good exercises. Here in 1 Samuel 7: 2 there is something happening in the house of Israel for they lament after Jehovah; something is operating in their souls and they are turning to God and putting away the Ashtoreths and the Baals and serving Jehovah only.

They are getting clear of idolatrous influences. The ark of Jehovah is mentioned in the house of Abinadab on the hill, and the time is long, twenty years. Something is beginning to stir in the consciences of Israel, and I think in their affections too, for these things go together.

Persons can be reached through their consciences and repentance is essential, but it has been said that some people are recovered more quickly through their hearts than through their consciences.

Here in Israel there is something working that is good and Samuel says, “Gather all Israel to Mizpah”. Then it says, “they gathered together to Mizpah, and drew water, and poured it out before Jehovah, and fasted on that day”. They were confessing their utter weakness and their sin, drawing water and pouring it out before Jehovah, as if to say, That is how weak we are. It was not a hopeless matter for they poured it out before Jehovah, and He would be taking account of this so that something might come to light in the people for His pleasure. They poured it out and fasted, and they said, “We have sinned”. God can bring about something in His people. It happened in Corinth and it happens in our individual lives and in localities. There comes a time when we see things rightly, and not only do we put away the outward signs of our defection, but there is an inward confession of our utter weakness and our sinfulness before God. What is to happen then? Is it just water poured out and that the end of it? No, they are doing it before Jehovah and God is going to take the people on again.

How is He going to take them on? He is going to take His people on in Christ, as those who are secured in Christ. The Philistines approach, and the enemy is sure to attack where there are right things working among the saints, and the children of Israel are afraid and cry to Samuel. “And Samuel took a sucking-lamb, and offered it as a whole burnt-offering to Jehovah; and Samuel cried to Jehovah for Israel, and Jehovah answered him”. In the light of the people’s self-judgment Samuel takes this whole burnt-offering and offers it up, a sucking-lamb. We have spoken of the passover lamb, but think of this lamb, a sucking-lamb, young and defenceless and tender. What a picture of Christ! What a thought as to the precious manhood of Christ, a sucking-lamb, a whole burnt-offering! Although it is a small offering, and outwardly a sucking-lamb represents weakness, what comes out here is that it pleases God. What was presented to God was so appropriate at this time of the weakness of the people, being the perfection of Christ, that He says, I will take up the people in Christ and I will deal with their enemies. It is a whole burnt-offering. It is not a partial matter, it is not as if we will have a little recovery, a little relief. God has not that in mind, He has in mind the whole burnt-offering. He has in mind that all His thoughts as to Christ should be accomplished. If we should look to Him He will do that, He will bring us through in Christ and through Christ, but it involves self-judgment and what is subjective on our side too.

Well, the scripture we read in 1 Kings is perhaps somewhat different but I thought it would allow me just to extend the thought a little as to the saints and the assembly. We should have whole thoughts as to the saints and as to the assembly. Elijah is repairing the altar of Jehovah which was broken down, so it is a question of recovery. It was an apostate day when the prophets of Baal and Asherah were having such an ascendancy and eating at Jezebel’s table; you can understand that the altar of Jehovah was broken down. Elijah repaired it, he did not build a new altar, “he repaired the altar of Jehovah which was broken down. And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob”, that is that at this point in facing the enemy he held the whole people in his affections. He held them in his affections according to the thoughts of God because it is “according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of Jehovah came saying, Israel shall be thy name; and with the stones he built an altar in the name of Jehovah”. I just call attention briefly to that. We have to think of that, all these twelve stones, not eleven but twelve stones according to the number of the tribes of Jacob. In times of recovery, in times of declension and in times of crisis it is important to maintain the thought of all the saints. The thought of the assembly as an entity too, should be in our minds. I was thinking also of Paul in the shipwreck. When everything was breaking up and seemed to be going, Paul took a loaf and he broke it. So we have to keep the assembly before us.

These things are related. Having a view of Christ in completeness can relate to our thoughts of the assembly too.

For example, in 1 Corinthians 10 the loaf which represents the body of Christ is brought to bear on the fact that we are one body. The matter of fellowship is established in that way. “The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of the Christ?”, 1 Corinthians 10: 16. That is clearly the loaf, “Because we, being many, are one loaf, one body; for we all partake of that one loaf”. We have that one loaf before us every Lord’s day morning. We think of the body of Christ, that God has the whole assembly in view. There are to be no divided thoughts, no partial thoughts, no thought of giving up any aspect of the truth, nothing of that kind at all, but a self-judged state, feeding on Christ and having Him before us in all His perfection, seeing that through the perfection of His Person and of His work, God is going to bring everything through for His own pleasure. How comforting that is! You can see the importance of it, that what is before our minds objectively, what permeates our thinking must be according to God’s thoughts and that involves the whole burnt-offering. Then there is the subjective side, for there has to be a deep and persistent working of repentance, the bitter herbs and the unleavened bread, and there has to be the pouring out of the water, a confession of our weakness. Then you see that God comes in in Christ and everything is secured, and the enemy is defeated. God thunders against him. Well, may we prove these things in practice, dear brethren. I believe as we have them before us objectively, and as we strive in our individual and household and assembly exercises to bring them about in practice, then God comes in for us and something is arrived at even in a broken day for His pleasure.

May it be so, for His name’s sake.

Address at Edinburgh
31 March 2001