Truth in the Inward Parts

Eduardo Elizondo—August 5, 2023

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This message is based on one of the verses in Psa. 51 that talks about It's very important for us to study this topic about what God desires truth in the inward parts!

This is the prayer that was recorded from David to God in repentance after David came to his senses about what he had done in sinning against God with Bathsheba, and killing her husband, Uriah the Hittite.

This is a Psalm of true repentance, what true repentance looks like. But there is one statement here in Psa 51:6 that is very, very important for us:

• to think about
• to remember
• to ponder on
• to examine a little bit more closely

What does this mean?

Psalm 51:6 David in his prayer says to God: "Behold, You desire Truth in the inward parts; and in the hidden part You shall make me to know wisdom."

• How did he know what God desired?
• How did he know that God desired Truth in the inward parts?
• How did he know that in the hidden part God shall make him to know wisdom?

and moreover

• What is this inward part?
• What are these inward parts?
• What is this hidden part that He's talking about here?

It's important for us to study the Word of God to see what else it tells us about the inward parts, about the hidden part. What is the relationship of all of these things

• to our relationship with God
• to our calling
• to our walk with God?

To see what we can learn that God wants to share with us for us to really know and understand His purpose, His Plan, and everything that He has for us.

If you do a study on the inward parts in the Old Testament, you'll find that the majority of those references is talking about animals, sacrificial animals. It's talking about the intestines, the kidneys, the internal parts, the inward parts that have to do in its majority with the digestion and cleansing of the system. That's what it's talking about there.

The majority of the references to the inward parts in the Old Testament, there's a few in the New Testament, there's a couple, but the majority are in the Old. The majority, as I mentioned, have to do with the animals, have to do with the sacrificial animals and what to do with the innards: the intestines, the kidneys, etc.

But there are a few Scriptures that are talking about people and talking about our inward parts. David here knew that God desires Truth in the inward parts and that there's a hidden part to make us know wisdom.

What does all this mean? One of those Scriptures is in Jer. 31. This is a very familiar Scripture to all of us, just like Psa. 51:6 is.

We're going to read some things here and stop to analyze some of these things that are written, because this is very, very important for us today.

Jeremiah 31:31: Behold, the days come,' says the LORD, 'that I will make a New Covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which covenant of Mine they broke, although I was a husband to them,' says the LORD; 'but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel: After those days,' says the LORD, 'I will put My Law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall no more teach each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, "Know the LORD"; for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,' says the LORD. 'For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sins no more'" (vs 31-34)

This is this is amazing, especially vs 33 & 34, speaking about the covenant that the Lord was going to make after those days.

We don't have time to go into detail right now, and there are many sermons and series on the website—truthofGod.org—that you can go to, to understand the New Covenant, to understand what was the full significance of everything that is written here.

We don't have time to go into all of that. But in Hebrews eight, the Apostle Paul is describing talking about this covenant for physical Israel, and He's talking about that is yet to happen.

He's explaining, also, the need for a New Covenant, which he also made, because it can be viewed in two ways. After those days, after those days for physical Israel will happen after those days of the time that we're living in. It's talking about the Millennium, after those days!

But for us, it's talking about Jesus Christ. In Heb. 10, Paul explains that 'after those days, after the days of Jesus Christ and His life and death, His sacrifice for our sins. That He is making this covenant now with us.

For all of those of us who are being sanctified, who have made a covenant with God through baptism. The promise is that he would put His Law, He says, "I will put My Law in their inward parts." Same terminology. He's talking about the same terminology of the inward parts and write it in their heart. For all of those of us who are being sanctified, who have made a covenant with God through baptism.

The promise is that he would put His Law, He says, "I will put My Law in their inward parts." Same terminology. He's talking about the same terminology of the inward parts and write it in their heart.

"…and I will be their God, and they shall be My people." That definitely does apply to us today!

He's talking about v 34, it gives us understanding of what this all means:

It says, "And they shall no more teach each man his neighbor, saying, know the Lord." So .this has to do with knowing God, knowing the Lord!

IF He puts His Laws in our inward parts, we will know the Lord! That's part of it. That's the first part of it. And the other aspect of this is it has to do with forgiveness.

It says, "For I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sins no more."

That's what we have, and that's explained in Heb. 10:14-17 speak about all of these things. You can read it on your own. And you can listen to some of the series on the website that have been made about the New Covenant, and the differences between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant.

This New Covenant where God is putting His Laws in our inward parts!

But going back to what we read in Psa. 51, David said, "You desire Truth in the inward part."

Here it says, "I will put My Law in their inward part." It's something very similar!

Psalm 119:151: You are near, O LORD, and all Your commandments… [His Law] …are Truth."

Those are equivalent; the Law of God and the Truth are basically the same.

David knew that; he knew that God desires truth in the inward parts! And there was this promise, as well, that God would put those Laws in our inward parts!

What else does the Bible tell us about these inward parts? It's amazing because when we get to a little bit of other things, we're going to see how much God knows about each and every one of us; how we're made, how we're designed.

He uses very specific language to describe the things that He wants to do in us, with us and for us, and especially for Himself because we are His creation.

We're going to see how science is just starting to begin to catch up to what God has known from the beginning, obviously, because He is the Master Designer.

Let's go to Job 38, because this is amazing! When we think about what this New Covenant is and putting His Laws in our inward parts, being inscribed in our hearts and everything that this means for us:

• for the process of conversion
• for our calling
• for the purpose that we have that God is giving us

It's something amazing! As we saw, it really is the key to knowing God, making that covenant with God, commitment to God. That is:

• the key to knowing God
• the key to forgiveness

as we read in v 34!

But what else does it say about the inward parts here in the Old Testament in Job?

This is part of the response that God gave to Job. when Job was exalting himself and giving all the credit to himself for everything good that he had done.

Then God answers him; Job 38:1 "Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind…"

But then it's talking about all of these other things. It's talking, then God starts asking Job all of these things to see whether Job knows Him! It's a lot of things about the knowledge of God, even just about the physical creation. Or where was he [Job], basically putting him in his place that he was not there, that he doesn't understand these things.

But one of the questions that God asked Job in v 36, and is talking about Himself. Obviously, a lot of these questions are rhetoric. We know it's not for Job to give an answer to God, it's really to put Job in his place! But that's what it says here.

Verse 36: "Who has put wisdom in the inward parts? Or Who has given understanding to the mind?"

Here I'm going to make a commercial for a couple of messages that were given by Michael Heiss The Biblical Heart where he explains very, very well what is that word in Hebrew 'lev' that is the heart, the mind, the God connection, basically everything that we are. So this message is kind of a companion to those messages, because those set the foundation for what the Biblical heart is.

This is very interesting in v 36 here, because God is asking the question to Job, "Who has put wisdom in the inward parts?…"

So, we learn something else about the inward parts. That God desires Truth, that He, as part of the New Covenant, is going to write His Law, put His Law in our inward parts!

Now we're learning something else. It says that He puts wisdom there!  It says, "Who has put wisdom in the inward parts? Or who has given understanding to the mind?"

When we think about this, how is it that wisdom is in the inward parts? It is very important, because there is some research, like I mentioned, that has been happening. And in fact, a new field that is developing is neurogastroenterology.

It's very interesting, because it has to do with neurons in the digestive tract. Gastroenterology, which means the process to digest our food, and that's what we're talking about, talking about the inward parts.

But "Who has put wisdom in the inward parts?…."

In one interview, and there's a lot of research, but one interview in particular that was very interesting. This interview was by Nicholas Weiler, and it's in a podcast title: From Our Neurons to Yours, by Stanford University. you can look it up online yourself and listen to the entire thing. I'm just going to read a couple of things from that interview.

This interview by Nicholas Weiler, he interviewed Julia Kaltzschmidt, a Wulshide Neurosciences Institute faculty scholar and an associate professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at Stanford Medicine.

I mean, this is one of the most brilliant minds that we can speak on this subject. We're going to read some of the excerpts of this interview, because there's some very interesting aspects that she mentions about the inward parts.

This is when, in a conversation relating to this thing, as to how even the gut has been coined the second brain, and the similarities between some of the cells in the gut and in the brain. In answering that question: What is this second brain that people speak of right now?

Julia says:

The second brain is really a network of nerve cells that line the gut, also called the gastrointestinal tract.  And this network is also called the enteric nervous system.

Enteric really means relating or occurring in the gut! And this neural network is so similar to our first brain that it's been coined the second brain!

Another part of this interview, jumping a little bit ahead in this, we're just going to point out a couple of things about the gut and what is it doing, and the amazing things in the connection between the gut and our mind.

When we think of the gut, and this is what the enteric nervous system does,  it controls digestion. There are enzymes that are released to digest food, controls the uptake of nutrients, and then muscle contractions and mechanical mixing.

But what it really doesn't do is generate a conscious thought process as we think of it. However, the one thing that it can do is that it can communicate between the gut and the brain, and actually vice versa, also from the brain to the gut.

So there are these nerves that run between the base of the brain and the gut. It's called the vagus nerve, and you can think of it as a street or maybe more as a highway because the signals are really fast. Then she continues on to this research:

The research efforts that are currently ongoing on in the field of the microbiome and the gut-brain axis are really important to try to understand how the microbiome or how the bacteria in our gut can influence our mind or our mood.

This is an example of how researching or understanding the enteric nervous system and the close associated microbiome are important for understanding and well-being of the mind.

And microbiome just means all of the bacteria in our gut, and there's good bacteria, and there's bad bacteria as well, but there's a balance, and God created it perfectly as we know. Now it has been severely damaged with all the chemicals and all the things that we're exposed to nowadays.

But it's amazing this research and what she's really saying of this. There's a connection, a direct connection between the mind and the gut! What is the relationship?

Another point to consider when talking about the cross-talk between the gut and brain is that gastrointestinal issues such as gastrointestinal dysfunction is very tightly associated with neurological diseases. So for example, Parkinson's disease or autism spectrum disorder, individuals with these diseases oftentimes have colonic dysmotility or constipation.

And in fact, when you think about Parkinson's disease, a lot of times constipation precedes the motor symptoms that occur in Parkinson's disease.  So there's clearly a very close correlation of gut dysfunction and neurological diseases.

When you think about language, she continues, when you're excited, this is saying butterflies in my stomach or you have a gut reaction to something, those things. The fact that actually the gut became integrated in our language describing decisions to me is really telling.

It's going to be very interesting to see how the gut influences our decisions.

This is so very interesting because this is one of the last things that Julia says in this interview:

With the generalized anxiety, there are thoughts that are actually something in the gut or the enteric nervous system or the signals that derive from there affect our mood.

So for example, I'd say yes, the enteric nervous system is able to influence our mind and our decisions.

This is very interesting. We've all felt it. We've all been hungry and get upset, get short with people. This is actually true. The gut has a lot to do with our feelings and our emotions!

Again, once again, reference to those messages by Michael Heiss about The Biblical Heart, because that concept of heart, the concept of 'lev' involves all three things: the mind. the heart and the gut—all three things!

Because these neurons, these same types of cells are found in all three:

• in the brain
• in the heart
• in the gut

But God already knew all of this, because He created us!

The research right now with the science is just catching up to this and understanding the relationships. And one of the things that was said in this interview and other interviews is that the gut, can actually sustain on its own, it has a mind of its own to carry out the digestive processes!

It's not necessarily conscious thoughts, but it can actually carry out digestion all of it on its own, give directions in a sequence and everything is programmed. It's an amazing thing!

It is amazing to see the emotions, the feelings that we feel them in our heart when we're nervous. That's what happens

• when we're excited
• when we can't wait for something
• when we have anxiety
• when we have tension

all of these are expressed in our gut!

There's a couple of examples and there's more, but we're just going to read a couple of examples in the Word of God, because this really is the Source of the Truth. The science is just catching up to it.

What it says in here in Habakkuk 3 and this is what the prophet Habakkuk is saying, talking about all of these problems and this destruction.

Habakkuk 3:14: "You pierced through the head of his warriors with his own shafts; they storm out as a whirlwind to scatter me; their rejoicing is to devour the meek secretly. You trod upon the sea with Your horses, through the foaming of mighty waters. I heard and my inward parts trembled; my lips quivered at the sound. Rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself that I should wait for the day of trouble; when he comes up against the people, that he invades" (vs 14-16).

This is interesting because it does say that, "…I heard and my inward parts trembled…" He was moved. This is one of the examples of how the Bible actually attests to all of these things. These gut reactions and feelings and emotions, butterflies; this is nothing new.

Obviously, this is part of how we were created. But let's go to Lamentations as another short example. This is talking about what is happening. This is very hard for Jeremiah when he wrote this:

Lamentations 2:10: "The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground and are silent; they throw dust upon their heads; they gird on sack-clothes. The virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground. My eyes fail with tears; my inward parts burn; my liver is poured on the ground for the destruction of the daughter of my people, because the children and the babies faint in the streets of the city" (vs 10-11).

These are not just allegories. This is not just figurative speech. This is the real emotions that he's feeling. That's what he's feeling. It's an actual feeling in the gut! That's what we feel a lot. This is very important because God wants all of this.

• He desires Truth in the inward parts
• He desires the Truth to be in us

We're going to talk a little bit about what that is. This is very, very important. It's very important for us to know and understand that God wants His Law in every part of ourselves! In the inward parts, in that secret chamber, in the midst of our body! That's the center of our body. That's why it's the center, that's why it's the cavity, and it's so important. Because it's tied to:

• our emotions
• our thoughts
• our feelings

That's why all three parts of 'lev': the brain, the heart, and the gut, is very important.

Acts 17—when Paul was talking to all the people right there in Greece; he was talking about The Unknown God, and then he starts to describe it:

Acts 17:24: "He is the God Who made the world and all things that are in it. Being the Lord of heaven and earth, He does not dwell in temples made by hands; nor is He served by the hands of men, as though He needs anything, for He gives to all life and breath and all things. And He made of one blood all the nations of men to dwell upon all the face of the earth, having determined beforehand their appointed times and the boundaries of their dwelling; in order that they might seek the Lord, if perhaps they might feel after Him and might find Him; though truly, He is not far from each one of us, for in Him we live and move and have our being; as some of the poets among you also have said, 'For we are His offspring'" (vs 24-28).

What Paul is explaining here is that God made us. He made us with a purpose. He wants us to feel after Him! That our belief and our understanding is not just an intellectual thing. He didn't say to love God only with all the mind. He says with all our heart, with all our soul! The center of our soul, the center of our physical being, is that gut! That's

• what the feelings and emotions are
• where they reside
• where we feel them
• who we are

It's not just an intellectual process of just getting to know His laws and commandments and memorize them and recite them. It's that they would be actually:

• part of us
• part of who we are
• part of how we react

We've seen a little bit of the research between the connection of the gut and the mind. God knows all of this. This doesn't take Him by surprise.

Like the philosophers, no one understands certain parts of what they say, as some of the poets, as well, have said.

We are His offspring, understanding that there is a Higher Being. Understanding that there is God Who made us. God wants Truth in the inward parts! In the inward parts, He will make us to know wisdom! That's what He wants.

How does He know that? He wants for us to feel after Him! To not only think about Him. To not only memorize and try. NO! But to direct ourselves to Him! To reach out from the heart with our emotion, but not just with emotion only—as many people do with mainstream Christianity—it's not just about an emotion. It has to be in Truth! It has to be that Truth: all His laws, His commandments.

But we are to feel after Him. We are to feel with every fiber of our being, with the center of our bodies.

• with who we are
• how we think
• what we feel

It's

• what we feel
• what we think
• what we know

It's everything!

That's how God wants us to love Him. That's what God wants to do with us. He has a method of knowing this. He built this into every human being so that we would all know what He has written in His Word, and that we know that He is watching us. He is looking for those who are seeking Him! How does He do this?

Proverbs 20:27: "The spirit of man is the lamp of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly."

How much more specific can He get than that? Telling us, 'You have a spirit in man. I have given eternity on your heart.'

He placed eternity on our hearts. We read that in Ecclesiastes. He's done that. How does He know what is in us? He has put the spirit of man as the lamp of the Lord! He uses the lamp to see what's in our belly. He sees what is in our core; in our feelings and emotions.

Do we just come to God intellectually? It's not just about how much we know! We know knowledge puffs up; but love edifies. It's about:

• How do we conduct ourselves?
• Who are we?
• How do we do things?

That is an amazing thing when we think about it! That is what God has told Israel even from the beginning in Deut. 8. He says this. He specifically, He's not trying to hide it from anybody. He's very upfront with people in:

• how He tests people
• how He searches the hearts of men
• how He searches the inward parts of the belly
• how He searches

Why!

Deuteronomy 8:2—Moses speaking: And you shall remember all the way, which the LORD your God led you these forty years in the wilderness in order to humble you, to prove you, to know what is in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not."

• we come back to the commandments
• we come back to the Law
• we come back to the Truth in the inward parts

That's what He's talking about.  But how will He know?

Verse 3: "And He humbled you and allowed you to hunger, and then He fed you with manna, which you did not know, neither did your fathers know it, so that He might make you know that man does not live by bread alone; but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD does man live."

To know and understand what was in your heart!

That's what God wants to know. He decides Truth in the inward part. How much Truth do we have:

• in our inward part?
• in our emotions?
• in our feelings?

In addition to what He's teaching us through His Word and knowledge!

Do we let His Word really sink deep into our being?  Into our soul? Which is:

• a physical life
• a physical being

as we are!

This is what God wants! He wants that to be in us. He desires Truth in the inward part.

We're just going to read another couple scriptures to conclude. I'll leave you with these thoughts to meditate upon.

This is a very strong connection between the truth in the inward parts. We know the Truth is the Law:

• the commandments
• the New Covenant

It's feeling after God, and the connection of our feelings and emotions to our thoughts!

John 14:14: "If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. If you love Me, keep the commandments—namely, My commandments" (vs 14-15).

God is the same yesterday, today and forever! That's what He said, and that's what He wants! David knew that. 'You decide truth in the inward parts.' He promised it in Jeremiah. That's what it is. Then this is the way that Jesus, is making it happen:

Verse 16: "And I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter… [the Holy Spirit] …that it may be with you throughout the age: Even the Spirit of the Truth…" (vs 16-17).

That is the Truth in the inward parts. The Holy Spirit of God, together with:

• the commandments of God
• the promise that He made
• His forgiveness
• knowing God

All of these things come together!

"…which the world cannot receive because it perceives it not, nor knows it, but you know it because it dwells with you, and shall be within you" (v 17).

The Holy Spirit was with them. And He says, and it shall be within you! Which we know in Acts. That's when it was poured out.

Verse 18: "I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you."

Verse 6, Jesus said to him, 'I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life."

So. everything connects. He is the Truth. He is that Truth! is Holy Spirit is His very own power through which He lives in us. That's what He desires: that Truth!

• His commandments
• His laws
• His way of being
• His very own nature

In our inward parts, and in our mind. That's why He inscribes them in our hearts:

• so that all are connected
• so that we can grow in grace and knowledge.
• so we can truly do what He said in John 15.

John 15:4: "Dwell in Me, and I in you…."

How can we dwell in Him? Only if we repent on our Baptists and have the Holy Spirit and we come to Him!

• we develop this relationship with Him.
• we're growing knowing grace, knowledge and understanding

He lives in us, in our body through the Holy Spirit!

Verse 4: "Dwell in Me, and I in you…."

We dwell in Him because He's the Spirit in us; He dwells in us because He's the Spirit in us. in the inward parts—Truth in the inward parts!

"…As a branch cannot bear fruit of itself, but only if it remains in the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you are dwelling in Me" (v 4).

It is an impossibility to be good, truly good, apart from God. He has to give the growth. He has to give the understanding. But that's what He wants!

Verse 5: "I am the vine, and you are the branches. The one who is dwelling in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; because apart from Me you can do nothing."

Nothing! And it's literally nothing!

• nothing of value
• nothing worthy
• nothing lasting

Verse 9: "As the Father has loved Me, I also have loved you; live in My love."

The love of God is that we keep His commandments!

Verse 10: "If you keep My commandments, you shall live in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and live in His love…. [this is the purpose of it all]: These things I have spoken to you, in order that My joy may dwell in you, and that your joy may be full" (vs 10-11).

• that we would feel it in the inward parts
• that we would have truth in the inward part
• that we would have:
  • His Spirit
  • His laws
  • His commandments

Everything about God dwelling in us, because that's what we were made for!

Scriptural References:

• Psalm 51:6
• Jeremiah 31:31-34
• Psalm 119:151
• Job 38:1, 36
• Habakkuk 3:14-16
• Lamentations 2:10-11
• Acts 17:24-28
• Proverbs 20:27
• Deuteronomy 8:2-3
• John 14:14-18, 6
• John 15:4-5, 9-11

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

• Hebrews 8
• Hebrews 10:14-17

Also referenced:

• Message: The Biblical Heart by Michael Heiss
• Podcast: From Our Neurons to Yours, by Stanford University

EE:bo
Transcribed: 8/14/23

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