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If God Knows Our Hearts, Why Does He Test Us? · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: Well, why doesn't God know what's in my heart? That's
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  Speaker 1: the question today, because pastor John, there's a trio of
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  Speaker 1: texts in the Old Testament that seemed to raise his
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  Speaker 1: very question. In Deuteronomy eight two, Moses writes that God
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  Speaker 1: led the Israelites through the wilderness quote to humble and
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  Speaker 1: test you in order to know what was in your heart,
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  Speaker 1: whether or not you would keep his commandments. In quote. Likewise,
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  Speaker 1: Deuteronomy thirteen three says God is testing you to find
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  Speaker 1: out whether you love him with all your heart and
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  Speaker 1: with all your soul. Also perplexing, Second Chronicles thirty two
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  Speaker 1: thirty one says God left Hezekiah to be tested to
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  Speaker 1: know everything that was in his heart. These three texts
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  Speaker 1: and others seem to present a fundamental contradiction. How can
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  Speaker 1: an omniscient God who knows everything need to test in
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  Speaker 1: order to find find out what's inside someone's heart. Doesn't
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  Speaker 1: he already know what's inside of us to begin with?
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  Speaker 2: So Second Chronicles thirty two, God tested Hezekiah to know
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  Speaker 2: all that was in his heart. Deuteronomy eight two. God
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  Speaker 2: tested Israel in the wilderness to know what was in
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  Speaker 2: your heart. Deuteronomy thirteen three God grants a false prophet
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  Speaker 2: to succeed in foretelling the future. To know whether you
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  Speaker 2: love the Lord your God, Judges three verse four. God
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  Speaker 2: leaves some pagan nations in the promised land of Israel
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  Speaker 2: to know whether Israel would obey. In other words, God
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  Speaker 2: tested them in all these situations to bring out of
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  Speaker 2: their hearts, words, behaviors that God could see in actually
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  Speaker 2: lived out reality and know. And the question is how
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  Speaker 2: do those passages fit together with these First Chronicles twenty
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  Speaker 2: eight nine. The Lord searches all hearts and understands every
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  Speaker 2: plan and thought. First Kings eight thirty nine, Render to each, O, Lord,
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  Speaker 2: whose heart you know according to all his ways? For
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  Speaker 2: you you only know the hearts of all the children
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  Speaker 2: of mankind. Jeremiah seventeen ten. I the Lord search the
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  Speaker 2: heart and test the mind, to give every man according
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  Speaker 2: to his ways. John two twenty five. Jesus needed no
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  Speaker 2: one to bear witness about man, for he knew himself
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  Speaker 2: what was in man. Acts one twenty four. They prayed
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  Speaker 2: and said, O, Lord, who know knowh the hearts of all,
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  Speaker 2: Show which of these two you have chosen to be
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  Speaker 2: judas replacement? In fact in John thirteen nineteen. Jesus makes
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  Speaker 2: clear that his ability to see what is in Judas's
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  Speaker 2: heart and to know what he would do in betraying
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  Speaker 2: Jesus before he did it, was an evidence of his divinity.
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  Speaker 2: This is a big deal. Fore, knowledge is a big deals,
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  Speaker 2: not marginal. This is part of what makes God God.
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  Speaker 2: Jesus is saying, I am telling you this. This is
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  Speaker 2: John thirteen nineteen. I am telling you this now before
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  Speaker 2: it takes place, that when it does take place, you
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  Speaker 2: may believe that I am That's a reference I believe
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  Speaker 2: to that Old Testament divine name. I am who I am.
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  Speaker 2: I am showing you right now now by my sight
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  Speaker 2: into Judas's heart and mind before he does it, that
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  Speaker 2: I am God. What makes this question about all these
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  Speaker 2: passages and how they fit together important is not only
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  Speaker 2: so that we can see the consistency of biblical truth,
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  Speaker 2: but also because there are some theologians who have constructed
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  Speaker 2: an entire theology around the claim that God cannot know
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  Speaker 2: with certainty what the human heart will decide at any
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  Speaker 2: given future moment. Yes, that's true. There are theologists who
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  Speaker 2: teach whole systems like that. One of the names given
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  Speaker 2: to this theology is open theism, implying that the future
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  Speaker 2: is open to the mind of God, meaning he does
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  Speaker 2: not know with exhaustive certainty what is going to happen,
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  Speaker 2: either this afternoon or one hundred years from now. Well,
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  Speaker 2: this is a profoundly different view, I believe, destructive view
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  Speaker 2: than the Christian Church has held for two thousand years.
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  Speaker 2: So the question is important both to see the consistency
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  Speaker 2: of scripture and to protect the Church from this kind
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  Speaker 2: of serious error. I think the solution to this apparent
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  Speaker 2: contradiction lies in the fact that we often speak of
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  Speaker 2: knowing something in more than one way. A wife may
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  Speaker 2: say that she knows her husband loves her. Then when
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  Speaker 2: he outwardly and practically expresses that love and does some
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  Speaker 2: amazing sacrificial thing for her, she may say, now I
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  Speaker 2: know your love in a whole new way. There are
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  Speaker 2: different kinds of knowing. The Bible uses the word no
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  Speaker 2: for sexual intercourse. Adam knew his wife and she conceived,
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  Speaker 2: and for choosing and approving you only have I known
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  Speaker 2: of all the peoples on the earth, and so on.
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  Speaker 2: It's not surprising that God intends to know his people
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  Speaker 2: in more than one way. Here's a biblical illustration of
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  Speaker 2: Jesus putting Peter to the test about what's in his
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  Speaker 2: heart when he actually knows what's in his heart. So
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  Speaker 2: John twenty one fifteen to seventeen, Jesus said to Simon Simon,
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  Speaker 2: son of John, do you love me more than these?
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  Speaker 2: He said, yes, Lord, you know that I love you.
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  Speaker 2: He said to him, feed my lambs. He said to
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  Speaker 2: him a second time, Simon's son of John, do you
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  Speaker 2: love me? He said to him, yes, Lord, you know
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  Speaker 2: that I'll love you. He said to him, tend my sheep.
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  Speaker 2: He said to him a third time, Simon, son of John,
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  Speaker 2: do you love me. Peter was grieved because he said
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  Speaker 2: to him a third time do you love me? And
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  Speaker 2: he said to him, Lord, you know everything. You know
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  Speaker 2: that I love you. And Jesus said to him, feed
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  Speaker 2: my sheep. Now, there is no reason to think Peter
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  Speaker 2: was mistaken when he said that Jesus knew what was
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  Speaker 2: in his heart before he expressed it or acted on it.
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  Speaker 2: Jesus did not correct him when he said you know everything,
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  Speaker 2: which means there is a kind of knowing that Jesus
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  Speaker 2: and God have of what is in us and what
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  Speaker 2: will produce words and actions and similar to the wife
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  Speaker 2: who sees the love of her husband in action, God
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  Speaker 2: too delights to know the actualizing of what he knows
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  Speaker 2: is in us. So he knows it's in us, and
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  Speaker 2: he intends to know it another way, namely in actualization.
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  Speaker 2: God wants to see the lived out reality of what
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  Speaker 2: he knows is in us, two different kinds of knowing,
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  Speaker 2: and he tests us to bring out the second kind
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  Speaker 2: of knowing, one more pointer of God's different kinds of knowing.
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  Speaker 2: Some one verse six says the Lord knows the way
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  Speaker 2: of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
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  Speaker 2: So there's a kind of knowledge that God has of
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  Speaker 2: the path of the righteous, which he does not have
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  Speaker 2: of the path of the wicked. The Lord knows the
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  Speaker 2: way of the righteous, the way the wicked will perish.
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  Speaker 2: This is the knowledge of approval, the knowledge of delight, choice, embrace.
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  Speaker 2: So if the Bible can portray God as not knowing
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  Speaker 2: the way of the wicked, which stands right there in
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  Speaker 2: front of him, not in their hearts, in their way,
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  Speaker 2: then we shouldn't be surprised that the Bible can also
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  Speaker 2: portray God as not knowing what is in man's heart,
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  Speaker 2: not at all meaning he's unaware of it, but it
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  Speaker 2: hasn't yet been actualized into the practical path of action
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  Speaker 2: that God knows differently than when it's only in his heart.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, Scott always knows what's hidden inside of our heart
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  Speaker 1: in his omniscience, but he sometimes tests us not to
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  Speaker 1: discover new information about us, but to bring those hidden
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  Speaker 1: realities into lived expression, so that what he already knows
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  Speaker 1: inwardly is revealed outwardly and relationally in time that is
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  Speaker 1: very carefully put. Pastor John. Thank you. If you have
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  Speaker 1: a great Bible question to ask. Pastor John, find a
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  Speaker 1: link to email us and find our complete episode archive
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  Speaker 1: at the same place Askpastor John dot com. I don't
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  Speaker 1: know about you and your life, but right now mine
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  Speaker 1: is full of couples who are struggling with miscarriages or
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  Speaker 1: infertility like I've never seen before, as a heavy burden
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  Speaker 1: to walk through, and yet we find hope in scripture
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  Speaker 1: for such sorrowing couples' So next time, I'm Tony Rinky.
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  Speaker 1: Will see you on Monday