Eradicating the Sins of the Flesh vs. Eradicating the Sins Which Dwell in Our
Hearts
Author Dawn Wilson
www.dawnwilsonministries.org
In 2 Kings 10: 18-28 King Jehu of Israel makes and executes a plan to eradicate the worship
of baal from the land of Israel.
2 Kings 10: 27-28 They also broke down the sacred pillar of Baal and broke down the house
of Baal, and made it a latrine to this day. 28 Thus Jehu eradicated Baal out of Israel.
Jehu eradicated the worship of baal but he did not eradicate the worship of the golden calves
set up by Jeroboam.
2 Kings 10: 29 However, as for the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel
sin, from these Jehu did not depart, even the golden calves that were at Bethel and that were
at Dan.
2 Kings 10: 31 But Jehu was not careful to walk in the law of the LORD, the God of Israel,
with all his heart; he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam, which he made Israel sin.
King Jehu did not depart from the golden calves that were at Bethel and at Dan. Jehu was
not careful to walk in the law of the Lord with all his heart, because his heart was
compromised he did not depart from the sins of Jeoboam.
Jehu had eradicated baal worship---the flesh-- but because his heart was not fully given to
God he tolerated the sin of TRADITION and the sin of RELIGION. Jehu's heart was
compromised. His heart was not wholly given to God.
We must eradicte not only the sins of the flesh from our lives but we must go further. We must
go further than Jehu and eradicate every comprimomise of our hearts.
God asked me these questions about a compromised heart.
“What sin are we compromising with?”
“What sins are we putting up with to not rock the boat?”
“What sins are we closing our eyes to and refusing to speak to?”
“Whose heart are we refusing to speak the Word of God to and call to repentance?”
“What sins have we become familiar with and do not stand against anymore?”
God wants to own our hearts wholly. He wants our hearts to be totally His. If God does not
wholly own our hearts we make compromises as Jehu did to the traditions of man and to the
unclean spirit of religion. God wants to purge our hearts and make them wholly His.
Often we do not see change in people’s lives as we minister to them because we are dealing
with the flesh and it is not a flesh issue but an issue of their heart. God is directing us to deal
with what is in their hearts. Flesh is the actions seen on the outside. The heart is the
motivation for all their actions. We must cease dealing with only the seen -the flesh- and
begin to deal with the heart - the motivation for all actions.
People will allow you to deal with their flesh. They ofter become angry and offended when
you begin to deal with their heart. We have been trained to hide our hearts/ to hide the
secrets of our hearts from one another. God wants to expose these secrets of our hearts and
purge them from us. We must not resist Him or the messenger He is using to accomplish this
work.
Scripture clearly tells us that God does not look on the flesh. Scripture tells us God looks on
our hearts. God sees what is in the heart of a man. Yet, we deal continually with the
flesh and do not deal with the heart of man. We must begin to deal with the heart of man and
not the outward sins of the flesh which are a manifestation of what is in the heart. Let us deal
with the source - the heart.
1 Samuel 16: 17 But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not look at his appearance or at the
height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man
looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."
This is what scripture says about what God sees in our hearts.
Matt 15:18-19 "But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those
defile the man. 19 "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications,
thefts, false witness, slanders.
Mark 7: 21-23 "For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts,
fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, 22 deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as
deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. 23 "All these evil things proceed
from within and defile the man."
We eradicate the works of the flesh from our lives but we do not eradicate the sins that dwell
in our hearts.
God spoke to me that we willing to eradicate the flesh---which are our actions and deeds that
are seen before man. We are not so willing to eradicate the secret sins that God alone sees
which are the sins of our heart and of our spirit man.
God wants us to not only allow Him to purify and purge our flesh but He also desires to purge
and purify our hearts.
We allow our flesh to be dealt with and eradicated by God because we are all appearance
conscience. We allow our sins of the flesh to be dealt with because we possess the desire to
not have our sins exposed to man. We do want what is seen to be removed from our lives.
The sins of the heart are the secret sins that God alone sees. Because they are secret, not
seen by man, we are do not give the same concern or attention to dealing with them. God
wants to begin to deal with the secret sins of our hearts as well as those of our flesh.
In 2 Kings 12 we read of that this problem of compromise and not dealing with the traditions
and religion was not only in the house of Israel but it was also in the house of Judah. Jehoash
did not remove the high places of worship—the people still sacrificed and burned incense on
the high places.
In 2 Chronicles 24 the story of Jehoash King of Judah continues.
2 Chronicles 24: 17-18 But after the death of Jehoiada the officials of Judah came and
bowed down to the king, and the king listened to them. 18. They abandoned the house of the
LORD, the God of their fathers, and served the Asherim and the idols; so wrath came upon
Judah and Jerusalem for this their guilt.
Jehoash did not serve God from His heart—his heart was not fully God’s. When Jehoiada
who instructed him in the way of the Lord died Jehoash turned from serving the Lord. He
outwardly served the Lord while Jehoiada lived. Jehoash's heart had never been given wholly
given to God.
God sent prophets and the son of Jehoiada to Jehoash to deal with his heart.
2 Chronicles 24: 19-21 Yet He sent prophets to them to bring them back to the LORD;
though they testified against them, they would not listen. 20 Then the Spirit of God came on
Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest; and he stood above the people and said to them,
"Thus God has said, 'Why do you transgress the commandments of the LORD and do not
prosper? Because you have forsaken the LORD, He has also forsaken you.'" 21 So they
conspired against him and at the command of the king they stoned him to death in the court of
the house of the LORD.
Jehoash was not willing to be dealt with by God in the sins of his heart. When God's
messanger came to deal with the sins of his heart he had the messenger of God, the son of
Jehoiada, killed in the court of the house of the Lord.
It will not make you popular to deal with the heart of man.
God is saying to us that we can not eradicate only the flesh. We must go after the secret sins
of our hearts. We must go after the secret sins of the heart as we minister to others.
Do we think these secret sins of the heart do not matter to God?
Luke 16: 10 "He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is
unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much.
If you are unrighteous in any area of your heart you are unrighteous in very much!!!
Luke 16: 15 And He said to them, "You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men,
but God knows your hearts; for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the
sight of God.
Justifying ourselves in the sight of man is us eradicating only our flesh— it is eradicating only
what can be seen. This dealing with the flesh in highly esteemed in the eyes of man and
called good by the church BUT God says dealing only with the flesh is detestable in His sight.
God says he knows our heats!!! God wants to deal with our hearts and remove the sin/
remove the secret unseen sin that is hidden with in our hearts.
I will give one more example from scripture. In this scripture we will see one who eradicated
his flesh and thought he was justified before God. We will see another who dealt with the
secret sin of his heart and was truly justified by God.
Luke 18:10-12 "Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a
tax collector. 11 "The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: 'God, I thank You that I
am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 'I fast
twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.'
The Pharisee stood praying and told God how great he was because he had eradicated the
deeds of his flesh and had kept religious traditions.
This pharisee thought that he had made himself look good to God because of his outward
works/because of the eradication of his flesh. The Pharisee thought that he was justified
before God because he had eradicated the deeds of the flesh.
Luke 18: 13 "But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up
his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, the sinner!'
This tax-gatherer knew that he was a sinner. He was dealing with what was in hisheart as he
cried out to the Lord. He was allowing God deal with what God saw in his heart.
Luke 18: 14 I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone
who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted."
The tax-gatherer who allowed God to deal with his heart was justified before God. The
Pharisee who brought before God his eradication of his flesh was not justified. I believe this
holding up of his flesh was detestable to God.
The tax-gatherer cried out for God to be merciful to him. The Greek word for merciful is
“hilaskomai” and means be propitiated or reconciled through the atoning blood on the mercy
seat.
The Noah Websters Dictionary of 1828 defines propitiation as “the act or appeasement of
wrath!!!” The tax-gatherer cried out for the mercy of God—he cried out for God’s wrath to be
removed from him and we know from verse 14 he received what he asked for from God. He
went down justified!!!
The tax-gatherer came to God willing for his heart to be dealt with and he was justified by
God. God’s wrath was appeased.
God is calling to us to let Him come in and deal with our hearts. He knows we have allowed
the eradication of our flesh. He now wants to eradicate from us what He sees in our hearts.
He wants to come in and purge/ purify our hearts.
We must be as King David - ask the Lord to create in us a clean heart and renew a right spirit
with in us. We must ask the Lord to remove from us any and all evil or wicked ways - not only
in our flesh but in our hearts.
Psalm 51: 10 (KJV) Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within
me. renew a right spirit within me.
Psalm 139: 23-24 Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious
thoughts; 24 And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.
Psalm 24: 3-4 Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? And who may stand in His holy
place? 4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to
falsehood And has not sworn deceitfully.
Matt 5:8 "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Author: Dawn Wilson
Please Be Advised that all sermons and writing by Dawn Wilson of Dawn Wilson
Ministry is protected under the U.S. Government Copy Right Laws.