DWDP - Gen 6; 5-6, Can God Repent?

A single line in Genesis 6 says the thoughts of the human heart were only evil continually—and that God was grieved. From that stark diagnosis, we open a candid journey through divine sorrow, human responsibility, and the fierce mercy that waits before judgment falls. We look at why Scripture sometimes says God “repents,” how that language reflects our change rather than His, and why that matters for anyone trying to live clean in a culture that normalizes compromise.

We walk through Noah’s world where patience stretched for years while an ark rose as a sermon in wood. That delay was not permissiveness; it was invitation. Drawing on Peter’s letters, we connect past and future: a flood that once cleansed, and a coming fire that will unveil what endures. The thread stays practical. Evil deeds begin as tolerated thoughts, so we talk about passing sentence quickly on what creeps into the imagination. Borrowing from the operating room, we treat sin like a tumor—addressed early, completely, and without negotiation.

To make that daily, we lean on two prayers that train the heart. Psalm 19 asks God to keep us from presumptuous sins and make our words and meditations acceptable. Psalm 139 invites God to search and expose hurtful ways. Used with honesty, those prayers become a rhythm of confession and repentance that clears the fog and restores joy. The goal isn’t grim perfectionism; it’s freedom under a holy God whose character does not shift, even as our choices shift our experience of Him. Along the way, we challenge each other with simple, probing questions: Are we grieving the heart of God, or preaching righteousness like Noah? Are we waiting for a better moment, or taking the one we have?

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Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Scripture Reading
• 0:46 Humanity’s Descent Into Evil
• 3:42 Can God Repent
• 6:01 Justice Meets Longsuffering
• 7:21 From Thoughts To Deeds
• 9:26 Ruthless Surgery On Sin
• 11:06 Prayers For Heart Examination
• 12:34 Are We Grieving God Today
• 13:40 God’s Patience And Coming Judgment
• 15:10 Live Spotless And Watchful
• 16:20 Closing And Listener Invitation

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Welcome to More Than Medicine, where Jesus is more than enough for the ills that plague our culture and our country. Hosted by author and physician, Dr. Robert Jackson.

Speaker 2: 0:16

Papa, can you tell me a story? Do you really want me to tell you a story? Well, you go get your brother and your sisters, and I will tell you a story. Welcome to Devotions with Dr. Papa. Gather around, grab your Bibles, and let's look into the written word, which reveals to us the living word who is our Lord Jesus Christ. Today we're at Genesis chapter six verses five through six. Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Then the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and he was grieved in his heart. Now sixteen hundred plus years have elapsed since Adam's original sin and the pronouncement of the curse on mankind. Every single child born since Adam and Eve's children have inherited a sin nature from their parents, and both Cain's lineage and Seth's lineage are infected with this sin nature. As time elapses, both lines become more corrupted, and now there are Nephilim, the giants who are living on the earth, and these are dem demon controlled giants in the earth, who specialize in violence and corruption. Who knows what the population was since most people lived to be eight or nine hundred years old and could bear children up to five hundred years of age as Noah did? Can you imagine knowing your five hundred year old grandpa and him having three more sons at five hundred years of age? Could you imagine most people who were alive at that time? Or even today, could you imagine knowing the people who were alive at the time of Jesus Christ still being alive today? That's what it was like in the day of Noah. That's the way it was in Noah's day. There were probably seven or eight billion people on planet Earth at that time by some theologians' estimates. God made man in his own image to glorify him and worship him and love him. And yet the Bible tells us that at this time every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. What a sad commentary. Do you know people like that today? Were you once like that yourself? Were you that kind of person before the grace of God saved you? Man was commanded to multiply and fill the earth with godly offspring, but now the earth was filled with violence. So Noah describes the Lord as being sorry. In fact, the King James Version says he repented himself that he had made man on the earth, and he was grieved in his heart. Now let's talk about this for a minute. Can God really repent? Repent means to change your mind. For you and me, it means to turn our back on sin and to go in the opposite direction. Obviously God doesn't sin. His eyes are too pure to even look upon iniquity. He is holy and righteous and true. More than that, first Samuel fifteen twenty nine tells us that God is not a man that he should repent. Nevertheless, in Scripture, God seems to change his mind towards men on occasion. In other words, it seems that he repents. Now why is that? You see, it's because sinful man changes his mind towards holy God. In that first Samuel passage God says in the King James Version that it repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments. That's in verse eleven in first Samuel chapter fifteen. Well let me ask you a question, who changed? Was it God or was it Saul? Well, it's obvious that it was Saul and not God who is God is the same yesterday, today and forever. It is exactly because God does not repent or change his mind that he seems to repent or change when man is the one who actually changes his mind towards God as Saul did. God's attitude towards man is conditional, and is conditioned by man's attitude towards him. There are multiple facets of God's character that are on display in Genesis chapter six. We have discussed his long suffering and his patience that Peter questions in his epistle when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah during the construction of the Ark Peter chapter three and verse twenty. But also we see his justice on display. God's holiness was offended to a breaking point after sixteen hundred years of corruption and violence. The justice steps in, and the righteous judge of all the heavens and the earth, who always does right said enough. Grieved in his heart, he determined to terminate man's boundless wickedness. Man's outward wickedness had become great in the earth, because his inward imagination had become completely evil and always evil. Ecclesiastes tells us that because the sentence against an evil deed was not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men among them were given over fully to doing evil. That is just as true in our day as it was in Noah's day. It is true collectively in gang violence in our large cities today as it is true in your and my private lives. We cannot allow the evil intentions of our hearts to go unchecked. We must pass sentence against evil thoughts quickly, before they become evil deeds. That's why Jesus taught that all evil deeds originate in the heart. He told the Pharisees to cleanse the inside of the cup, and the outside would be clean also, because all adultery, stealing, murder originate within the heart. We must deal with sin in our hearts in the same way that the cancer doctor deals with cancer in our internal organs, and he does so quickly and ruthlessly. He immediately recommends surgical excision before that cancer spreads and takes your life. And then you say, But doctor, don't you think that's a little extreme to take off my entire breast or to take out my entire prostate or fifty percent of my colon? Cancer surgeons seem to be ruthless and extreme in their attempts to rid your body of all cancer. So should you and I be in our attempts to extract the to extract the sentence against an evil deed or an evil thought in our heart, which left unchecked will cause us to be given over fully to doing evil like those in Noah's day. We don't have a surgeon's scalpel, but we have spiritual techniques called confession and repentance, which should be a regular routine part of our daily devotional life. You know, the psalmist said in Psalms nineteen, in verse thirteen and fourteen, read what the what the Psalmist said in verse thirteen and fourteen of Psalm nineteen. He said also keep back your servant from presumptuous sins. Let them not rule over me, then I will be blameless, and I shall be acquitted of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord my rock and my redeemer. And then we go over to Psalms one hundred thirty nine, verse twenty three and twenty four, when he says, Search me, O God, and know my heart, try me and know my anxious thoughts, and see if there be any hurtful way in me. Is there any cancerous thoughts in my heart, and lead me in the everlasting way? That should be a part of our prayer life every day where we turn the searchlight of God's word onto our hearts and we search out any sinful way, any hurtful way that's in our heart that could lead us to spiritual ruin. Our spiritual excision of sin must be as urgent and ruthless as the surgeon's excision of the cancerous portion of your colon or your liver. Confess your sin and repent of it and cast it far from you. Just as cancer will drag you down into the grave, unconfessed sin will drag you down into the depths of hell. Understand clearly that your sin and my sin today grieves the great heart of God today just as surely as it did in Noah's day. The question is, does your unconfessed ongoing sin cause the great heart of God to grieve today as He did in Noah's day? Do you recall seeing the disappointment in your parents' eyes when they caught you disobeying them one more time? Do you recall your disappointment as a parent at your children's disobedience after many warnings? Can you even imagine the grief in the heart of God over our evil generation? Does he repent himself that he made man upon the earth today? Do you contribute to that grief in the heart of holy God? Or are you a preacher of righteousness, calling others to repent and turn away from sin and run into the arms of a loving, heavenly Father? Peter tells us in first Peter chapter three and verse nine, listen to what Peter said. He says The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance. You see, God was patient in Noah's day. For a hundred years he let Noah, the preacher of righteousness, call people to repentance while he was building that ark. And now today God is patient with our generation as we live in the midst of a wicked and perverse generation. And the question is, are you and I contributing to the wickedness of today? Are we contributing to the grief in the great heart of God? Or are you a preacher of righteousness like Noah, calling people to repentance? Are you practicing repentance in your own heart? God's patience ran out with the entire antideluvian generation. And he cleansed their world with a universal flood. Peter tells us in verse ten, listen to what he said in verse ten, immediately the next verse he said, But the day of the Lord will come like a thief in which the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. There's not going to be another flood, brothers and sisters. The next judgment's going to be a fiery intense heat that burns up this earth with a fervent fire, a fervent heat, and it's not going to be the same as in Noah's day. Can you even imagine the grief that's in the great heart of God over our evil generation? Do you think he repents himself that he made man upon the earth? Well, there is a day of judgment that is coming to planet Earth at some future time when God's patient once again expires. On that day of visitation will God find you living in disobedience and riotous living, or will he find you clothed in snow white robes of righteousness and eagerly anticipating his arrival? In Second Peter chapter three, verses thirteen to fifteen, the Bible tells us but according to his promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation. God is patient, but his patience ran out the first time. His patience will run out a second time. And the question is, is how will he find you and me on that great day of judgment? Well, you're listening to devotions with Dr. Papa. If you like what you hear, I pray that you will follow, like, or share, tell your friends about it, even download it. And until next week, remember that your doctor loves you, and may the Lord bless you real good.

Speaker: 16:34

Thank you for listening to this edition of Northern Medicine. For more information about the Jackson Family Ministry or to schedule a speaking engagement, go to their Facebook page, Instagram, or web page at Jackson Family Ministry dot com.