More Than Medicine
More Than Medicine
DWDP - Gen 3;3 My Spirit shall not strive with man forever
What if the most sobering line in Genesis isn’t about giants or an ark, but about a God who finally stops striving with a hardened people? We open Genesis 6:3 and sit with the text until it searches us—Spirit versus flesh, patience versus presumption, and the long runway of mercy that ran out in the days of Noah. Along the way, we trace how theologians read the 120 years, why Paul’s words in Galatians 5 throw a spotlight on our daily choices, and how a very human story of rebuke and repentance can turn a life back toward holiness.
You’ll hear about preachers of righteousness—Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, and Noah—and why their faithful voices mattered even when no crowd followed. We talk candidly about a construction-site moment with a coworker named Birch whose plain-spoken honesty pierced religious habit and ignited real repentance. That encounter becomes a living picture of how the Holy Spirit still strives with people today: through ordinary believers who tell the truth in love, trust God with the outcome, and refuse to measure success by applause.
We also lean into the first mission field most of us are given: our own homes. Psalm 78 frames generational discipleship as a clear command—tell the next generation the works of God so they set their hope in Him. That means better stories than the screen, Scripture around the table, and personal testimonies that kids remember for decades. If the world feels flood-ready, take heart: God’s patience is real, His Spirit still convicts, and faithfulness at home is not second-tier—it’s strategic.
Listen for practical takeaways on walking by the Spirit, speaking truth with courage, and building a legacy that outlives you. If this resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review so others can find these conversations. Your story might be the word someone else needs today.
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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: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 round, grab your Bibles, and let's look into the written word, which reveals to us the living word who is our Lord Jesus Christ. Well today our Bible teaching brings us to Genesis chapter six verses three through four. So let's read Genesis six verse three. Then the Lord said My spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh. Nevertheless, his days shall be one hundred and twenty years. The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. Well, mostly we're going to stick with verse three today. The first phrase my spirit shall not strive with man forever. Now there's difficulty with the interpretation of this verse. Does spirit mean God's Holy Spirit or the spirit he breathed into man's body generally? Does he mean mankind generally or Adam specifically? Because that word man there also means Adam. Because Adam was possibly still alive when these words were spoken, and some theologians believe that it was these words were spoken in the days of Enoch. Next question Did a hundred and twenty years mean man's future longevity on or the remaining years of Adam's life? Or did it mean the remaining years until the flood? So do you see the confusion there? Well, the most natural interpretation favored by most theologians is that God's spirit, in his ministry of convicting the world of sin and righteousness and judgment, as John sixteen and verse eight says, would not strive with mankind in general forever. The moral depravity of the antediluvian population had deteriorated to the point that there was no response to Holy Spirit's ministrations. It was futile for Holy Spirit to strive with man any longer. Man's collective conscience had become calloused. It had become seared as with a hot iron. Next question Why does the scripture say because he is also flesh? Let me read the verse again. Then the Lord said, My spirit shall not strive with man forever because he also is flesh. Well, theologians wrangled over the meaning of this phrase, and one possible interpretation is that man was both physical and spiritual, which is true. There had sadly been a universal rejection of Holy Spirit's ministry of conviction of sin and righteousness and judgment to come. The spirit of men was totally corrupt. The flesh, the body was no different than that of the beast of the field, giving way to carnal or fleshly passions. All men, except the preachers of righteousness, were dominated by the flesh, no longer concerned with God, but only with their own bodily appetites just like the animals. Therefore God says that my spirit shall not strive with man forever because he also is flesh, flesh just like the animals. God told Noah, pay close attention, that the end of all flesh has come before me. That's verse thirteen a little later. And then in chapter seven and verse twenty one, the Bible says after the flood and all flesh died, including both man and beast. Now it's interesting that the apostle Paul used this striving with God's spirit, with man's fleshly appetites many, many years later in the New Testament to describe the daily conflict of the Christian between his flesh and the spirit within him, which is that spirit within us is energized by Holy Spirit. Listen to what Paul said in Galatians chapter five, verse sixteen and seven. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry on the desires of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, for they are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. And then he says, But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. So you see, the spirit and the flesh are contrary to one another. They're always in opposition to one another. And Paul used that as an analogy to help us understand that that striving with man's flesh, God's spirit striving with man's flesh that went on way back before the flood, Paul used that as an analogy to help us understand. Now the next question, how did God's spirit strive with the pre flood population? Well, in answer to that, it's no doubt that he did with did so through the preaching of the preachers of righteousness, the proclamation of truth through the preachers of righteousness, like Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, and Noah. We know that both Enoch and Noah walked with God. The Bible tells us so. And later we will see that God tells Noah, you alone I have seen to be righteous before me in this time. Now, dear listener, you and I are the preachers of righteousness in this generation that is careening toward judgment just as surely and just as swiftly as Noah's generation did. Let me tell you a story. When I was in high school, a senior in high school, I worked a construction job, and I'm sad to say that I fell in with a group of high school boys working at construction job that were profane and corrupt, and they corrupted me, and I became just as profane as they were. That group of boys drank booze like fish and smoked pot every day. Now thank the Lord I didn't drink booze or smoke pot, but I learned to curse just like they did. And I'm ashamed to say I'd gone to church since I was a baby. I was a church goer then. I sang in the choir and I attended Sunday school, and yet I learned to curse just like all those high school boys did on that construction job. Well, there was a preacher of righteousness on that job, and his name was Birch. Birch was a black man. He'd worked construction all of his life. He was probably in his mid forties. He'd had his index finger severed at the first joint, and he used to sneak up behind us high school boys and gooch us in the ribs with that index finger which gave us all the willies. And he was a happy and jovial Christian man. And he was always talking about the Bible, always talking about Jesus. Well one day at lunch all those high school friends of mine went off to eat lunch at a fast food restaurant, but I'd brought my own sandwich that day, so I sat on an upside down five gallon paint bucket with Birch down in the bottom of a motel that we were working on. Well, immediately Birch began to share the gospel with me. And after a moment I stopped him and I looked at Birch and I said, Birch, you don't have to do that. I'm a Christian. Well he immediately slapped his thigh, threw his head back and laughed, showing all of his white teeth, and then looked at me and said, Boy, you ain't no Christian. Well, I want you to know it hurt me to my heart, and my face flushed red and hot. I was embarrassed and I was mortified. I had been in church my whole life, I had perfect attendance pens in Sunday school, I sang in the choir, and I knew immediately that I had failed my Lord Jesus Christ. And I knew why he said that I ain't no Christian, because I had fallen into sin, and I was cursing just like all the other boys on that construction job. And I want you to know that Birch, that preacher of righteousness, was used by God to convict me all the way down to the soles of my feet. And I went home that day, got on my knees, and I confessed my sins to God, and I got away from that group of boys, and I started repenting of my sins. And immediately several things happened in my life. My father brought me two books, Christian books that I read. It was orchestrated by God, and both of those books were pivotal in changing the way I thought about my Christian life. And then not even a few weeks later, I was at my university, and God connected me with a group of Christian kids that were used by God to help me grow in my Christian life. But I'm telling you that Birch was a preacher of righteousness, and he was used by God to set me on the right path. So all I'm saying is that you and I are like Birch. We're like Noah and Enoch, and we should never minimize the power of Holy Spirit in our own lives. You and I should never we just never know when Holy Spirit in us will speak to a sinner to save them from the error of their ways and to pluck them as a brand from the fire. Do not be afraid to speak the truth in love, and do not underestimate the power of Holy Spirit in your life. Now go to the next thing. What is a hundred and twenty years well so one hundred and twenty years remained until the flood? Peter tells us all the way in the New Testament that God is patient, long suffering, and not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to a knowledge of the truth. Now you thought that referred only to today, didn't you? Well it does. But I wonder if Peter wasn't referring to that one hundred and twenty years of patience on God's part, when Methuselah and Noah preached righteousness right up until the fountains of the deep were opened, and the windows of the heavens were released. Have you ever wondered why it took Noah a hundred years to build the ark? I think it was because God was long suffering, and during that a hundred years Noah preached righteousness. The Ark was no doubt a curiosity and drew crowds of onlookers, who then heard Noah preach, and God waited patiently. But the sad fact was that Noah had no converts. The heart of man was filled with violence and corruption and was calloused by sin, and his only converts were his three sons and their wives. Can you imagine preaching for a hundred years and having no converts except for your three sons and their wives? In like manner, our most important converts are our children and our grandchildren. Listen, if I never win another soul to the Lord except my children and my grandchildren, I have fulfilled my highest priority as a Christian father and grandfather. And the same thing is true for you. Listen to Psalmist in Psalm seventy eight verse one through seven. This is a chapter that's always intrigued me. It says, Listen, O my people to my instruction, incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable, I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not conceal them from their children, but tell to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wondrous works that he has done, for he established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should teach them to their children, that the generation to come might know even the children yet to be born, that they may arise and tell them to their children, that they should put their confidence in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments. Do you see that generational commandment that is there where fathers teach their children and children teach the grandchildren? And you see, that's a commandment that God gave to the children of Israel, and I believe that same commandment is there for you and me to tell to the generation to come the praises of the Lord and his strength and his wondrous works that he has done. It's incumbent upon you and me. Because God established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded their fathers, that they should teach to their children, that the generation to come might know even the children yet to be born. Why? Did you understand it? That they may arise and tell them to their children, that they might put their confidence in God. And you see, brothers and sisters, you and I have that same responsibility. It is our responsibility to teach our children and grandchildren the stories of the Bible and the biblical principles of life that are contained in the scripture. And you have to be a better storyteller than that little cartoon app on the phone that their mamas let them look at endlessly for entertainment. Read to them from a Bible story book and tell them Bible stories. Better yet, share with them the stories of your faith, your faith journey, and what helped you to grow in your faith. And I promise you that they'll remember your stories for the rest of their life. And why? Why would you do all of that? It's so that they would put their confidence in God and not forget the commandments or the works of God, but keep his commandments forever. Well, you're listening to Devotions with Dr. Papa. If you like what you hear, I pray you'd follow, like, share, or download it. Tell your friends about it. And until next week, remember that your doctor loves you. And until then, may the Lord bless you real good.
Speaker:Thank you for listening to this edition of More Than Medicine. For more information about the Jackson Family Ministry or to schedule a speaking engagement, go to their Facebook page, Instagram, or webpage at JacksonFamily Ministry.com. Also, don't forget to check out Dr. Jackson's books that are available on Amazon. The Family Doctor Speaks. The truth about life. And its first book is The Family Doctor Speaks. The truth about speed and equipping believers for evangelism in seconds. This podcast is produced by Bob Slone Audio Production.
