Jude 5-10 | Grace Is Not Permission

Let’s stand in honor of God’s Word as we read Jude 5-10

5 Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day— 7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. 8 Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. 9 But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.” 10 But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively.

Jude’s reminder is a gentle way to instruct the church. It’s not shameful, he assumes that they know these stories and he is going to point out four truths for the church to apply.

Grace Received Must Be Matched by Living Faith

Jude says, “Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.”

A couple things to note: 1) Salvation begins with God’s initiative. It is Jesus who saves us. Grace comes first. We remember that the Israelites did not save themselves. They were enslaved, without hope. Even when Moses came they didn’t believe. When God worked, they complained and blamed Moses when Pharaoh made their work more difficult.

2) Exposure to Grace is not the same as faith. They saw all the plagues and mighty signs from the Lord, they took part in the Passover meal and beheld God’s deliverance through death by blood on the doorposts. They walked through the Red Sea carrying the plunder from Egypt with walls of water on both sides. They were protected by the Lord from Pharaoh’s army as the Lord stood between them and the Hebrews.

Listen to what the Psalmist says,

7 Our fathers, when they were in Egypt, did not consider your wondrous works; they did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love, but rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea. 8 Yet he saved them for his name’s sake, that he might make known his mighty power. 9 He rebuked the Red Sea, and it became dry, and he led them through the deep as through a desert. 10 So he saved them from the hand of the foe and redeemed them from the power of the enemy. 11 And the waters covered their adversaries; not one of them was left. 12 Then they believed his words; they sang his praise. 13 But they soon forgot his works; they did not wait for his counsel. 14 But they had a wanton craving in the wilderness, and put God to the test in the desert; 15 he gave them what they asked, but sent a wasting disease among them.

They saw the miracles and sang the songs. They saw God miraculously provide for them with manna, they saw bitter water become sweet, they experienced grace upon grace and their response was not faith but complaining. They didn’t believe. Spurgeon said, “Those myriads of graves in the wilderness are as sure a token of God’s hatred of sin as the drowning of Pharaoh’s chariots.”

Listen, child of Christian parents. You can grow up hearing the Gospel, you can grow up hearing about the grace of God and enjoy the blessings of a Christian home with a Christian education and Christian principles, but if you don’t trust Christ alone then you’re not a Christian! So trust in Christ! Turn to Him and put all your faith in Him, because He will not let you down ever.

3) Persistent Unbelief brings judgment. Our passage says that Jesus saved, that is sozo- delivered from destruction, a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. The deliverance seems so final from Egypt and yet they were destroyed by their lack of faith! They disobeyed the Lord because they didn’t believe Him and they perished. They didn’t enter God’s rest.

16 For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? 17 And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

This is where we get into the issue of presumptuous sins. Presumptuous sins are sins you deliberately commit and you say, “Well, if I do this, I can just ask God for forgiveness and He will forgive me.” Presumptuous sins are very grave sins. They’re unlike unintentional sins where you might fall into temptation or may not even realize it. Presumptuous sins can do great damage to your relationship with the Lord. We believe that Christ can forgive all sin. We look at David that fell into presumptuous sin. But it grieved the Lord and affected God’s people for generations. If you struggle with presumptuous sins, those are the hardest sins to confess and get accountability for, but I would encourage you to reach out to a trust Christian to begin working on those lest you sear your conscience so badly by believing lies and presume upon God’s grace.

4) The Savior is the Judge. This is striking because Jesus delivered them from slavery and He judged them for their lack of faith. This teaches us that Christ is gentle and He is holy. He is not a ninny. He is the Lord, the Holy One, the God of Might.

So is your faith alive today? Are you actively trusting in the Lord, Jesus Christ or are you coasting on past experiences? Do you believe that since you had some kind of faith experience in the past that that somehow negates your responsibility to abide in Him today? Grace remembered is not the same as faith exercised. The Hebrews walked through the sea, but didn’t trust God. They saw His provision, but weren’t satisfied with it. My hope and prayer is that that will not be said of you.

Let’s look at verse 6 “And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day”. There is a lot of mystery surrounding the Heavenly Host. We are left with very little to go on about the angels and their own position of authority were these positions in reference to Lucifer being in heaven and leading 1/3 of the angels to rebel? Is this in reference to Genesis 6 with angels coming down to know women to make the Nephilim? Both are fine interpretations and are completely Orthodox.

The point that Jude is making is not the example. The point is the principle that he is attempting to communicate which is that

Privilege Does Not Cancel Accountability

You see, the angels of heaven had access to the glory of God. They are higher than humans in beauty, honor, and power and God gave them tremendous responsibility but many of them fell and rebelled. They did not stay where God had placed them. They didn’t exercise their authority responsibly but pushed outside the boundaries God laid out.

They rebelled against the order that God had made. Keeping is a major theme in Jude. In verse 1 we are described as “kept for Jesus Christ” and here we understand that these angels “did not keep” their place that God had entrusted to them and so now they are “kept in eternal chains”. God’s created order matters. This is not symbolic fluff, this is a sobering reality that even the angels who are higher, stronger, much more powerful are under the authority of God. They are accountable to Him.

But let’s take a warning here for us: sin caused angels to fall and if an angel can fall to pride then a preacher can fall too. A deacon can fall. A church member. This is why I talk about persevering to the end! If you turn your back to the Lord and continue to walk in your evil way then it is evidence that you never really believed in Christ and there was no work of His grace in your heart.

Your position doesn’t equal security. Your office doesn’t equal salvation.

But tied to that created order Jude uses the story of Sodom and Gomorrah who violated created order and “indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire,”

We have to remember that God is the one that makes our boundaries. If He makes a Law, He makes it for our benefit and as a blessing and we shouldn’t cross it. In our culture that is very strong about its identities we have to understand that our identity is based on the fact that we are made in the image of God. This is what gives every single person on earth value and worth. Each person is a soul that will live or die forever based on what they will do with Christ.

Will we reject Him? Will we invite Him as Savior but reject His Law? Or will we abide in Him and live for His glory as His followers? Jude is teaching us here that

Redefining Morality Invites Judgment

Sodom was celebrating what God had prohibited. He had spoken from the beginning that God had made Adam and Eve for each other.

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

God made male and female to go together for His glory because it reflects His holy image and plan. To go against that is to invite judgment which is why Jude uses Sodom as an example. It was clearly the norm at this time but something being a cultural norm doesn’t mean that God approves of it. What God says is right and wrong doesn’t change with the times and seasons. What was wrong in 3,000 BC was wrong in 33 AD and is wrong in 2026 AD. They celebrated what God condemned and their identity and pride brought judgment.

Now, some of you may have wrestled or still wrestle with this. Remember that fighting sin is a Christian work, blessing sin is Satan’s. There is abundant forgiveness and mercy for all those that repent and trust in Christ, but judgment remains for those who refuse to repent.

Jude is clear, they “serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.” That’s heavy language for us to consider.

So Jude uses three Old Testament examples: the Hebrews rebellion, the angels rebellion, and Sodom’s rebellion to push home his point about “these people” who are “these people” Jude refers to in verse 8? It’s the “ungodly people” who rebel by perverting the grace of God and denying Jesus Christ in their lives.

This brings us to our fourth point:

Rejecting Authority Reveals the Real Problem

Now Jude moves from examples to the present threat because these false teachers claim a spiritual authority by “relying on their dreams”. They appeal to their visions and private revelation. Many churches today teach this kind of explicitly false teachings. They create a self-authenticating sort of spirituality where the measure of their effectiveness in ministry is based on how spiritual they appear to be, not in their love for the Lord, ability to preach the Gospel, or handle the Word or even prayer.

Jude says here point after point they 1) defile the flesh, 2) reject authority, and 3) blaspheme the glorious ones. The defiling of the flesh is about their permissive sensuality that they call “the grace of God”. They reject authority because they are spiritually insubordinate to the elders of this church and the Word of God. They blaspheme the glorious ones because they talk about things that they are ignorant of. The fact is that they don’t know God at all and every time they open their mouths there is just blasphemy after blasphemy that comes out.

Now Jude uses a first century story here that comes, likely, out of The Testament of Moses, that has been lost to history but the early Church Fathers in their sermons and commentaries on this write about it and they say that this story is in there. Michael serves as a contrast here in verse 9 who was contending with the devil, that is the accuser of the brothers.

The Devil probably said something like, “Moses belongs to me. He was a murderer. He was an angry man that struck that rock!” And instead of Michael saying, “I rebuke you in the name of the Lord!” which is what many people think we have the authority to do, Michael— an archangel didn’t take on that authority but said, “The Lord rebuke you.” An archangel stayed in his lane!

18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Where does this arrogance to think that humans have the right or authority come from? Well, it comes from a lack of humility. Humility leaves it up to God. But arrogance “blasphemes all that they do not understand.” It’s that old sin of pride that comes out and ignorance + pride= destruction. But this ignorance isn’t an innocent ignorance, it’s not confusion because Jude is reminding them once they fully knew this stuff. This is an ignorance that is a refusal.

You see the rebellion of the Hebrews was a refusal to believe. They were ignorant of God’s faithfulness, but it was a deliberate refusal of His grace that led to their destruction. The angels rebelled because of their pride. They knew that God created them and beheld His glory and majesty and power but they wanted the glory for themselves and that led to their sure destruction. In Sodom, they knew God’s plan for their bodies but they rejected it and chose their own morality. The false teachers rejected authority.

The big connection? They did not want to submit to God. They loved their sin and desired their way more than they wanted all the riches of Heaven in Christ.

Michael Green said “Physically, they became immoral. Intellectually, they became arrogant. Spiritually, they denied the Lord. ‘Progressive morality’ and ‘progressive thinking’ often go hand in hand with progressive deafness to the voice of God.”

Church, do not confuse familiarity with faith. You can grow up at FBC, be baptized on your profession, confess doctrine clearly, serve well but still drift. Jude wasn’t written to terrify us, but to awaken us! Not to “do better”, but to do the opposite of rebel. The opposite of rebellion is obedience, submission, agreement, respect. Perhaps you are clinging to Christ right now. Maybe you’re fighting sin and you see your failures. This passage and sermon aren’t intended to crush you, but this passage was written to keep you in Christ.

So don’t presume upon God’s grace, abide in Christ’s presence. Trust in Christ as Savior and Lord meaning that He Saves us and We Obey Him. Let’s not be like the Hebrews that saw God’s work and perished, but let’s be like the Apostles that saw God’s work and changed the world by living for Christ and abiding in Him.

Head: God wants you to know that Past deliverance does not replace present faith.

The Savior is also the Judge, and He does not overlook unbelief, rebellion, or the rejection of His authority. Israel saw miracles and perished. Angels beheld glory and fell. Sodom normalized sin and burned. False teachers claimed spirituality and denied Christ.

Grace is not permission. Privilege is not protection. Position is not salvation.

Heart: God wants you to believe Jesus Christ is both a merciful Savior and a holy Lord.

His authority is not harsh, it is good. His commands are not oppressive, they are protective. True grace produces humble submission and persevering faith. If you are fighting sin and clinging to Christ, this passage is not written to crush you; it is written to keep you. But if you are presuming on grace, coasting on past experiences, or resisting His authority, this passage is meant to awaken you.

Believe that Christ is worthy not only to save you, but to rule you.

Hand: God wants you to examine your faith.

Repent of hidden rebellion. Refuse presumptuous sin. Abide in Christ daily. Submit joyfully to His Word. Do not confuse familiarity with faith. Do not coast on yesterday’s profession. Trust Him today. Obey Him today. Persevere in Him today.

And cling to the promise: He keeps those who truly belong to Him.