{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Grace Doesn\u2019t Cancel Judgment | Jude 5-7","description":"Welcome to The Daily. ESTHER: We will begin Esther next Monday. I have titled this one, FOR SUCH A TIME: Courage When God Seems Silent. Grab the Esther Journal now. If you are a Project23 donor giving $35\/month or more, do not purchase one; we have already sent this to you in the mail. Our text today is Jude 5-7 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. 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\u2014just 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. \u2014 Jude 5-7 One of the easiest lies to slip into is thinking that because God has already forgiven me, what I\u2019m doing right now somehow doesn\u2019t matter as much. God has been patient with me. God has forgiven me before. God knows my heart. All of that can be true\u2014and still not change what I\u2019m doing. Grace was never meant to sit quietly next to ongoing resistance to God. Jude is writing to a church that\u2019s starting to lose that line. Some people were taking grace and stretching it into permission for whatever they wanted. So he pulls them back by pointing to three old stories everyone would\u2019ve known: Israel in the wilderness, angels who stepped out of their place, and Sodom and Gomorrah. He basically says, \u201cYou already know this\u2014I\u2019m just reminding you.\u201d And that\u2019s the uncomfortable part. Most of the time, the problem isn\u2019t that we don\u2019t know. It\u2019s that what we know just doesn\u2019t feel as heavy anymore. Spiritual drift usually doesn\u2019t start with ignorance. It starts when something we already believe stops pressing on us. We know what God has said. We know where compromise leads. We know what obedience asks of us. But knowing and actually living like it\u2019s true are two different things. Jude starts with Israel. God brought them out of slavery in Egypt. They saw the plagues, walked through the sea, ate what fell from heaven, lived under his care in a way you\u2019d think they could never forget. And still, Jude says, God later judged those who didn\u2019t believe. That\u2019s sobering. Being rescued didn\u2019t cancel accountability. A past answered prayer doesn\u2019t cover present unbelief. Church background, Bible knowledge, ministry involvement\u2014none of it makes ongoing resistance harmless. If anything, it makes it heavier. Grace was never meant to make us casual. It was meant to keep us steady. Then Jude moves to the angels who \u201cdid not stay within their own position.\u201d They stepped outside what God had given them, reaching for something that wasn\u2019t theirs. At the root of it, it wasn\u2019t curiosity\u2014it was refusal. A refusal to stay under God\u2019s ordering of things. And that\u2019s where the illusion breaks: freedom without submission doesn\u2019t expand life. It breaks it apart. They had knowledge. They had proximity. But none of that protected them when they rejected God\u2019s authority. So Jude presses it into three short lines we can\u2019t really soften: Knowledge doesn\u2019t replace obedience. Position doesn\u2019t replace submission. Privilege doesn\u2019t cancel accountability. Then he brings up Sodom and Gomorrah. Cities that stopped accepting limits and started treating desire like it was the final word. And once desire becomes the final word, everything eventually bends around it. We still do this. We just use different language. If it feels right, if it feels true, if it feels like me\u2014then it must be fine. But Scripture doesn\u2019t let desire sit on the throne. It puts it under something higher. We don\u2019t decide truth by what we want. We learn what to want from the truth. And yes\u2014Jude is clear that sexual sin is part of this warning. But it\u2019s not singled out as the only category. It\u2019s an example of what happens when anything replaces God\u2019s authority. And still, grace is real. Jesus forgives. He restores. He doesn\u2019t turn away the repentant. But grace doesn\u2019t agree to rename sin so we can keep it. It calls us out. So Jude lands the weight of it: God\u2019s grace is not the opposite of God\u2019s judgment. It\u2019s the rescue from it. The cross doesn\u2019t make sin small. It shows how serious it is. Jesus stepped into the judgment we were headed toward, so we could be brought back to God. But the same Jesus who saves is the one who will judge. That\u2019s the tension we don\u2019t get to erase. We can\u2019t take him as Savior while ignoring him as Lord. And if I\u2019m honest, I don\u2019t always want that tension. I want grace that comforts without confronting. Forgiveness without interruption. Mercy without change. But that version of grace doesn\u2019t exist. God\u2019s warnings aren\u2019t Him pulling away\u2014they\u2019re Him pulling me back. He warns so I\u2019ll turn. He exposes so I\u2019ll see. He confronts so I\u2019ll come back. The danger is mixing up patience with permission. Or assuming that because God didn\u2019t stop me yesterday, he\u2019s fine with where I\u2019m headed today. He isn\u2019t. Grace doesn\u2019t leave you where it found you. It doesn\u2019t just pardon\u2014it turns you around. DO THIS: Identify one clear command from God that you have been resisting, delaying, or explaining away. Write it down. Confess it specifically to God. Then take one measurable step of obedience before the day ends\u2014end the conversation, remove the temptation, make the apology, tell the truth, or ask a mature believer for help. ASK THIS: Have you been relying on a past spiritual experience while resisting God in the present? Which desire or area of your life are you most tempted to place above the authority of Scripture? Is there a warning from God that you have mistaken for rejection instead of receiving it as mercy? PRAY THIS: Jesus, thank you for rescuing me from judgment, and give me the humility to receive your warnings, repent of rebellion, and live under your loving authority. PLAY THIS: His Mercy Is More ","author_name":"The Daily + Weekly by Vince Miller","author_url":"https:\/\/beresolute.org\/vincemillerspeaker","html":"