Heresy 101 (part 3)

So this is week three week three if you haven't been here or if you've missed a couple times. This is going to be the third session that we have regarding heresy and some of the definitions of heresy and what heresy is what heresy is not and I just want to cover a quick few areas that I Did talk about last week for those who weren't here and then I'll get into some new content and then time permitting We'll see how things go how well you guys participate.

Time permitting we'll get to the actual heresies that are kind of the key heresies throughout Christianity and and even continue today as you'll see. Were there any questions at all from previous times.

Councils, Creeds, and the Need to Define Orthodoxy

Okay. So one of the things so again I'll just cover some of the quick things that we talked about last week and that is You know a lot of the councils a lot of the things that needed to come into place were really to prevent falsehood growing and continuing to grow in the church and Standards had to be defined had to be defined and that's where we start to see.

These councils come together. These doctrines come together and so forth. We learned a little bit about that not only were not only did the Apostles provide the message itself. So as they taught they provided the message.

They also provided the interpretation and what often happened is when people would learn from others. They then would take it and they would tweak it a little bit and it's kind of like that game of operator where as it progresses it would get.

Sometimes it would degrade in in what it was from an interpretive perspective. So there was a concern around that and they wanted to make sure that a lot of these things around Christianity would be Solidified in a way that they would be able to last throughout the centuries.

I Did talk about you know, can Christianity have multiple orthodoxies and we talked a little bit about that between Primary what orthodoxy is and what it is not. We talked about some of the fundamentals of the faith.

We talked about some of the secondary items such as baptism communion methods of worship whether we have Drums up here or not drums up here whether we use an organ or a piano whether we sing hymns or any other type Of music those are all secondary items.

So it's not really the Christian Christian orthodoxy per se. So these heresies that that we're going to discuss in the areas that we're going to talk about really are attacking those core areas. So we talked about doctrines and creeds we talked about the first council of Nicaea first council of constant constant noble Council of Ephesus and a few others.

We'll go into a little more detail on those as we start digging into some of the actual heresies. So I don't want to go into any more detail on those. We talked about that creeds themselves are not what Christianity is all about.

That Christianity also has a mystery around it and we see that through the scriptures. Pastor Mike if you're here this morning talked about some of that God's sovereignty man's responsibility and areas that that can play into.

Etymology, Apostasy, and Distinguishing Heresy from Schism

Then we talked a little bit about etymology who here remembers what etymology is. Etymology of a word the evolution of words throughout time. The the actual definition from the dictionary says it is the study of the origin of words.

And the way in which their meanings have changed throughout history or morphed or progressed throughout history. And we see that with heresy the word heresy. If you've been here in the other two sessions the word heresy itself early on meant just a choice or a sect.

Someone who had a meaning of being able to set other choices and a lot of times those choices were secondary type of choices. There weren't things that would Separate you from Christendom or or any other type of religion at that point and that was heresis.

It was a Latin word heresis choosing her choice then it migrated into kind of a division threatening unity in the first century and Then in the second century the term actually got phrased as heterodoxy which is a departure from orthodoxy a complete removal a Separation of orthodoxy completely so it wasn't it was no longer just a choice or a choosing.

Then we talked about where we closed last week is you know what heresy is not so we had some definitions early of what a heresy Was and if you weren't here last week I'm gonna read a couple more just because I have a few questions as we go through the text here but we talked about what heresy is not and one of the items that we that we had discussed is apostasy and We talked about last week that apostasy is not a form of heresy by definition apostasy its definition itself is the abandonment or Renouncification of a religion or political belief it is complete separation.

I'm not pretending to be Christian. I am a Buddhist or I'm a Hindu or I'm from Islam. That that is an apostasy as I wasn't quote-unquote a Christian or I believed Christian theology. I've now departed that and moved on somewhere else.

That is not what heresy is. We talked about from other religions other religions are not quote-unquote heresy by definition. They are not in most cases trying to attack Christendom or or other religions and so forth.

We talked a little bit about denominations and sex sex Groups and so forth of different types. So we talked about different faiths a little bit. We said, you know, what is the difference? Why do we have Baptists and Lutherans and Methodists and so forth?

And how do they still fit in the greater? Christendom and Are not being classified as heretical. Then we talked about error erroneous teaching error and schisms and Heresy and we left off with actually some Definitions one author had laid out some some comparisons between the two and there were some great comparisons.

I would recommend Time doesn't permit today. But if you have time to go back and listen to that and it was just I thought a great way of laying out What heresy was? So what I want to jump into now. Let's get into some areas.

Erroneous Belief, Schisms, and the Meaning of Heresy

So is erroneous belief Heretical and I'm putting that out on the table. I Can see a shaking head over there in a hand Steve. No, why is it not? Good everyone agree with that. I Hope so because that's what I've been teaching most of this time and and by definition Errorous belief is this let me just give you the the true definition and that is a misconception resulting from incorrect information.

So it can be simply someone who has taken the biblical text and if they don't have a solid teacher to to learn from and they read something and they may read a portion of text and understand it in a way that The meaning isn't there.

They may grab something and say who I discovered something new and a couple weeks ago Remember if I said if you discover anything new run from a person who says they've discovered something new in the Bible, but That is where erroneous belief is.

It can turn into heretical belief if they understand what they build what their teaching is false and we'll see that as a lot of these heresies grew initially from someone who had a firm belief in a doctrine or some type of teaching and They were in Christendom and then they completely separated out because they wanted to hold to that belief.

How about schisms who knows what a schism is. Schism it's kind of a neat word a rift good a riff. Yeah. So it's it's a split or a division between strongly opposed sections or parties. Caused by differences in opinion or belief.

Schisms, can we be with brothers and sisters who have schisms. Christian schisms? I don't see many shaking of heads either way. So I Heard yes. Yeah, so we can right there are other brothers and sisters that hold the various opinions sometimes strongly opposing opinions to either our own or or what we would think of from a Christian perspective and yet We can still fellowship with them.

Oftentimes they can still be Christian. That's schisms are oftentimes why we see different denominations today is that breaking out of some of these secondary items? Whether it's around music or certain secondary or tertiary types of doc doctrines.

So now I want to kind of pull into and talk about heresy today. So I want to just talk a little bit about. Well, let me say some of the schisms who can name a couple of schisms that we had Jewish schisms from biblical times.

What were some of the Jewish schisms? Not not the actual schism themselves. What type of groups were Sadducees what? Pharisees. Judaizers. Judaizers we're going to talk about the essence essence any others.

Zealots, yeah zealots were one there were a bunch of different groups and so forth. So those are just various examples of Jewish schisms. So today How do we define heresy? We've talked about heresy the past two weeks.

I defined it for you the first time last week. How do we define heresy? Who wants to give it a shot Steve? Okay separates offends and destroys. Okay, right from Orthodoxy different from what Orthodox Christianity would be defined.

Right those those boundaries that are set. That's correct. That's another hand over here somewhere Bruce, okay. Excellent. Excellent. Let me give you just a couple definitions here. I'll read three different definitions just to clarify it.

I think you guys have it though. The first is it's a teaching or teachings held by a Fictitious a Factional group. I'm sorry a factional religious party which deny Some aspect of the established doctrine.

New Testament writers Give no toleration to heresy in the church and so forth. Another one says heresy is a sectarian group or teaching that deviates from the norm quote-unquote. The Greek word heresy literally means choice as we talked about that was its earlier definition and now it's a more modern definition and One one dictionary defines it this way.

So so the from the best modern kind of definition is this in the modern era comma? This is how the word heresy is usually understood. It is unorthodox and or false teaching that damages the faith of certain beliefs and Also causes division faction divisive factions within the church.

It's pretty powerful very very powerful so when we Lightly call someone a heretic or say something as heresy we have to be very careful because it truly is something that is damaging and divisive and You know is out there to be a false teaching.

Another text says this it says The only New Testament use of heresy as we know it kind of today. So there were other terms that they used for heresy again as we talked about, you know The choice with the Pharisees and and the others.

The term heresy as we understand it today. The only place that it occurs in the New Testament is in 2nd Peter 2 1 and The heresy actually calls out the denial of Jesus Christ himself the denial of the Redeemer.

And we'll look at that in a little bit. You know need to turn there now unless you want to among the recipients of heresies mentioned in the New Testament the most prominent are Gnosticism and we'll talk a little bit about what Gnosticism is as we get into the actual heresies themselves.

But Gnosticism and another one called some people call it Gnosticism or docetism. So those are two that we will cover as we get into our text. So we looked at what heresy was first century look at what it is.

Biblical Examples of False Teaching: Judaizers, Christology, and the Second Coming

Now I want to take a look at some Bible passage. So hopefully you all have your Bibles and What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna have three different passages read and Then I'm gonna ask what heresy is being called out in these passages.

What thing is being Attacked in these passages, so I'll ask for some readers if someone could read acts 15 verse 1 acts 15 verse 1. The second reader if someone secondly will read for me Galatians 6 12 through 13 Galatians 6 12 through 13 and Then time-permitting.

We'll do this one. I have a longer one that they kind of call things out, but Titus 1 10 Titus 1 10 Titus 1 10 so we have the three of them are acts 15 1 Galatians 6 12 through 13 and Titus 1 10. Someone read acts 15 1 for me, sir.

Okay, who can read Galatians 16? I'm sorry Galatians 6 12 through 13 for me, please Bruce. Excellent. Thank you. How about Titus 1 10 someone right Titus 1 10? Yes, Joel. So do we have here one? What are they attacking and What is this group that we're talking about here in these three verses?

Judaizers. Judaizers is who right? What are they attacking? What what are they? What is the heresy here that we're talking about from the Judaizers? Steve. Okay, which really ties down to what? Work salvation, right?

So there really are work salvation and In some ways what we'll see as we look through some of these others is very legalistic. The legalism is one of the key areas, but definitely they're attacking salvation and salvation not by Christ, but salvation by Works is what the Judaizers were attacking.

All right. Second one here second test for you guys. How about someone read for me, please? Second John 1 7. Second John 1 7 and Then first John so second John 1 7 next one is first John 2 22 through 23 22 through 23.

Why don't we just do those two? So who can read second John what Steve? Excellent. How about first John 2 22 through 23? Yeah, okay. Excellent. What is the heresy here? Steve the deity of Christ right the deity of Christ is what's being attacked here.

Do we see anything else? I'm sorry Trinity as I heard doctrine of the Trinity key also. Yes. Yeah, I mean ideally here that it's the personhood of Jesus Christ the deity of Christ and his personhood and everything else is being attacked here.

Trinity is definitely being attacked because you're removing these other two components already, right? Third one here, so if I get some people to read looking for second Thessalonians 2 1 through 2 2nd Thessalonians 2 1 through 2 and then we'll do Matthew 24 4 through 5 Matthew 24 4 through 5 and then Whoever's also in Matthew in that same area.

We'll have someone else read but Matthew 24 and it'll be 23 through 24 23 through 24. So 2nd Thessalonians 2 1 through 2 Matthew 24 4 through 5 and Matthew 24 23 through 24. Okay, how about Matthew 24.

Matthew 24 4 through 5. Matthew 24 4 through 5. Steve. Excellent. And then how about Matthew 24 23 through 24? Matthew 24 20. Bruce. All right. So what is the heresy here that we're talking about? What's being called out false prophets?

What else. Second coming of Christ right amongst these three. It's the second coming of Christ that Again is a Key doctrine Christ is going to return and yet here we have these deniers in this text that are directly attacking the return of Jesus Christ.

What a Heretic Is and Why Heresy Is Dangerous

So let's move into real quick. So we talked a little bit about heresy. So what's a heretic? Pretty strong word, especially if you point to someone, you know again, you'll see as I talked my very first class.

We talked about you know Most time when I was looking up heresy It was two Christians that were pointing each other and saying you're a heretic. What what would be a heretic in? Your understanding. Right.

Okay that calls out a heretic. What would be a definition of a heretic? Okay, let me give you the great definition of the dictionary and it says this a person believing or practicing a religious heresy.

I Gotta love those right? It's always you know, look it up and so Another definition a little further down said this a person holding an opinion at odds. With what is generally accepted person holding odds, which what is generally accepted?

And now I don't like that definition Personally because I don't think it's generally accepted. I don't think it's always you know person definitely is gonna hold it at odds but something that is generally accepted is something that I would argue with because these are Fundamentals of the faith that are not generally accepted.

Yes, Steve. Yes. Yeah, and it's interesting because generally accepted. Well, what's it accepted by right? Is it man's except acceptance? Or is it what the Bible says is the truth, right? So if it's generally accepted, yeah, we just accept it.

We tolerate everything and so forth. It gets pretty muddied through that definition but definitely, you know a person at odds with a Doctrine or orthodoxy is something that is critical that we see here.

So let me ask kind of a pointed question here. And hopefully this will get your brains kick-started a little bit this morning and that is is heresy only a Christian issue. I see a no and a hand. Yes, or no.

You think it is only a Christian issue? Okay. Okay, hold hold your thought correct Christianity based on the Mormon Church. Right, yes. Yeah, I mean this definitely is more of a philosophical question and that is by definition.

Is it only a Christian thing right and and the true answer is it isn't? Because we can't have quote-unquote Mormon heretics. We can't have Jehovah's Witness heretics. Again, we're most of those as they would call us out.

But it's still surprising that You know Jewish Christian Buddhist Hindu Islamic all these groups have You know groups that have splintered off of them and going off in their own directions and and would essentially be by definition considered heretical groups and What's interesting is as we talk about this a little bit and I know I'll open up a big can of worms doing this.

So, you know, we'll go through it quick. But you know Who was called out as one of the biggest heretics in? The Reformers period. Martin Luther by whom The Catholic Church called him out as a heretic, right?

So the Catholic based on Catholic Catholic doctrine, which is different than what we have in Protestant Christianity, right. Martin Luther himself was called out as a heretic and many others. There were others who took their lives if you read Fox's Book of Martyrs.

You will find that there are plenty out there who held to the Christian Orthodoxy as we know it and what scripture tells us which went against the Catholic Church and Died for their faith in often horrific ways and yet it was important enough for them to Withhold what or to hold on to what Christianity was then to give up that faith.

So heresy is really just a set of constructed beliefs of a community in most cases. It's and that's why it by true definition Heresy can be across all different types in one of the definitions. I had actually even talked about political nature.

So you can have political heresy and other things going on. So really from his general sense, but for our definition in our terms and the use of here in in this class heresy really is around Christianity and Christian heresies.

Why Christian Heresy Is Dangerous

So I want to get into a couple things here and this is kind of the core areas and we'll talk a little bit more in detail as we go through it, but Let me well, yeah, let me pose it out here to the to the group first and then we'll see how many of these you hit on.

Why is Christian heresy now? I'll define it that way. Why is Christian heresy? Dangerous, why is it dangerous? Why do we even care? Why am I up here? Why do I want you guys to know about this stuff? John Misleads people.

Okay good and Bruce souls are at stake. Okay. Morehands Steve Authority of Scripture is a key area where most people falter when we talk about heresy and as we go through some of the heresies. You'll see that in great detail.

Anything else any other reasons why it's dangerous? Yeah, we should wake up to these warnings right that are given true. Anything else over here? I know I've been picking over on this side more Bruce.

And do we see that you know, we talked about old New Testament talks a lot about it and so forth. Do we see? Even after the scripture was written that heresy was called out often. I Mean, I think we do right we see throughout history Orthodoxy was being defended in many ways and thankfully by some some very very smart Men that would would stand up to some of these heresies and as we go through some of them, you'll see.

There were times and again God is sovereign. I don't want I don't want to ever forget that there were times where it was questionable Whether a heresy would become orthodoxy or not in some parts. Until someone just fought and fought and fought and people realized scripture is true.

So, let me just give you six areas that were quickly called out here as to why and some of these we just touched on but. The first is it denies one or more of the fundamentals of the faith and As we just saw earlier this morning the return of Jesus Christ who Christ was the Trinity Salvation by works rather than through the grace of God as a gift as pastor Mike talked about even this morning in the message.

So it denies one or more of the fundamentals of the faith. The second is it's really a Trojan horse. It's really a Trojan horse. It's an alternate. It's it's said to be an alternative belief system. It's not just tweaks and tunes and I likes compared to dislikes.

It is it is an alternate belief system and it's it's designed to mislead and it and it really does it. It's an alternate belief system from what orthodoxy would be defined as. Steve yes, right. That's right.

True enough. Yes. Yes, yes. Yep. Yeah, cuz that's the only way we try to rationalize it humanly, right? And there are times and that's why I talked about earlier. There are times where we have to just say there are mysteries in scripture that we have to believe but we might not fully understand it.

Or comprehend it ourselves until we're on this side of you know, other side of glory, right and that's critical. So we have a Trojan horse the second definition somewhere the second kind of example someone gave is it's a virus and it's not only just a virus, but a virus that actually needs a host system and It Requires a host system essentially, so it's like a parasite in most cases so not only is it a Trojan horse sitting and waiting and and usually kind of comes out a little by little by little and and Tries to pull others into its belief system.

It ends up being this virus that that grows within the body itself. And it's interesting because again heresy in and of itself is not something outward Into the church it is within the church with an attempt to Disrupt the body and that's what we talked about two weeks ago.

Is it it's an internal attack. Fourth is that it comes from within so it's this Trojan horse. It's it's a virus it comes from within and And I have here in my notes. It's one of the scariest and unsettling thoughts is that it comes from within Christendom itself.

It could even be taught by local body of believers it could be taught by people who Know the truth and yet they want to teach something differently and it comes from within. Again, this is not destruction coming from the outside.

Fifth is it it can lead to ultimate unbelief for others so this heretical teaching and we're not talking about those who have been saved and and by the grace of God we're talking about those who have come into the church and and have grown in the church and understand Christendom and Someone can come in and teach heretical beliefs and teaching and and they can be led astray and and off into these other areas and the sixth I have which is which is very similar to the others, but it's it's a divisive teaching or practice its sole purpose its sole intention of heresy is to divide or to bring disunity to the body and Heresy does a great job of that.

It is designed to be one author said this heresy is designed to be is designed to subvert and Its intended purpose is to be destructive in nature. Heresy is to subvert as intended to be destructive in nature.

So does that sound like the fruits of the Spirit? Steve yeah, right. And do we see that as a primary within Christian theology it is a command that we're given to to evangelize. But does it lay out in Scripture?

Remember we talked about different methods that people have secondary truce area. It depends on how people want to witness some people do that at work. Some people do it door-to-door and that's where we get this device divisiveness that comes into the body.

No, and and you know, it's surprising because. Yes. And it's interesting because well sometimes most cases they don't at the beginning but then they hold to this truce and you'll see that as you study the history of a lot of these heretics is.

They thought again, they've come upon something that Christianity has been wrong from the beginning. We must now change it and they truly believe that in their hearts. I mean, I don't want to say, you know, the Disney heart thing, but they truly believe it that they can rationalize that this is Truth and that everyone should know about this truth and then at the same time.

They're though going against what orthodoxy has said for centuries in most cases and it's right I think it starts with good intentions in most cases. But it grows to this desire. Subversive subversiveness and destructive nature.

Heresy Must Be Condemned and Dealt With Quickly

So heresy must be condemned. How am I doing time? Why I see heresy must be condemned. We see that in Scripture. Who wants to read for me Titus 3 10 through 11. Titus 3? Titus 3 10 through 11 and then I'll have someone else read 2nd John 1 2nd John 1 9 through 11 so Titus 3 10 through 11 and then 2nd John 1 9 through 11 well Excellent and 2nd John 1 9 through 11 from someone, please.

Yes, Joe. Excellent. Excellent. So we see from Scripture at least heresy is Attacked and often fairly severely. Do we see that today? It's hard to say because we ourselves I mean as a church don't always have visibility into The the greater church, but do we see heresy being called out for heresy sake or for truly what heresy is?

Or again is this postmodern more modernism type of Environment got us where we don't want to call anyone out as false teachers. Yes. Generally accepted right? So that's what everyone else accepts rather than Scripture.

So we definitely see I mean Scripture does say it needs to be dealt with it needs to be dealt with harshly and quickly. From a heretical perspective and a lot of times heresy comes out of those who are teaching.

So it wanted you know you want to cut it off at the root and and deal with it get it out as fast as possible so that you're not having to you know as it grows and and continues to Wage war within the own look within the local body itself.

It's it's important. So if I were to say if we were talking about heresy and we wanted to study a book of the Bible. What's probably the number one book that comes to mind? Around heresy. Galatians is a good one.

Not the one I'm thinking of so you're wrong. But what what? Close again. First John is also excellent. Second Peter also very good a lot of examples from second Peter. I'm actually just looking for Jude and and Really?

We see Jude dealing with a lot of heresy. A lot of issues come up in the book of Jude. All the others were right. I mean again most of my scriptural references come from the other texts that you guys had mentioned.

But the book of Jude very small book indeed, but it's written specifically around that I just want to give a couple items here about the book of Jude and then I'm gonna run out of time and We'll never get to the heresies and we'll have to find another time to do that.

Jude, False Teachers, and the Marks of Their Doctrine and Practice

But so the book of Jude Begins with a purpose of discussion discussing common salvation. So Jude is very excited common salvation with his readers in verse 3. If you want to turn there, you can turn there and and take a look and see.

It's funny because in my notes here. I say, you know, Mike often takes a jet tour of things. So he's taking the jet a couple weeks ago. We had Steve take took the helicopter right and hop and hop and hop and hop and hop.

This is kind of one of those spy satellite views, right? So we're way out here. I just want to take a real quick view. Just to cover some of these areas due to time and then like I said, we'll we'll talk about specific heresies another time.

So Jude, you know, why was it written and just some of the notes I have here again. Definitely for this common salvation with his readers as we see in verse 3. But because of an urgency of the situation Jude also changed his purpose.

So as he's going through the text. He he kind of changes the direction to discuss the problem of false teachers and not only discuss false teachers in general. But also to denounce false teachers. So his purpose was now we have this common salvation.

Let's talk about these false teachers that are coming in and then I would need to denounce them. Jude also writes to defend the faith against false teachers so again, we see here that there's a defense that he brings up and.

And the note here says that you know, his whole purpose was to go against antinomianism. One of those great big theological types of words who can tell me what antinomianism is anti meaning? Against or not.

What's gnomianism? Law law, so what would that be? What's antinomianism? What's another word that we would use? Lawlessness, yeah lawlessness, so he's writing Against these false teachers to prevent lawlessness.

He says, you know The scripture has this common salvation and it's these doctrines are laid out in this orthodoxy that's laid out and here are these teachers that now I have to battle that are teaching all sorts of things that go against this doctrine and it's lawlessness.

Next Jude writes to warn believers not to be led astray by false teachers. He urges them to rescue those who have already been so in verse 23. He is he is struggling to say we not only do we need to get rid of these false teachers and ignore what they're teaching You but we need to go back and rescue and teach those who erroneously Believed what these false teachers said and and have been led astray.

The fifth one is that Jude writes to emphasize to those Who do evil? So those who are doing evil will be judged by the Lord. So he says the Lord will address those or deal with those it's you know, we need to call them out.

We need to warn we need to we need to pull back those and rescue them. But ultimately we need to understand that God also will be the one who will deal with the souls of these false teachers. So what are some of the false teachings we see in the book of Jude?

I want to just go through some of these false teachings that we see. It's noted here that The actual heresy is not called out. We don't see in the book of Jude an actual heresy that says, you know. This is the group the Judaizers or this is another group and this is what they're teaching.

So it it's it's not Identified in our text the exact heresy that's being taught here. But what we do see from the letter is we get an understanding that this heresy may have some Items that we can pull out and and and understand the heresy that's occurring.

So let me just give you some of those. So these are the things that we understand about the doctrine of the false teachers. Here is where the false teachers believe their doctrine to be based on this text in Jude in verse 4a.

It's a misunderstanding of the concept of grace. They misunderstand what grace is and Quickly, they move to 4b. Not only do they misunderstand the concept of grace, but they deny Jesus Christ himself in 4b.

If you look down at verse 8. You'll see they prefer their own Dreamings rather than God's Revelation. They want to have dreams dream a dream and and have all these other great things everything apart from the scriptures.

Do they want they they want their own? Beliefs. So we see that they want these dreaming their own dreams over God's own word, it's the authority of Scripture they're attacking and. Then also in verse 8 and in verse 19, we see a misunderstanding of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit.

That he's absent. They actually take out the Holy Spirit. He's he's removed from this portion of text. And the last doctrine that we can see again is also in verse 8. They were critical towards the Orthodox doctrine of angels they actually were attacking what the.

What the Orthodox doctrines are around angels and let me give a couple practices. So these are now just practices that we can see again from the book of Jude in verses 4 7 16 and 18. They're called out to be lascivious or lawless.

Again not a fruit of the Spirit. If you think it is go read your fruits of the Spirit. In verses 11 a and 16 they are unrighteously destroying for their own gain. It's that destructive nature heresy that we talked about earlier.

11 B says they're corrupt and and pervert for their own personal gains again. They want to have their own gain in things. They don't want to give God the glory. They want to give themselves the glory.

In verse 11 see they blaspheme and rebel against divine authority in and of itself. Again, this is the heretics that we're seeing here. This is their practices. Verse 8 and 23 of the book of Jude says this that they ruled by their passions which defined themselves though passions to find themselves not the Holy Scriptures and.

And lastly from the passage what we see about their practices is in verse 16. They are arrogant and they often wanted to use people for their own gains. They wanted to use people for their own gains. So the identity what we have here, how do they identify themselves?

How are they identified throughout the book of Jude and let me just give you a couple quick things here and then we'll close. We know that they are a part of the Christian community from verse 4. Verse 4.

The second one is while the deception leads towards a Gentile background. Essentially we we understand that They may include Jews in some of their Belief systems or some of their ideas. So we really have a good mixing of Jewish and Gentile Background it appears from both their doctrines and their practices.

And While one author said this about all this text or about all these contexts around their practices and their doctrines. He says this it says it may suggest an insipid form of Gnosticism and we'll we'll get into what Gnosticism is.

I know most of you heard the term but he says it may suggest an insipid form of Gnosticism. So an early form of Gnosticism not well-defined. But the the true Gnosticism actually unfolds during the second century the time of the second century is when Gnosticism really Begins to grow and unfold and and grow into what we know it is today and he says so from this evidence, we see that there's this Gnosticism kind of wrapped around into it and That the heresy really is a direct threatening of the apostolic teachings.

And That there may be a better choice or maybe the secret knowledge the secret understanding and that's kind of where this Gnosticism comes in this I believe in my gut or I had a dream or I feel a certain way.