Jude 11 speaks of those who "have gone in the way of Cain." What is the way of Cain? It is to do good to please God and to worship God presumptuously by man's own effort and according to man's own invention under the Devil's motivation. The way of Cain is to worship God religiously without Christ. In a human sense the way of Cain is not bad, for religion is the best invention of human culture. In fact, according to the Bible, religion was the first and foremost invention of human culture. However, we must ask the question: Who invented religion? It was not Cain himself, but Satan the motivator within him. Satan usurped the first human generation by tempting them to take the tree of knowledge. Nevertheless, God intervened to rescue them and to recover them by His way of redemption. Although, in a sense, both Adam and Eve were lost, God came in to bring them back to Himself, opening His redeeming way, the blood-shedding way. That was God's way of rescue, of salvation. We have seen that Adam and Eve passed on this way to their children and that Cain, their firstborn, rejected it and took his own, becoming one with the Devil. That rejection, that following of his own way, was the rejecting of God and the following of Satan. This is the evil way of Cain.
God has given us a full revelation of His way. Regardless of how much Adam and Eve preached to their children, they did not have the Bible as we do. We have a Bible of sixty-six books telling us in full of the way of salvation, the way of life, the way of shedding blood, and the way of Christ. We have the way. However, many people have heard of this way, that is, have heard the preaching of the gospel, but have turned aside and have taken their own way, attempting to worship God according to their own concept and trying to do good to please God according to their own desire. A great many people are taking the way of Cain. The way of Cain is not to gamble in the casinos; it is to devise a human religion, a way of worshipping God, that is not according to God's revelation, but according to man's invention. Apparently this is good; actually it is dreadful, for by inventing religion the second human generation was completely captured by Satan. Satan gained the first generation by tempting man to eat of the tree of knowledge and he captured the second by turning man from God's way to the way of human invention.
God's way is in contrast to both good and bad. Many people think that as long as they do not do something bad they are all right. However, whether you are on the bad side or on the good side, you are still outside of God's way. God does not care whether or not you are on the good side or on the bad; He only cares whether or not you are on His way of redemption. You may think that you are high and that your way is higher than God's. Many religious people, people who have invented their own religion, think of themselves as higher than those who follow God's way of salvation. Perhaps they are higher than we are, but we are in God's way. Cain's way is not the way of apparent evil; it is the way of good. Nevertheless, it distracts man from God. Satan is on the side of both good and evil. Remember that the tree of life is of one factor—life. However, the tree of knowledge has two factors—good and evil. Hence, as long as you are not in God's way you are following Satan's way, regardless of whether you are doing good or evil.
I have a word to say to any readers of this message who may not be saved. You need God's redeeming way. Regardless of the good you have done or can do, you must realize that you were born sinful, that the devilish nature is in your flesh, and that the satanic element is in your mind. You need the shedding of Jesus' blood, for without it there is no remission of sins.