CAIN & THE FIRST FAMILY OF EVIL

   There are two types of knowledge:
      1) the knowledge of God;
      2) the knowledge of Satan.
   Consider the knowledge of Cain, the first-born son of Adam and Eve.
   Cain was different. 
   Cain was odd.
   Cain never liked his parents.
   After his younger brother, Abel, was born, Cain never liked him.
   Cain never liked going to church (or worship services) with his parents, nor with his kid brother tagging along.
   Cain never liked the commandments of God, nor did he like to hear his father preach about the ways of God.
   Cain never liked to watch his brother learn the commandments of God, nor to see Abel's obedience to his mother and father.
   Cain believed that he was no longer his father's favorite son, nor the apple of his mother's eyes, and Cain never liked that.
   Cain resented the attention Abel was getting from his parents because of Abel's acceptance of God's commandments, nor for the fact that God accepted Abel's offering while rejecting his own.
   Cain was jealous, Cain was envious, and, most of all, Cain was proud:  for Cain had become a god in his own mind.
   Instead of accepting the knowledge of God, Cain freely received the knowledge of Satan:  and to Satan's will Cain presented himself.
   Therefore being filled with the rage of Satan, Cain arose and murdered his brother by beating him to death, spilling his blood all over the ground.
                          All we, like Cain, have gone astray.
   Like Cain, all of us are capable of receiving the knowledge of God.
   Like Cain, all of us are capable of receiving the knowledge of Satan.
   By rejecting God, however, not only did Cain reject the knowledge of God, but he also rejected the love of God, the forgiveness of God, and the salvation of God for his sin. 
   Consequently, Cain's family became just as evil, for he taught his children to be like himself.  And from the going forth of Cain from Eden, his descendants committed all sorts of sexual perversions and abominations, throughout their generations and across a timespan of a thousand years, until the flood of Noah, at which time Cain's generations died in the flood of water.
   Therefore, Cain's legacy is remembered as the father of the First Family of Evil, for there was no evil that he and his descendants would not do, nor invent to do, for each generation was more evil than the generation before it.  They had no guilt, they had no shame, and they had no conscience. 
   Jesus said,
      "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Mark 8: 36-37)
   Moreover, it must be noted that Cain not only rejected the knowledge of God, but, in so doing, he also rejected the love of God:  for without the love of God it is impossible for people to truly love others.
   Obviously, Cain had no love for others, including no love for his own children throughout their generations until the flood came and swept them away.
   Obviously, too, not only was Cain willing to accept hell as his reward for his rebellion against God, he was also willing to take his children with him to that place of eternal damnation and punishment.
   Like Cain, all of us are capable of making the choice that Cain made for himself and for his family.
   Knowing this, perhaps we should pause and ask the question:
                    What are you going to do about God today?
   Or, are we going to agree with the words of the Bible?
      "Let hear the conclusion of the whole matter:  Fear God, and keep his commandments:  for this is the whole duty of man.  For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil." (Ecclesiastes 12: 13-14)