The Mark of Cain

Genesis 4:9-15 (NKJV)

9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?”

He said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”

10 And He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground. 11 So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12 When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth.”

13 And Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear!14 Surely You have driven me out this day from the face of the ground; I shall be hidden from Your face; I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth, and it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me.”

15 And the Lord said to him, “Therefore, whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the Lord set a mark on Cain, lest anyone finding him should kill him.

We are literally looking at the aftermath of sin…in this case murder. There is always a prologue (introduction) concerning sinfulness. We are under the delusion that sin is instant, and we are unprepared for it!

This makes for great excuses but the bible will not let us get away with that – there is always a process / preparation to sin from the start. In other words, before we commit the crime, there first must be contemplation…

We are masters of rationalizing sin. We no longer want to sin, we NEED to – we resolve to do this and think, nothing is going to change…no major problem, I’m still the same person.

We see God intervene before Cain does the deed (verse 7) * He warns Cain about the consequence and the power of sin. Cain is contemplating this: pride is involved, carnality, etc.

It’s a sermon in itself because despite the warning of God: Cain kills his brother anyway – verse 15 tells us that God put a mark on Cain…

Mormons believe that the mark is Black Skin…this is stupid! Others believe that it’s some sort of birth mark or tattoo…this is also ridiculous.

Do you wanna know what the mark of Cain is? I don’t know! But that’s not the point…it’s not what the mark looked like: long after the deed / sin is done, the MARK remains…in other words, something has changed after SIN.

Some of you can point to a place in time when sin was done in your life: you remember like it was yesterday – or rather, from the time that I did that, something changed…the deed is done, but the mark remains.

See, sin is supernatural! This is beyond breaking rules…look at verse 11…

Genesis 4: 11 - So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand

You have released something into your life that is demonic and supernaturally at work now because sinning is a CRIME against God!

Think about the mark of sin

1.       There’s the mark of guilt and shame – sin is not supposed to go well, so when you give in to this, you set something in motion that won’t go away so easily. Sin has a voice… (verse 10) the voice of your brother’s blood (what you did) cries out from the ground…today – that voice is our conscience. When you do go, you’re praised by that voice, but when you sin, it screams out GUILTY!!

Genesis 4: 16 – ‘…so Cain went out from the presence of God…’

Whenever we sin, we are pushed away from God’s presence and all that goes with it. The old saying goes, “Your bible keeps you from sin, and your sin keeps you from the bible.”

2.       The mark of character alteration – when you sin something changes inside, and it’s never good. After sin, you don’t feel like a better person…sin degrades, in other words it gets worse…

The prodigal went from leaving the father’s house, to parties, to living with pigs. The mark of Cain is degradation.

3.       The mark of damaged relationships – it always attacks and damages relationships. You cannot submerge in sin and it NOT affect your relationships. We see Cain cutting himself off from healthy relationships…people avoid worship / church / fellowship. Another folly is you project your sin on everyone else…think with me…Cain is the ONLY murderer up to this point, but he cries to God saying that everyone is out to kill him! You often despise in others what you struggle with! In your warped mind, everyone has changed…but the truth is – you’re the one who changed because of your sin.

4.       The mark we leave on others – you can do whatever you want, but it always costs other people: especially those we love. We also leave a mark on people, in other words, the sins we give in to, people we have relationship with, and family will struggle with the exact same thing. This is why words are so powerful…your bitter speech towards the things of God will eventually poison your spouse and / or your children…whenever you find repentance, they won’t be so quick to come because of the mark you’ve left on them

Jesus said it best - Words are spirit and they are life.

Sin is a heart issue: this is beyond what was DONE, but who you BECOME because of it. Or better yet, it reveals what’s on the inside. The DEED is only the result, not the cause.

People commit sin because of what’s going on in the heart and the mind…so the action is the consequence of what was working on the inside all along. So stopping sin isn’t the solution…we must deal with the heart so that our minds and hearts can line up with God.

You can run to the altar every service, but unless the heart and mind change…you’ll keep coming and gain no ground and get no victory…we must change on the inside. If you wanna change your world, you MUST CHANGE YOUR MIND.

Haven’t you noticed in the text that Cain isn’t repentant – even after he killed his own brother, he’s more concerned about what is going to happen to HIM? Seriously?

He’s ripped of Abel and his parents, but you hear none of that in his discourse with God. I know people like that…they don’t serve God anymore, because there’s no true repentance.

2nd Cor. 7:10 - For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.

Godly sorrow allows you to feel bad enough to fix it, not bad because you got caught or confronted.

God doesn’t kill Cain for what he did, He marked him in order to protect him; He’s giving him the opportunity to fix it! It’s a mark of redemption!

Cain I will help you in spite of your sin…

Hebrews 12:24 - to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.

The blood of Jesus speaks LOUDER than Abel’s blood! God doesn’t give up on people. Adam and Eve had another son named Seth…the seed of life keeps going because God is into redemption and recovery, not more separation.

True repentance is when you own your sin…the moment you ask…the fixing can begin; the consequences of our sins have the ability to be short-lived…not everlasting

The change and the feelings come AFTER the decision of mind and heart.

Are you going to keep your sin going? Maybe it’s the sins of your parents…will you give it to God, or keep it going. (Alcoholics / Fornicators / Drug Abuse in my family) – through Christ, the curse was stopped!

Stop the Mark…allow Jesus to provide the redemption you desperately need.