Audio Recording Sermon Manuscript: From almost the very beginning of the world there have always been two different kinds of people: believers and unbelievers. Adam and Eve were created as believers. The devil turned them into unbelievers with his lies. God had mercy on them and came to them again. He brought them to repentance. He promised salvation in Jesus, the Seed of the woman. In the first generation after Adam and Eve we see the two different kinds of people. Cain, the firstborn, became jealous of his younger brother Abel because Abel was acceptable in God’s sight whereas Cain was not. Cain was an unbeliever. Abel was a believer. Cain killed his brother. God gave another son to Adam and Eve named Seth. Seth was a believer. With the descendants of Cain and Seth we see that communities are formed. The descendants of Cain were unbelievers. The descendants of Seth were believers. The descendants of Cain are described as great innovators. They worked hard to remove the curses that came with the fall into sin. They tried to make a name for themselves. The Sethites had very different ambitions. They are described as being people who called on the name of the Lord. They listened to God’s Word, prayed, praised, and gave thanks. With both groups of people you have communities, which make them different than isolated individuals. Within communities cultures develop. People are raised and confirmed in a certain way. Members of the community support and encourage one another in their shared objectives. This is true for the worldly Cainites as well as the believing Sethites. This has been the way that things have carried on from that point forward up to the present day. Around the world there are cultures where many things are known and taught. Many things are believed in. But not everyone knows of and believes in the Savior promised to Adam and Eve. The community of believers in Christ is small in comparison to these other cultures. Nonetheless, here, there, and scattered throughout the world congregations of Christians remain. They are congregated by the Holy Spirit. They call on the name of the Lord. They hear God’s Word, pray, praise, and give thanks. Within these little communities children of God are born who will not die, but have eternal life in Jesus their Savior. Believers and unbelievers, Sethites and Cainites, have existed from the beginning. They will exist until the end of the world. But these communities do not have permanent members. As we’ve already mentioned, Adam and Eve went from being believers to being unbelievers and back again. Cain was born into a family of believers, but he became an unbeliever. Some people have been born into an unbelieving family, but God called them out of darkness into his marvelous light. The way that someone is converted as well as the way that faith is sustained is always the same. Barring some extraordinary miracle, it is always by coming into contact with individuals and communities who believes in Christ. The Word of God gets preached by Christians in such a case. The Word of God is preached to believers so that they can continually repent of their sins and believe in Christ. The Word of God is preached to those who are not yet converted, inviting them also to take refuge in the crucified Christ for their salvation. These individuals and communities who have the Word of God are essential for faith. Those places where there are no Christians are wastelands, haunts of the devil, even if they be sophisticated and rich like it was with the Cainites or with Sodom and Gomorrah. Even where there has been the Word of God, however, it can and does and always will happen that the community declines. “Judgment begins at the household of God,” as Peter says. God’s people are punished for their chasing after idols, for their cold-heartedness, for their disobedience. When God punishes with the loss of property or pestilence or some other bodily harm, then things are not so bad. But He can