We have been looking at the book of Ephesians on Sunday morning and we're taking a break from that during this mission's emphasis month today. Our text is from 1 John 2. I preached through 1 John 3, 4 years ago and I decided to go with 1 John 2 and this is kind of a new thought, a new line of thinking for me. So I especially encourage you to turn to 1 John 2. We're going to look at verse 1 and verse 2 and that's all. My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin but if anybody does sin we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense. Jesus Christ, the righteous one, he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins and not only for hours but also for the sins of the whole world. Amen. This is a sermon about missions. A song years ago said what the world needs now is fill in the blank. Love, sweet love, 1965. Who can name the original recording artist? Anyone? Jackie Dishannon. Actually that wasn't her real name. Her real name was Sharon Meyer but somehow Sharon Meyer they didn't think would be the name that people would buy a recording of. The song was written by how David the music was by Bert Backrack. It was originally offered to Dion Warwick and she declined to record it until it became a hit and then she added it on a later album. Recorded by Judy Garland and Winona Judd and the Supremes and Johnny Mathis and Luther Vandros and a host of other people. But as a Christian how would you interpret that song? What the world needs now is what? The gospel. What the world needs now is the love of Christ. This is a key statement for today. The world needs the gospel and a heartfelt understanding of the love of Christ. If you don't write anything else down, write that down. I want you to hold that thought. Now since we agree on that how can we see it happen? The most common method of trying to see that happen is just a method of simple obedience. What the world needs now is the love of Christ. Are you doing anything about that? Are you praying for a world evangelization? Are you giving to missions? Are you praying for any specific missionaries? The obedience approach is get going, get busy, get to it, get her done. That's our task and it is. And the last words that Jesus gave us were in Matthew 28 as you're going into all the world. Disciple the nations. This is the reason that our denomination, PCA has one ministry arm dedicated to that. It's called mission to the world. It's the reason why Westminster Church has a separate missions budget that we encourage people to make a faith promise pledge to and we encourage people to give to. But sometimes people not only feel encouraged to give to missions to pray for missions and missionaries sometimes people feel guilted and shamed about the subject. And I think this particular passage has something that we really desperately need to hear. What the world needs now is love. What the world needs now is the gospel. But not just what the world needs now is the gospel. What the church needs now is the gospel and what you need right now is the gospel. And so first point, let's talk about mission to you. Mission to you. Does that sound narcissistic? It's not. It's realistic. The apostle John is writing first John. It's a book about assurance and he makes it clear that he's not encouraging anybody to go off the deep end. He's not encouraging anybody to indulge in sin. That uses grace in a selfish way. It uses grace in a self-serving way. It makes a good news about the glory, the happiness, the satisfaction of you and me and not God. Let's make sure we remind ourselves that sin is serious. Sin is falling short of God's glory. Sin is missing the mark. Sin is in today's vernacular. It's making bad choices. But even more basic and more crucial. Sin is rebellion against a holy God. Sin is refusing his lordship and putting a crown on your own head instead of upon Jesus. Sin says, I am king. I make my own choices. I make my own rules. I can think independently for myself. I shall be as God. And as John reminds us in first John 3, verse 4, sin is lawlessness. Everyone who commits sin, he says, is guilty of lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. Just yesterday, I saw a couple of news reports. One of a Dutch team taking the lives of six people and wounding 11 more with a submachine gun in a suburb of Alpin outside Amsterdam or of the 14-year-old Pakistani boy who took part in a suicide mission that killed 44 people in the last couple of days in Islamabad. But whose bomb that was strapped to his body didn't go off. Sin is lawlessness. But you don't have to look at the most recent Muslim terrorist operation. Pick up a copy of a gossip magazine and see how the focus of the world is on the latest news of about the world. There's a lot of love about Charlie Sheen or Kim Kardashian with incredible evil and suffering going on in the world and there's incredible evil and suffering going on in Libya and in Uganda. With incredible evil going on, it's amazing to see how the hearts of people are curious and titillated by celebrities. It's tragic. It is horrendous. It is vicious. It is wicked. It's pure lawlessness. The world will operate by what I say and by what I desire. Now here's what's really startling. There is that kind of lawlessness in you and me when we sin. I'm serious. There's that kind of lawlessness in you and in me when we choose to sin. Again, 1 John 3, 4, everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. 1 John 3, 8. He who sins is of the devil for the devil is sin from beginning. Let me ask you a very practical question. What has been your latest encounter with your own sin? What has been your latest startling encounter with your own sin? All of you have friends, family, people you work with who are fallen to. How is it going? I have up here. I think here it is. A little container of water and the dirt and so forth has settled and it pretty well. But if I take this pin and just do that a little bit, notice how it changes. You wouldn't drink anything before. You sure wouldn't now. This illustrates your heart when you live in a sinful world. Other people, circumstances, filing your taxes, getting laid off from work, getting bad news about your parents and so forth, stirs up the muck and brings stuff to the surface that you wish like anything weren't there. That you hate beyond anything that it is exposed for other people to see. About 25 years ago I was driving my car on Memorial Drive in Stone Mountain. And it's probably as close as I've ever come to losing my life behind the wheel of a car. There were three lanes of traffic going. There was a semi in one lane, semi in the other lane and I was in the middle lane. And the driver on my right suddenly decided to move to the left. I was driving a little dots in B 210, very fragile, flimsy car. And it was obviously, obviously I was in his blind spot. He didn't see me. I jammed on the brakes just as the two trucks came together. I mean, how his truck missed me. It couldn't have been by more than an inch or two. It was so sudden my heart was in my throat. I realized I would have been sandwiched. I would have likely been dead. And all of a sudden this incredible anger and rage was stirred up in me. And I jammed the car into a lower gear and floored it to get around him. And as I went around him, I stuck out my hand from the car and I made an obscene gesture. I did. I don't believe I've ever done that before or since to another driver. I understand road rage. And in that moment I killed that man. I did. And then to my heart looked in the rear view mirror and saw a lady who was a member of my church right behind me. It's the truth. I assure you that's not my latest encounter with my son. There have been many other encounters of my sinfulness since then. That's one that's just safe to tell. When you're caught in traffic and an unruly driver pushes in on you and you have to slam on the brakes, what words come to your mind? Or what words spill out of your mouth? What angry gestures do you have? Or when someone sends against you unjustly? Or when your eyes want more than your budget allows as you shop in the department store? Or guys when you're caught looking at another woman? Or when your boss takes credit for an idea? Or you're caught in a lie? Or someone defames you or gossips about you or when you are deliberately snubbed against snubbed again by the same individual or the same group that has done it again and again. You see there are sins in which you are the victim and God calls upon you to confront the one who's sent against you and to work through your anger and to forgive as your flesh cries out for vengeance. And then there are sins where you are the victimizer. Where you're not just the victim, you're the victimizer. When your thoughts, your words, your actions, your lust, your resentments are directly responsible for harming another person. And still there's another list of things that God commands that we do, that all of us, whether it's prayer or Bible meditation or assembling with other believers or loving the brethren or encouraging the saints or rejoicing with those who rejoice and weeping with those who weep. So let me ask you seriously, how is it in your latest encounter with your own fallenness? That's be real. For the most part, all of us engage in some kind of rationalization. Well, I'm ashamed of this or that and it was wrong but it could have been worse. At least it wasn't this bad, it wasn't this bad. We engage in rationalization. I'm not trying to shame anybody, honest. I want us to be honest just for a moment. You see, there are a host of Christian books out there that are written from the perspective of, you can live a better life right now and the premise is something like, God is really for you and don't feel guilty about your shortcomings, just work harder by following these 10 principles and really it's kind of penance. More than anything, it's designed to make you feel better, look better or excuse yourself in some way. And biblically, we have to say that there is no excuse for sin. I know what some of you are thinking right now. We're here by the minute. This isn't what I expected to hear today when I came to church on a mission Sunday. There are lots of things that I could have done today and coming to church isn't the only choice that I have. Don't you have anything positive to say? I thought this was going to be about missions. Hang on because there's good news here. In your latest exposure of your own sinfulness, you have an advocate. That's what John says here. If anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. What is an advocate? You know an advocate is an advocate is someone who speaks on behalf of another person especially in a legal context. Several years ago, I think about six years ago, a deputy sheriff came to our door with legal papers. We were being sued because of a traffic accident. It was very unnerving. I didn't know that a sheriff's deputy came to your door and gave you papers and asked you to sign something that you'd received. It was very unnerving. What do we do? It was ominous. The claim was legit. There was a traffic accident that we were responsible for and you know how the legalese goes whereas the party, the first part, brought injury upon the party of the second part and so forth. Oh my goodness, it was hard to sleep. Called Steve Gilliam. Steve, what do we do about this? I was just frantic. I'll never forget his convoy. He said these words don't worry. The insurance company will assign an attorney to you who will be your advocate. He knows the law. He knows how this works. He's used to this. Steve was right. The legal process took six, eight, ten months, took a long time. There was a huge relief when it was all settled and when it was all over. What is the legal context that John the Apostle is talking about? You have an advocate, like that he says. The legal context, I believe is this. You and I standing before a holy father. Standing before a holy father. Some commentators emphasize that a truly good father cannot overlook wrongdoing because he understands the rebellious heart that produced the wrongdoing and Jesus is there to argue the case. That's a touching thought but I actually think it's the reverse of what John is saying here. This is not a picture of the father wanting justice and Jesus asking for mercy. The real picture is better than that. The real picture is of a merciful father seeking mercy and Jesus your advocate asking for justice. How is that so? It's because John says here and it's translated by the NIV. The Jesus is the atoning sacrifice for sin and the word there in Greek is the word propitiation. John uses the word propitiation, not expiation. Propitiation means the removal of sin, propitiation is a better stronger word. It's at the very heart of the gospel. You see God doesn't just forgive your sin. God doesn't just remove it. God doesn't just look away. God forgives sin by pouring out all of his wrath and anger upon a substitute. So here's the picture of Jesus, your advocate crying out for justice because he understands that all the wrath of a sin-hating God has been poured out upon him and he shows his hands and his feet and his side and he says father it's enough. Justice has been served your anger's satisfied. I did enough. Father forgive, cleanse, restore, renew. You see how great the gospel is. You're not cleared by a sharp attorney who knows tricks of the law. As guilty as we are, we are legally declared not guilty and righteous for the sake of Christ. God ever changes mind. Well God ever changes mind about you. Well God ever changes mind about your sin and the answer is never and you know why because of this one word propitiation. God has poured out his infinite wrath upon his infinite son. So we sing guilty vile and helpless. We spotless Lamb of God was he full full atonement. Can it be? Hallelujah. What a savior. That's what I mean by mission to you. This is a sermon about missions. So now let's talk about mission to the world. It doesn't say here, support missions. You should feel really guilty and bad if you don't. He's reminding us of truly good news that with every exposure of sin in your life, there should be an explosion of grace for the world. I'll repeat that. For every exposure of sin in your life, there should be an explosion of grace for the world. I mean this every time some sinful impulse, temper tantrum, whatever is shown in your life, it's a reminder to you of what's inside of you and a reminder that the whole world needs the gospel. There's a world that doesn't have an advocate. There's a world out there that knows nothing of propitiation. So how's your following this expressed itself recently? I know we're not supposed to sin, are we? And we're not. But sin is as natural a part of you as is breathing. Did you know you can't go to the grocery store apart from sinning? If you walk down the aisle, I wish I could buy that, but that's too many calories and you're resentful. But if you don't sin and walking through the aisles, you'll certainly sin when you get in the checkout line and see what your bill is. Or see what the headlines of the National Inquirer are. What's been the latest exposure of your sinfulness? Pride, gossip, lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, idolatry, lying, exaggerating, boasting, backbiting, is it bitterness? Is it bitterness? Blast for me? Is it caring too much what other people think? Is it complaining, condemning, cursing? Is it discontentment, discord, dissentions, debauchery, drunkenness, envy, factions, fits of rage, hatred, jealousy, impatience, impurity, and gratitude? How about prayerlessness? Resentment, selfish ambition, temper, unbelief, worry, so forth. The stress and strain of living in a fallen world stirs up all kinds of muck within each of us. Obviously, all of us clean up pretty good, at least what other people can see, and all of you look nice today on Sunday. But this is true, isn't it? And the recesses of our beings. Someone says, this is depressing. I don't like the sound of this. I don't like thinking about why? Why doesn't God just remove all that from me now? It's simple. You see, the world needs the gospel and a heartfelt understanding of the love of Christ. The world needs the gospel and a heartfelt understanding of the love of Christ. How do we make the gospel heartfelt? How does God make the gospel heartfelt? By the exposure of your sins. Your sinfulness should remind you of God's glory in your life by way of a deep sense of forgiveness. That's mission to you. And the gospel reminds us of a world that has no advocate, no propitiation of a world that's hopeless, and helpless, and hellbound, and lost. And every time your sin is exposed, you have an advocate and propitiation, but it's a reminder by a way of identification of those sins that are also in the world. Don't you see, that's living out the gospel, and that is mission to the world. My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense, Jesus Christ, the righteous one. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not only for hours, but also for the sins of the whole world. Let's pray that God will use the exposure of our sins to renew the work of the gospel in us and for the world. Father in heaven, we clean up good on the outside, but inwardly like the Pharisees, we're full of dead bones. And apart from your Holy Spirit, there is nothing good in us. Father, we don't thank you for our sins, but we thank you that our continuing sinfulness exposes our need for Christ, and reminds us of a world that has no advocate that knows nothing of propitiation. And so Jesus, will you renew us, and will you renew your hold upon us? Will you make the gospel good news for us? Will you make it freedom for those who are captives, and will you enable us to proclaim liberty to a lost and dying world? And we pray this in Jesus mighty name. Amen.