But we live in a day, I don't have to tell you that the word justice has lost its meaning. Arrests are made, trials are often a very long time in coming. Sentences are meted out, but rarely if ever are they served in full. We often seem to think there is apparent justice in the Court of Public Opinion. Justice in our criminal courts depends upon many factors, such as a lawyer's expertise, a jury's sense of right or wrong, a doctor's or another expert's opinion. Justice in our world today, you would agree, is a rather relative term. Justice depends upon how people interpret and administer that justice. This morning we want to think together about another kind of justice. We want to think together about kingdom justice. Not so much about how people deal with other people, but about how God deals with people. The scripture this morning is found in Luke chapter 16. I'll be reading verses 19 through 31. Let's stand for the reading of God's Holy Word. Luke chapter 16 at verse 19. There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with swords, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sword. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried and in Hades being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. He called out, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue from an anguish in this flame. But Abraham said, child, remember that you and your lifetime received your good things and Lazarus and like man are bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in anguish. And besides all this between us and you, a great chasm has been fixed in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able and none may cross from there to us. And he said, then I beg you, Father, to send him to my Father's house. Where I have five brothers so that he may warn them unless they also come into this place of torment. But Abraham said, they have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them. And he said, no, Father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent. He said to him, if they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead. The grass withers, the flower fades. The word of our God stands forever. You pray with me? Father, once again, we realize that we need your help to understand, to believe, and to put your word into practice. And so, Father, we pray that your spirit would come now, work with your word, bear it into our hearts, change our hearts, change our thoughts and our attitudes toward you, help us. Or Jesus said, amen, maybe seated. In the first place, we would understand from this parable this morning that kingdom justice is often in the future. There are many situations of injustice that you and I know about on this earth. Jesus is describing for us just such a situation, a situation of human injustice. We find it here in the characters of these two men. There is, first of all, this picture of luxury in this rich man. Let me say from the beginning, wealth or being rich is not a sin, in and of itself. Any more than being poor in and of itself is a virtue. This man, however, had adopted a lifestyle of self-indulgence. Says here he was dressed in purple and fine linen, and he lived in luxury every day. We might say that his was the lifestyle of the rich and the famous. He lived in dazzling, ostentatious splendor. We might even call him filthy rich. Great contrast to this picture of luxury, this second man we might call a picture of longing. His name we're told is Lazarus. Someone had carried Lazarus and had laid him at the gate of that rich man's house. Furthermore, we learned that Lazarus was sick of body, was covered with soar. Lazarus was a poor man, first when he says that he was a beggar. Lazarus was hungry, and in his hungry he would have been content to eat garbage, the scraps that fell off the table of the rich man. Nobody seems to care for Lazarus except the dogs, who it says came and licked his sores. Every day we would imagine the rich man passed by Lazarus when he left his house. Couldn't avoid seeing him. That's the picture. And some variation of that picture of human injustice takes place all the time in our world, all over the world, every day. And we might ask, does God see this? Doesn't God hear the cries of those who are used and abused across the world? Yes, he does. But his kingdom justice is very often in the future. Now we see human injustice, but eventually there comes divine intervention. We find it right here at verse 22, says the beggar Lazarus died, and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. Then it says the rich man also died and was buried. The would of course have been a big funeral. Rich men usually have a lot of friends. They're kind of attracted, some of them anyhow by the money. And they all kind of show up when he dies. Probably a long funeral service with eulogies, delivered by many important people. Perhaps a large ornate casket, lots and lots of flowers. But did you notice when the rich man died? There was no mention of angels. Will there be any angels when you die? Verse 22 begins the time king. The psalmist writes, my times are in your hands. Divine intervention can come in our lives in a number of different ways. Sickness, financial setbacks, but eventually for each one of us, it comes in the form of death. It's appointed on the man once to die and after that the judgment. And when the time comes and you die, I die. Then kingdom justice is no longer future. Kingdom justice is final. This parable presents to us today a very graphic picture of both heaven and hell. One place in scripture where we actually hear somebody who is in hell speaking to us. Regardless of what he believed about heaven and hell before he died, this man now knows that there is both a heaven and a hell. And furthermore he knows, believe me, he knows that he's not in heaven. And he learns that there is a definite separation between those two places. Verse 23 says, one man is in Hades or hell and the other man is by Abraham's side, which is another way of saying he's in heaven. But they are definitely separated. In fact, verse 29 tells us that the separation is fixed, that it's irreversible between us and you, a great chasm has been fixed so that those who want to go from here to you cannot nor can anyone cross over from there to us. You might remember Jesus taught in Matthew 13 several parables, but one of them has to do with the kingdom harvest. I think Joel preached on it a couple of weeks ago and there was a definite separation between the wheat and the weeds. Kingdom justice is final. Involves not only a definite separation, but also two very different situations. Verse 25, one man is an agony. The other man is comforted. It's clear that for the one man, the rich man, that all mercy had come to an end. He's calling out for even a drop of water, but he gets no relief. His situation has become utterly and completely hopeless. And I might think we have a hopeless situation on this earth, but it doesn't even compare. There's always hope. We start off singing this morning about hope. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness, as long as I'm breathing I have hope in him. But the rich man is in a hopeless situation. He can wonder, can't wait, whether he remembers the way things were before he died. Does this man remember how he lived in great wealth and comfort here on this earth? His request at verse 24 that Lazarus came over and weighed on him indicates that he kind of was used to that, having people who catered to his every need. But in an instant, all of that had changed forever. These two men are in very, very different situations. The separation is definite. Kingdom, justice is final. There are no appeals. There is no possibility of parole. There is no pardon or clemency available. What right does God have to do this? Maybe this guy could have done better along the way. Maybe he could have been a little more charitable for Lazarus. Sometimes we hear that even good people sometimes make mistakes. What right does God have to punish him in hell forever? Sure he was guilty of a little neglect. Which one of us? Which one of us has never passed up a beggar on the street? Will there be people like you and like me and hell? People who have just made a few mistakes along the way? Yes, I'm afraid so. Because you see the Bible is so clear that God is just. And so he must punish sin. But again, it seems harsh. What right does God have to punish us in hell forever? Well, start out by understanding that he's God. God has all the right in the world to do what he must do. His justice is kingdom justice and his kingdom justice is utterly and completely fair. To catch what this rich man is going through just now. He doesn't think that God has dealt fairly with him. Listen to what he said. He says, I beg you, Father, send Lazarus to my Father's house. For I have five brothers. Let him warn them so they will not also come to this place of torment. Any really saying, give my brothers a chance that you really didn't give me. Does God been fair? Does he been fair to the rich man? Does he been fair to the rich man's brothers? Does God been fair to you? I have to ask myself, does he been fair to me? One of the first place says here there's a warning. In response to this, rich man's request for a, I guess we'd call it a special warning for his brothers. Abraham replies, they have Moses in the prophets. Let them listen to them. Now, Moses in the prophets is just another way of referring to the scriptures. The scriptures that Dale and all the rest of you Gideons are careful to place wherever you can out in the world today. The scriptures contain God's rules, God's laws. In the case at hand, the duty required by God for this rich man toward Lazarus is found in Leviticus 19, 18, where it says, love your neighbor, rads yourself. What part of love your neighbor was so difficult for this man to understand? Then the scriptures also warn of the consequences of disobedience. Of our failure to do what God so clearly requires of us, you know, when we fail to obey God, there are consequences, consequences that are eternal. Everyone will die for his own sin. So it says Jeremiah chapter 31, Ezekiel 18, the soul that sins is the one who will die. God is completely and utterly just. Kingdom justice is always fair. The rich man in this case have been forewarned by Moses in the prophets and you know what? You and I have an even greater warning. We've got the New Testament in addition to what he had. We're told in Romans 6, 23, that the wages of sin is death. And then we're given kind of an even more detailed picture of kingdom justice in Revelation 20, where it says the dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. Why is this rich man in hell? Why is he in such great agony, quite simply because he disobeyed God's law? He was warned. He knew what it said, but he had not obeyed that law. And his disobedience, you see, had eternal consequences. Kingdom justice is completely fair. I mean, it sounds hard, harsh, very unusual, hard for us to understand because you see none of us really has any idea of what justice looks like when it's completely fair. We only have experience with human justice by a very definition that can never be completely fair. In case of God's kingdom justice, there is not only a very clear warning, but there's also a very clear way. We read earlier that this rich man is still very concerned for his five brothers, but God's warning in Moses and the prophets hadn't worked for him. I mean, presumably he'd read it. He didn't work for him. He's in hell, so he's not real sure that that warning is going to work for his brothers either, but he's got an idea, amazing how the human mind, even in hell, still has a better idea. He thinks he knows what will work. He knows what will get his brother's attention. He says if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent. Abraham said if they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead. Moses in the prophets, the Old Testament scriptures as a whole, point clearly to who? Jesus Christ. Jesus puts it this way, and John 5, he says, if you believe Moses, you would believe me, or he wrote about me, and so according to Moses and the prophets, according to the scriptures, God provided a way, a just way, a fair way in Jesus Christ, he is the only way for us to get to heaven. Furthermore, you would understand he is that someone from the dead that he's looking for. Jesus rose from the dead just as Moses and the prophets had predicted. How did the rich man get to hell in the first place? Got there the way that everybody else that gets there is going to get there. He earned it. Like you and like me, the rich man was a sinner, and God says the wages of sin is death. Is he for every sinful man and woman, like we all are, for all of us, the day of our death, is a great and a final payday. On that day we received the wages, the paycheck, for all of our sinful activity here on this earth. God says those wages are death. He's talking here about eternal death in hell, eternal separation from God, agony and torment forever. How did this rich man get to hell? He got there the old fashioned way. He earned it. The real question, the real question that every one of us needs to ask as we study this parable today is not how that rich man got to hell. The most important question for each one of us here this morning, how did Lazarus get to hell? Most important question of the parable. We don't learn a whole lot about Lazarus in the parable. Beyond the fact that he was a beggar, that he was poor, he laid on the street outside the rich man's gate, those facts won't get somebody in to heaven. The main focus of the parable, of course, is on the rich man. He does most of the talking. Jesus focuses on his attitude, but you notice that we're not even told the rich man's name. We do learn that the beggar's name is Lazarus. In fact, if you read this parable, you can't miss his name. It occurs five times in what is a rather brief parable. Now, back in those days, in Bible times, you would understand that names had great meaning and significance. What do you think Lazarus means? Lazarus means God has helped. How did this man named Lazarus get to heaven? God helped. Lazarus get to heaven. Lazarus got to heaven by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and you say, how do we know that? I didn't read that in the parable. Well we know that Lazarus got to heaven by faith in Jesus Christ because Jesus is the only way that anybody will ever get to heaven. I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. God helped Lazarus get to heaven. No one can get to heaven without God's help. Our subject today has been kingdom justice and surprisingly, it's kingdom justice that helps us get to heaven. Rich man deserved kingdom justice for his sin. He got that justice in hell. You and I deserve the same kind of kingdom justice. Remember when we started our study of the parables back in the winter? One of the things I said was that the parables are all about the one who is telling them. And the one telling this parable is Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ knew something about kingdom justice. In fact the Lord Jesus knew even as he told this parable that he himself was going to receive kingdom justice. Even as he describes for us this rich man's agony and desperation in hell. He knew that he was about to experience that same agony and desperation. As I've said the rich man earned his trip to hell. The Lord Jesus would not earn his trip to hell. This just one Jesus Christ would be punished for the unjust. So we might say in his case kingdom justice was completely unfair because Jesus did nothing to deserve kingdom justice. Second Corinthians 5 it says that God made him who had no sin to be sin for us. Jesus tells this parable about kingdom justice. Lazarus is in heaven because the Lord Jesus would descend into hell. The only way that anybody gets to heaven is because God sent Jesus to hell. Lazarus needed God's help to get to heaven. I need God's help to get to heaven and you need God's help to get to heaven. That help, that way to heaven comes only by faith in Jesus Christ and what he did in taking kingdom justice for my sins. It's one of us here in this room this morning is quite certain of one thing. Well certain that one day the time will come for us and God will intervene in my life in your life and we will die. But are you just a certain of one other thing this morning? Are you just a certain of what will happen to you when you die? The parable is unlike any other than I'm aware of it because it gives us a very graphic picture of two different men in two very different places. Rich man had earned his place in hell. Do not think for a moment that you and I are any better than he was. Do not think for a moment that somehow you've earned a place in heaven. Bible makes it so clear over and over again that you and I have earned a place in hell. It's a sure thing. You can bank on it, you can bet on it, you can plan on it. You and I might make jokes about hell but none of us ever wants to go there. We all want to go to the other place. We want to go to that place where Lazarus was. We want to go to heaven. So if I'm sure that I'm going to die, how can I be just to sure that I'm going to heaven? It's the most important question you know you're ever going to answer. It's the only question on God's final exam. His final exam is open book. He gives you the right answer ahead of time in the Bible. Once again, here's the question. If I'm certain that I'm going to die, how can I be certain just to certain that I'm going to heaven? Now the correct answer is found all over the scripture but I want to take you to a certain place this morning. 1st John 5, verses 11 through 13. If you have your Bible, you can follow along, I'm going to read these three verses. 1st John 5 at verse 11. This is the testimony that God has given us eternal life in this life is in his son. Whoever has the son has life, whoever does not have the son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the son of God so that you may know, that you may be certain that you have eternal life. Everyone who is in hell will have earned the right to be there. Everyone in heaven will be named Lazarus. Everyone who is in heaven will be there because they have been helped by God. Would you like to receive God's help in Jesus Christ so that you can get to heaven? If you would, let me invite you to pray, I'm going to go through a prayer. I want to trust in Jesus Christ this morning, follow along in this prayer with me. We have prayed to God with me now. My Lord and my God, I have lived my life my way and in a midst of trying to do that, I've done many wrong things. I'm truly sorry for all my sin. Please forgive me. I trust you now, I trust Jesus Christ to be my savior. Thank you, Jesus, for dying for me, for taking my punishment. I ask you now for the gift of eternal life and I give my life to you. I want you to be my Lord to help me to live for you by the power of your Holy Spirit. These things I pray in Jesus' name, amen. If you've done that and you'd like someone to help you understand what you've done, talk to one of the pastors or one of the elders. Let's stand for the benediction. And now make grace and mercy and peace. From God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit be with you now and forever.