S2 Episode 25 | The Hard Truth

S2 Episode 25 | The Hard Truth. In this episode Pastor Leon discusses the watering down of the final destinations we face after death. You don't want to miss the direct approach he shares in affirming the truth of the Bible. Please consider subscribing, but please Like and Share with everyone you know. Love y'all!!!

Transcript

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Hello and welcome to the Unqualified Podcast with Leon Wilson. That's me. Thank you for joining me on this Thursday episode of the Un Unqualified Podcast. I am in the studio. You may have noticed that we have rearranged things, and uh I'm extremely thankful that my sister uh D came to uh help me with the podcast and get um the studio rearranged and everything. It is uh it's going uh going great and it's ergonomic and and all this other. So um it's also doubling as my study. Um y'all know that I'm a pastor. I'm the pastor of Mercy Church, which is currently in Pacolet, South Carolina. Um you can you can follow us on Facebook, Mercy Church Pacolet, P-A-C-O-L-E-T, or uh you can follow us on uh YouTube. We have started a YouTube channel and it's Mercy Church Life. Um and and you'll see the logo there for that. And uh if you search the Facebook page and that, follow both of those. Uh like, share, subscribe what you see. Um, and if you have stumbled upon this podcast, I ask that you would like, share, and subscribe this. Um I am on you, I'm on um TikTok, I'm on um Instagram, and you can like uh all of those and and follow me on there. Uh I am Leon Slick Wilson on on those. And uh the army gave me the name Slick, and uh, and so I ran with it. I still have family that call me Slick. I got uh nieces and nephews that call me Uncle Slick, um, but that's what they called me. But you know, uh I serve a God that can take someone who's known for um for all the wrong reasons and turn it around. And I I I will say this you were born with a name. It is not until you get uh you get saved that you are reborn again. Uh and and look at look at some of the disciples who had to keep their same names. Um, but there are some disciples who were renamed from by Jesus. They came to faith later, but they were surnamed. Um, and here's here's the deal. When we get to heaven, there's a little white stone that's gonna have a name on it that only God is gonna call you. And so the Lord is gonna call you by this new name, and you're gonna know, hey, this is my pet name from the Lord. Isn't that something? So the army called me slick. Um originally it was Slick Willy, because my last name's Wilson, and um and it was for all the wrong reasons. But you know, the uh the the people that still call me slick, it's a reminder of where the Lord brought me from. And that the Lord can take somebody like me and do something amazing with me. Uh, and you and and look at what he's done. It's amazing. Uh, I look around. Uh well, let me put it this way. We we're doing vacation Bible school. Tonight's the last night for vacation Bible school at Mercy Church, and it's our first vacation Bible school. Uh, last night I had the honor of leading six people to the Lord, and that is just phenomenal. That's that's I I can't I can't put a value on that. If if everything were to fold up, the church were to dissolve today, the it would all have been worth it. And um all of heaven rejoices over one sinner that's saved. And and and think about it, like here's six that are saved. And now their final destination, there's one, uh their two children got saved in this household, and now the whole household is saved. Isn't that amazing? Like, you think about that. And and put that put that in perspective 50% of the household was unsaved. 50% of the household, if the trumpet were to sound yesterday morning, half the household would be saved. But because of the other two that got saved, 100% of their household is going to heaven. That that fascinates me. And here's the thing like I there's been some debate and everything, and I I studied eschatology for uh the better part of 10 years now. And uh that's the study of the end times and how close we are actually to the rapture and where we are in the end times. And I look at life, current event, through the lens of the Bible. And this episode, one of the things that I want to cover, the the probably chief among all things, is to clear up the idea that everybody just goes to heaven. Because that is that that couldn't be any further from the truth. Not everybody goes to heaven. And if you I just put my chair down some, but if you if you are one of them people that think everybody goes to heaven, then let me show you how wrong you actually are. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Nobody gets to the Father except for through Jesus. That's how that's that's how this works. It is faith in Christ that gets you saved. And and that's what uh the jailer, when he when he he fell down, he was gonna fall on his sword. And Paul's like, wait, we're all here. And and in Thessalonica, they were in this jail. The jail's still there. You can go visit it. It says it's Paul's jail. And so you can go to this jail and you can see where it was. There was a um, there was an earthquake. The Lord sent an earthquake and freed all of them so that they could escape. And the the jailer comes in there and he's he's he already knows he's in trouble. And he's like, I'm gonna fall on the sword because I'd rather die than than to face um the punishment that I've got to face because these guys got free. Paul's like, wait, we're all here. And he says, you know, wait a minute. You know, like y'all are all here. And he says, What do I need to do to get saved? And Paul's like, you just gotta believe. But let me show you something. This is in the book of John, chapter 8, verses 23 and 24. I'm just gonna read it and then we'll talk about it. And he said unto them, This is Jesus, ye are from beneath. I am from above, ye are of this world, I am not of this world. I said therefore unto you that ye shall die in your sins, for if ye believe not that I am He talking about the Christ, ye shall die in your sins. Not everybody goes to heaven. There was a poll done that said over 70% of Americans believed that when they die, they just automatically go to heaven. That's not the case. There's a lot of lies. There's a lot of just uh misinformation that that is circulating around America and in the world, but I'm an American, so I can only speak from an American perspective to a degree. But I will tell you right now with 100% certainty, there's only one way to get to heaven, and that's through Jesus. He said, I'm the door. You have to go through Jesus. You can't just go to heaven. When you die, I don't care how good of a person you are, you could have donated your entire life to charity. You could have uh gone out and like help widows and help orphans and open an orphanage widowy and all this other stuff. You could have bought cars for veterans and you could have cured cancer, but that just because you're a good person does not mean you go to heaven. It's a lie from the devil that says that just good people go to heaven. You cannot earn your way to heaven. Jesus paid the price with his life. God loved this world so much that he gave Jesus his son, sent him on a rescue mission to save your soul. That's what you gotta believe. Here's the thing we think, man, it can't be that easy. But we thought it was easy enough to just go, just don't do any wrong, you get in heaven. We think it's that easy. No, it's not. It's this easy. You have to believe that God loved this world so much that he sent Jesus to die for our sins, and that what he did on that rugged, Roman, cruel cross was enough. And that he died for your sins, that he rose again on the third day, that he ascended to God the Father, he's seated on the right hand, and he's coming back. And if you believe that gospel, you will be saved. But a belief is something that you can have you can miss heaven by this eight inches, twelve inches, because I know the story, but believing it is something totally different. I have pure faith in God because I know what he's done, and I know that that same God loved me so much that if it was just for me, Jesus would have died on that cross. Just for me. Hell is a real place. And let me tell you the cold hard truth that nobody wants to tell you. There are people that you love that were good people who are in hell right now, that have died and have not gone to heaven. I've got family, I've got friends, I've got people that I love dearly, just absolutely over the moon for loved, that died, and I don't know what their last moments are, but if they did not receive Jesus Christ, if they did not come to faith in Jesus Christ, then they didn't get their wings and all this other stuff. You know, they always make these shirts and Facebook posts, another angel got her wings and all this other stuff, or so-and-so got her wings fly high. No. If they don't believe in Jesus, they don't go to heaven. That's the cold hard truth. That's what nobody wants to say out loud. Well, they're just separated from God. No, it's it's deeper than that. They're separated, but they're in a specific place, and then there's judgment. And when that judgment happens, everyone who's unsaved goes from hell, Tartarus, um, Sheol to the lake of fire. And that's how that works. People are saying, well, why would God let good people die and go to hell? No, God gave us the way. God loved us so much he gave us the way. Let me ask you this. If were you born perfect, perfect, absolutely perfect? No. Because the truth is we're we're a corrupt, fallen species capable of so much horror. Adolf Hitler was born a baby. If he would have died as a baby, he would have gone to heaven because he was not accountable. But once you reach the age of accountability where you understand there's a right and there's a wrong, you have a choice to make. And when you reach that age of awareness and understanding of right and wrong, and that there is a morality, you understand. I know I'm supposed to do this, I know I'm not supposed to do this. When you reach that age, and I don't know when that is particularly, I can't put a number on that. Only God knows that. And and God deals with us on an individual level, that's that. And I don't have to understand it. You don't have to understand it. There's some people that will like spend their whole life researching this. Fine, do that, whatever. I'm saying that when you reach that age and and you come to knowledge of Jesus Christ, you have a decision you need to make at that point. I can dive deeper so that I can learn and decide for myself whether or not I want to believe in this Jesus, or I can go the rest of my life and act like it doesn't exist. But the deeper you dive into the ideology of Jesus Christ and the truth of Jesus Christ, the more you realize this is a real thing. And when you get to the point where you have faith in Christ, and everyone who has set out to disprove Christ has come to faith. And there are some people who are so vain and so arrogant that they have they have this uh deep-seated knowledge that that if they were to just yield, they would believe that they have developed a shell around their heart. And uh some of them, one was uh uh some big wig in the uh satanic church who came to faith, and and he's a huge outspoken advocate for Christ now. And uh what's amazing is you know, these people, you know, it it takes a whole lot of faith to just not believe the truth. You have to have some deep-seated hatred and and a hard heart to decide I'm going to do everything it takes except for believe the truth. And I mean, that's a hard-headed individual, stiff-necked individual. And there are people like that in this world who will try to turn you against the truth. And that's what's sad. I'm an advocate for the truth. I just want you to know the truth. And I say shame on all of the preachers and shame on all the pastors, shame on all the Christians who do not say the hard truth. And here's the hard truth: there is a heaven and there is a hell, and you will spend eternity in one of the two places. And it there is a hard, rough time coming that is rougher, and Jesus even said it's such as the world will never see, has never seen, and will never see again, that this tribulation, this rough period, the wrath of God is going to consume this world, and it's gonna be so bad that that you are that there will be people who are going to seek death and will not find it. This time is coming on the earth. And let me let me just say the the pointed truth. The only way to escape it is Jesus Christ. That's it. And you don't have to like that. I hope you do. I hope you love it. I hope you're one of those people who are like, man, well, let me learn more about him. Just like those six souls last night. One of which um texted and said, um, well, her mama texted and said um she wants to get saved. She wants to ask Jesus into her heart. I'm like, I'm on my way. Five at the church, one at a house call. And praise God for that. But here's the thing these were children of different ages. There are adults who are so in their own arrogance and vanity refusing the gospel because they believe they know a better way. Here's what's sad. Some of them have children and would much rather concede to their arrogance and drag their whole family to hell than to advocate for the truth. Let me let me put it this way if I knew a flood was coming, a flash flood, the dam is breaking, it's coming. But I love my home so much that I refuse to believe that this flood is gonna happen. And because I refused to believe it's gonna happen, I want my kids to stay in this home with me, and my my wife to stay in this home with me. And so I refuse to tell them that the dam is breaking, that there's only a few hours left, that they have cleared out the rest of the town, and there's maybe just a handful of families that might believe like me, but I don't even I don't even care what they do. I just know that I refuse to believe the dam is gonna break. I would much rather fix my fix my door that's coming off the hinge and and repair some siding or or um or just watch the the TV, Netflix or something. Then tell my family that the dam is breaking, the flood is coming, and we're all gonna pass away. We're all gonna die. A horrible death. A tsunami is coming. But because I don't want it to be true, I'm gonna risk my family's life. That's the same thing. Only the flood comes, boom, the dam breaks, the flood comes, all that water rushes through the town, it's annihilated, and it's utter utter carnage in this place. And then after that, eternity. Let's say my kids that that died in the flood, they're we'll say they're 16, 17 years old. They know right from wrong. And let's say that, you know, they've they've seen mommy and daddy that uh they've seen mommy and daddy cuss Christians out who are just trying to share the gospel on the street corner. And and they've uh called them all kinds of names and things like that. So these teenagers are raised to think like that. So the dam broke, the water came, the flood came, that tsunami of water and and destroyed the entire town along with me and my family. And because I've led my family in the way that I've led my family, none of them gave any room for the gospel of Jesus Christ. But because of my hard heart, my wife felt like she would be embarrassed if she even mentioned church. And my kids, they would, they were the same thing, and I've done alienated you know them from any kind of Christianity at this point. And so we all die. And then the judgment comes. We open our eyes in someplace that's dark. There's worms, there's all kinds of other things. There's heat, there's nastiness, there's demons. And in this hell, in outer darkness, I'm calling out for my family. And the only thing I can muster to say, aside from their names, is I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I should have told you the truth. I should have told you there was something after this. I was told as a kid about this Jesus, and I should have told you that. And in the distance, maybe I can hear their voices, maybe not. But maybe part of my torment is that I can hear them, but they can't hear me. Maybe part of my torment is that I hear this laughing in the g in the distance, and I just know it's the devil. And he's laughing maniacally because he won. And that's a very stark visual of the truth that no one wants to say. There is a hell. Now let me say it this way. Let's say this damn breaks. Let's say this little family of four is on their way back from a youth camp. Mommy and daddy were on the Staff. They drove their 16, 17-year-olds to this youth camp. It was in the middle of nowhere on some private property. And in this youth camp, both of their teenage boys got saved. Gave their hearts to Christ. And let's say that same flood, that same dam breaks, the flood comes and sweeps that car off the road and into some trees, and then it's just carnage. And the daddy closes his eyes down here for the last time and opens his opens his eyes, and his spirit, his soul, is with the Lord. And he looks over to his right and he sees his wife and he sees one of his sons, and he's like, where's the other? And he looks to the left because he hears, I'm right here, Dad. Are we in heaven? And it's beautiful. They see colors they never even imagined before. They see uh just this construction that wasn't made by hands because it has no fixed dimensions and clean lines and everything. It's just uh it's like it's put together with with an imagination. They're smelling things they never thought possible, and and they're hearing voices and music and and all these other sounds that it it's like a it's like everything has a sound, and it's all an orchestra in praise and worship of Almighty God. And all the daddy can say is thank you, Lord. Immediately he drops to his knees, his spiritual knees, because he doesn't have a body just yet, and praises God. Thanks the Lord. All he can do is worship. What a mighty contrast between the two futures. You have a decision to make. They might be watching some kind of weird podcast, they might be uh finding all their answers on uh YouTube Discovery channel. I don't know, whatever. I'm just saying that when you when you read the Bible for yourself, it clearly tells you what this world, what the layout of this timeline that we're on looks like. And if you pay attention, have any kind of reading comprehension, you will see the truth that Jesus spoke clearly of the end times. And uh there there was one that was even saying that there'd be nobody left behind. Uh and the Bible doesn't say that. And I said, Um, okay, one is taken, two men in the two people in the field, one taken, the other one left. I mean, it's clear right there. It's clear. Doesn't get any clearer than that, and you don't need any higher authority than Jesus Christ. But here's the deal. For the Lord Himself shall descend with a shout, the voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first, and we who are alive and remain shall be caught up to meet them in the air. So here's the deal. When Jesus comes in this rapture, there are some of us gonna meet him in the air. The dead in Christ, and then those of us who are in Christ are gonna meet him in the air. And then the worst time ever in human history will ensue. So I don't want to hear anyone being left behind. I'd much rather make heaven crowded. And I know since last night, there's six more with us. And there's potential tonight's our last night. You know, I'm I'm praying, I'm hoping that the Lord get to uh some others. And I don't care, or at least one more. Just one more, God, please, one more. But I look forward to being able to meet these kids and these adults that we're gonna meet here in a little bit and and invite them to Christ. Here's what I don't want. I don't want to waste what the Lord provided us and the opportunities that he provided us going back and forth with people who claim to be saved. I'm not gonna argue with the veterans, with the brethren. I'm not. I'm not arguing with the saved. I'm arguing against the devil because he's the one trying to hold people back. And he would love nothing more than to split us Christians uh one against the other and have us waste our energy fighting with each other than trying to fight against the darkness that's trying to take our children. Why on this planet do we spend so much time fighting against the church, the church fighting against each other, than the church pushing back against the darkness? Like we're here for a reason. We have a mission. Our mission is simple. Share the gospel as much as humanly possible. Share the gospel. Use whatever platform you have, get the good news out because Jesus is coming back. And when he comes for us, I want that reunion to be so big in the air that I can't see past too far. I can't see uh past one person to see the other. My goodness. What an image. Listen, I love you. God loves you. This has been the Unqualified Podcast with Leon Wilson.