Few Chosen

Praise God, it's wonderful to be here. This morning please turn with me to Matthew chapter 20 and verse 16. We are right in the midst of our school of Christ. We've now passed through two weeks of the school of Christ. We've got one more week or five more days beginning tomorrow morning. It's gone so very quickly. It's just been a very powerful time with people from different nations, different cities, different languages, but all coming together to hear this message of Christ. At this particular moment we're on the series of revival. Yesterday we began with what is revival. This morning we began to look at the laws that govern revival in the Bible. Tonight we're going to go further and look at prayer and revival. Tomorrow we're going to cover many, many messages on this issue that relate to revival. But here this morning I want to deal with a message from Matthew chapter 20 and verse 16 called Few Chosen. Reading from Matthew chapter 20 and verse 16. Just one simple scripture here this morning. Matthew 20 verse 16. So the last shall be first. For many be called. This is defining what that means. For many be called but few chosen. Let's pray here this morning. Father we thank you for this school. We thank you for this church. We thank you for your plan and your purpose. We thank you for the Word of God. Even this vision of revival in an hour where it's so dark, where iniquity is abundant. We want to receive from this biblical doctrine of revival. My God we don't want to be moved by our eyes or our ears or our feelings, our traditions, our arguments. Amen. I know there's a doctrine of revival in the Bible. There are thousands of promises that you have given us and we pray that you make it alive and that you challenge us in this hour of darkness. Make this school. Make this church. Make us the womb of the morning to see another move of God in Jesus mighty name. Amen. My message in this series revival is few chosen taken from the words of Christ. It wasn't the words of a denomination or a man. These are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. Few chosen. Jesus also said in Matthew chapter 7 and verse 14, straight is the gate, narrow is the way which leadeth unto life and few there are that find it. When you come to the issue of the coming of the Lord and God's people we recognize that there are few saved when it really comes down to it. When we think of the gospel of salvation, of evangelism, of preaching you must be born again. The Bible actually says many are calling. The call goes out to many but few are chosen or few respond to the preaching of the gospel. Many are called, few are chosen. Who are the chosen? Those who respond to the gospel and receive Christ as their Lord. But here in this message I'm not dealing with the call to salvation or the call of the gospel going out to many but few responding. I'm actually applying this to church, to the body of Christ, to all Christians, to the small thing called the church, the body of Christ. You see I believe many are called in the church. They have heard the call. They know the call of God. They are the call of God and yet out of the many called in the church there are few chosen when we come to look at this thing called revival. Every revival in church history has been brought about by a dedicated few. Before the mass, the vast multitudes of the church are ever stirred there must first be a vanguard of genuine believers who have become thoroughly dissatisfied with the spiritual status quo. I mean a few in the church, a few preachers, a few Christians who actually begin to lead the way to say there is a way back. There is something better than this. There is a spiritual reality in the book of God, the Word of God. You see the force of truth begins to guide the thinking of this small vanguard and it must always be the Word of God. The Bible begins to mold their thinking. They say why sit I here that I die. There's got to be more than this. I'll never forget as a 12 year old sitting in a church on a Sunday night and as I looked around as a church as normal I said there's got to be more than this. The Spirit of God burst to cry. There's got to be more than this. I'm not satisfied with what I'm seeing in church. A desire arose that led to me being filled with the Holy Spirit of God. The Word of God has to begin to mold our thinking or you'll sit there till you die. When the Word of God begins to stir you, you begin to say there's got to be more. Why should I sit here? If there's to be a spiritual revolution and that's what every revival in church history is. Revival is a radical revolution. The word revolution means to turn everything upside down or should I say right way up or to turn everything around from the condition it is in. If God is to have another revolution in the church, he must have a revolutionary vanguard. In other words, a small group of believers somewhere at some point of time who become thoroughly dissatisfied. They become God's people for a revolution. They're not satisfied to accept things as they are. Without this spiritual vanguard of revolution built out of the radical teaching of God's Word, it is impossible to lead the dismal hosts of ordinary church members back into reality and against the enemy. It was to these spiritual soldiers that the Holy Spirit made reference in Hebrews chapter 1 verse 7 when he said, listen, he maketh his ministers a flaming fire. Who is he speaking about? Those that become dissatisfied with the condition of the church in our generation. These human firebrands sweep through the dull dead world around them making ordinary Christianity look drearily tame and dead in comparison to what is burning in their soul. I want to deal this morning with four different revolutionary leaders that began to burn with the fire and as a result of individual men who experienced this revolution, they led the hosts of God's people back again to reality. My first one here is Moses the revolutionist. God spoke to him in a bush that burnt with fire and yet it did not burn up. You know what God was saying to Moses? Moses, I'm gonna make you like this bush. You're gonna burn with deity, with the fire of God. The voice of God is gonna speak out of you but you are not going to burn up. Through this encounter with the burning bush, God commissioned Moses, that man at the backside of the desert, to go down to Egypt and to deliver an entire nation of slaves. They were slaves in their thinking. They're God's people. They prayed to God. They read God's Word but they are bound in captivity. Although they cried for freedom, no one was able to change the situation. Through Moses, the ordinary people were challenged to rise up and react. They were actually challenged to seek after a genuine revival. It all began with one man at that burning bush who went down into Egypt and said, let my people go. When revolution begins with a man, when it's directed of God, it can affect the entire church of God and an entire nation or an entire generation. Since I've got all the books of the history of revival, I've seen it time after time after time. One individual, two individuals, four individuals that were set on fire. They couldn't be held down by the compromise of Christianity. They said there's gotta be more than this hour. I'm talking about a few chosen. God always begins with a few chosen before he begins to move in the church of that generation. Nothing has changed from Moses' day right down to our own day. The great mass of believers will never be challenged to action without the efforts of a few dedicated, self-sacrificing few. If we're to lead the church back, it's got to begin with you. Don't look at the person beside you. Don't look to me. I'm challenging you this morning. Thou art the man. Thou art the woman this morning. Do not delay or you could miss out on a genuine move of God. The masses as a whole, they're timid, they're fearful, they're tradition-bound. They'll tell you why no revival can come. They'll excuse their own bankruptcy. That's how the multitudes are. They tread the beaten path of religiosity because they're a beaten people. They have no fight. They have no prayer. They have no faith. They have no reality. They're satisfied sitting there. They're not going to help themselves. Someone has to go back to revival again. They have accepted without question the creeds and dogmas of static religion that will never see revival. They'll never be free until they are set free by a spiritual revolution that challenges everything that they've come to be. They cannot see beyond the religious, even church, prison cell. Millions of people in Martin Luther's day, they hated the religious system of Catholicism. It bound them, brought them into legalism. It carried no forgiveness, no hope. It bankrupt them of hope, love, and reality. And yet, although hating it, although seeing there's problems here, none of them rose up to prevail against it. They were slaves to a system that refused to let them think in a different way. But they were too scared to do anything about it. When Martin Luther, that Catholic priest, that German Catholic priest, when he rose up as a revolutionary and walked across the roadway of Wittenberg, walking to his church and nailing the 95 theses to the door that day, a spiritual revolution began that was going to impact all of Europe. Within 30 years, two-thirds of Europe had shaken itself awake out of this spiritual dead condition that was all around. One man experienced a revolution. It all began with him finding forgiveness of sin. There's got to be forgiveness. I've got to ease my conscience. I've got to have an answer to my dilemma. When that man found the answer, he shook all of Europe from end to end. A well-disciplined army, armed with the Word of God, using the principles set forth in the Word of God, who are willing and ready to make whatever sacrifices can set the church free of this generation. I'm telling you what's happened for 2,000 years. I'm telling you of a real spiritual revolution that impacts the whole church. But it's got to start somewhere. There's got to be a womb of the morning. I'm so encouraged by John chapter 10 verse 27, my sheep hear my voice. That means I as a preacher, if I preach the Word of God, God's sheep are going to hear me. If you're a goat, you don't want to hear what I'm saying this morning. But if you're a sheep, you'll say, I do want it. I desire it. You may have difficulties, issues to deal with in your heart. But if you're a real sheep, you will hear the Word of God. If you don't want to hear the Word of God, you're a reprobate, you're a goat, you're a tear, and you're on your way to hell. I don't care what your religion is. If you rebel against the teaching of the Word, you're fast on your way to hell. You're as good as gone if you reject the preaching of the Book of God. So many sit in the church. They've never been regenerate. They've never separated from sin. They've never come to the bleeding lamb. As Suf shared this morning at the Lord's table, if the Holy Spirit deals with you, He shows you you're a reprobate sinner with a darkened heart. Then He brings you to the blood of Jesus. When the real child of God hears the voice of God through real revolutionary preaching, He knows that it's a voice of God. He responds to it. It's going to be through a preach message that God prepares a vessel again. It's going to be forged by the Holy Spirit of God. And this vessel will arise to bring another revival in our generation. Every revival movement in history has been of a revolutionary nature. It turns everything upside down that it touches. When you find a real revolution, you cannot cage that individual. He's like an eagle. He'll die if you cage him. Show me a Christian who's got a revolution going on in the inside. I'll show you a man. You can't intimidate him. You can't stop him. You can't hinder his faith or his prayers. You'll never take away that hope of revival. It is always challenged. This revolution has always challenged the system and demanded a change. Everything must change. Who do you think you are? You know, when Luther began to preach in Wittenberg, a man came and knocked on his door, said, Luther, don't you realize the whole world is against you? Don't you realize kings and princes and leaders and governors and all the men of the nation are against you? Luther simply said, listen to me, young man. I'm against them. That's what we need again. We need a revolutionary spirit. If you can be intimidated, you will be intimidated. If you can be scared, you're going to be scared. But a true revolutionary spirit, you can burn me, you can imprison me, you can stone me, you can destroy my reputation. You're welcome to do that, but I'll still, in the midst of the fires of martyrdom, I'll love you, I'll pray for you, I'll preach, and I'll say, there's coming a revival, the likes of which you've never seen in this generation. Since I'm talking about something real here this morning, the message of every revival has been considered radical and extreme by the orthodox religious church that is backslidden and far from God. The revival coming now will be different from what the church is called of our generation. This new revolution will spark the anger and the hatred of the religious. I'm talking about the evangelical church, the charismatic church, the Pentecostal churches of our generation. They are going to be the great enemies of this next revival. The very word revival speaks of a change of the most radical nature within an individual or a group of people. It is to make alive that which is dead. The word revival means to raise someone up from the dead, raise an individual, a Christian that has died in their faith, a church that is static and ready for burial. A pastor once put a sign on his church. He said, we're either going to have a burial or a revival, one or the other. Either I'm going to bury this church in the cemetery or we're going to have a spiritual revival. I'll stand on your toes. I'll either offend you. You'll either love me or hate me. But I tell you, we're not going to be a mundane, trundling along church, I can assure you in this hour. To raise from the dead demands more than a proper conduct, a nice sermon, an orderly prayer. It demands a demonstration of the kingdom of God and only the violent take the kingdom by force. Do you want the kingdom of God? Do you want healing? Do you want revival? Do you want the baptism in the Holy Ghost? You better get violent. You better storm the gates of heaven as if your life depended upon it. The second one here in 1 Kings chapter 18 and 24, and the God that answereth by fire, let him be God. These are the words of one of the greatest revivalists and revolutionists in all of biblical history. He thundered them to a people who had listened to the soft-spoken words of the false prophets and the false teachers of his generation, who had caused the people to forsake God and to forsake the written word of God. In ringing tones of sublime indifference to his own safety, he challenged the king and the dead religionists of his generation with this message, the God that answers by fire, let him be God. These words were spoken to backslidden Israel and people called by the name of God, they were known as the people of God and yet they were backslidden in heart. You know what? There can come a revolution to someone who's backslidden, who's dry, who's hard. A revolution can come to you in one moment of time. Empty forms and hollow mockery constituted the worship of that generation. They were hypocritical in all of their ministry. The time came when silence on the part of the prophet would have been sin at that time. His message forced the issue. He preached in such a way, you're either going to stone him or you're going to listen and follow that man of God, since we need a revolution again. We need a prophet of God in the church again. We need a church to rise up. It's going to be a revolutionary force. God help Eva's generation. If we don't have a revolution, their generation is facing something in the next ten years the like of which I can't even imagine. We do need a spiritual revolution. This preacher, this unusual preacher, let them know that they could win, but he let them know that they would have to face the enemy. To have a revolution, the enemy will not leave you alone. There is a victory, there is a revival, but the enemy will not let you alone. In Luke chapter, sorry, in Matthew chapter 4 verse 17, another preacher came preaching, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. With these words, the strange preacher from the wilderness of Judea began his campaign in that generation. I'm talking about a revolution beginning. Stepping forth, clothed only in camel's hair, John the Baptist challenged the religious system of his generation with a simple message. You must repent. Bring forth fruit worthy of repentance. He was indeed a true revolutionist. He was willing to place his life on the line and his head on the block for the sake of preaching repentance. He was willing to sacrifice the present for the future. That's a real Christian. That's a real preacher. I'll sacrifice everything today for what we can see in the future. I want to see glory in God's house again. I want to see souls getting converted by thousands. I want to see the power of God demonstrated in the midst of this generation. He was a revolutionist. He dared to speak the truth. He dared to demand change. The people of God were locked into a religious system. They were virtual slaves to the traditions of that generation. Orthodox methods will never break their chains since we need something better than a halfway house. We need something more than 20 minute sermons on how to have a better life now. We need a message of repentance that will bring people out of darkness. The banks of the Jordan became the main street of the world when John began to preach. Multitudes came out of the villages, the towns and the cities of Judea and Galilee and all of Israel to listen that strange man on the banks of the Jordan. To the king, he said, it is not lawful for you to have your wife. To the soldier, he said, treat every man justly. Be content with your wages. To the tax collector, he said, exact no more than is lawful. And to the religious of that generation who held the Bible in their hands, listened to it every single week. To the religious, he said, the axe is laid at the root of the tree. What was he saying to the religious? You can no longer hide behind your veneer of religion, your whitewashed sepulchres, that's all you are. Truth has come and exposed your inward naked condition. Compromising with the world to avoid misunderstanding has never advanced the kingdom of Christ. Being like the world to reach the world, sounding like them, having their music in here, dressing like them, speaking like them, trying to reach the youth by identifying, using their words, none of that has ever changed a generation in the church. All that is, is leading an entire generation to hell. Give me a spiritual revolution. Even if he's dressed in camel hair and standing on the banks of the Jordan, I'll go out to see him. The crowds will go out to see him in vast multitudes. We read in Hebrews 13 and 13 about God's principle that has always happened with every movement when a revolution begins. Listen, let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp bearing his reproach. This is a mark of every true genuine revival. In 1859 in the north of Ireland in the province of Ulster came the greatest revival since the days of Patrick. All the great church historians they say since Patrick brought the gospel to Ireland there was no greater spiritual movement in Ireland than 1859. God swept into every village, community, town, affected every single family in the nation. A hundred thousand got born again in one year. Where did that begin? It began two and a half years earlier with one new convert called James McQuilkin. He was there, no assurance of salvation, thinking he was saved, thinking he could by good works get to heaven. One lady challenged him about being born again. He got born again. Now there's one revolutionary who says the fire of God is burning in my soul. It wasn't long before he led his best friend to the Lord. After another year they led two other friends to the Lord. Now you've got four strange men, one of them old, three of them young, and they begin to pray together. They begin to read Charles Finney's sermons on revival. They begin to read the life of George Muller and about McShane in Scotland. They began to read these things and why should God not start a revival here? Why shouldn't God pour out his spirit? Why shouldn't we believe that God moves in our community? Well all the normal Christians around them, all the thousands of church folk begin to mock them, laugh at them and say you're being too radical, too extreme. You need to calm down. Give it one or two years, you'll be just like us. You'll sit there as dead as a poker. You won't move, you'll just sit there and be normal like us. Well these four men said no way, we want to see a move of God again in our generation. You know what they've done? They went down to the little schoolhouse in the village of Kells. Every Friday night they began to pray there. Just four of them, four new converts. Read me some of those passages of George Muller. Read me some of those testimonies of revival. And they sat there and then they began to pray. Who are you? Who do you think you are? All the older Christians say don't you know the Holy Spirit came once on the day of Pentecost? It's never going to happen again. It was once for all, just be satisfied. You're an extremist, you don't know good theology. But the four kept praying. After two years there's 50 in the schoolhouse. You know what? The ladies couldn't come, it was too dangerous. Everyone used to mock them, throw stones at them, bang on the door. Well they say you ladies stay at home and pray. We'll go down there and pray. On those cold winter nights they brought Pete and they began to pray. They prayed on, they prayed on, they prayed on. All the big churches around them, 2,000 people over here on a Sunday morning, as dead as anything. They haven't seen a convert in 20 years. Another church over here, 1,500, no converts in 30 years. That's what the minister said. But there's four revolutionaries and they're praying and they're praying. Do you honestly think God's going to use you? Yes, I do. Yes, I do. That's why we're here praying. We believe God's going to bring a revolution. He's going to pour out his spirit. Just one more time, one more time we need it. You know what happened? In the history books it says suddenly a minister left Balaamina. For two days he went away. When he come back, Balaamina is a different place. He came back, men hadn't slept for two days. Families, they've been praying, evangelizing. On the streets hundreds were out. BNC, born again. The whole community was changed in two individual days. Henry Grattan, Guinness, of the famous Guinness family. He was the main preacher in Belfast during that revival. Crowds of 25,000, 30,000 as this man with his southern brogue stood and preached on the streets of Belfast and the spirit of God would fall on them. Hundreds would fall on their face crying out, save us, have mercy on us God. A nation was changed in one year. Don't tell me what I'm saying is mere words this morning. This has happened time after time after time after time. What was God's vessel? What was his new cruise? What was the vanguard? Four new converts, one old man, three young men who said there's gotta be more than this. We're going to pray. We're going to believe. We're going to seek the word. Since I'm telling you of the principle of scripture, God must once again raise up a vanguard of spiritual soldiers who will dare to live dangerously. Men and women who will not seek to live on comfortable terms with this world and with the devil, but will challenge the system and the beliefs and the ethics. You know, all that generation say there'll be no more revival. I want to tell you there's coming a revival. I'm standing on the word of God. I believe it. I pray it. I preach it. Saints, we're going to see the greatest revival in world history. It will be amidst great persecution, but we are going to see revival. The greatest revolutionist of all times was the Lord Jesus Christ himself. He stepped out of the framework of conventional religion and he challenged men to be perfect like their father in heaven was perfect. He refused the traditions by breaking every rule. He plucked corn on the Sabbath. He ate with unwashed hands. He healed the sick on the Sabbath. And he told the people that they did not have to worship in Jerusalem or Samaria, but that they could see God everywhere and anywhere at any time. From the moment the spirit came on the Lord Jesus in the Jordan until he was crucified at Calvary, he was engaged in a vicious struggle against the devil. Everywhere he went, as soon as he began preaching, men plotted his death, tried to throw him over the brow of the hill, tried to kill him, tried to stone him. The enemy intended to stop this revolution right at its very beginning. Be very aware, Church of God here, when we pray and believe, don't be surprised at what we've had to face and walk through over the years. When you begin to pray for this, the devil takes good note of it. You may not, the church may not, this world may not, but you know what? The devil knows how dangerous a spiritual revolution is. In John chapter 663, in the world you have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. He warned those who followed him that the same enemy that hated him was going to hate them as well. He let them know from the very beginning that they could win, that there was a victory over the world, victory over Satan, victory over the flesh. But if you're going to embark on this spiritual revolution, you know, since all the vessels God's ever used have passed through years of preparation. You look at the two old ladies in Lewis, years, decades of praying. They're now old. They prayed for decades. We know revival is coming. Look at Wales, 17 young people in a meeting. They're not even born again. They don't know their left hand from their right. But that night, God is going to lay his hand upon them. Here in Ireland, God has moved in extraordinary ways, time after time after time. It says in Luke chapter 22 and 36, he that has no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one. These are very strange words falling from the lips of him who the Bible calls the Prince of Peace. These words were spoken at the close of the Lord's Supper. Only a few minutes before Satan had come, as they sat around the communion table together like we did here this morning, and Satan entered into Judas Iscariot and told him to betray the Lord Jesus Christ. While they tarried, the Prince of Darkness made a bid for Simon Peter as well to sift him and to destroy his faith that he wouldn't follow Christ anymore. But the Lord prayed that Peter's faith would not fail him. Since there are hours of onslaught when the enemy comes to stop the revolution, what Christ had in around him and those 12 disciples was the beginning of the revolution. Judas has gone into betrayal. Peter falls into denial. The others scatter. Thomas doesn't even know whether he's coming or going. It is real. When the hour of darkness comes, it seems like the revolution has been put out. No, let's buy just two more swords, I assure you. It's time to fight, saints. When the fight gets hard and it seems it's over, it's time to buy yourself a sword. I mean a spiritual sword. I mean the Word of God. You buy yourself a sword and get back into the battle again. The whole world has the record of the miserable failure of Peter on the very edge of the greatest revolution in church history. The storm broke over him and it was too much for him. But Peter never dreamed the conflict would be that terrible. It's only a short time before he said, Master, I'll die for you. I'll suffer for you. Everyone else will leave you, but I'll never leave you. Little did he realize how dark it would get. Some of you sitting in this room, hearing this message today, I assure you, you'd never thought it would become this intense. You sat in prayer meetings and prayed for revival. You sat under preaching and shouted amen. This vision of revival burnt within you. But then came the onslaught of hell and you almost threw the towel in. I want to assure you, saints of God, he that has no sword, let him sell his garment and buy a sword. Peter never dreamt of the reality of where this would go, but Christ commissioned afresh. Luke 22, he that has no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one. This was the call to arms, as with Cadian, when he stood up and blew his trumpet to attack the Amidianites. Christianity was born amidst blood, sweat, tears, and at no time and in no place and under no conditions has the calling changed. The devil has not been converted. Neither has he been weaned out of his wickedness. The battle is raging tonight. Do you see it in our world? Do you see it through the government, the institution, the education realms? Do you realize the battle we've come to? Why do you think this is happening right now? It's because the devil knows this is his bid on this generation. He knows if a revival comes now, more souls will get saved in one year, in this year, this generation, than in any previous revival in 2,000 years. The battle rages all around us, but God's people are not called to comfort. They're called to battle. This is your hour to fight. Time to buy a sword. Time to sell your coat. Oh no, I'm comfortable. I've got to think of myself. I've got to think of my warmth and my future and my education and my family and my house and my job and my future. Since it's all over, this is war. You are in a war. You're either going to die in this war or you're going to kill the enemy. Do you hear me? You are literally in a war. It's make or break. Either you're going to be buried or you're going to bury the enemy. But I'm commissioning you. I'm challenging you. Go buy yourself a sword. One of the supplest efforts of the enemy is to soften up the saints with appeasement and compromise. Make you go to sleep. Here's a pillow to sleep on. Just you ease yourself. You've got 30 years. Everything will be okay. 2022 will all be back to normal and we, the church, can trundle along as if none of this bad dream ever happened. And all of us pastors and preachers can just carry on with our sermons as if nothing happened. We don't need to worry about what's happening. I tell you, that's a great tragedy of this hour. After the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the struggle intensified. Thousands of saints were slaughtered. Their places of worship were destroyed. Husbands were taken away from wives and parents were removed from their children and thrown in prison. Saul of Tarsus was the main persecutor behind that persecution. In the heat of the conflict, the majority of the church began to question, is it worth it all? Is the fight worth it all really? But there is a revolutionary people that are going to reach the ends of the world. Paul the Apostle, after being converted, stood up and began to challenge that generation of the church. In 2 Timothy 2 and verse 3, listen what he said to a young preacher, Timothy. Endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Paul was crying out concerning this condition spiritually. He was calling for a vanguard in Timothy and others. If others go back, you go forward. When others stop fighting, continue to fight in this battle. He was telling Timothy, stand up, resist the enemy, fight for your faith. You can drive back the enemy. 2 Timothy 1 and 2, preach the word. Young Timothy, should they stone you? Should they leave you? Or should they come in multitudes? Preach the word. Be instant, in season, out of season. And that was Paul's commission, his last letter to this young preacher. And that is God's admonition to you in this church. Since we're here, why did God raise up this church? Oh yes, to save you, to show you that Christ is everything. But there is a calling on this church. In the school of Christ, we run it every year. You know what it's about? This message here. Few chosen. Look at the entire church. There's few chosen. But I assure you, that few chosen, they are going to hear the word of God. God, once more, at the end of the age, is calling for a vanguard of believers. The hour of darkness is here. The devil seems to be monopolizing. It seems like he's got everything tied down. It seems like it's overwhelming. You know what we need? We need a vanguard of revolutionists who will not bow, will not bend, will not compromise, and will not blow with the wind. Who will dare to believe, dare to be the new cruise, the vessel of God. A last instrument in God's hand to deal with this generation. That's the reason God birthed the school of Christ. Not to start a denomination. Not to start a movement. Not to start a organization. The school of Christ is a voice crying in the wilderness. It is a message. It is a call. It is a vision of coming revival. That is the reason that God birthed this school in Moscow in 1992. And God is going to have a new cruise. I promise you, out of this school somewhere, God is going to birth a vessel that's going to see another revival. It is going to happen. Many called but few are chosen. Every man and woman born of God is called. But out of the many who are called, a few are chosen. Because many men and women, they count the cost and they say, I'm not willing to pay that. See, you in the past, you've seen others do that. And now you're inclined to do that. You saw others say, why would they leave this for compromise and carnality and for a happy church? Why would they do that? Now the devil knocks at your door and he's saying, now it's your turn. You're either going to count the cost and say, I want to be part of a revolution. Or you're going to draw back and you'll become just a part of the mass of the many. I want to encourage you to rise up. Out of the many, a few are chosen. And you are going to decide. In 1883, a man called the Reverend Thomas Hackett from Bray near Dublin, stepped into ministry. In that particular church in Bray, it's a church of Ireland. His father had been the minister for 48 years until the time he died. Now young Thomas, his son, had risen up, grown up in this church. He'd become the new minister and for the next 20 years he preached in that church as the second minister in the history of that church. At the age of 53 years old, after preaching for 20 years, 53 years old, he retires from ministry. He steps down from ministry. Here he is, he's fulfilled his entire ministry. And in the year 1903, he steps out with no future. For the next three years he goes, my entire life's been a failure. My ministry's a failure. I didn't win souls. He was disillusioned with himself, his walk with God, with the church he pastored, with what he'd accomplished. He said, as this said, years of knowing Christ, years of Christianity, years of preaching and yet he was in a condition of utter failure, despondency, disappointment and saying, is this how I'm going to die? Am I going to have to live like that from now until the day I go to meet my Lord? Is this all it's about? Thank God in the year 1906, just three years later, he went to Switzerland, to Geneva in Switzerland, to a meeting, a conference. He'd seen an advert on holiness and consecration. He went there that year and a preacher stood up, a man of God, who preached what it meant to be crucified with the Lord Jesus Christ. Thomas, at the age of 56, after three years of utter, complete depression and disillusionment, he entered into an experience of being crucified with Christ, something he'd longed for for decades and he experienced the power of this walk with Christ, to be crucified, identified in Christ. He experienced the power of holiness, since it radically changed his life. It prepared him for one last move of God. The year following, a revival came to Great Britain, the Pentecostal revival. Thomas was actually in the midst of that. He was at the main source of the beginning of a revival. He could have missed it. He might have missed one of the greatest revivals of any century. And you know what? In Sunderland, in England, he began to preach with a new message and a new power of the Spirit. Every time they gathered, Smith Wigglesworth was in the audience. Thomas Hackett would get up and begin to preach and expound the Scripture as Smith Wigglesworth is saying, Amen, Amen, Amen. You don't even know who Thomas Hackett is and he's from your country. You better find out. This man of God, in 1913, was in a meeting, preaching, where a young boy, a young man, came into the meeting and he was late. He was at the back. Thomas Hackett, preaching by the power of God, on an experience with God, walked on to the young man at the end, said, Young man, I'd like to talk to you. Have you been born again? Yes. Have you been baptized in water? And third of all, are you baptized in the Holy Ghost? You know who that young man was? He was a man called Donald Gee, that very shortly was going to travel the world and become one of the greatest Pentecostal preachers and teachers of the Word of God in our generation. In 1916, he started helping a young man called George Jeffreys, who had come fresh out of Wales. In fact, Thomas Hackett was one of his greatest supporters, greatest encouragers. The man who came into the midst and began to teach George Jeffreys' young students of the Elam Pentecostal movement. Thomas Hackett was their greatest teacher and preacher. He was on the board, on the council. He was in amongst the young men. He was a single man. He never married through the years. And all those young students would get together and he was in there praying, saying, Seek for a revival. Seek for a revival. A man who at 53 thought it was all over and he could have been buried by the devil. The devil saying, You're finished. You're washed out. You're wasted. Your life has been pointless. Is this Christianity? You're ready to be buried. You're going to die a depressed, discouraging man. But that man heard a message and became one of the few that were chosen to be a vital part of the revival. Let me finish here. Paul the Apostle writing in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and 6, he says about 500 brethren had been commanded by Jesus, listen to this, Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high. That's what he said and Jesus said to him in Luke chapter 24. Tarry, listen, to 500. When Christ was caught up, 500 people seen him ascended to heaven. What did he say to them? I want you, this is my last command, I want you to tarry in Jerusalem. Go into Jerusalem, the city. Don't leave that city until the endowment of power comes and then go preach to all nations. 500 people heard that but only 120 obeyed the command. 380 counted the cost. They knew that to enter the city of Jerusalem meant certain death. That's what they knew. If we attend that prayer meeting, we are going to be persecuted. To enter into that upper room is to sign our death warrant like it did with Jesus Christ when he hung on the cross. They counted the cost and the price was too high. I don't want to suffer. I don't want to lose my liberties. I don't want to lose my rights. I don't want to be in prison. I don't want to be stoned. What will my family think? I don't want to identify with this movement. Do you know what it was? It was a revolution beginning after the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. But they decided not to be a part of it. Like Israel, they turned back in an effort to save their own worthless, foolish lives. But the 120 that climbed the steps to the upper room were a bruised, peeled, broken vessel. And they gave everything. But God gave them everything. God sent another revival to this vanguard, to this group of revolutionists that said, we've got nothing to go back to. We've burnt all our bridges. We've burnt our boats. The nets are rotting. We've turned our face towards Christ. And for me to live is the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus himself had ascended and left them. And the people that crucified him were waiting in the streets to do the same with them. Many are called but few are chosen. It was into that broken, peeled and bruised vessel that Pentecost came the first time. And if Pentecost or another revolution ever comes to our world, it will come into a vessel just the same as that vessel. You in this room, in this church, in this school, listening to me online, you are going to count the cost. We are being squeezed with our back against the wall. The politics, the world rulers, the powers, the institutions of the World Economic Forum, the UN, all these institutions are going to back us into that corner. And either you're going to, in this stage, you're going to bend the knee and become a part. You can have a Christianity. It will cost you nothing. Or you're going to stand and say, we need another revival. We need a stand and a revolution begin that all hell cannot stop. Since few chosen, many are called, many have heard this call, but very few really answer it. Will you stand with me here this morning? Thank you Lord Jesus. Oh hallelujah, hallelujah.