I'm going to start reading here
in verse 11. And I beheld another beast coming
up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb, and he
spake as a dragon. And he exercises all the power
of the first beast before him, and causes the earth and them
that dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly
wound was healed. And he doeth great wonders, so
that he maketh fire to come down from heaven on the earth in the
sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the
means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight
of the beast. saying to them that dwell on
the earth that they should make an image to the beast which had
the wound by a sword and did live. And he had power to give
life unto the image of the beast. And the image of the beast should
both speak and cause that as many as would not worship the
image of the beast should be killed. And he causes all, both
small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark
in their right hand or in their foreheads. and that no man might
buy or sell, save that he that hath the mark, or the name of
the beast, or the number of the name. Here is wisdom, that him
that hath understanding count the number of the beast, where
is the number of a man, and his number is six hundred, threescore,
and six. We're going to talk about this
second beast tonight. Remember, we looked at that beast
last week that came up out of the sea. And the beast that came
up out of the sea is symbolic and represents nations, governments,
anti-Christian governments. And you think about the world's
governments right now. You think about them, how corrupt
they are. And all you know, you think about
how beastly they are. He's got a good description of
them. These governments and wars around the world are beastly.
They're very beastly. And they rule. And they reign. And the more of their power that
they can get, the better they like it. And people love to be
governed. And that's what he's talking
about, the anti-Christian government. And I said this last week, there's
no such thing as a Christian nation. Never has been and never
will be. Never has been and never will
be. There are nations that forget God. All nations that forget
God should be turned into hell. Israel and Judah, God's chosen
people, they turned to idols. I mean, they weren't even out
of Egypt three days and they started finding fault with God
after He took them through the Red Sea. So you think about how
beastly our nations are. That's a good description. They're
beastly. They're just very beastly. And they eat people up and just,
they don't care about people. They say they do, but they don't
care about people. They care about power. Care about
authority. Care about letting people know
that I can do this and I can do that and I can do something
else. But this second beast that comes up out of the earth, He's
the most dangerous, and here's the reason why. There in verse
11, he had two horns like a lamb. He appears as a lamb. He appears
as a lamb. But I want to go up and make
just a few comments on this verse 10 before we... Remember now,
the only people that's not going to worship this beast, worship
the governments, worship the nations of this earth, and have
not bowed down to them as those whose names are written in the
Lamb Book of Life from the foundation of the world. They're the ones
that's not going to do it. They're not going to do it. God ain't
going to let them do it. But it arises, and then he says,
he that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity. Our
Lord said here, you saints of God, you people of God, if somebody
leads you into captivity, they're going into captivity. except
they can only lead you into captivity for a while, I'll lead them into
captivity for eternity. And then he says, he that killeth
with a sword, if you get killed with a sword, and somebody takes
a sword against you, he must be killed with a sword. But the
sword that God wields is the sword of His justice, and that
lasts for eternity. And then he said, here is the
patience and the faith of the saints. Remember, whatever they
do to you, God's going to do it to them. In fact, they're
going to suffer for eternity. We just suffer for a time. They'll
suffer for eternity. And that's why he says, but now
let's go down here and go back to this second beast. Now, when we remember that these
beasts, Satan is the one that uses them. They're just something
in his hand to use. And they're used of him. And
you and I have no idea, no conception whatsoever of the wickedness
that goes on in this world and the spiritual wickedness that's
in high places and among the spirits of this earth. And the
scriptures teaches us that very, very plainly. But here's the
thing about this second beast that come up out of the earth
that had the two horns. This second beast represents
or symbolizes false religion. false philosophy, because he
comes as a lamb. And let me show you over here
in Revelation 19. Look over in Revelation 19 in
verse 20. Now, here you see the beast.
You see the boast of the beast here taken in verse 19 and 20,
but I'm just going to look at verse 20. And the beast was taken, and
with him the false prophet. Listen to this, that wrought
miracles, this false prophet wrought miracles before him with
whom, with which he deceived them that had received, listen
to this, the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his
image, they were both cast alive into a lake of fire burning with
brimstone. So therein is already determined
that this false prophet, this is false religion, this is false
philosophy. And I told you, you know, I looked
up humanism this week. And humanism, let me tell you,
they've got a manifesto. You know, you've heard of the
Communist manifesto? Humanism's got a manifesto. They've
got things that they believe, and they go down the line with
the things that they believe. They've got a manifesto. And
they meet, and there's a ruling body of them people. And they
all meet in great big groups, and they decide what's going
to happen in this world, what needs to happen in this world,
and how that the man can solve all of our problems. And if they
could just get rid of religion, then man wouldn't have no problems.
Wouldn't have no problems. But this false prophet here,
this false religion, he outwardly resembles a lamb, but inwardly
he's a dragon. He's a dragon. And you know,
you can hear him when he speaks, he has the voice of the dragon.
And he has two horns, he don't have ten, he has just two horns.
And when you look at him, he appeals to the eyes. He's appealing,
he's attractive. And this beast looks innocent
when you look at him. He looks like a lamb. But his
speech is what be praising. When he speaks, you hear the
voice of the dragon. And a speech is what betrays
everybody about what they think and what they believe. Now it
really does. I can show you that. Speech reveals
the inner thought, the inner essence, the character of a man.
And so what you say outwardly and what you are inwardly may
be two different things. You may appear to be something
and be something else altogether. Let me show you what I'm talking
about in Matthew 12 and verse 34. Matthew 12, 34. You know our
Lord Jesus. You know His speech betrayed
Him. And here's what our Lord said about these people here. Matthew 12, 34. O generation
of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak anything good? How can you speak anything good?
You're an evil person, how can anything good come out of you?
For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. And
you remember when Peter stood before the fire and he denied
the Lord Jesus Christ. This one woman says, you're a
Galilean, you're following him because your speech betrays you. Your speech lets us know who
you're from and who you're with and everything about you. His
speech, his language betrays you. And that's what it does.
Our speech, our language, and what we say reveals the essence
and character of a person. And this is Satan here now. And
let's see, look at his voice. When you look at a false prophet,
he may look beautiful, he may appear gracious, he may appear
nice, but listen to what comes out of his mouth. You say, this
is Satan appearing as an angel of light. Paul said that. He said, they're false apostles,
deceitful workers. Satan appears as an angel of
light. And his ministers are ministers
of righteousness. What does that mean? They're
teaching you how to live righteous, how to act righteous, how to
attain righteousness, and how to finally end up in heaven if
you're righteous enough. And that's what he means about
that. And then they come disguised as sheep. You remember our Lord
said, you know, they'll appear outwardly as sheep. But inwardly,
they're ravening wolves. They come among you, and they
look like a sheep. They look like a sheep. And he
comes up out of the earth, and James says the wisdom of this
earth, the wisdom of this world is earthly, sensual, devilish,
devilish. And these two beasts, one of
them is the anti-Christian government, and I mean our government as
anti-Christian as it can possibly be. It really is. I have no problem saying that. I really don't. I really don't. And it's anti-Christian religion.
The second beast is anti-Christian religion. And they work together. It may not appear like they do,
but they work together. This false prophet, he exercised
all the power of the first beast. Remember, his head had blasphemy
on it. And he exercises all the power
of the first beast. And they promote the same interest.
And you know what their interest is? Cause men not to worship
God in Christ. That's what they want to stop
men and women from worshiping God in Christ. You know what
they want you to worship? They want you to worship the
will of man. The great God of this age and the great God that's
always been, the greatest God that's ever been in this world,
is man's free will. Man's will is so powerful, so
mighty, so powerful that God himself can't do anything about
it. Cry out to man in his abilities. Bring God down and he ain't got
no abilities. Tell man what he can do for God. Don't never tell him what God
done for him. Tell everybody to love Jesus. Because He loves you, whether
you ever manifest it or not. And that's what they do. They
say, worship the wheel. Wheel worship. Paul said in Colossians,
it's wheel worship. And then they teach you to, you
know, to human life is everything. And yet at the same time they
turn around and they commit abortions by the billions. You know how
much important life is to these people that run our governments?
They kill people by the billions. You think that's as anti-christian
as you can get? You can't get no more anti-christian
than that. God's the only one who can give life, and he puts
life in a woman's womb, and she decides as a government to pay
for it, and say, listen, go ahead and kill that baby. It ain't
nothing anyway, it's just a blob. Just a blob. And oh my, and then they get
taken up with a particular race. Oh my. And I say what they want
to do is to subject men to the authority and the will of men. Paganism. You know, you don't
have to go very far to find paganism. Go up here and stand on the streets
and cross one. You'll run across all the paganism
you want. Huh? You had to go far. I was
a pagan. I was as pagan as they was. Now
you ain't in that way. I was a pagan. I was a pagan. The worst kind of pagan. And
then you really worship paganism. When I was in Vietnam, I think
they had these pagodas everywhere. And they got these little Buddhas
sitting in them. And you know that you go in their
homes, they got these little Buddhas sitting around. And you
know you go and rub Buddha's head or rub his belly. Man, you're
alright. And then there's the Pope. Now
I'm not talking about you, but listen. Do you know the Pope
took out his hands and people bowed down and kissed his ring?
What kind of man thinks he's got the authority and the power,
and what kind of a fool is it that would bow down and kiss
a man's ring and think that he's doing God a service, and the
Pope thinking he's doing God a service? I don't even kiss my own ring. with the rain, you know, but
oh my, no, no, no. Paganism, the Pope. There's been
emperor worship, idol worship. I've seen Baptist churches with
idols sitting on their porch. Pictures of Jesus. You go out
to this graveyard and there's this great big picture of Jesus
standing there. People go out there and get their
pictures took with him. A statue. That's an idol. And I'll tell you what, put a
picture of him up on the wall, you just as well have an idol.
I'm telling you. Man worship. Wheel worship. Sacrifices
of every kind. But I'm telling you, beloved,
They say, Jesus Lord. And there's angel worship. Oh
my, you know how many people believe in angels and worship
angels and call on angels? That's what they do, isn't it? They call on saints. Can you
imagine calling on somebody besides Christ? We're talking about false
religion now. Could you imagine calling on
anybody in heaven besides the Lord Jesus Christ? that they
call on St. Francis, they call on St. Dominic,
they call on St. Jude, they call on St. Aquinas,
they call on every saint under the sun, and call on Mary, but
the last person they'll ever mention is the Lord Jesus Christ. And when's the last time you've
heard anybody on radio or any place else mention Christ? They
mention the church, how you dress at the church, the contemporary
fashion, and all the ways you can come, and all the services
they've got, and how you can look when you get there. But
they never mention Christ. Antichrist is what they are.
A free willer is as antichrist as you can get. And I'm going
to tell you something else, since we're on this. You know that
there's people that believe that in predestination and election
in such a way that you may not know you're one of God's elect
and may not know you're one of God's children until you get
to heaven. They say God can save a person
any way He wants to. He don't have to use any means.
That's Antichrist too. You know the greatest means God
used to serve a person in this world? City shrine. And you think he sent his son
to live, to die, to bear a son in his own body on the tree,
took him down off that tree and buried him and he went to a tomb
and he rose the third day. Do you think God Almighty is
going to set a man apart from the death of Christ being declared
to him? No! It ain't going to happen. God will not go by past Christ. We're not going to do that. God
ain't going to let them. Oh, He ain't going to let them. And
I tell you, the saint worshipped, and didn't look what he said.
Oh my goodness. You can tell that I don't like this
stuff. I don't like this anti-Christian stuff. I don't like it at all.
And he doth great wonders. Look what it says there in verse
12. Oh, excuse me, down here in verse
13. And he does great wonders so
that he makes fire to come down from heaven on the earth in the
sight of men. Now, what in the world do you
think he's talking about here? Look at Acts chapter 2 with me. Let
me give you a scripture view of what fire is. Acts chapter
2. He does great wonders to cause
fire to come down from heaven in the sight of men. Verse 1, And when the day of
Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one
place. And suddenly that came from heaven
as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where
they were sitting. And there appeared unto them
cloven tongues like as fire, like as fire, and it set upon
them. And that was the Holy Ghost that
they were talking about. And our Lord Jesus Christ, when
he talks about fire, he's not talking about literal fire. He's
talking about the fire of the Holy Spirit. Our Lord Jesus,
John the Baptist said, he said, I'll baptize you with water,
but there's coming one after me. who will baptize you with
the Holy Ghost and with fire. And the Holy Ghost represents
fire. And so when he talks about fire,
he's talking about a spiritual fire, a false fire. There's lots
of false fire in this world. And there's lots of false fire
in this world. And our Lord Jesus, you know,
He said, if it was possible, they'd even deceive the very
elect. And this is a false spiritual fire. It's just a, it's a thing
that, that he makes people think that the Holy Spirit's coming
down and doing great wonders. Great, great wonders. And he
diseased men, and the scripture says there in verse 14, he brings
down this fire from heaven in the sight of men, diseased men
that dwell on the earth. Now I want to show you another
thing, over in 2 Thessalonians 2. Now look over here at this
with me. 2 Thessalonians 2. See what God says about this
stuff. You know, He deceives men. The Scriptures
tells they deceive and being deceived. Deceive and being deceived. You're talking about a young
man tonight, you know, that was wrong and you told him the truth.
And he listened to the truth. I was deceived until somebody
told me the truth. And I was willingly deceived.
I didn't know until somebody came along and told me the truth.
And look what he said here in verse 7. For the mystery of iniquity
doth already work. The mystery of sin, the mystery
of lawlessness is already working. Only he who now let, that word
let needs to hinder, to stop, will let until he be taken out
of the way, until the Holy Spirit be taken out of the way, and
let this thing have his full course. And then shall that wicked
be revealed. Now everybody here thinks this
is a man. Everybody thinks this is a man,
but it doesn't say that it's a man. He says, When that wicked
shall be revealed, he's evidently got a title. I think this is
Satan more than anybody. When that wicked shall be revealed,
whom the Lord, listen to this, shall consume with the spirit
of his mouth, and he will destroy him with the brightness of his
glory. Even him, now listen, this is
what he's talking about, even him who's coming is after the
working of Satan, and here he goes again with all power and
signs and lying wonders. So they do all these lying wonders.
You don't say, oh, we had 30,000 people got converted. I was looking at an article I
wrote here a while back, marketing Jesus. Marketing Jesus. You know these fellows go to
school to learn how to market themselves. And they put Jesus
on the marketplace. They put him on the marketplace. And I've seen this thing that
they've got going now, that they're going to have all the teenagers,
have all the teenagers come out as many as they can get out.
And they're going to have a big shot comedian come, and then
they're going to have this great big singer come, and they're
going to give them all their pizza they can possibly eat.
And they're looking for the greatest crowd that they've ever seen
of teenagers. Give them some pizza. Give them
something by saying to them. That's what we're talking about.
I have powers and signs and line wonders. And listen to this,
and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness, all unrighteousness,
they were deceivable, and them that perished, now listen to
this, because they received not the love of the truth, that they
might be saved. They have the same Bible we do,
but they don't see the same thing. And for this cause, now listen
to this, and for this cause, God shall send them strong delusion
that they should believe a lie, and that they all might be damned,
who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in all that playing. All that playing. Huh? Oh, my. Well, he deceives men. Oh, he
deceives nations, deceives men. And then you go down here and
look what it says there in verse 14. And he deceives them that
dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles. which he had
power to do, and the sight of that beast to come up out of
the sea. Saying to them, that dwell on the earth, that they
should make an image to the beast. Now, when they talk about an
image, an image, that's all it is, is an image. There's no substance
to it. There's no reality to it. It's
just an image to the beast, which had the wound by sword and didn't
live. So he makes the governments, he saves the governments. He
comes and does things for the governments. And listen to this
now. He said, and he had power to
give life unto the people. You know, to give life to the
image of the beast. You know, our Lord Jesus Christ,
without God's permission, without God's power, and without God
letting it happen, Satan can do nothing. It's given unto him,
given unto him. And I'll tell you what, in the
power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image
of the beast shall both speak, oh, he's going to be able to
talk. Talk. And as many as worship not the
image of the beast shall be killed. Multitudes, oh multitudes and
multitudes have been killed for not worshiping the image. or
the state, or Caesar, or superstition, or anything else. I've told you
this before. You look at Fox's book, The Martyrs.
And I tell you, there's a place called Smithfield in England.
They burned them at the stake there, just one after another.
burned them and burned them. And you know those people, they
would rejoice and even they would rejoice and lift up their voices
and thank God that they were allowed to suffer and praise
the Lord for it. And then in what they have called
the Spanish Inquisition, the Catholic Church decided that
if you didn't join the Catholic Church, you know what they would
do to you? They would either tie you to horses Two hands and
two legs and two horses and make them all go in different directions
and pull you all to pieces. Or they'll put you on a rack
and stretch you out on a rack and somebody turn to that thing
and they'll start jerking you bones out of joint. And they'll
do that and kill you if you did not join the Catholic Church. I mean, there's people that think,
listen, do you know what Muslims would do to us if they got their
hands on us? They wouldn't think no more of
cutting a baby's throat than they would spitting on the ground.
They're doing all a service. They're doing something for Mohammed. Oh my. And there's people suffering
right now over their faith all over the world. And I tell you
what, and did you take, oh China, Russia, Africa, Asia, they all
worship The emperor of the beast. And it's like the Jews said this
morning. They said, we have no king but
Caesar. And you know, they said, here
O Israel, the Lord our God is one. And they said, we ain't
got no king. Caesar's our king. And Caesar's
the one who set up the first emperor of worship. The first
Caesar. And then it was given unto him.
There in verse 15, he had the power to give life. It was given
unto him. Oh, only Christ can give that.
Only Christ can give that. Then look what he says in verse
16. And he causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free
and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their
forehand. And that no man might bear it by a shell, or save he
that had the mark, or name of the beast, or the number of his
name. Now, when he starts talking about
everybody, he's talking about everybody, every kind of class
and person on the face of the earth. They receive a mark in
the forehead and receive a mark on the hand. And the false prophet,
the false religion, gives a mark. Remember, he resembles the Lamb.
But now the followers of the Lamb, they don't receive a mark.
You know what they have? They've been sealed. They get
marks. We're sealed. We're sealed by
the Holy Spirit of power. We're sealed by the Spirit of
God. Nevertheless, the foundation
of God's friend is sure having this seal. Christ. Yeah, Christ, he's our
seal. And the mark of the beast, listen
to me, what the mark of the beast is. I'm going to tell you what
it is. The mark of the beast is God opposing, Christ rejecting,
church persecuting spirit of antichrist. Whenever and wherever
it shows itself. Now, I want you to look at a
verse of Scripture in Deuteronomy 6, chapter 6, and verse 8. I want you to look at that with
me, and then I'm going to say a thing or two about the mind
and the hand. Deuteronomy 6, verse 8. Now, this is what the Lord tells
Israel to do. Back up there in verse 4, he
says, Here is where the Lord our God is one. Love God with
all your heart, all your soul, all your might. And these words
I command in this day, teach them to your children. And then
he says here, look in verse 8, Then bind them for a sign upon
your hand, and they shall be as frontless between your eyes.
Those are those phylacteries. What they did was they put scriptures
on their hands in little pouches. Roll them up and put them in
there. And they had this phylactery put around their head, a little
old verse of scripture right there in the middle of their
forehead. And that forehead symbolizes the mind. Keep God's Word in
your mind. Your thought, your life, your
philosophy. and the belief of a person, the
forehead, the mind, that's what it represents. The right hand,
he said, put it on your right hand. The right hand is the deed
that you do, the action, the works of a person, and what a
person thinks, and how a person acts toward God and toward Christ,
and his pitfall indicates whether he has the mark of the beast
or not. You know how many people we know
that has the mark of the beast? I mean, you go listen to a woman
preacher, woman pastor, go listen to a homosexual preacher, pastor. What do you think those folks
got in their mind? What do you think they're doing
with their hands? You can't get more beastly than that. See how
simple it is when you think about it? How plain it is? Huh? What a person thinks and how
a person acts toward God, toward the Lord Jesus Christ and his
people, indicates whether he has the mark of the beast or
not. And the seal that believers receive, it's on our forehead. You know, in Revelation 3, you
go home and listen, he said he sealed them in their foreheads.
He said He sealed them. Sealed them. God knows them better
than He does. He got a seal on them. A seal
means ownership. Identification. Oh my. And I tell you, that seal
that He put on us reveals we belong to Christ. We worship
Him. To have this seal, we have the
mind of Christ. And with our hands, and with
our hearts, and with our minds, we worship Christ, we believe
Christ, we trust Christ. And we've been sealed by the
Holy Spirit of promise. And the Scriptures tell us we've
been sealed until the day of redemption. God said, they're
mine! How do you know? I put a seal
on them. Old Spurgeon used to say, you
know, If you believe in election, why don't you just preach to
an elect? And you say, if they had it on their foreheads, elect,
elect, elect, that's the ones I've preached to. But we don't
know who they are, but God does. God does. And I tell you, the
believer receives a seal. The unbeliever receives a mark. And look what it says here now
about not buying or selling. And you know, here's some things
that people, here's wisdom. Let him, let him, his wisdom, let him that hath
understanding of the number of the beast. You know what the
number of the beast is? Six. Six, six, six. You know the day man was made?
On the sixth day. And six never makes seven. Never be perfect. And you show
me a man anywhere that ain't nothing but a failure. Huh? I don't care how many numbers
you put on him, he's still a failure. He's still a failure. Oh my. And what is this mark of the
beast? Let me say this, on the right hand and on the fourth.
Well, you know, here's what people have said over the years. They
said, well, it's your social security number. Folks, those
old timers were scared to death to get a social security card
because they said, if I get that, that's the mark of the beast.
Then when they come out with barcodes, you know, and they
could run a barcode across something, they said, oh my goodness, that's
the mark of the beast. Then they started the census.
I ain't going to tell you nothing about me and the census. That's
the mark of the beast. You ought to keep track of us.
And then, you know, some people, you've seen a dollar bill or
whatever, and it's got that triangle on it, you know, and that eye
right in the middle of it. That's the mark of the beast,
too. And then there's some that go
around knocking on doors, and they say, if you worship on Sunday
and not on Saturday, you've got the mark of the beast. That's
what they tell you. And that 666 just means man. Sorry, sinful,
God-dishonoring, Christ-rejecting, sinful, sinful, failing man. It's not an individual, not an
outward, visible sign that'll appear on the wicked hands and
forehead of a particular time in history. The beast always
persecutes the church. by secular and religious power
ties believers wherever they are. And wherever the beast appears,
whether he appears in a Baptist church, Pentecostal church, Lutheran
church, Catholic church, Baptist church, it don't make any difference
where he appears. But wherever he's at, people
are wearing the mark of the beast. Wearing the mark of the beast.
And you know cattle and slaves were marked, branded, believed
that they belonged to the painter. But the mark of the beast, and
they go together all the time. But I tell you, it's the number
of a man. So every time somebody tells you that you got the mark
of the beast, their mind receives what lie
they're told. And their hand reaches out and
gets it. Their hand reaches out and takes it. And how beastly,
beastly is the governments of this world. How beastly! You
talk about beastly. How beastly false religion is. Just think of it as a great big
beast that's in this world. And view the government the same
way. And then you get an idea of what
I'm talking about. Our Savior, our blessed Lord,
thank you for letting us meet here tonight. Thank you for the
day that you've given us. Lord, thank you for your truth.
Lord, we thank you that you sealed us. And that we can't be deceived. You promised us we couldn't be
deceived. He promised us, oh, that we'd have trials, we'd have
troubles, we'd have heartaches, we'd have sorrows. He promised us there'd be a furnace
of affliction for us. But we'd never be deceived. We'd
never be lost. All man can do is what he can
do to a body. He can't do nothing to a soul.
He can't do nothing to that person that Christ is saying. He's eternally
with the Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, we pray that you'd
give us understanding of these things, not never make light
of them, not never be a partaker of them. Lord, you called us
out from among them, called us out of the world, called us out
of religion, called us out of self-righteousness, legalism,
free will, works, you called us out of all that, brought us
to your blessed Son, and sealed us by that Holy Spirit of promise.
God bless these dear saints. Lord, strengthen them, meet their
needs. Keep them going in and coming out, getting up and going
down. Lord, bless them for Christ's
sake. Amen. Amen. Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in His wonderful face And the things of earth will
grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. Seed with tonight, God willing.