"Salvation is of the LORD." -Jonah 2:9

None can ever be accepted by God who are not perfect. "It shall be perfect" - without blemish, without spot, complete, innocent - "to be accepted" - delighted in, approved of - (Leviticus 22:21) . Since God's people are accepted in Christ (Ephesians 1:6) , then it stands to reason that we are perfect in Christ. Our sins were really and truly imputed to Him and His righteousness has really and truly been imputed to us. Through the substitutionary, justice-satisfying death of our Lord Jesus Christ, His people are "made the righteousness of God in Him (II Corinthians 5:21) . That which was said of Job is true of all God's people in Christ: "that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil" (Job 1:1) . -preacher Jim Byrd, Thirteenth Street Baptist church of Ashland, Kentucky USA https://www.sermonaudio.com/source_detail.asp?sourceid=13thstbaptist

"Draw me; we will run after T hee." -Song of Solomon 1:4 [KJV] How many of us can take the words of the bride into our lips, or have ever been able at any one time of our life to use such an expression? We must have had some sight and sense of the preciousness and loveliness of Jesus before ever we can cry, "Draw me," from the depth of a sincere heart. For the sincere soul is afraid to approach the holy Jehovah, whose eyes are as a flame of fire, and insult Him with mock petitions and words that it does not feel. But if ever that desire has been kindled, and that prayer raised up in your soul, "Draw me, we will run after T hee," it must have been the work of the Holy Ghost in your hearts, to raise up those feelings and to give you a living faith in the Son of God. And "he that believeth shall be saved." Whatever doubts, whatever fears, whatever temptations, whatever exercises beset the path, "he that believeth shall be saved....