Well, you have heard the story, no doubt, many times, of the Duke of Wellington, who went out to fight on behalf of the English, against Napoleon. The British were standing on the shore looking for any sign of the returning fleet. And finally, one foggy morning, they saw the fleet returning. They looked for any indication of who was victorious. But tragically, they saw the banner spread out at one ship:
Joel BeekeWellington defeated. Mournfully they passed the word throughout England: Napoleon got the victory over Wellington. This caused the land to plunge into mourning. That is how a Christian often feels when he stumbles into sin, knowing better. Some of you, like me, can say we have been on the way for decades by God’s grace, on the Christian pilgrimage and we still stumble so easily. It is painful. It is humbling. Sometimes it makes us wonder at those times of stumbling, Is it really real with me? “I sin so easily against the Saviour who has treated me so well. I am defeated.”1
22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being,