Things That Never Disappoint Us

Go ahead and be turning in your Bible, at least initially, to First Peter chapter 2, and in verse 6.

I’m sure there are a lot of folks here that realize that the football season has recently begun. Some teams and fans have already been disappointed, and of course, there are always those who say, “There’s always next year.” That’s just the way sports go—you know that we are disappointed sometimes. Things don’t go exactly the way that we think they should, or maybe they don’t go the way at least that we wish they would.

It’s good to remind ourselves that there are some things that will never disappoint us. In First Peter chapter 2, verse 6, the Lord said:

“Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.”

The New American Standard Bible renders that:

“He who believes in Him will not be disappointed.”

If you put your hope and your trust in God, there’s never going to be a time when you say, “You know what, He didn’t live up to what He said He was going to do.” You’ll never be able to say, “Well, that’s just not as wonderful as He promised it would be.”

Really, in connection with that, over in Romans chapter 5, the apostle Paul made this point about hope when he said:

“Hope does not disappoint us.”

Now, we sometimes use the word “hope” in a loose way in our English language. If we illustrate it for a moment, I might say, “I hope we win the national championship.” What I mean is: that’s what I want to happen, that’s what I’d be happy with—but I don’t really have any expectation that it’s going to happen. In fact, the evidence might say quite the contrary. That’s how we use the word “hope” loosely.

But when the Bible talks about hope, it’s not talking about something we merely wish would happen. It’s talking about something we can fully expect to happen. Our hope is in heaven.

Why is it that our hope does not disappoint? Look at Romans 5:5—because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. In other words, we know that God loves us. And the love of God is not just a love of sentiment. It’s not just an empty promise.

The very next verse, Romans 5:6, shows us how God’s love has been poured out. Paul says:

“When we were still without strength”— or as the New American Standard says, “when we were helpless”— “in due time Christ died for the ungodly.”

That was you and me. What could we do to get back into a relationship with God? What could we do to make up for all that we had done? By ourselves, nothing. We were absolutely helpless. It was impossible to pull ourselves up spiritually if the Lord had not done what He did.

Paul continues:

“For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Now think about that. It’s hard enough to find someone who would die for a righteous man. A righteous man is fair and decent—maybe that’s a person you work with. You’re friendly with them, they treat you right, but they’re not going to go out of their way to do much for you. Would you take a bullet for them? Probably not.

What about a good man? That’s someone closer to you—someone who helps you, who does you good, who might be there for you in your time of need. It’s still rare to find someone who would die for even a good man.

But that’s not what God did for us. When we were still sinners, when we had transgressed God, when we were alienated and enemies, the Lord gave His Son to die in our place.

What does that death do for me? It proves, without any doubt, that God loves me. And if God loves me that much, that gives me a hope that does not disappoint.

That’s why in Romans chapter 8, Paul says:

“We are saved in hope.”

Hope is that anchor of the soul, that assurance that keeps us steady in difficult times.

Life is full of disappointment—not just in the sports world where your baseball team is 15 games out of first place, or your football team loses to an unranked opponent. Life itself is full of disappointment. People disappoint us. Circumstances disappoint us.

But there is One who will never disappoint. Whoever believes in the Lord will never be disappointed—because the hope He gives will one day become a reality.

So do you always focus on that hope? Do you keep it in mind so that you may be faithful when things are hard, trying, and difficult?

It may be that there’s somebody here this evening who has not obeyed the gospel. In order to have that hope, you have to obey the Lord. You may want to go to heaven, but you don’t yet have hope—you have no expectation of going to heaven until you obey the gospel.

You can be buried with Christ in baptism this evening and have your sins washed away. Or maybe there’s somebody who needs to make correction in their life.

No matter what your need is, take advantage of the opportunity right now as we stand and sing.