Salvation Is Free But It's Not Cheap Series

And this is like someone who tries everything they can to fulfill a void in their life and they do their best in education, sports, business and power of every kind but have no success and then one day they hear the gospel and give their lives to Jesus and they recognize that this is what they’ve been searching for their entire life. They find in Him the answer to the deepest longings of their heart and everything else becomes secondary.

In the first parable we have someone who isn’t even looking for treasure when he stumbles upon it and in the second we have someone who has spent his entire life searching for the perfect pearl that he ultimately finds.

And some of us were just doing our own thing and going our own way when God stopped us in our tracks. We weren’t looking for Him but He was looking for us; while others have had a spiritual longing and have spent their lives pursuing God and then one day they discovered their personal faith in Christ and found exactly what they were looking for.

Listen, it says this treasure was “hidden” and maybe many people walked by it every day, but they didn’t know it was there. And the kingdom of God is like that, the message has been preached on television, on radio, in churches and almost everyone has an IPhone or a computer that has the Bible; but they’re oblivious to it.

So, both found of these men found what they wanted and realizing the value of what they had found, they gave up everything they had in order to have it.

Listen, no matter if we find Him when we aren’t even looking or as the result of a lifelong search both of these illustrate how we can all take different paths to the same Saviour for salvation.

Both of these sacrifice everything they have once they recognize the value of what they’ve found and once we recognize that salvation is the ultimate goal of life then we’ll sacrifice anything and everything in time and be rewarded in eternity.

Listen, these both teach us that the kingdom is made personal by a transaction or a trade because both teach us man has to give everything he has to receive something of infinite value. And when we surrender all we have and all we are and receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior we receive His righteousness in exchange for all our sin.

I was in a park one day with my son who was only about three at the time. And as we were walking along he bent down and picked up a Popsicle stick and before you knew he had this stick in his mouth. Well, rather than having him gnaw on a dirty stick I pulled a sucker out of my pocket and said, “Let’s trade.” He took the sucker and I threw the stick away. I didn’t want the stick and he wasn’t really buying the sucker with it but it simply an exchange for his benefit. And that’s what happens to you and I. We surrender our sin and receive His salvation.

The kingdom of heaven isn’t about us giving up something great but it’s a great deal. We’re trading hell for heaven. We’re trading death for life. We’re giving temporary trinkets for eternal riches. We’re trading bondage for freedom. We’re trading shame for joy. We’re trading rejection for acceptance. We’re trading our fear and emptiness for a love that never disappoints.