What do you see in the story?

Two kinds of sinners.

And both are extreme sinners.

And a father who entreats both, who offers both everything he has, and the point is the extreme

sinner falls within the purview of God's grace.

Not everybody is that extreme on either end, but that's good news for all of us in between.

Welcome to Grace to You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson.

For more than 2,000 years, the stories told by Jesus have fascinated everyone from children to scholars, and perhaps the most well-known is the Parable of the Prodigal Son.

Well, today John MacArthur is going to probe the depths of that story, one that is often

misunderstood by even the most committed student of Scripture.

Even if you know the parable, you may discover encouraging shades of meaning that you've never considered,

as well as an aspect that may shock you.

This lesson, The Tale of Two Sons, is part of a collection of John MacArthur's sermons

that were chosen by Grace

to You staff members as our favorites. We call this series John MacArthur's most memorable sermon.

To continue his look at the tale of two sons, here's John. The text before us is,

like so many texts, a very familiar text.

Anybody who knows this story knows the story that we call the story the prodigal son.

Let's look at it.

A shameful request, verse 11, three characters, a father and two sons.

The younger of them said to his father, father, that's very respectful by the way, give me

...