In this message, Wayne McDill continues his talk on the reading of Scripture. In his message, he gives a number of suggestions to consider when reading through Scripture. 

One of his tips is to read it aloud or listen to an audio recording of Scripture. He says that we must read Scripture slowly and clearly as if we were the ones who wrote the book and as if we were the one trying to get the point across. We must read in a way which gives a clear understanding of the true God-intended meaning of the text.

That when you read in your devotional readings, read aloud, I've found out, frankly, that in my own experience, when I read aloud, whatever my reading is for the day, and I do this one year Bible where I'm reading an Old Testament section, a gospel or through the New Testament section, and a psalm and a little proverb every day is in that one year Bible. I found that it makes all the difference in the world in my time with the word when I read aloud. And try to read it aloud interpretively so that I'm, as though I'm reading to somebody else. I'm just reading to me. I'm reading to hear what God says.

That's really critical. The other issue is, there's actually more than two issues, but the second one would be to try the audio recording and listen to your voice. Because most of us, this comes to my third point, and that is most of us think we are sounding more animated, we are expressing ourselves more vividly than we are. There's a big disconnect in what I'm intending to do and what actually comes out. And we think it's more dramatic when it's not.

And we're not working on drama, but we're trying to kick out the comfort zone thing, because our comfort zone has us reading, then the mother of Zebedee's sons came to him with her sons kneeling down and asking something from him. And we just are in this kind of rama rama rama rama. But if if we get past that we have to kick it up. Now here's, as I said, there's a kind of a one to four perception ratio about pauses as to how long they are. I think I've been standing here forever saying nothing when I forget what I'm supposed to be saying or something like that, when actually the congregation is not aware that the pause is over long.

So I would say a one to four ratio is just my wild guess, of course. I think there's also a wonderful ratio with reference to your animation and with reference to how expressive you are of the of the ideas of the text. Because as some of us have some of us have already said that they found out when they get up in front of the people and then they look at the video tape or listen to themselves, they find out it doesn't sound what they, like what they thought. Inside my head, I see myself as being very expressive, but when I get out here and see what you see, I'm seeing something else altogether. Now that's a problem.

And I think that again, the one to four ratio is that I think I'm about four times as expressive as I am. So what do we have to do? We have to overdo. Well you say, well that sounds phony baloney, you know, I'm gonna get up and try to perform, right? I'm gonna get up and try to do something deceitful, right?

That wouldn't be appropriate to reading scripture. Listen, you do it all the time. You know what you do all the time? You express yourself all the time according to the audience in different ways. You have different styles.

What is your style of communication with your toddlers, if you have toddlers. Is it exactly the same? My wife has a style of communication with babies and her cats. Her voice goes way up and she talks like this with those kids. I go out there and say, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty.

She'd never do that. That's not it. You don't say that. The kitties won't recognize that tone level, you see. But what she does, she changes her voice with the cats and with children and with dogs and other animals.

But she also, when I see her with the grandkids, we have several grandkids, see her with the little ones or with the big ones, she's different. And I'm observing her because she's out there, and I can't observe myself very well. But every one of us has different styles. You have a different style. If you're playing a pickup game of hoops with a bunch of high school kids, What's your communication style?

Would it be appropriate to your teaching? I'm talking about in terms of how loud, in terms of how fast, in terms of how the brevity of the vocabulary, the short sentences, all of that is very different. What if you go and speak in your church's nursing home service at the nursing home? What's your? Louder.

Louder, slower, shorter. They don't want you to take all day, they want you to speak loud and speak slowly and get it done and they'll love it. But there's different, you see, what if you're speaking at the children's church service, if they have a children's church service, or like the Vacation Bible School program where they ended up, or an Awana thing where you're speaking to children. Do you have a different style? Or is it the same as the nursing home?

What about a youth rally? What about with your own children? See, there's a difference in style. Now what I'm saying is bring your best style to the reading and teaching of Scripture. And Sometimes we are able to get outside the comfort zone because of the situation.

Take the guy who was reading to his nephew. He was reading a story to his nephew because He was visiting his sister and her husband and little nephew said, you know, Uncle Mike, would you read me a story? So he goes in the kid's bedroom and he's putting him to bed and he's reading him a story. So he gets into it, you know, he's really reading the story. First thing you know, the door creaks a little bit.

He realizes his sister is listening. And he's all embarrassed. Why? He didn't intend for her to hear him acting out the stuff for the little kid, but it's okay for the little kid. Now, what I'm saying is these different styles are a function in a way of our comfort zone and our desire to communicate.

So I want you to think about the overdue thing. If you overdo I've had this happen. I don't have many times in speech labs that I've been teaching speech for speech communication for a long time. I've had it happen over and over, which I said, in situations like this, now you need to overdo, I want you to really overdo it this time. And the person put everything he has into it and overdo it.

And then I'll say to him, you feel like you were really overdoing it. Yeah. And I asked the rest of the class, did it sound like he was overdoing it, performing, dramatizing? They say no, it just sounded good. It just sounded right.

It sounded effective. There's a difference. And that's why I'm telling you that what they're picking up out there is not what you think at all. And you have to overdo for them to get what you think you're doing. Now, I don't know what that has to do, how we fix that.

It's just that you have to bear that in mind now and I'm uncomfortable overdoing Are you? I mean, getting outside my normal speech patterns and trying to perform in a way that's not me. Of course, some people are so extroverted that their normal speech patterns, you kinda wanna say, you know, hold it, give me some space here. Don't get in my face. But there's not too many of us like that.

Most of us are very much aware of how we're coming across and what other people think about it and whether we're being obnoxious or whether we're performing too much. So those things we have to try to overcome for the sake of communicating the word. I think this text, we're going to move to another text. This text is just a marvelous one. I don't know after all the discussion whether I'm even clear how I would do it, but listen to it.

Then the mother of Zebedee's sons came to him with her sons, kneeling down and asking something from him. And he said to her, what do you wish? She said to him, grant that these two sons of mine may sit, one on your right hand and the other on the left, in your kingdom. But Jesus answered and said, You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I'm about to drink and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?

They said to him, we are able. So he said to them, you will indeed drink my cup and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with. But to sit on my right hand and on my left is not mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared by my Father. And when the ten heard it, they were greatly displeased with the two brothers. But Jesus called them to himself and said, You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them.

Yet it shall not be so among you. But whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave. Just as the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. Now you can do this in any number of ways and still be effective.

You don't have to, there's not one interpretation, I don't think. Because we're all interpreting, this is the way we do it. I want you to look at Romans 6. You have that one? Now, let's ask the question quickly on Romans 6.

What is the intention of the writer? What's the intention? To teach. You're saying to evoke emotion. Okay, why is he dealing with this?

What do you think is the background for this? He's trying to balance the first involvement. Yeah, he's trying to balance the fact that yes, we're under-agreed, but that does not mean that we have any license to sin. That is, even trying to say, go beyond that and say that to even think that would be ridiculous. Okay, why would he bring that up?

You think maybe Some people are accusing him of teaching that. Of course, sin did abound, grace did much more abound. They say, Paul says that. Paul says just go out and sin all you want to because grace is there. And he said, I never said that.

He's trying to communicate the fact that that's not what he's saying. And then he uses all these things. This is the teaching. It is not the once upon a time thing, is it? It's not the poetry thing.

It's a teaching text. And therefore, it's got to have that teaching sense. It is the ideas that drive it. It is the, when you read it, you wanna think, I'm the teacher, I'm saying, you don't understand this stuff, I want you to get it. Now listen, get this, and each thing builds, the argument builds as you go through, so that he is trying to communicate that.

Now, allow yourself the freedom to say it the way people talk. Because if you're reading this in the way people really talk, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?

Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of his death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin, for he who has died has been freed from sin. Now, if we died with Christ, we believe that we should also live with him, Knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over him.

For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all. But the life that he lives, he lives to God. Likewise, you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed, to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Is that a great text? Whoo!

And you know what? It's easy to read that and not get it because it's so, it's got such an argument that flows along there that's so important. But, and it's so easy to muddle through just to go through it and run through it and people just think it's all running together. So we wanna try to avoid that kind of thing. Who would read this for us?

Somebody else read it for us. You can just stay right there if you want to. Another thing I need to point out. Culturally, we need to use the melodic patterns that are appropriate to our audience. Understand that?

How do we ask questions? How do we express ourselves? In different languages, there are different melodies. Can you recognize a Spanish language melodic pattern? It's got a different rhythm, different sound to it.

You recognize an Italian or French or an Eastern European, Slavic, some Slavic language. It's got, it doesn't sound the same. You can almost, you ever go to the mall or somewhere and you hear people talking, you can say, I can tell what that is. Or how about Vietnamese? The melodic patterns to me are, ugh, it's like scraping on the chalkboard, because they're high, you know, there's this, or the Japanese, the Japanese has a chop, chop, chop, chop thing.

Korean, there's different ways of the flow of it, the rate, the melodic patterns, the tune, are all different. Now, when you're reading though, you have to read in the tune, in the melody, in the melodic patterns that go with your audience so that they'll get it, which is in most cases what we call standard American speech, American English. And it could be that some, there are lots of, in our church where I go, we got a wide diversity of people. We got some people, we got a lot of PhDs, we got a lot of people never got out of high school. We've got a lot of different ethnic groups, we got every kind of ethnic group you can name.

We got every kind of economic level you can name. We got all this wide diversity, but you know what, they all speak standard American speech or understand it. Standard American English. So there's something you have to keep in mind there. And so the way we would say this if it were me, if I'm saying this, if I'm getting this across to you is the way I wanna do it.

Not trying to read it in the sense of I'm reading somebody else's mail. But how would I say this if I were eager for you to get this? That's what I want to do. Now after all that ruination of your reading, go ahead. What shall we say then?

Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not. How shall we who die to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that it is not? Now hold it a second.

Do you think he needed a little pause after certainly not? We hardly had a pause. We were really rushed right ahead. Give us a pause and let that sink in. You say, certainly not.

Okay, he's against it. Like the guy, Calvin Coolidge was the one to speak much. He goes to church. He was a strong Christian, but he didn't say much. They called him Silent Cal.

He goes to church one day and he comes home and his wife says, well, Cal, how was church? Fine. Says, how was the sermon? Fine. What did the preacher preach about?

Sin. Well, what did he say about sin? He was a ginnit. That was all, he couldn't get anything else out of him. So, what we're gonna do is give time for these things to soak in on the audience.

So I would say slow down a bit. Give us another try at it. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not.

I'm going to stop you again. On the what shall we say then, what is is there Is this a rhetorical question that he's got no investment in? What is it? Okay, so it's a theological investment, right? You don't think it's personal?

Is it personal in the sense that he is exasperated that people are accusing him of license because the grace is so good, abundant? Is anybody actually saying, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Is somebody accusing him of that maybe? And if that's the case, what would you feel? That's not something you'd be lighthearted about, is it?

It's a serious theology, but it's, hey look, don't miss this, This is something really important and I'm a little miffed about it, but I want you to get this. Yes, sir? Could be that. Okay, and that would be still, he would still have this sense of gravity and this sense of exasperation that you have missed the point. And either way, either way, he's got an emotional investment in this subject that is an involvement.

I read recently in a class, I read through the book of Philippians to my class, the whole book. We started a semester and we were gonna study Philippians and write sermons from Philippians, and I said, okay, close your Bible and listen. And I said, it takes 16 minutes to read the book of Philippians, and I'm gonna read it to you. When we finished reading it, Several things. It was the first time any of them, most of them had ever heard a whole book read.

Even though it's just four chapters, first time they'd ever heard a whole portion read. Second thing, they just sat there silently for a moment. And then one of the guys said wow because Paul in Philippians is personally involved so much that you get a sense of his own heart his own life and the theology is wrapped in incarnational terms. This is the way God always does his theology. Incarnation means what?

It means God in the flesh. And that's the model for our theology, it's a model for our preaching and communication, isn't it? God speaking through his messenger. So here's the thing, it is not something to be left out or even ignored that The writer is emotionally wrapped up in this and passionate about it. It's like David in Psalm 42, if that's David, saying, why are you downcast, oh my soul?

I mean, this is not, he's just not saying, let me quote you a poem here, but there's an emotional investment. So that's what I'm raising. What kind of emotion is involved in this whole issue in raising this question? Maybe we don't know. Yeah?

I think you've got anger. For example, you've been, well, they take instruction that you've already taught for them, and go on and learn the things that they can do. But there's just a chance. And I think you need to do that. Maybe there's a little.

Pardon the language. OK. How many of you think maybe there's a little anger in there? Maybe a little exasperation? Could be.

Whatever. That's your interpretation. That's the way you're going to present. Okay, go again. I would slow down and see what emotional investment he has in this.

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not. How shall we who died to sin live in it any longer? Or do you not know that as many of us who are baptized into Christ Jesus are baptized into this death?

Therefore, we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of his death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of his resurrection. Okay, let's stop right there on that one. Do you think we're a little bit too deliberate now? Is the teacher and his enthusiasm going to rush along at times?

I mean, it's just like the torrent of words is coming out and his passion to get this across to you. So that's where there's some gear shifting has to be done when you get to the four part in explaining it. So try to shift in verse 5. Start over with verse 5 and pick up the pace as you're heading toward home, so to speak, and then slow it down toward the end. For if we have been united together in the likeness of his death, certainly we will also shall be in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, that our own man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.

For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ..." Okay, you see there, we need to pause, didn't we? Where do we need to pause? Right before now, we need a pretty healthy pause, maybe a two or three slash pause. You see how that, of course if.

I'll put it after Christ. I'll be God's Christ. See how Paul's, I'll put it in the retroactive. Pick it up. Pick it up and before the now, put in that pause.

Now do you think verse seven is a probably, probably a key assertion, a theological assertion. Here's what's happening. You have to, am I gonna complicate this further? Yes. You have to do something of rhetorical analysis.

Rhetorical analysis means this. Not only what does it say, but what does it do? See, what does it do? What you're doing here is in Verse two, you got how shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? This is the key heavy duty theological question.

And then you got as many of us who are baptized were baptized into his death. That is a theological assertion. And then you got the therefore. What does the therefore tell you? Implication of that, result of that.

So rhetorically, we're talking result here. The result of that is that Christ was raised from the dead So we would walk. And then for means what? For, I'm gonna give you another argument for that. I'm going to give you another implication, a result for that.

And then knowing this, which means this is all based back on a basis of theology that you know. You know this, and this is based on, built on that. So rhetorically we're saying, what function does each of these, and then you come down here to verse seven, four, wrap it all up, sort of, it was died, it's been freed from sin. That's an implication or a result of this whole business of the death and resurrection with Christ. And then here, now if we died, we believe that we shall also raise with him.

That is a building upon that and going on further. So you wanna, there's a little, I don't know if I've got that on the website, but anyway, there's a whole thing about rhetorical functions that is very, very helpful. George Guthrie's book of Greek exegetical, Greek exegesis has a whole section on what he calls semantic functions. I think I'd prefer to call them rhetorical functions, but he's got a whole big chart in there of rhetorical functions and how they all operate. In the second edition of my textbook, Child Skills Textbook, there's gonna be that similar material.

So that you have to ask, is he explaining, is he illustrating, is he applying, is he arguing, is this an assertion, or is it an example, or what is it? And whatever you think it is, is gonna be affecting your reading, the purpose of the statement that the writer puts in there. So that's all another complication We believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. He should have called before death. Death no longer has dominion over him.

For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all. But the life that he lives, he lives to God. Likewise you also. Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now here's where I wanna add, wanna throw in something else.

We have in that last verse, the words, you are reckoned, there's two things you are, qualities about you. One, you're dead and one, you're alive, right? That's a contrast. Do the words dead and alive need to be different in the way we say them? Do sin and God?

See, you're dead to sin. And then alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now, what I'm saying is if your voice sounds the same with iniquity and mercy and sympathy and wrath and dead and alive, then we're missing something. If those words all come out, does the vocal mechanism have an ability for you to invest the pronunciation of those words with the meaning that that word has in English. Is it possible?

Then we have to do it. You have to be thinking about what that word means. You have to think the word and say the word so that the meaning comes through and not just the sound of the word. Got me? Now, so we're gonna give you another chance to see if dead and alive sound the same this time.

Let's go back to 10. For the death, he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life that he lives, he lives to die. Likewise you also reckon yourselves to be dead in Jesus' name, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Okay, would you wanna run through Christ Jesus our Lord like that? Or would you wanna camp on it a little bit?

I wanna be careful not to emphasize words over phrases. Sometimes I put my emphasis on a phrase rather than words to be this chapter. I mean, this is the chapter seven and everything. There's so much in it. I'll tell you what's hard to read is read seven.

I preached on seven in chapel not long ago and I had to read chapter seven. I thought, Whoa, this is gonna be a job. You remember that one about whatever I would do, I don't do back and forth. All that. Great, great job.

Now, Okay. I'm just amazed at, you know, at trying to think through something like this, where it's like every phrase has 50 pounds of importance to it. And you could just put straps on every syllable. No. Yeah, I mean, in one sense, you could because there's so much there, but then you have to balance that with making it questionable.

It's proportionate, see? Because everything is important, but we read it in its own setting with its proportionate importance. The priorities are different. Like I say, we don't say unto, because that, and emphasize that like our habits are sometimes. You listen to people read, you'll hear them do that.

And he said unto him. Wait a minute, the to part, unto part doesn't need to be punched. It's not really critical to the thing. But so what we have is to see the proportionate difference in the context, in the text, within the world of the text itself, what really should be standing out. And I'm telling you, when we look at, let's look at Isaiah 53.

When we look at this and see the contrasting words that are here, I want you to listen, and it could be that I'm needing to overdo, but I want you to listen and let's see if there's a difference between tender plant and dry ground. Should there be? See, that's what I'm getting at here. Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

For He shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness, and when we see him, there's no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised, and we did not esteem him.

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted, But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray.

We have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted. Yet he opened not his mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter and as the sheep before its shearers is silent. So he opened not his mouth.

He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who will declare his generation? For he was cut off from the land. He shall see the labor of his soul and be satisfied. By his knowledge my righteous servant shall justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great.

And he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he poured out his soul unto death and he was numbered with the transgressors and he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. This is really, really, probably, I tell you what, this is probably the gospel in the Old Testament as clearly as anything. Now I want you to notice something. Why was I saying, emphasizing our sin, our griefs, our? Why emphasize that?

He was bruised for, let's see, he was despised and rejected. Surely he has borne our griefs. You see why our is important there? It's us, see? You could say, as most of us would normally hear this read, surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.

Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But the hour is the important part. And you have to, when you go through, you say, okay, what is important here? What is the turn of the phrase? Surely he has borne our griefs.

He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. So there's a, again, interpretation. And when you read that, what's the congregation gonna hear? Whoa, this is the substitutionary atonement of Christ.

I mean, they're not going to say that, but that's what they will hear and understand.