• Note: The following examples are related merely as they happened, and not intended to besmirch God’s gift of the pastor. (Eph. 4:11)
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Years ago, I was preaching the first time for an older pastor down in Georgia (USA). After the service, one of his members was kindly praising me on how much scripture I use in my messages to back up what I was preaching. The pastor overheard our conversation, and interjected that I needed a lot of scripture because I was young. He then stood behind his pulpit and explained that when you are older, you stand in a certain way behind the pulpit to exude confidence and authority as you preach. He then concluded with the title’s statement. “Experience is just as important if not more so than the Bible.” This incident was shocking, but imagine my horror when later that same year I was in Ohio with a younger pastor who said and did nearly the same thing after one of his members mentioned my reliance on Scripture. Both the older and younger ministers graduated from the same “Bible” college many years apart practicing and quoting the same unscriptural teaching.

As we already noticed in Myth #7 – Pt. 1 on experience, our use of experience is different from God’s. With this in mind, there is no Scripture that says experience is on the same level or greater than God’s Word. Quite the contrary, God’s Word, not experience, pithy quotes, etc…, is the only Authority for the believer.

• Isaiah 66:2 “For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.”
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The Bible, not man’s experience, pithy quotes, etc…, is the only Way promised success.

• Isaiah 55:11 “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”
• Jeremiah 1:12 “Then said the LORD unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it.”
• Ezekiel 12:28 “Therefore say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; There shall none of my words be prolonged any more, but the word which I have spoken shall be done, saith the Lord GOD.”
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God’s Word, not man’s experience, pithy quotes, etc…, is powerful.

• Jeremiah 23:29 “Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?”
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God’s Word, not man’s experience, pithy quotes, etc…, saves.

• John 5:24 “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.”
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Believers are not followers of a certain man’s system, of a certain man’s experience, nor of a certain man’s quotes. We are only considered Christ’s disciples when we follow Christ the Word, hence the word, “Christian”.

• John 8:31 “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;”
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And on the day of judgement and/or reward, all will be judged in accordance with God’s Word, not the criterion of man’s experience, pithy quotes, etc….

• John 12:48 “He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.”
• Rev. 3:8 “I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.”
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(This article is #8 in the “Are You ‘More Noble’?” series.)