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Sacramento Central SDA Church

Chris Buttery

Riveted & Immovable

I would ask you for a favor if you'd be so kind.

Some of you are aware, but recently I've been experiencing what they call vertigo.

Your whole world spins out of control and doesn't make you feel good.

And so my sermon title this morning is very dear to me, Riveted and Immovable.

I'm hoping that I will be riveted and immovable from behind this podium here today.

I won't be swaying or moving around, so you pray for me this morning as well, I'd really appreciate that, it'd be terrific.

Good to see you this morning and again, privileged to worship together in this place.

On May 31, 1889, after several days of unprecedented rain, the South Fork Dam in western Pennsylvania collapsed.

And when it collapsed, it unleashed, they say, 20 million tons of water from its reservoir.

A wall of water swept 14 miles down the little Konama River Valley, destroying several towns, carrying away steel mills, houses, livestock and sadly people.

At about 4.07pm, the floodwaters rushed into the industrial city of Johnstown, crushing homes and downtown businesses.

They say about 17 million dollars worth of damage occurred and 2, 209 people died on that fateful day.

It's being deemed 1 of America's greatest disasters.

In the midst of all the chaos and destruction though, the story of a relatively insignificant bridge emerged.

Some bridges today you just have to simply admire.

Of course the Golden Gate Bridge not too far from here which was the longest suspension bridge in the world when it was built, now being surpassed by about 8 other bridges.

Then there's, and you'll forgive me for mentioning this bridge, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, which is the world's largest, not longest, but the world's largest steel arch bridge, probably also the most photographed bridge in the world.

This 1, the name you may not recognize, but if you saw a picture of it, you'd say, yep, I've seen that before.

The Moulin Viaduct, which is known to be the tallest vehicular bridge in the entire world.

It spans the valley of the River Tarn in southern France.

The highest pylon summit is slightly taller than the Eiffel Tower.

These bridges are magnificent and reveal remarkable engineering skill, but while they might make it on postcards and become tourist attractions this little bridge in Western Pennsylvania deserves a place in the Sun.

What the Stone Bridge and that's the name of that little bridge, what the stone bridge lacks in looks and prestige, it makes up for in strength.

You see, when the waters came from the South Fork Dam and they flowed through the 7 arches of this bridge, and this is a picture of the bridge in Johnstown in 1889, when it came down there, down the river, the stone bridge stopped tons, tons, literally tons of wooden debris and that accumulated in large piles and it also sadly collected dozens of survivors and they got trapped and then there was a fire and it wasn't pretty remarkably though this seemingly insignificant bridge withstood the deluge how?

That's really the question How did this small little bridge handle such massive amounts of water and debris and everything piling up against it?

Well, before the bridge was built in 1887, the contractor was determined in order to build this bridge he was going to dig deep on either side of the river until he struck bedrock.

Bedrock of course is the solid rock that lies beneath the soil and other loose materials of Earth's surface.

His friends ridiculed him and said it would be too expensive and too hard to do, not going to be possible.

But interestingly enough it wasn't too long and the bridge eventually was built and when it was built it was built tough because it had been built right the bridge that bridge built on solid rock stood like a lone and mighty stronghold in the midst of ruin and desolation It stood the test of flood and storm because it had been fastened to the rock.

I'd like to remind you here today that when you're fastened to the rock of God's Mighty Word, all hell could break loose.

And you'll find, always find something sturdy, something solid, and something absolutely dependable in God's Word.

And I've asked you to turn with me in your Bibles to Isaiah or Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 40 and verse 8.

It wasn't by accident that the gospel prophet wrote these familiar words, Isaiah chapter 40 and verse 8, and it'll be on the screen for you as well.

He said, the grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God shall stand for how long?

And listen, skeptics and critics and agnostics and atheists and antagonists may say all and write all and talk all they want about this book, but it won't change the fact that it is the book of all time, and it's been written for you and for me, to be a light to guide you when the way seems dark, to be the pulpit in your life, to chart you through stormy and rough seas, to be your GPS, to guide you to the 1 who can steer your life like no other can, to be your rock when everything else seems uncertain and tentative.

You have every reason to place your full confidence in God's holy word this morning.

Sadly there are many voices that are out there saying something entirely different.

It's no secret that there have been major attacks on the Bible and Bible believers in the past.

We have to remind ourselves as someone once quoted, men do not reject the Bible because it contradicts itself but because it contradicts them.

They tried to stamp out the Bible and those who exalted it.

Then around the age of the Enlightenment, critics arose who laughed at its history, derided its science, and mocked its predictions.

The stories were turned into or termed folklore and myth and fables.

And staunch believers in the Bible at that time began to get worried.

Is it really inaccurate and unreliable and untrustworthy as they say it is?

We know that attacks on the Bible, subtle and obvious, continue today.

For the Christian, blatant and false attacks on the Bible aren't really that worrying, but it's the sneaky attacks that undermine the influence of the word that are troublesome.

These leave believers asking the same questions that those who came before were asking, can the Bible really be fully trusted?

And maybe even some here today that are asking that question themselves.

But it's fascinating that along came biologists and geologists and nuclear scientists and astronomers, and they've been providing evidence confirming the Bible story for years.

When we talk about the work of archeologists, they've continued to bring about some amazing discoveries confirming the smallest details of the Bible account.

Someone once quipped regarding archeology, "'Archeology is the science that proves "'you cannot keep a good man down.'" And rightly so.

I wanna say to you today that there are some good and some solid reasons why we can trust God's Word.

There are amazing evidences that boldly declare the truthfulness of God's Word and number 1 is archaeology.

Archaeologists continue to unearth more and more that validates the record of the Bible.

You see there's been cynics and there's been skeptics who've said you can't trust the Bible because there's no evidence for this city or no evidence for that civilization or that people group.

But it seems that nearly every day, archeologists turn over another shovel of dirt and find more evidence showing us that what has been written long ago by Bible writers is absolutely trustworthy.

More and more biblical people and places and civilizations are being verified as archaeologists make amazing discoveries.

Some of you are familiar with this, I think there'll be a picture on the screen for you in just a moment.

The cirrus or Cyrus cylinder, a nine-inch long clay cylinder found at ancient Babylon which dates to 539 BC, around the time of Daniel the prophet.

It tells of King Cyrus of Persia and his conquest of Babylon and of all his decrees to let the captives that Nebuchadnezzar held back in Babylon, a decree that let them go back to their homelands to restore their temples.

It confirms the Bible story of 2 Chronicles 36 and Ezra 1 and Isaiah 44.

Of course, there is the Dead Sea Scrolls.

We know about those, hundreds of scrolls and scraps that date between 300 BC and 70 AD.

They were found in 1947 in caves in the Kwamerun near the Dead Sea.

They were found in jars and one-third of the scraps were copies of the Old Testament except the book of Esther.

These copies are over 1, 000, were found that were over 1, 000 years older than most of the manuscripts scholars previously had available for study.

Well, it shows that the Old Testament was copied very accurately throughout the centuries.

People say, hey, the Bible has come down to us over centuries, surely it's been tampered with, surely someone has twisted some facts and figures and different things, but these Dead Sea Scrolls revealed that the Old Testament scriptures had been recorded accurately throughout the centuries.

Insignificant differences were found when scrolls were compared with the old Masoretic texts.

So when you come to the work and you look at the work of archaeologists, it continues to confirm that the Bible, the Word of God, can be trusted.

Consider several historical works that corroborate the Bible story, verifying historical facts.

People who live practices such as early Christians worshipping Christ as God, People such as Pontius Pilate are verified in the historical record.

Jesus himself and his followers are referred to in the historical record.

Josephus, a Jewish historian, refers to him.

Tacitus, who lived between 55 and 117 AD.

Piney the Younger, a governor in Asia Minor, mentions Jesus and his followers.

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Riveted & Immovable

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