John G. Reisinger

Doctor Tom Berry went home to be with the Lord last month. Tom was a dear friend and a beloved brother in Christ. For many years he served on the board of directors of Sound of Grace. The following is the funeral sermon preached by John Reisinger.

Someone has said if you have one true friend in a lifetime, you are fortunate. Many of us here today had a true friend in Doctor Tom Berry. It takes a great person to be a true friend. People with small minds and narrow outlook are not capable of being true friends. A self-centered manipulator will be a friend as long as you are useful to him in his agenda. A true friend "sticketh closer than a brother."

What makes an individual a great person? What are the marks that distinguish a great person from an ordinary person? First of all, he must be true to God. He must be God's friend in order to be your friend and God must be his friend. Abraham was called "a friend of God" because he was a man of faith. Secondly, to be great, a person must be true to himself, and lastly, a great person is true to his friends. Sometimes being true to a person involves rebuking them in love. Doctor Berry was a true friend because he was a great man, and he was a great man because he was a great Christian.

Doctor Berry was my teacher in many ways. He taught me things you never learn in college or seminary. His life exemplified many of the things that cannot be learned from books: personal integrity, personal godliness, the futility of the world and its allurements, and most important of all, that people are more important than institutions. Doctor Berry believed that faithfulness to God and to God's people was a top priority. He demonstrated a willingness to suffer reproach and affliction with the people of God rather than live in a palace with the acceptance of the rich and powerful.

Doctor Berry was a "prince in the House of Israel." Today a family has lost a great father, grandfather and role model. The church has lost a great man of faith and a loyal soldier in the army of God. Many of us have lost a true friend.

What is it that makes a particular man a "great man?" Some men are called great who, in reality, are anything but great. Other men seek to prove they are great by using brute force and power to control and manipulate the weak. Some proud men try to buy greatness. They donate millions of dollars to build a college library under the condition that it be named after them. All of these vain attempts to achieve greatness are ultimately futile and self-serving. "Doc," as he was affectionately called, was real. He was like Popeye the sailor when he said, "I am what I am's, and that's all that I am's." In both his life and his death he proved the truth of the old adage, "I brought nothing with me when I came into this world and I will take nothing with me when I leave it." When a wealthy friend of Samuel Johnson died, Johnson was asked, "How much did your friend leave?" He replied, "All of it." Doc could not take any money with him when he died, but he took with him, into the presence of God, that which is more precious than silver and gold.

No truly great person ever set out with greatness as a goal. Our Lord taught that to be truly great, a man must be the servant of all. He warned against the Gentile system of "authority of rank." Doctor Berry was a leader but a not a driver. He led by example and not constraint. He never asked anyone to do something he was not willing to do himself. There will be no roads, buildings, or college libraries named after him, but he leaves behind many living epistles who have been impacted by his life. I am one of those epistles. So are many of you here today.

In 2 Samuel 23:8-17 we have the account of three of "David's mighty men." They were men who stood just a bit taller than other men. These three men remind me of Doctor Berry in many ways. Let us observe how the Scripture describes these mighty men.

First, there was Josheb-Basshebeth, also called Adino. ". . . he raised his spear against eight hundred men, whom he killed in one encounter." Adino was a man that could not have cared less about the odds. He did not take a poll to see which way things were moving. He was willing neither to run nor to "strike a deal." If the cause was God's cause, then Adino was ready to fight against all odds. Doc Berry held Adino's philosophy of life. Obeying and defending the truth of God's Word was all that mattered.

The second mighty man was Eleazar the son of Dodai the Ahohite. The Israelite army had fled in fear of the Philistines, but we are told that Eleazer "stood his ground and struck down the Philistines till his hand grew tired and froze to the sword. The LORD brought about a great victory that day. The troops returned to Eleazar, but only to strip the dead." Eleazer held on to the sword so tightly that it became an extension of his arm and hand. He could not let go of the sword. It was as if it were a very part of him. Doctor Berry would enter every discussion and look at every problem and say, "What does Scripture say?" The Word of God was the sword of the Spirit and Doc refused to let go of it. He would not lay the Bible aside and follow man's wisdom. He was not concerned with what the majority said, but what God said. He held a firm grip on Scripture and would not let it go.

After Eleazer was Shammah the son of Agee the Hararite. I like this guy Shammah. This is what Scripture says about him.

"When the Philistines banded together at a place where there was field full of lentils, Israel's troops fled from them. But Shammah took his stand in the middle of the field. He defended it and struck the Philistines down, and the LORD brought about a great victory." (NIV)

Some people might have said that Shammah was pig-headed and crazy for defending a small field of lentils. I can hear someone saying, "Man, there are far more vital things to protect than a mere field of lentils." I can also hear Shammah replying, "Not when that lentil field belongs to God." Shammah was jealous for the glory of God and everything that pertained to God. That's the way Doc was. There were no little things in the Bible or the Christian life that were not worth contending for. The entire Book was God's word, and it all was to be believed and practiced. "That does not really matter" was met with, "if God said it then it indeed matters." It is little wonder that Doc loved Martin Luther so much. "Here I stand, so help me God, I can do no other" was also Doc's motto.

The qualities that made these three men to be great and mighty men are the characteristics that made Doc Berry amighty man of Christian valor. These are the three men who risked their lives to get water from the well in Bethlehem when Saul's army was camped there. David had said, "I sure wish I had a drink of water from that well." Those three men secretly sneaked into Saul's camp and got some water for their beloved leader. David was so moved by their devotion that he refused to drink the water but offered it up to God. He never asked them to do what they did. His very wish was their command. That is the kind of devotion Doc had for Christ as his Lord and Savior. All Doc needed was to be convinced that something would please his Lord, and he was ready to do it.

If I know Doctor Berry, and if it were possible for him to hear me right now and respond to what I am saying, the lid of that casket would have burst open long ago. Doc would have sat up and said, "John, never mind me, tell these people the gospel. Tell them they "must be born again."

It is proper and right to give "honor to whom honor is due." However, nothing anyone can say can in any way either help or hurt Doctor Berry. His life has been lived and is over. Nothing can change it either for good or bad. Nothing can be added to it and nothing can be taken away from it. No matter how many nice things we say, they do not add anything to his life. It is all finished and the final recording has been made. Likewise, a few enemies may say some nasty things about Doc, but those things, even if true, cannot take anything away from Doc's life. His life is finished. As Scripture says, "The tree falls and it lies exactly where it falls. If it falls to the north it will forever lie toward the north." Death really is the final curtain on the drama of life.

God is the God of the living as well as the dead. What can you and I learn from this event?

First: Doc's death is another vivid reminder of Hebrews 9:27 - "It is appointed unto men once to die and after this the judgement."

There is not a single person who must not, and surely will not, die and face God. Death is an appointment that you have and will keep right on God's schedule. Nothing, or no one, can prevent any person's ultimate death, including yours and mine. The family has done all it can do and each member of it must also die. The doctors have done all they can do and they too must die. The funeral director will soon finish all he must do and he too will die. The hearse he drives today will someday bear him to his grave. The church will soon perform its last responsibility and the preacher will also someday die. All of us here will one day die. That is life's only one absolute certainity.

There is no room that is so disease free and antiseptically pure that we can go there and escape death. No sealed cave exists in which we can hide to escape the grim reaper of death. There is no person or power, no amount of money, no thing at all that can prevent death from claiming each of us here. God Himself has appointed that all of us will die and then face judgment.

Second, Doctor Berry's death also reminds us that when we die, not one single thing matters except whether we knew Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.

It does not matter if Doc lived in a palace or a small apartment. It does not matter if he was rich or poor. It does not matter if we loved him or hated him. All that matters is this: when Doc left this world on Saturday for the world of eternity, was Jesus there to meet him and say, "Well done thou good and faithful servant, enter into thy reward."

The Twenty-third Psalm is always read at funerals. Most people do not notice that there is a change of pronouns in the middle of the Psalm. It is interesting to note at what point the pronoun changes from third person to second person. In the first part of the Psalm, David refers to God as "He," a third person pronoun. "He maketh me lie down . . . He leadeth . . ." etc. However, when David thinks of death, he starts speaking in the second person pronoun. "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, thou [you] art with me, thy [your] rod and thy [your] staff comfort me," etc. The reason for the change is obvious. You use a third person pronoun when the person you are talking about is not in your presence. You say "he" or "she," but when the person is in your presence then you say, "you." David knew that his Savior would meet him in the valley of the shadow of death. He knew he would be in the immediate presence of the Lord.

Our dear brother did not walk alone through that valley. His Savior held his hand all the way. When Doc came to valley of the shadow of death, he was in the immediate presence of Christ.

Third, and last, this event reminds us that only the gospel of Jesus Christ has an answer for death.

The philosopher stops at the gravesite because he has nothing to say. Science, with all of its wonderful additions to our life, must also stop at the gravesite with its mouth closed in humility. False religions and cults have no message that gives assurance that death will not conquer the true child of God.

I have heard many people mock the sovereignty of God, but I never heard a single person do so at a gravesite. I have heard skeptics ridicule the resurrection, but never as they watch the body of a loved one be lowered into the ground.

I am sure some of you are thinking, "Preacher, you are just trying to scare me." If I could scare you into getting converted and trusting Christ, I would do so in a moment, but I do not have that ability. At best I can make you think of reality for a few moments, but a couple of beers or half hour of television will let you forget all I said, unless God the Holy Spirit speaks to your conscience. Only God can open your heart and teach you the truth of the gospel of God's sovereign grace.

I realize that most people think Christians are not realists. Actually, Christians are the most realistic people there are. They face the reality of death. They get prepared to die because they know death is inevitable.We believe you are never closer to reality than you are when you stand in front of a casket and stare death in the face. It is the ungodly who have a "pie in the sky" view of reality.They do all that can to avoid thinking about or preparing for the one sure event they must face. My wife demonstrated this to me several years ago. A neighbor died and we were looking for a sympathy card to send his wife. All of a sudden my wife said, "John, do you notice there are no funny funeral cards?" She was right. You can get a "funny" card for any occasion. If you got a job or got fired, had a great vacation or got seasick, got married or divorced, graduated or flunked, the world can make a joke about it. However, even the world cannot make a joke out of death. I am going to write a gospel tract about death and entitle it, "It Ain't Funny Magee."

Let me close with a passage of Scripture from Luke 8:52-55.

Meanwhile, all the people were wailing and mourning for her. "Stop wailing," Jesus said. "She is not dead but asleep." They laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. But he took her by the hand and said, "My child, get up!" Her spirit returned, and at once she stood up. Then Jesus told them to give her something to eat. (NIV)

Our Lord Jesus Christ gave us a new definition for death. He changed its name to "sleeping." Christians do not die in the eternal sense; they only go to sleep until the Resurrection. Last Saturday, Doc Berry looked death straight in the face, smiled, and said, "If you want this beat-up and worn-out wreck of a body, it all yours. I'm leaving. I'm gone. I'm fleeing the scene." He literally stepped out of his body and moved into a heavenly motel to await the Resurrection, when he will occupy a "mansion in the sky." Today we do not bury Doctor Berry; we bury a worn-out clay house in which he used to live.

Dear relatives and loved ones, don't say "goodbye," to Doctor Berry, just say "good night Doc, I'll see you in the morning." You don't say goodbye every night at bedtime, you say, "Good night dear, I'll see you in the morning." Doc is sleeping. He is waiting for his wake-up call in the morning. And that wake-up call will come just as sure as the summons to death came last Saturday. The Scripture is quite clear.

We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 1Thess. 4:14-17 (NIV)

I made a mistake a moment ago. It would be quite correct for some of you here to say "goodbye Doc." Some of you will not see Doc on the final morning of the Resurrection. Some of you cannot say, "Good night, I will see you in the morning" because in that last great morning only those who have been born of God will be present to hear that call. Every lost man and woman who is without Jesus Christ will only see the blackness of eternal night. If you have never been born of God then you will never know and rejoice in the life everlasting that Doc entered into several days ago. He is right now enjoying that eternal life and shall enjoy it forever.

Doc's favorite line was to phone and say, "Do you know why Jesus said, you must be born again?" And the answer was always the same, "Because you must be born again." Doc was right! Have you ever been born of God? You do not have to be baptized to go to heaven, but you must be born again. You do not have to join a church, but you must be born again.

What happens when we are born of God? First, God shows us that we are sinners who need a Savior. Romans 6:23 becomes God's accusation against us personally. "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God" is no longer just a verse in the Bible. It becomes God personal accusation against me as an individual. I am the guilty sinner who needs to be saved.

Next, the gospel facts we remember at Christmas and Easter become realities and not merely myths. We understand and believe that God the Creator, in the person of Jesus Christ, actually became flesh. He lived a sinless life and then died for sins under the judgment of God on the cross. He paid our sin debt on that cross. God raised him from the dead to show his satisfaction with Christ offering himself in sacrifice in our place.

Sinners like you and like me are invited to come to Christ in repentance and faith and be saved. Jesus said, "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." John 6:37 (KJV)

The Holy Spirit of God must open our hearts and make us want to cry out to God, "What must I do to be saved?" And God's word tells us that the only correct answer is, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." Acts 16:30,31 (KJV)

My friend, have you ever cried out to God, "What must I do to be saved?" Have you ever experienced this new birth experience that Doc always talked about? Oh, that it would happen to you today! Oh, that some individuals listening to my voice right now would be enabled by God to date their birth into the kingdom of God as the day Doc Berry went home to be with the Lord. Oh, that the day of his going home would be the day you truly came home.

Recent events have proved how fragile society and our lives really are. There is only one unchanging certainty and that is the gospel promise of salvation by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ!

I remember hearing a story of two horticulturists out looking for rare plants. They saw an extremely rare plant growing out of a split rock about one hundred feet down the side of a cliff. They had never seen a real specimen of this particular plant, only pictures of it in books. You can imagine how badly that wanted the plant, but they could not figure out a way to get it. A little boy came by and the men immediately approached him and said, "Son, how would you like to earn two dollars?" The boy asked what he had to do. The men said, "We will tie this big strong rope (they were also half psychologists) around you and then lower you down that cliff to where a special plant is growing. We want you carefully take the plant out of the rock and put it in this container. That's all you have to do."

The boy agreed and they tied the big strong rope around him and took him over to the edge of the cliff. The moment the boy got his first look at how far down the cliff went he changed his mind. The men kept raising the price until it was up to twenty dollars. The boy had never in his whole life even touched a twenty-dollar bill. When he looked at the twenty dollars his heart beat a mile a minute, but when he looked down the side of the cliff his heart beat two miles a minutes. Finally the boy's face lit up and he said, "I will get your plant for twenty dollars under one condition." When they asked what the condition was he said, "Let me get my daddy and let him hold the other end of the rope."

That boy was a lot smarter than most people I know. They will not buy a car, a house, or even a lawn mower without checking the warranty and finding out everything they can before they purchase the item. These same people, however, will never spend a moment checking out what will happen to them when they die. They never test their religious convictions to see if they are biblical. You and I may argue whether it is better to live in Delaware or Pennsylvania, drive a Ford or a Chevy, eat vanilla or chocolate ice cream, and in the end it will make little, if any, real difference. I really don't care what you, or the majority, think on these things. I'm sure you feel the same way. In the final analysis, we couldn't care less. However, when it comes to my soul and its relationship to God, I want to know for sure if I believe the truth. I don't care what the Hollywood crowd says about God. I don't care what the majority believes about religion. I don't care what the church or the preachers says unless they are quoting Scripture. The opinions of sincere sentimentalists about "what I believe" may be fine for a discussion over coffee but not when they are lowering my dead body six feet into the ground. When that happens I want to be sure about my relationship to God. If I were lying in that casket instead of Doctor Berry, I would want to be hanging on to something that I knew had God on the other end. I would want to be sure that I knew God and God knew me!

Every gospel promise in the Scripture is like a rope from heaven. God himself is on the other end of every single promise. The moment we, by faith, lay hold of his promise we are anchored to God for eternity. God has promised to save every single sinner who comes to him in repentance and faith. Have you ever taken the promises of God, a rope from heaven, and tied that promise around your heart? God has said, "Come unto me all you that labor and are heavy ladened and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). Again, he has promised, "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow" (Isaiah 1:18).

May God open your heart to believe in Christ to the saving of your soul.
Copyright 2004 John G. Reisinger