Sermons & Devotionals by John Nelson Darby
John Nelson Darby
Raised and seated together" Ephesians 2.
There are two subjects in this chapter, one of which I have specially in view. The first is that God has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Still He has a habitation down here through the Spirit, which is the second thing. There is a house built in wh... Read More
John Nelson Darby
Reading on 1 Timothy 1 and 2
The apostle Paul is here telling Timothy how to preach the gospel. Compare the language of the commission in Luke 24:46-48, with Acts 1:8 and chap. 2:36-38. In carrying out the commission - "repent and be baptised" - Peter told the Jews that they had crucified Christ, and they were brought to repent... Read More
John Nelson Darby
Reading on 2 Timothy 1 and 2
It is very striking to see how Paul goes back and down to natural associations, and also the way in which he does so; he departs here from the fulness of the doctrine usual to him, and becomes both private and personal; "whom I serve from my forefathers," "thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice... Read More
John Nelson Darby
Reading on 2 Timothy 3
Paul first speaks of the fact that Timothy had known the Holy Scriptures (v. 15); and then he says of every Scripture that it is inspired of God (v. 16). It is an important word, 'Scripture.' Prophecies may have died and passed away, as in the case of Agabus, who prophesied a famine coming; there ma... Read More
John Nelson Darby
Reading on Ephesians 3
It is striking how the gospel of Paul and the doctrine of the Church run into one another. They are distinguished somewhat more in Colossians, where Paul speaks of himself as a minister of the Church as well as of the gospel, i.e., he was a teacher of it, and not merely, as with many others, a teach... Read More
John Nelson Darby
Reading on Philippians 3
This chapter forms a kind of parenthesis, an important one, too, and full of matter, as Paul's parentheses always are. Redemption puts Christians upon a wonderfully new footing. It takes them out of man's place as such altogether, though they are still down here, and it puts them before God in a new... Read More
John Nelson Darby
Reading on the Christian Position
As to the difference between the opening out of our position, in Romans, Colossians, and Ephesians, it may be well to note that, in Romans, we are dead with Christ; in Colossians, we are risen with Him; and in Ephesians, we are dead and risen with Him, and seated in the heavenlies in Him. Ques. Why ... Read More
John Nelson Darby
Reading on the Fifth Book of Psalms Psalms 107-150
This is a kind of supplementary book which unfolds to us the ways and dealings of God when Israel is brought back. It begins by recounting the vicissitudes of their return, and their being sunk down again, after having got into the land; but coupled with this, there is the testimony that God's mercy... Read More
John Nelson Darby
Readings in 1 Corinthians
*These are verbatim notes of Readings in Belfast some years ago. Condensations of these have already appeared, but hitherto the full report has never been printed. It is hoped to give others as opportunity offers. — ED. A Reading on 1 Corinthians 2. Well now, we get the apostle's use of all this, an... Read More
John Nelson Darby
Readings on 1 Peter 1
In chapter 1, Peter is laying the foundation, but the subject proper to his epistle does not begin until chapter 2:11: "Dearly beloved, I beseech you," etc. In both epistles he lays the foundation of redemption, and then he proceeds to unfold the principles of the government of God under which the J... Read More
John Nelson Darby
Readings on 1 Peter 2
In each of the seven churches, the character attached to Christ has reference to the condition of the church, as shewn in its being warned, or else by threat of judgment, or by promise. In Smyrna, some would be put to death, so Christ is there presented as, "The first, and the last, which was dead, ... Read More
John Nelson Darby
Readings on Joshua 1
There is a difference between Numbers and Joshua. Numbers is, in its principle, the testing of man down here in the wilderness; we are viewed typically as redeemed Christians, but still in the wilderness, and tested. Joshua is, in figure, divine energy getting rid of Satan; while at the same time ev... Read More
John Nelson Darby
Readings on Joshua 2
We just touched on chapter 4 without saying anything of the stones taken out of Jordan. Ques. Some remark was made about the priests' feet being necessarily dipped in first? They had to go into the place of death; and the moment Christ touched the power of death, it was broken. The priests continued... Read More
John Nelson Darby
Readings on Numbers
READING 1 Passing by the numbering of the people and the redemption of the firstborn, we might begin with the laws and appointments of chapter 5; they were to keep the camp holy - put out the leper, and so on - "that they defile not their camps, in the midst whereof I dwell." God's dwelling with the... Read More
John Nelson Darby
Remarks on Failure
Galatians The title of this paper was given by the Editor: G. V. Wigram. The leading subject of the Epistle to the Galatians, as is manifest, is the correction by God's Spirit, of the first form of error by which the doctrine of Christ began to be corrupted; and, it may be observed, there is a sever... Read More
John Nelson Darby
Remarks on the Present Times
This is a time of trial for the beloved brethren who are gathered to the name and for the name of the Lord Jesus, because the pretensions and the energy of man are highly manifested. It is not an easy thing to be content with being simply what we are in reality before God. Times of "revival" reveal ... Read More
John Nelson Darby
Remembrance of Deliverance; and Guidance
{Christian Friend 1893, pages 141-5.} Lapse of time comes in here; it is a year since their deliverance, and they are still in the wilderness. When the passover is understood, the present power of deliverance is a very intelligible thing. (Ex. 13:3) They had been in bondage, but they were out of Egy... Read More
John Nelson Darby
Rest for the Weary. Matthew 11:97-30
Christian Friend vol. 19, 1892, p. 162. Jesus knew man, the world, the generation that had enjoyed the greatest advantages of all that were in the world. There was no place for the foot to rest on in the miry slough of that which had departed from God. In the midst of a world of evil Jesus remained ... Read More
John Nelson Darby
Righteousness without Grace.
Bible Treasury Vol. 15, page 380. The whip and the scourge may be righteous; but there is no winning the heart of man with these. Nor is it righteousness which reigns among the saints of God, but grace through righteousness unto eternal life. Alas! how many sins that might have been washed away (Joh... Read More
John Nelson Darby
Risen with Christ Colossians 3
The whole of the exhortations here are founded upon this, that the believer is put into an entirely new place. Indeed everywhere, though there are different aspects of it (in Ephesians - seated in heavenly places; in Romans - walking down here; in this epistle - not going further than resurrection) ... Read More
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John Nelson Darby (1800 - 1882)
was an Anglo-Irish Bible teacher, one of the influential figures among the original Plymouth Brethren and the founder of the Exclusive Brethren. He is considered to be the father of modern Dispensationalism and Futurism ("the Rapture" in the English vernacular). Pre-tribulation rapture theology was popularized extensively in the 1830s by John Nelson Darby and the Plymouth Brethren, and further popularized in the United States in the early 20th century by the wide circulation of the Scofield Reference Bible.He produced a translation of the Bible based on the Hebrew and Greek texts called The Holy Scriptures: A New Translation from the Original Languages by J. N. Darby. Darby traveled widely in Europe and Britain in the 1830s and 1840s, and established many Brethren assemblies. He gave 11 significant lectures in Geneva in 1840 on the hope of the church (L'attente actuelle de l'église). These established his reputation as a leading interpreter of biblical prophecy.
John Nelson Darby was an Anglo-Irish evangelist, and an influential figure among the original Plymouth Brethren. He is considered to be the father of modern Dispensationalism. He produced a translation of the Bible based on the Hebrew and Greek texts called The Holy Scriptures: A New Translation from the Original Languages by J. N. Darby.
John Nelson Darby graduated Trinity College, Dublin, in 1819 and was called to the Irish bar about 1825; but soon gave up law practice, took orders, and served a curacy in Wicklow until, in 1827, doubts as to the Scriptural authority for church establishments led him to leave the institutional church altogether and meet with a company of like-minded persons in Dublin.
Darby traveled widely in Europe and Britain in the 1830s and 1840s, and established many Brethren assemblies. These established his reputation as a leading interpreter of biblical prophecy. He was also a Bible Commentator. He declined however to contribute to the compilation of the Revised Version of the King James Bible.