Isaiah 9:4

For Thou hast broken the yoke of his burden

Deliverance from the burden of sin

I. SIN IS A BURDEN (Psalms 38:4). Sinners are heavy laden with this insupportable load, which detains them from God, who alone can relieve them; enfeebles their minds; and harasses them with perplexing fears, and the most uneasy reflections. A proper sense of its powerful influence, its polluting nature and dreadful guilt, like a crushing weight, depresses the spirit, becomes irksome and grievous, and if not happily removed, will prove the means of irremediable ruin.

II. THE CEREMONIAL LAW IS THE YOKE OF THIS BURDEN (Acts 15:10).

III. IMMANUEL HAS BROKEN THE YOKE (Colossians 2:14). (R. Macculloch.)

The Gospel a liberating power

1. The design of the Gospel, and the grace of it, is to break the yoke of sin and Satan, to remove the burthen of guilt and corruption, and to free us from the rod of those oppressors, that we might be brought into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

2. This is done by the Spirit working like fire (Isaiah 9:5). It is done as in the day of Midian, by a work of God upon the hearts of men. Christ is our Gideon. (M. Henry.)

Encouragement from the past

If God makes former deliverances His patterns in working for us, we ought to make them our encouragements to hope in Him.