At the end of Hebrews 4 I get two helps for the way: one the Word of God; the other the intercession of Christ.
I am not only protected by the Word, but I am also directed by it. It protects me from going in a way in which I might be drawn aside from its direction; and then being in the road, it directs me.
In the road I get the company of Christ; He says to me, I have been all along it, and I can give you My sympathy in it. The one who is passed through the heavens, is the one who is sympathizing with me all along the way—I, a poor weak thing always wanting to turn up one or another of the ninety-nine roads. And the more alive I am to the enjoyment of things here as a natural man, the more temptation and attraction there is to me. Well, then, as I refuse to go up any of these other roads, the more I have Christ’s sympathy with me as I tread His path.
Christ does not sympathize with a person in a wrong path. There are two actions in the Word of God: it corrects and it directs. The Lord corrects Martha and directs. Mary. A father would say to his child, If you walk in the mud, I cannot walk with you; you must come out of it if you wish to be with me.
You must feel your feebleness, your inability to stand all the difficulties of the way; but the Lord says, I will keep you company; I have been through it before you, and I have never touched sin. If He had ever touched it, He could not have lifted me out of it.