God will not accept a divided heart. He must be absolute monarch.
There is not room in your heart for two thrones. Christ said: "No man
can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the
other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye
cannot serve God and Mammon." Mark you, He did not say--"No man
_shall_ serve. . . . Ye _shall_ not serve. . . .", but "No man _can_
serve. . . . Ye _can_ not serve. . . ." That means more than a
command; it means that you cannot mix the worship of the true God with
the worship of another god any more than you can mix oil and water. It
cannot be done. There is not room for any other throne in the heart if
Christ is there. If worldliness should come in, godliness would go
out.
The road to heaven and the road to hell lead in different directions.
Which master will you choose to follow? Be an out-and-out Christian.
"Him only shalt thou serve." Only thus can you be well pleasing to
God. The Jews were punished with seventy years of captivity because
they worshipped false gods. They have suffered nearly nineteen hundred
years because they rejected the Messiah. Will you incur God's
displeasure by rejecting Christ too? He died to save you. Trust him
with your whole heart, for with the heart man believeth unto
righteousness.
I believe that when Christ has the first place in our hearts--when the
kingdom of God is first in everything--we shall have power, and we
shall not have power until we give Him His rightful place. If we let
some false god come in and steal our love away from the God of heaven,
we shall have no peace or power.