The House of Wisdom or the House of Folly?

Well, take your Bible. Turn back with me to Proverbs chapter 9. I'm sure you might be there already because of our reading earlier in verses 10, 11, and 12. We're plugging along in our series in Proverbs. The title of the series is Wisdom for Christian Living. We're gaining wisdom little by little, knowledge, insight, direction, and I really believe that the Lord is working in you. He's been working in me. Now, to be honest with you with chapter 9, I kind of feel like I'm in a groove. And what I mean by in a groove, this will be the second message in a row where we've covered the entire chapter. You might say two messages, that's a groove.

Yeah, because it's not always the same. I think you know that. Now, I've already looked into chapter 10 quite a bit and I probably won't cover the entire chapter. So this groove will be over soon. So you know that we're just taking each chapter as it comes. If it needs to be two messages, it is. If it needs to be one message, well then so be it. But we are moving along. Now, you might not realize this, but we're at the end of the first section of the book of Proverbs. Bible scholars or Bible commentators group chapters 1 to 9 together. They call this an introduction to the book. I was thinking about this yesterday.

If we're in the introduction to the book, well then how much better will the book be? I really feel like it's just going to get better and better. But we are at the last chapter in this introductory portion of scripture. And again, I look forward to just continue to get better. I pray that you do too. Now, all throughout these eight chapters, we've seen two paths and we've seen two women. We have seen two paths or two roads or two ways in life. I've referenced that quite a few times. But we've also seen two women or two ladies or two females.

Back in chapter 4 verses 10 to 19, we study the two roads of life, the road of the upright or the road of the righteous or the road of the wise. And then we saw the road of the wicked or the road of the fool, the scoffer. And then in chapter 6, chapter 7 and chapter 8, we studied in detail these two women, the seductive, forbidden, adulterous woman, also the beautiful, good lady of wisdom. And remember this personification. We have the personification of the good lady, the beautiful lady of wisdom, and then the personification of this foolish, adulterous woman. Now what a personification is, these are human attributes given to this teaching.

Well, tonight with chapter 9, we're going to visit these two ways in these two women. Now, chapter 9 is short. If you've already looked at your scripture, it's just 18 verses, but it's packed from verse 1 all the way down to verse 18 with this teaching all around the two women and the two roads in life. And then there's something tucked in the middle. We're going to get to that here in a minute. Now I want to tell you my approach to the verses. I want you to look at the chapter with me real quick. Now I'm not reading any verses yet, but notice that verses 1 to 6, they're about the good lady of wisdom, the beautiful lady of wisdom.

And then if you go over to the end of the chapter, verses 13 to 18, they're about this foolish, adulterous, seductive woman. But yet in the middle, verses 7 to 12, they speak to the choices that the young man must take. We will examine the good lady of wisdom first, and then we will look at the foolish and seductive woman second. And then in verses 13 to 18 with this middle portion, we will look at that portion. And I believe this approach will help you, this approach to the chapter. It's not always that I take it out of order. Now I want to give you the breakdown of the verses, but you see we will have three major divisions.

We have the home of the good lady, this beautiful lady of wisdom, verses 1 to 6, the home of the foolish, seductive woman, verses 13 to 18, and then the reactions of the two. It's real simple. I'll flesh that out more. And that's verses 7 to 9. Now some of you might have noticed that I left out verses 7 to 12. I did that on purpose. I'm going to use those verses at the conclusion of the message. So we will cover all of the verses. Now as always, I won't read the verses. We'll read them as we go. So let's start off with our first major truth in our outline. Number one, we have the home of the good lady.

Verses 1 to 6 tells us of the home of the good lady, the beautiful lady of wisdom. Let's look at the verses together. Wisdom has built her house. See the personification? She has hewn her seven pillars. She has slaughtered her beasts. She has mixed her wine. She has also set her table. She has sent out her young women to call from the highest places in the town. Verse 4, "Whoever is simple, let him turn in here. To him who likes scents," she says, "come eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Leave your simple ways." Some translations may say foolish ways.

"And live and walk in the way of insight." Now here we have this continued personification of wisdom. Wisdom is given human attributes. Now we have an addition to this picture that we've been looking at. Whereas in chapter 8 we had this good lady of wisdom calling at the crossroads and at the city gates. Here we have her house. But not just her house, there is a very big event that's taking place within her home. Notice the picture here. We have this good lady, the good lady of wisdom, and then Solomon is showing us what is going on taking place within her home. So let's examine what's going on in her home.

Let's see what's going on in her house. There's quite a bit here and I think it's really, really rich. First notice that her home is perfect. This good lady of wisdom, her home, it is perfect. Look at verse 1. "Wisdom has built her house. She has hewn her seven pillars." Now there are many questions as to the meaning of this phrase, "seven pillars." You might not have paid that much attention to that phrase. Now I'm not going to go into all of the different thoughts and opinions about what that means. But with the help of some commentators I've kind of come to a conclusion. To me the most obvious view is perfection.

To me the most obvious view is this speaks to perfection. Wisdom is of God and from God. Did we not learn that last week in chapter 8? So that makes wisdom perfect. Now the number seven is the number of completion or perfection all throughout the scriptures. Solomon is showing his son that the good lady of wisdom's house is large, it is significant, and it is sufficient to meet all of his needs for wisdom. But it is more than sufficient. Her house is perfect because she is of God and from God. So I believe this speaks to her perfection. Her home, it is a perfect home, a perfect house with perfect wisdom.

And then second notice, she prepares a great feast. She prepares a great feast in verse 2. She has slaughtered her beasts, she has mixed her wine, she has also set her table. Here in verse 2 we see that the good lady here has prepared a great banquet. Now there are two items which show that the feast was great. First she had great quantities of meat. Is that what the verse says? She has slaughtered her beasts, plural. And then second she has wine to drink. But notice a couple of details here. This phrase mixed her wine there in verse 2 speaks to the practice of mixing wine with water.

That meant the wine was diluted so that the one drinking it would not get drunk. That was the purpose. This shows us that she was not promoting drunkenness. And a lot of people can misconstrue that verse. Then the last part of the verse shows that she has set her table. So we see that the good lady, the good lady of wisdom, she has prepared a great, a great bountiful feast. And then third notice, she sends out an invitation. In verse 3 she sends out an invitation. She has sent out her young maidens, her young women to call. And to call from the highest places in the town.

Here we see this continued call in chapter 1 verses 20 and 21 and in chapter 8 verses 1 and 3. Wisdom was calling out in the streets. One commentator says that her call is like the open air preacher. I like that. Go back to the verse. She has sent her young women, her maidens, out to call from the highest places in town. But here we see a shift or a change. She is calling in the public like before, but she is calling for the young man to come to her home. She's calling for the young man to come to her feast, to come to her banquet.

So the good lady is sending out invitations for the young men in the town, in the streets, to come to her banquet in her feast in her home. And then fourth, this last observation from verses 4 to 6. Her promise to those who dine with her. There is a promise here to those who dine with her. Verse 4. "Whoever is simple, let him turn in here. To him who likes scents," she says, "come, come eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Leave your simple ways," and here's the promise, "and live and walk in the way of insight." Now notice who is receiving the instruction. It is the simple one.

It is the fool or the one who likes scents, verse 4 says. Notice what the good lady says. She says, "come and eat my bread and drink my good wine, not wine for drunkenness, but wine for taste and wine that would satisfy the thirst." She provides a great feast because there is an abundance of meat because the beasts, plural, were slaughtered in verse 2. And then there is bread to eat and then there's this wine to drink. Now this leads me to a couple of questions. What does this great meal refer to? What does the great meal symbolize? This speaks to wisdom.

The great banquet here and the great meal, the meat and the bread and the wine, it speaks to wisdom and insight and understanding. In verse 6, I believe she is saying, "come to my feast and have your fill of wisdom. Leave your foolish and stupid ways behind. Dine with me and feast on my perfect wisdom." So this is a great promise for the simple one who would dine with her. Now in summarizing verses 1-6, notice what we see here. "The home of the good lady of wisdom, she has prepared a great feast of wisdom and knowledge and insight. She sends out her young messengers, her young maidens, to call for the foolish ones to come in and join her.

It's as if we can hear her saying, 'come, come and gain wisdom. Leave your foolish ways. Come to my home, come to my banquet and feast on the wisdom that I can provide.'" And listen, since she is of God and from God, then this is a grand feast from God. So what have we seen? This is the home of the good lady wisdom, the beautiful lady of wisdom. And now I want us to move on. Notice number 2, the home of the foolish woman. Now I just got a picture in my mind of a street and I'm just envisioning us moving across the street, across the road to the home of this foolish woman. So we're going to move over to verse 13, verse 13 down to verse 18.

Let's look at the verses together. "The woman of folly is loud. She is seductive and knows nothing. Oh, she sits at the door of her house. She takes a seat at the highest places of the town, calling to those who pass by who are going straight on their way." Verse 16. "Whoever is simple, let him turn to her. And to him who likes sin, she says, stolen water is sweet and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. But he who does not know that the dead, but he does not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol." Now here we have a contrasting picture.

Now I said that she is across the street from the home of the good lady wisdom. Now the text does not say that. I'm just using that for our imagination. It helps us see what we're learning. The home of the foolish woman may be down the street. It might be a block away. It may even be across town. But we do know that she lives close enough to tempt the young men of the city. Isn't that what the verses say? She is close enough to lure the foolish ones to her home. Now we saw what was taking place in the home of the good lady wisdom. Now let's turn our attention to what is taking place in the home of the foolish woman.

Notice I did not call her a lady. I called her a woman. One Bible common tater called her a woman. Kind of a derogatory term because she's not a lady. She's a woman. So notice first her home is filled with folly. Verse 13, "The woman, this woman folly is loud." Here we see a lot in just one verse. This woman is loud. We saw this back in chapter 7. In chapter 7 verse 11 she is loud and wayward. Next we see that she is seductive. The second part of verse 13, she is seductive and knows nothing. Again that is what we see in chapter 7 verse 11. So she is still loud and she's still seductive in her behavior.

But here in verse 13 we see another layer. We see another angle to this woman. Solomon says that she knows nothing. Look back at verse 13. She is seductive and knows nothing. Whereas the good lady of wisdom is smart. Whereas this beautiful good lady of wisdom is wise. The woman of folly is stupid and dumb. So her home is filled with folly. And then second notice she seduces those that she can. She seduces those that she can. Verse 14, "She sits at the door of her house." Remember verse 13 says she was seductive. She takes her seat in the high places of the town calling, calling out to those who pass by who are going straight on their way.

Again notice the contrast. Whereas the good lady of wisdom must go out into the highways and the byways to call those to come to her door. Here the foolish seductive woman simply sits at her door. She also takes a seat in the notable places in town. Simply the fools stroll by. Isn't that what we see? The fools just walk by. But notice the picture. As the young men stroll by, she simply solicits them by her seductive speech and with her seductive ways. You know in my mind I just have a picture of a fisherman. She is catching as many as she can. She is seducing as many as she can. And then third she calls out to the simple.

She calls out to the simple. Verse 16 and 17, "Whoever is simple let him turn in here." Isn't that what she is saying? "Whoever is simple let him turn in here. And to him who likes sin she says, stolen water is sweet and the bread, the bread eaten in secret it is pleasant." Now notice the similarities between verses 16 and 17 and the verses we read earlier verses 4, 5 and 6. In verse 4, 5 and 6 we have the call of the lady of wisdom to the young man to come dine with her. Here in verses 16 and 17 we have the seductive foolish woman. She is calling to the young man, the young fool to come and dine with her.

The good lady of wisdom is calling the young man to her feast but the call of the foolish woman is much different. One commentator said that hers was an illicit party. I like that. Hers was an illicit party. Her water was stolen, the text says, and her bread was to be eaten in the secret place so this would have been done, this would have been a tantalizing temptation for the young fool. Of course part of this temptation would have been this foolish woman's sexual seduction because we know she is a seductress. So notice the foolish woman.

She calls out to the simple one in the streets and she says, "Come, come join my wild party." She says, "Come, come, my party is filled with eating and it is filled with immorality and we're doing all of these things in the dark." So she is calling out to this simple one and this is tantalizing, I'm sure, to the young fool. And then fourth, notice her home is filled with death. Look at verse 18. But he, this is the young fool, he does not know that the dead are there, what a gruesome picture, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol. Now we see what we've seen before. The way of the foolish seductive woman always leads to death.

But notice the scene, notice the picture. Solomon says the dead are there. We learn in chapter 7 verses 25 and 26 that the path of the seductive woman is littered with the dead. Here we see that her home is filled with the dead as well. He says that the guests of her party always end up in death and they are many. So her home and her parties are littered with the dead. So in summarizing verses 13 to 18, what do we see? The home of this foolish woman. Remember one commentator had this derogatory term, "the dame." She's not a lady. She is on her front porch and she is out in the streets. She is seducing the young foolish men of her town.

Whereas the good lady of wisdom has a perfect feast, this foolish woman has an illicit party. Her party is filled with stolen food and stolen drink. Her party is filled with sinful sexual pleasures. But after the party, there is nothing but death and sorrow. Her home is filled with the dead who have eaten her food and enjoyed her sensual pleasures. Now here I want to pause and I want to make some application out of all that we have seen. We've seen the good lady of wisdom at the beginning of the chapter verses 1 to 6. And then we've looked at this foolish woman, this foolish dame, the seductive adulterous woman in verses 13 to 18.

Now I want to apply these two houses in several ways. First I want to start off with the adults. I hope and pray that we do not have any adults here who are living in the house of the foolish. You know there are people that do come to church and they put on their nice clothes and they have on a straight face. But when they go home it's a lot different. I think some of you know people like that. And there can be people who come and they walk among us and talk with us, but yet they are living in the house of the foolish, both men and women. Some adults lived in the house of the foolish in the past.

We must see that there are some, maybe even some of you here prior to being converted, you lived in the house of the foolish before. That was the way you lived before Christ. So what am I trying to show you? There are some that come among us. They are living in the house of the foolish now. But there are some, you used to live in the house of the foolish but God saved you and God changed you. But I believe there are some, you live in another house. There are some of you here, you live in the house of the wise. You feast on wisdom. You feast on knowledge and insight and understanding. So what am I trying to show you here?

We have many types of adults that come and worship with us that are even here tonight. Some of you, I pray that none of you here tonight live in the house of the foolish. You once lived in the house of the foolish before you were saved and there are people among us that do have a house of wisdom. But you know I thought about this too. There are some of you, there are some of us that do not live in the house as the wisdom as we should. Now think about it. Remember the house of the good lady wisdom? She had a banquet. A banquet of wisdom. Slaughtered meats, bread and mixed wine. And that pictures wisdom.

And there are some that do not feast at the table of the Lord as they should. And this should cause us to run to the Lord, to run to the Word, to run to everything that we study Sunday, Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday night to get all that we can get, to grow all that we can grow. We should not let one message or one study or one day go by without us feasting at the table of the Lord, feasting at the table of the Lord because listen, his banquet is great. His banquet is great. But then I want to speak to our young people. You know we do have young people that come among us, sit in our pews and they live in the house of the foolish.

Oh it's not their fault. They live in the house of the foolish. I can't tell you how many conversations I've had with young people throughout the years that in tears they would look at me and say, "Brother Chris, why do I live where I live? Why are my parents like this? Why are my mom and my dad like this? I don't have a mom and a dad. Why do the people live like this that I live with? Why? Why?" What are they saying? They're going home to the house of the foolish.

But there's some of the young people you need to understand you're living in the house of the wise because your mom and your dad love God and they are constantly putting the wisdom of God and the Word of God and the examples of God living in front of you. But you know young person, I want you to see that there's a choice that you'll have to make. You'll have to choose which house you dwell in. You'll have to choose which house you visit. You have to choose which house you live in, but you'll also have to choose which house you visit and I've seen young people, they'll go visit the house of the foolish and then they'll come out.

They'll go into the way of the world and the way the world lives and then they'll come back and they'll come back into their church world and see you must notice where you visit. You must see where you're going to live. Now I'm going to talk about this a little more at the conclusion of our message. So what have we seen? Verses 1-6, this is the house of wisdom, the house of the good lady of wisdom and then verses 13-18, the house of this foolish woman, this adulterous woman, the house of folly. So let's move on to number 3. I want us to see the reactions.

These are the reactions of the two houses, the two ways of life and this is sandwiched right in between all that we've looked at starting in verse 7. Let's go to the verses. Whoever corrects a scoffer gets himself abuse and he who reproves a wicked man incurs injury do not reprove a scoffer or he will hate you. reprove a wise man and he will love you. Give instruction to the wise and he will be still wiser. Teach a righteous man and he will increase in learning. Now notice the ways of the two are sandwiched between the two houses.

On one side of the road you have the house, the house of the good lady of wisdom then on the other side of the road we have the house of the foolish seductive woman. But here is the picture in my mind. In the streets we have the young men, we have the young ones and they are choosing their way. They are choosing which way they will go, which house will they visit. Now these verses are much simpler to cover so this will be a little faster. Here we see two reactions to the teaching. First the reaction of the fool, verse 7 to the beginning of verse 8.

Whoever corrects a scoffer gets himself abuse and he who reproves a wicked man incurs injury do not reprove a scoffer or he will hate you. Now the verse calls this foolish one a scoffer. This is the one who is unteachable. This is the self-reliant. This is the one that does not need instruction so he thinks. This is the one that is full of self and pride. Here we see that the one who offers correction and instruction is scoffed at. But more than scoffed at they are abused. So notice the picture. Here we have a young man, a young man in the street and he is rejecting correction.

The wise one in his life is offering instruction and he is abused. This young man simply goes the way of the fool. Remember he is simple. The person who ignores instruction is simple. We learn really that they are stupid. He goes the way of the fool and he ignores instruction. So you tell me where this one goes. He goes on the side of the street or the house of the adulterous seductive woman lives. That's where he goes. So we have the reaction of the fool. Then second notice the reaction of the wise. The reaction of the wise. The beginning or the middle part of verse 8. Reprove a wise man and he will love you.

Give instruction to the wise and he will still be wiser. Teach a righteous man and he will increase in learning. Here we see the opposite. It changes in the middle of verse 8. Here we see the wise young man. He is teachable. He is not self sufficient. He is not full of pride but he is full of humility. He receives the instruction and becomes even more wise. Isn't that what the verse says? He grows in two ways. Notice he grows in wisdom. More wisdom. He is wise but he gains wisdom and learning. He has learning but he gains more learning. Whereas the young fool scoffs at the one offering help and instruction. The wise young man does not.

He welcomes the instruction and the one giving the instruction. So in summary what do we see in verses 7 to 8. The reactions of the young man in the streets. Remember my picture? Remember the picture? On one side of the street there is the home of the good lady of wisdom. On the other side of the street is the home of the foolish, seductive woman. Yes she is a dame. And in the streets are the throngs of young men. The young men of the city. Even the young people of the city. But in that crowd is the one urging the young man to go to the home of the good lady wisdom. Let me repeat that.

Within that crowd there is someone urging the young men and the young people to go to the home of the good lady of wisdom. Some of the young men scoff and then some of the young men accept. Some go to the house of the good lady of wisdom and then there are some they go to the home of the adulterous foolish woman. Now question. Listen close. You might need to put your eyes on your pastor. Who am I in the scene? I'm talking about myself. Who am I? Where do I fit? This is a very very important question. Where do I fit in this picture now? I've given you a picture. There's a street littered with young people.

On one side is the home of the adulterous foolish woman and then on the other side is the home of the good lady of wisdom. Now where do I fit in here? Now listen close. I am the one in the street calling you to go to the home of the good lady of wisdom. That's my role. Every Sunday morning, every Sunday night in small group, every Wednesday night when we gather here for a message. If we're at our home or at a bonfire or anywhere where the word of God is open. I am the one in the street calling you to go to the good lady of wisdom. And listen young people. I want to speak to you. God has put me in your life.

I'm here to declare the word of God to you. I'm here to love you. I'm here to instruct you. I'm here to teach you and I'm urging you. I'm calling you. I'm imploring you to go towards the house of the good lady of wisdom. If you go to the house of the adulterous woman. If you hear the noise of the illicit party. If you go across the street to the home of folly. It will destroy you. It will destroy you and you will not see the litter of dead bodies until you're among them. You will not notice the stink of the dead to you notice your own stink of your dead. And listen to your pastor. I'm here urging you.

I'll be here next year and the next year and the next year and the next year until the Lord takes me home. And I'm going to urge you to go across the street no matter where the others go to go to the home of the good lady of wisdom. But not just young people adults. It does not matter if you're 26 or 46 or 86. If you have five days left on this earth you have the choice of going to either the good lady of wisdom or the home of the foolish. You go to one of the other and listen that's my job. I'm calling you to go the way of God the way of the word the way of Christ Jesus no matter what your age is. Remember there are two paths.

There's only two paths. There's only two paths. So I want you to see that that is my job and my question for you is this. How are you reacting. And you know I'm really sad. I can look back through the time that I've been here at NOLA and I can tell you of people and I never would call names that they heard the word taught. They didn't like it and they went the way of foolishness. I never forget years ago I had a family here. They had some of their children examining their salvation. Their children were not saved. Their children would go home and ask questions and listen the lady of the house just kept getting her feathers ruffled.

She just didn't like the preaching and the teaching. She didn't like how I prayed. She didn't like things I would say. Everybody else seemed to like it. And I'm sad to say they left and that the children who were questioning their their position spiritually where they were they never came to faith in Christ and they ended up going to an unbiblical church. That's the road of the foolish. I watched it with a broken heart. So my call for you is this. Where are you going. Which house are you visiting. Now I want to move to the conclusion and I want to revisit these verses verses 10 and 11 and 12.

Now I want to show you the key to the whole thing here and I want to show you the key to all that is here. So let's go to the verses verses 10 11 and 12. Notice what it says. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight for by me your days will be multiplied in your years will be added to your life. If you are wise you are wise for yourself if you scoff you alone will bear it. Now the only way you will find that you will live and live in the house of the good lady of wisdom is if you possess a key. Now as I was finishing up this morning I thought about some items that were in the desk drawer.

I have a middle desk drawer and there are certain items in there and some of those things are not necessarily valuable but they have a unique particular place in my life. I'll give you an example. One of them is in Indian arrowhead. I've only found one arrowhead on my granddad's old farm. He used to talk about finding them all the time. I found one. It cannot be replaced. First one ever found. I might find one next month but it's in that drawer. But there's something else that's in that drawer. There's a key ring. It's got two keys on it. One key is to my grandfather's old Volkswagen. I learned how to drive in that car. There's only one.

The old car is abandoned and in the bush is there. It's right there. I learned how to drive in that old Volkswagen. And when I was a kid I turned that key. I don't remember but sometime in the past I grabbed the key out of the ignition. But you know there's another key on the key ring. It's the old key to the back door of his old camp house. My granddad built a house on the place. It was for the family and he had an old lock on the back door and you use an old skeleton key. Some of you know what a skeleton key is. And for years he had it hanging up on a nail and he kept the head of an old doll covering it up. It was kind of scary.

I don't know why I used an old doll. You could just move it all the way over the finger and there's the key. And it wasn't that many years ago I was doing some cleaning up in the house and I saw the key. I knew exactly what it was. There's only one key to the old back door of the camp. The back door is not even there anymore. One key to the old back door, one key to the old Volkswagen that I learned how to drive in. And listen folks, I want you to see. Verse 10 shows us the key. Look at verse 10. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is in sight." Listen.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of this wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the key to entering the house of the good lady of wisdom. Listen, we have certain things that get us from point A to point B. A key gets us through a door. A passport lets us travel. A password gets us through a door or into a particular computer program. And look. The fear of the Lord is the new birth. It's the new birth. What does it say? The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It starts with the new birth and the knowledge. How do we know the Holy One? How do we know God? It's the new birth. It's being born of God.

And see, notice what the new birth brings. The new birth brings the biblical fear of God. And then second, the new birth brings knowledge of the Holy One. When we come to a place where God opens up our heart and our mind spiritually, and He enables us to see by the power and the work of the Spirit our sin and His righteousness and the judgment that is to come. And then He gives us the ability by the power and the work of the Spirit to repent and by faith trust in Christ. When we experience that, that we can't manufacture, we can't buy, we can't get in our own efforts and ways.

When we experience the new birth, that brings us into the proper relation of verse 10. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It has a beginning place. And the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. And my question for you is this. Where are you in the mix of all this? Look, if you're in the middle of the street and you're not born again, you can't go to the house of the good lady of wisdom. You can't. You can't go to the house of the good lady of wisdom and get in. You know why? Because you don't have the key. There's only one. It's the new birth.

We looked at the key to get into the house of the good lady of wisdom, but now let's see the results. Verses 11 and 12 are the results. "For by Me your days will be multiplied and your years will be added to your life. If you are wise, you are wise to yourself. Oh, but if you scoff, you bear it alone." These verses are the results of which house you choose. Now remember our picture. It's two houses. Two houses. Good lady of wisdom, the house of the foolish woman. And so what we see is this. If you are wise, you will choose the good lady of wisdom. You will have the blessed life and only comes with the new birth. It starts with Christ.

And if you're a true Christian and you live in the house of the good lady of wisdom, look, you will feast at her table. You will be blessed. Look, this doesn't mean physical blessing. No, this is a work of inner joy and inner blessing and in their happiness. That's what takes place. But if you're foolish, you're rejecting Christ and you will choose to live in the house of the foolish and the seductive woman every time because you will always go the way of your nature. Then you will be a scoffer and you will end up on the heap of the dead. Young person, I want to warn you, I've seen young person after young person graduate from God.

They become an adult and they just ease their way where they ease their way across the street to the house of the foolish woman. See verse 18, but he does not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of she'll listen. If you reject Christ, you will end up at the house of the foolish woman and you will end up dying early and piled up with the dead. Now what's the title of what we looked at tonight? You probably could guess it, but we're looking at what I'm calling the house of wisdom or the house of folly. It's only two houses, two roads and two houses. House of wisdom and the house of folly.

Now I've told you a little bit of my story. When I was learning how to drive my granddad's old Volkswagen, I wasn't born again. I was lost. I didn't know Christ. When I was a teenager like these young people here, I was lost. I didn't know Christ. I wasn't even religious. I didn't come to faith in Christ till I was 20 years old and when I experienced the new birth, when God saved me and God changed me, I was able to move. I moved. I moved from the house of the foolish, the foolish woman. Oh, where the illicit parties were. I moved from her house to the house of the good lady of wisdom. Why? Because I got the key and the key was Jesus.

Now I divert your attention. I move your attention back to the title. It's a question. The house of the wisdom or the house of folly. It's a question posed for you. Where are you living? Where are you living? How are you living? Which direction are you headed? I pray that by faith in Christ, you're able to live in the house of this good lady of wisdom.