In episode 86 of the "No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe" podcast, host Greg Ryan explores the biblical concepts of doubt, fear, and the condition of a hardened heart. He begins by recalling a previous discussion on the hardness of heart, referencing Mark 6’s feeding of the 5,000 and the disciples’ amazement, and then defines a hardened heart as spiritual deadness that leads to moral insensitivity. Ryan argues that reliance on the Mosaic law reveals humanity’s inability to achieve righteousness, citing James 2:10 to illustrate the pass‑fail nature of the law and emphasizing that all have sinned and fall short of God’s glory. He contrasts this legalistic approach with the grace offered through Christ, noting that Jesus perfectly kept the law and thus frees believers from its condemnation. Ryan then critiques religious traditions that supersede Scripture, quoting Mark 7 where Jesus condemns the Pharisees for valuing human customs over God’s command. Central to his message is the proverb “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks,” which he expands with passages from Matthew 12, stressing that words reveal inner moral treasure and will be judged. Throughout, he uses personal anecdotes (e.g., poker‑table observations) to illustrate how rule‑obsessed individuals often conceal deeper dishonesty. He concludes with a pastoral invitation for listeners—both believers and skeptics—to read the Gospel of John, seek the Holy Spirit’s guidance, and examine their hearts, followed by a prayer for peace, protection, and spiritual awakening.
Welcome to episode 86.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Spending time in the Word of God is the best way to spend time with God. Welcome to No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast, where we will encourage, inspire, and empower you to live your best life in Christ.
Here's Greg. Welcome to episode 86. I am still talking about doubt and fear, and since this podcast is named No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe, I figured I needed to dig in a little bit deeper on this topic. And where God is taking me today, and you and I, I guess, out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. So if you remember in the previous episode, I was talking about the hardness of heart, and I'll go back and read that real quick. And the scripture's in Mark 6, and remember, he just fed the 5,000 men, and you know, there was women and children, so, and I'm told that there were over 10,000 people fed there with 3 loaves and 2 fish. And he had just sent his disciples away and was walking on the water and had just come in the boat when he said, then he went up into the boat, and this is in Mark 6:51 and 52. Then he went into the boat to them, and the wind ceased, and they were greatly amazed in themselves beyond beyond measure and marveled, for they had not understood about the loaves because their heart was hardened. And we talked about the hardened heart yesterday. I'm not going to rehash all of that, but since we talked about the hardened heart and about it waxing cold, then I wanted to take— what is the hardened heart and what is Jesus talking about when he says you have a hard heart? Because he's talking to his disciples, he's not talking to the world. Now I want to go on record as saying that the world does have— they got a cold, dead heart. You know, there— when you hear someone say, you know, you're heartless, that is because the heart is dead. When your spirit man is dead, if you have not accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, your heart is dead. Your spirit man is dead. You have no compassion for your mankind. You have, you know, you can have feelings, and I'm not saying that you don't have any feelings, but from the standpoint of God's word your heart is hardened and it is cold-hearted. And that is why people can do things that you kind of go, wow, that's incredible, is because you are doing so with a hard heart. And most of the time, the natural response for most people is, look, I'm following the rules. Look, I am doing everything I'm told to do. And so you think that's some kind of badge of courage, like, oh, you get a gold star because you followed every rule. Well, the Bible is pretty clear when it says if you follow the whole law and miss any part of it, you are guilty of the whole thing. And I'm paraphrasing, I know I butchered that to death, and I'm gonna have to go right now and read it. And that scripture is found in James, and it's 2:10. For whoever shall keep the whole law and yet stumble in one point is guilty of it all. And I want to stop there. I could read on, but if you're trying to keep the whole law— say you, you tell yourself that I don't commit adultery and I don't murder and I don't do this and I don't do that. And I think I've said before, there's 613 laws that you could break. So you're trying to keep this whole law and you stumble on one thing. This scripture right here says you're guilty of the whole deal. So you might as well have murdered. If you say you just told a little white lie, say you just, you just lied, you know, you're trying to protect the person or whatever it is, you lied and you're trying to keep this whole law and you said you're good enough, you are guilty of the whole law. It is like you broke every single one. This is a pass/fail deal and it is harsh. And that's the whole idea, is that the law is harsh and the law is given to show us that we cannot live by it. It's impossible. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and the glory of God is to keep the whole law. If you think about it, Jesus— the God is saying, look, if I walked on this earth and I was to live here as a man, I would keep this, all this whole law. And that is exactly what Jesus did. Jesus did not break one of the laws. He lived a perfect life. He had God's blood in him. He was the perfect Lamb of God. He took away all our sin. We cannot live by the law, and it's our heart that condemns it. It is the inside, because we're trying to do the rule. And if you've ever met somebody that, that is constantly just berating the rules and the rules and the rules and, and checking up on everybody, I'm based on the scripture and based on my life's experience, usually it's that person that is breaking the law. I mean, the person that is so on top of everything is the one that's just consciously always aware because they know their subconscious. They're, man, I, I'm doing this all the time, and I know if I'm doing it, they're doing it. And I've got to take you back before I was saved, when I, in my back in my poker days when I was playing poker and you would throw your, you know, you would bet. And even those of you that don't know poker, I'm sorry, but you know, you would bet and everybody go around the table. You know, there's a place where if you're not dealing with honest people, they can pull out more money or they can throw in more money. Rarely do you throw in more money, but someone that seems like they're always asking about the ante or always asking, always checking up on watching people take money in and put money out is usually— not always, but is usually— the person that you're gonna find cheating. Most of the people that I've ever played cards with, and probably almost all of them, have never really cheated, or at least not as far as I knew. But there was a few that I knew were cheats, and they were liars, and they were the ones that were always checking. Like, if you bet a quarter and you threw in a dollar and drew 3 quarters, you know, the person that's cheating would throw in a dollar and drag out 4 or 5 quarters. So I, I mean, I just want to— and I— that may or may not be a good example, but if you tried, the person that is always trying to keep the law is the one that's probably breaking it. And here's the good news: you don't have to keep the law anymore. The law was given to show you that you couldn't keep it. Jesus came so that we could be free from the law of sin and death and walk in the law of grace and truth. As per usual, this, this podcast is not going the way I thought it was going to go, but I want to go back to where defilement comes from within, where Jesus— they were trying to keep the rules, and all these Pharisees, they were getting on to his people, Jesus' disciples, because they weren't washing their hands, they weren't doing everything proper. And then I want you to listen to how Jesus Jesus talks to them in Mark 7:5: Then the Pharisees and Scribes asked him, Why do your disciples not walk according to the traditions of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands? 6: And he answered and said to them, Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me: and in vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men, the washing of pitchers and of cups, and many such things you do. He said to them, all too well, you reject the commandment of God that you may keep your traditions. And then I want to skip to 13, making the word of God of no effect through your traditions which you have handed down, and many such things you do. So I'm going to paraphrase real quick, the traditions and doctrines of men have made the word of God of no effect. We have handed down, and the church has done this, people have done this, you know, there's things that you do that are not based on the word of God but just based on a habit or based on what you thought someone had told you to do. And that's another reason why I just say, look, we need to get into this word, we need to find out what this word says, we need to find out what Jesus says and anchor our life on this word. If we do that, we will all— everything that we do will prosper. And if we're not prospering, we don't— we're not walking in peace and we're not walking in joy, chances are really good it's because we're doing something outside of the word of God. And I'm speaking to Christians now. I'm pretty confident that if, if you're a non-believer, you're probably not listening to this podcast, but if you are, If you will hook into this word, if you will dig into this word, it will change your life. And I pray if you're an unbeliever and listening to this, that you will dig in and you'll start reading the Gospel of John and you start asking the Holy Spirit, even if you don't believe in him because he believes in you, just ask him, hey, what do you want me to know about this? I know you're not there and I know I'm probably speaking to air, but what if you're there, what do you want me to learn about this word. God will answer. The God that I serve is waiting for you to humble yourself and ask. You don't have to be a believer to humble yourself. You can humble yourself, ask the Holy Spirit, and he will open up some stuff to you. It's really pretty cool. The God that I serve is a God that loves people. He created every person here on this earth There's no accidents. You are not a stepchild. Even if you don't believe in God, God believes in you. Well, I don't know who was supposed to hear that, but there you go. Go get into John, the Gospel of John, the first chapter, and just ask the Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, what you want me to— what you want me to understand, or what you want me to find out as you read. And don't read it as a book, just read it slowly and take your time, and God will open up his word to you. Well, I want to finish up this episode with where I actually wanted to start, and God kind of took me on a tangent, but it's in Matthew 12, and it's 31 through probably 37. Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him, But whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or the age to come. 23:33 Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or else make the tree bad, and its fruit bad: for a tree is known by its fruit. 23:34 Brute of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. 23:35 A good man out of the good treasure of the heart brings forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. But I say to you that for every idle word men speak, they will give an account for it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned. Well, there you have it. That is a mouthful, and I wanted to get all that out into this episode because I believe that's where I wanted to go. I don't know where God wanted me to go, but I'm not gonna— I'm gonna go back and edit a little bit, but I'm gonna leave everything in there. But we're going to continue on this abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. So what's inside of you is what is going to come out of you. And we're going to talk about the defilement and all of that good stuff that Jesus talked about in Mark 7. So we're going to dig into this heart issue. It is a big deal, and it's a— it's very difficult to deal with on one 10-minute episode, especially when God takes me on a tangent. Well, I want to pray for you. God, I thank you so much for the person listening to this podcast. I know that he and she— or she is your favorite. God, you know right where they are. You know right what's going on in their life, and you would know what's going on wrong in their life. And I pray in the mighty name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth that you would just reach out and touch that person. Let them know the peace that surpasses all understanding. Lord, let it guard their hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. And I pray that you would just calm any storm that is raging in their world. And I thank you, Lord, for your word, and I thank you for sending your son to die a death, Lord, that I, I should have died, but you died for me. Lord, I thank you. I love you. We ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, thank you for being a part of this, and I'll talk to you on the next episode.
Thanks for listening to the No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast at www.nodoubtonlybelieve.com.
