Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, while He sent the multitudes away. And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there. But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary. Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out for fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.” And Peter answered Him and said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!” And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. Then those who were in the boat came and worshiped Him, saying, “Truly You are the Son of God.” NKJV)

Everybody has what constitutes a giant to him/her 

What is a giant to you may not be a giant to me. Your giant is a measure of your faith and your ability to appropriate to yourself the promises of God. In other words, you can determine what your giant is by asking yourself two questions: 

What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.” “Their throat is an open tomb; with their tongues they have practiced deceit”; “The poison of asps is under their lips”; “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; Destruction and misery are in their ways; And the way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. NKJV

This conclusion of the first part of the Epistle says “the whole world is lost.” In our earlier studies, the Apostle has dealt extensively with the Gentile, the moral man, and the Jew. He now comes to the conclusion as he deals with “both Jews and Gentiles” (v.9). In the world, there are only two classes of people, Jews and Gentiles. In verse 10 Paul answers a question “How many Jews and Gentiles are there who are righteous?” V.10 – “there is none” v.11 “there is none” and again, “there is none” and verse 12, “there is none”. Four times the answer is “none”. Now that was negative answer; “How many are righteous?” Answer –”none”. To the positive, “How many sinners are there?” The answer is to be found in verses 9, 12 and 19 –”all”. The word “none” appears four times and “all” appears three times- making seven in all – a sign of complete indictment that God brings against the world.

In our earlier discussions, we have looked at the Gospel and its power. We have seen the heathen in his abandoned state and his need for the Gospel to lift him up. We have looked at the double standard of the moralist and his need for salvation. In all of these, only the Gospel offers a ray of hope. It is the “power of God unto salvation” Today we want to move ahead to look into the Church: Does anybody inside the Church need the Gospel? When Amos was delivering his message to the religious congregation in Israel moving towards Jerusalem for religious festivities, it was good message when he spoke of the transgressions of Damascus, Tyre, Ammon, Moab etc. God would pour out His wrath on those heathen nations. But when he said: “for the transgressions of Judah and Israel”, the message became sour. When Jesus asked His Disciples “Who do men say that I AM?” It was easy to answer but when He asked them “Who do you say that I AM” the answer was slower in coming. So today, does anybody in our Church need the Gospel?

In the later part of the previous chapter, the Apostle Paul drew a terrible picture of the sin of the heathen world and its awful condemnation and punishment. All the time Paul was talking about the heathen world and telling about their descent into idolatry; he was conscious that there was a class of men in the world who could say Amen to everything he was saying. They would say, “Yes, Paul, that is right. We know the heathen world has fallen into these sins, and in our judgment they deserve all they got”. They were standing right beside him and approving his condemnation of the heathen world.