What kind of people did Paul preach the Gospel to?
Paul preached the Gospel to abject, blatantly immoral pagans who had no knowledge of God and no concept of biblical morality. He did not approach people who already knew there was a God or who had any understanding of biblical morality. He simply preached the Gospel, and they came out of it.
Les teaches that Paul did not have the advantage of approaching people who already knew there was a God or who had any concept of biblical morality. Instead, they were abject, blatantly immoral pagans. All Paul did was preach the Gospel, and they came out of it. Les illustrates this with a man who had been in his class about 15 years and came out of a fast-lane lifestyle. The man noted that Les never said a word against drinking, smoking, cursing, gambling, and illicit sex, yet teaching the Word brought him out of all of it. Les explains that you get people into the Word, and you don't have to get on them about their drinking or immorality; the Word takes care of it. Many have gone astray trying to legislate or bring people in on a guilt trip, though they must be found guilty by realizing what the Word says. Paul was not looking for some gimmick or a Madison Avenue approach to get people's attention.