What happened when Paul preached the Gospel to blatantly immoral pagans?
When Paul preached the Gospel to blatantly immoral pagans who had no knowledge of God or biblical morality, they came out of it. He did not rely on gimmicks or moral legislation; he simply taught the Word, and the Word itself brought them out of their immoral lifestyle.
Les teaches that Paul did not have the advantage of addressing people who already knew there was a God or had any concept of biblical morality. They were abject, blatantly immoral pagans. Yet all Paul did was preach the Gospel, and they came out of it. Les illustrates this from his own teaching: a man in his class for about 15 years, who came out of a fast-lane lifestyle, noted that Les never said a word against drinking, smoking, cursing, gambling, and illicit sex. Les had brought him out of all of it by teaching the Word. Les says that is all it takes: get people into the Word, and you do not have to get on them about their drinking or immorality because the Word takes care of it. He warns that many go astray by trying to legislate morality or bring people in on a guilt trip, though people do need to be found guilty by realizing what the Word says. Paul was not looking for a gimmick or a Madison Avenue approach to get people's attention.