Who did Paul preach the gospel to, and what happened to them?
Paul preached the gospel to abject, blatantly immoral pagans who had no concept of God or biblical morality. He did not approach people with prior knowledge of God. When he simply preached the Gospel, they came out of it, transformed by the Word rather than guilt trips or legislation.
Les explains that Paul did not have the advantage of approaching people who already knew there was a God or had any concept of biblical morality. They were abject, blatantly immoral pagans, and all Paul did was preach the Gospel, and they came out of it. Les illustrates this with a student who noted he never spoke against drinking, smoking, cursing, gambling, and illicit sex, yet the student was brought out of that lifestyle 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 drinking or immorality because the Word takes care of it. He warns against trying to legislate or bring people in on a guilt trip; they must be found guilty by realizing what the Word says. Paul was not looking for a gimmick or a Madison Avenue approach.