The Marks of a True Church
Renewing Your Mind
Ligonier Ministries
4.8 • 5.3K Ratings
🗓️ 14 May 2026
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What qualifications should we look for as we seek to discern whether a church is faithful to the Lord? Today, R.C. Sproul presents the marks of a true church that the Protestant Reformers identified in Scripture.
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Meet Today's Teacher:
R.C. Sproul (1939–2017) was founder of Ligonier Ministries, first minister of preaching and teaching at Saint Andrew's Chapel, first president of Reformation Bible College, and executive editor of Tabletalk magazine.
Renewing Your Mind is a donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Explore all of our podcasts: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | We have no higher calling than to know who God is. |
| 0:04.6 | Join Ligdair Ministries for our 2027 National Conference in Orlando. |
| 0:09.8 | Together with Christians from around the world, |
| 0:11.9 | we'll gather to hear biblical teaching on the glorious attributes of God, |
| 0:16.2 | equipping us to serve him faithfully and pursue his glory in every sphere of life. |
| 0:21.9 | Save 35% on your registration with the early bird rate at Ligonier.org slash |
| 0:27.7 | 27. |
| 0:29.8 | Most people leave churches or split churches not over major, major, serious matters of the faith, |
| 0:36.2 | but over what color you paint the church basement |
| 0:38.8 | or you're alienated because somebody said something that offended you, and that fails to see |
| 0:45.9 | the sacred nature of the church itself. |
| 0:58.8 | That's one of the most difficult decisions for a Christian to make, isn't it? |
| 1:01.3 | When do we leave a local church? |
| 1:05.1 | I'm glad you're with us for this Thursday edition of renewing your mind, |
| 1:08.3 | and that is the question R.C. Sprole addresses today. |
| 1:12.9 | So to conclude our time in his series, the bride of Christ, here's Dr. Sprole addresses today. So to conclude our time in his series, The Bride of Christ, here's Dr. Sprole. |
| 1:14.9 | We've been looking at the nature of the church. We saw, first of all, that the church |
| 1:22.9 | is described historically as that institution that is one holy, Catholic, and apostolic. |
| 1:31.4 | We've looked at the meaning of the term church as those people who are owned and possessed |
| 1:39.9 | by Christ. We've seen that the church is a confessing body, that it has a content of faith, |
| 1:47.7 | that it shares and it proclaims to the world. But the question I want to look at today in this |
| 1:54.7 | session is this, when is a church, not a church? I have to say, I get letters all the time from people |
... |
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