Sovereignty of God in Salvation

Acts 13:48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they {began} rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord; and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.
Every device of human ingenuity has been used to blunt the sharp edge of this Scripture and all have failed. It is impossible to explain away the obvious meaning of this Scripture. Spurgeon said, “Attempts have been made to prove that these words do not teach predestination, but these attempts so clearly do violence to language that I shall not waste time in answering them”

The very word found all over the New Testament of chose or chosen denotes taking some and leaving others. The choser is God Himself as found in John 15:16 – “You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.” The number that is chosen is strictly defined – “for many are called but few are chosen.” Matt. 22:14

Eph. 1:3 Blessed {be} the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly {places} in Christ,
Eph. 1:4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love
Eph. 1:5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,
(Notice here in love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ. See Romans 8:29)

Rom. 8:28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to {His} purpose.
Rom. 8:29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined {to become} conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren;
Rom. 8:30 and whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

(To foreknow here means to have an intimate love relationship with, not prescience or foresight. Eph. 1:4,5 says “in love He predestined us.” In a sense we could say for whom He loved He also predestined.)

These verses refute the charge that for God to decide the eternal destiny of His creatures before they are born, is tyrannical and unjust. He took counsel with no one other than Himself according to the good pleasure of His own will.
The saints were all eternally present in Christ before the mind of God. What God’s prescience saw in all men was the love of sin and hatred of Himself. The foreknowledge of God is based upon His own decrees as seen in Acts 2:23.
“this {Man}, delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put {Him} to death.” (Note His decree is first and His foreknowledge is second)

In Romans 8:29 the “for” refers back to Romans 8:28 and those called according to His purpose. These are the ones for whom He did foreknow and predestinate. Finally it should be acknowledged that when we read of God in Scripture “knowing” certain people, the word is used in the sense of knowing with favor and love: “But if any man love God, the same is known of Him. (1 Cor. 8:3) To the hypocrites, Christ will say “I never knew you,” i.e. He never loved them.
1 Pet. 1:1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen
1 Pet. 1:2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in fullest measure.
SUMMARY:
Grace was given to the elect in Jesus Christ before the world began. Long before they were actually created, God’s elect stood present before His mind and were foreknown by Him, i.e., were the definite objects of His eternal love. Why did He choose the ones He did? Simply because He chose to choose them.

Christ died not merely to make possible the salvation of all mankind, but to make certain the salvation of all that the Father had given to Him.
The refutation of the assertion that His death was merely a conditional provision for the salvation of all mankind is found in the promises made by the Father to His Son before the cross and even before the incarnation.
In Isaiah 53
10* Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put [him] to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see [his] seed, he shall prolong [his] days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
11* He shall see of the travail of his soul, [and] shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.

How could it be certain that Christ should “see His seed” and “see the travail of His soul” and be satisfied unless the salvation of certain members of the human race had been Divinely decreed? How could it be certain that Christ should justify man if no effectual provision was made that any should receive Him as their Savior?