On being Merciful

My dh is preparing for a sermon and was sharing from Studies in the Sermon on the Mount by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones Vol 1. It deals with the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount. This is explaining: "Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy" Matthew 5:7


...I would like to take you again to the supreme example. Look at Him there upon the cross, who never sinned, who never did any harm to anyone, who came and preached the truth, who came to seek and save that which was lost. There He is, nailed and suffering agonies on that cross, and yet what does He say as He looks upon the people who are responsible for it? "Father, forgive them." Why? "For they know not what they do." It is not they, it is Satan; they are the victims; they are being governed and dominated by sin. "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." Now you and I are to become like that. Look at Stephen the martyr attaining to that. As they are stoning him, what does he say? He prays to his heavenly Father and cries, "Lay not this sin to their charge." "They do not know what they are going, Lord", says Stephen; "they are mad. They are mad because of sin; they do not understand me as Thy servant; they do not understand my Lord and Master; they are blinded by the god of this world; they do not know what they are doing. Lay not this sin to their charge. They are not responsible." He has pity upon them and is merciful with respect to them. And that, I say, is to be the condition of every one who is truly Christian. We are to feel a sense of sorrow for all who are helpless slaves of sin. That is to be our attitude towards people.