The religion of the Pharisees focused on externals, ceremonial washings, circumcision and the like. This is no different from society today. Think how many "procedures" there are at your place of work. Whenever there is a tragedy of some sort there is an inquiry and it usually results in more and new procedures being introduced. Now some of these procedures may be very good, but they never address the heart of the matter, which is the human heart. We produce bad behaviour because of an evil heart. We need to be changed from the inside.
The Pharisees themselves were bad. And, like John the Baptist, Jesus refers to them as a brood of vipers. There was no way they were going to produce anything good, for their hearts were evil.
With ourselves, it is what is on the inside that needs to be dealt with, and this will determine what our lives produce. Now this is not to say that procedures, habits, rules etc do not matter. If our hearts are good, then adopting some good practices can help us to get on the right track. But if our hearts are not inclined towards God nothing will work.
In all this there is a great emphasis on words, on what we say. There is a saying that "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words cannot do a thing". This is nonsense. People get hurt by words, people can be built up by words. Our words reveal what is on the inside.
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