Most today teach that the Pharisees kept the letter of the Law but not the spirit of the Law. But this is simply not true. The Pharisees ignored the weightier matters of the Law like love, faith, justice, and mercy (See: Matthew 23:23, and Luke 11:42). So we must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees by not ignoring the weightier matters of God's laws like love, faith, justice, and mercy, too. But most in Christianity today will tell you that no human can obey God's laws and that the only way to be reconciled to God is by having a belief alone on Jesus. While we surely do need to accept Jesus as our Savior, and believe in His death, burial, and resurrection on our behalf for salvation, and seek forgiveness with Him, that does not mean we can turn His grace into a license for immorality (Jude 1:4). Titus 2:11-12 says that God's grace teaches us to deny ungodliness that we should live righteously and godly in this present world.
So the level we have to surpass is to not ignore the weightier matters of God's laws like love, faith, justice, and mercy. Study the commands that come from Jesus and His followers in the New Testament on this. Ask God to help you to apply them to your life.
As for identity of the Pharisees and Sadducees were:
The difference between them was that the Pharisees believed in the resurrection, and the existence of angels and spirits, whereas the Sadducees did not believe in these things (See: Acts of the Apostles 23:8).
