'Pouring out the vials upon the earth, which contained the plagues,' in Revelation 16:1, signifies influx of the reformed into the church, or into people who study and receive the doctrine of justification by faith alone.

(Референце: Apocalypse Explained 16; Apocalypse Revealed 676)

The three words, sword, famine and pestilence, appear in a group in 26 different Bible verses. That's not an accident. Sword, famine and pestilence describe a trio of bad things that can happen to us physically.

In the Word, those three words describe spiritual destruction we can bring upon ourselves if we believe false ideas and develop evil habits.

In Apocalypse Revealed 323, we read that:

1) a sword means the destruction of spiritual life by falsities,

2) famine means the destruction of spiritual life by evils

3) pestilence means a complete destruction.

Rev. Jonathan Rose provides an interesting Bible Study on this subject, in a related video, shown here.