If you have consistent markup for your error message blocks, then you can use css to display only the first message and hide the rest:
css
.message-block .error-message {
// Hidden by default
display: none;
}
.message-block .error-message:first-child {
display: block;
}
markup
Email is required (first-child of message block is displayed)
Invalid email format (error message hidden by default)