The home side stretched their unbeaten league run to five games after turning in a splendid performance.
Stockport were immediately on the front foot, and with less than 60 seconds on the clock, striker Liam Dickinson blasted a half-volley narrowly wide from just outside the box.
At the other end Jamie Forrester hit back with a shot which flew high, wide and handsome, and on five minutes Mark Stallard did likewise in disappointing fashion.
Stockport loan man David Poole wriggled through before screwing an angled drive wide of the Red Imps' far post, but again the visitors responded as Stallard was unfortunate when his shot on the turn hit the crossbar. County goalkeeper John Ruddy gratefully grabbed the loose ball.
Both sides were clearly high on confidence thanks to recent good runs, but the game was then held up for a spell when City's stand-in skipper Adrian Moses unceremoniously barged into Poole, only for Michael Rose to curl the free-kick over the bar from inches outside the box.
Stockport were taking the game to the league leaders, and Jason Taylor raced through before shooting just wide.
However, some nice one-touch football from Lincoln saw Ryan Amoo play in Lee Frecklington, but the midfielder planted a low drive wide. Just seconds later keeper Ruddy did superbly well to block Nat Brown's close-range effort.
Stockport came agonisingly close to opening the scoring on 35 minutes when the unmarked Malcolm rose to head wide from just eight yards as this was turning into a cracking end-to-end encounter at Edgeley Park.
Dickinson's glancing header inches over the Lincoln crossbar proved to be the final chance of a pulsating first half.
Dickinson was soon into the action again after the restart when he headed over from close range, and then Taylor saw a pile-driver blocked bravely by Scott Kerr.
Stockport were having a real purple patch, and on 56 minutes they went in front with a soft goal when Rose's inswinging free-kick from way out on the right bypassed everyone in the box and the ball crept in at the far post.
It was undoubtedly a deserved goal, but three minutes later it was almost two when Tes Bramble's drive was hacked off the line by Adrian Moses.