After England twice came from behind through Theo Walcott and Danny Welbeck, Lambert produced the winner in the 70th minute, powering a header into the net four minutes after coming off the bench.
The striker was called up for the first time by coach Roy Hodgson after the one-time beetroot factory worker capped his rise from the fourth tier to the Premier League by scoring 15 goals for Southampton last season.
The goal spared England from being humbled by its neighbor in the 111th match between the sides after James Morrison and then Kenny Miller put Scotland in front.
Results from Wednesday's international friendlies:
At Miyagi
Japan 2 (Kagawa 54, Honda 72) Uruguay 4 (Forlan 27, 29, Suarez 52, Gonzalez 58)
At Seoul
South Korea 0 Peru 0
At Kigali
Rwanda 0 Malawi 1 (Nyondo 30-pen)
At El Gouna
Egypt 3 (Koka 22, Salah 57, Sald 83) Uganda 0
At Almaty
Kazakhstan 1 (Khizhnichenko 17) Georgia 0
At Minsk
Belarus 1 (Kislyak 16-pen) Montenegro 1 (Vucinic 62)
At Baku
Azerbaijan 3 (Dadasov 5, 71, Aliyev 62) Malta 0
At Turku
Finland 2 (Moisander 35, Hamalainen 82) Slovenia 0
At Tallinn
Estonia 1 (Kruglov 68) Latvia 1 (Zjuzins 74)
At Copenhagen
Chile 6 (Mena 8, Sanchez 22, 29, Beausejour 37, 45, Henriquez 80) Iraq 0
At Chisinau
Moldova 1 (Dedov 42) Andorra 1 (Sonejee 16)
At Solna
Sweden 4 (Ibrahimovic 2, 29, 58, Svensson 75) Norway 2 (Abdellaoue 38-pen, Johanson 43)
At Luxembourg
Luxembourg 2 (Joachim 49, Bensi 80) Lithuania 1 (Matulevicius 15)
At Barcelona
Colombia 1 (Guarin 89) Serbia 0
At Istanbul
Turkey 2 (Yilmaz 7, Bulut 28) Ghana 2 (Gyan 61, 75)
At Kiev
Ukraine 2 (Rotan 28, Seleznyov 71) Israel 0
At Bucharest
Romania 1 (Stancu 43) Slovakia 1 (Sestak 55)