How does a post get displayed when link generated by the_permalink() is clicked

Hello All!
I want to display links to posts on top of a page (this is an easy part), and then I want that when one of those links is clicked that post is displayed underneath the links. When the page first loads I want the 1st post in the list of links to be displayed underneath the links.
This is what I currently have…
for the top links:

<ul>
<?php
     global $post;
     $posts = get_posts('numberposts=4&category=3');
     foreach($posts as $post) :
     setup_postdata($post);
?>
<li><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></li>
<?php endforeach; ?>
</ul>

and for the post:

<?php
    $posts = get_posts("cat=3&showposts=1");
    if ($posts) {
                 foreach ($posts as $post):
                 setup_postdata($post); ?>
  <h1><?php the_title(); ?></h1>
 <?php the_content(); ?>
 <?php endforeach; } ?>

What I get is when I click on the links always the latest post gets displayed, not the one that the_permalink() is for.
What do I do wrong? Please help.